MEASURING WOMEN AWARENESS AND ACCESS TO VARIOUS SCHEMES TO PROMOTE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Gone are the days when women were considered no match for all powerful men in this world. The male dominated world was always reluctant to even acknowledge the fact that worm were as good as men on parameters of hard work, intelligence quotient (IQ) and leadership traits. The new generation women across the world have overcome all negative notions and have proved themselves beyond doubt in all spheres of life including the most intricate and cumbersome world of entrepreneurship. It has been established since ages that women successfully discharge multiple role in various capacities as a family member. But a woman moving out as an employee or as a boss has remained as a taboo in our country. Women specially married women were not accepted holding a position of a commander in any sphere despite the fact that they are assertive, persuasive and equally strong like their male counterparts. Due to the better education facilities, growing awareness and various schemes to promote entrepreneurship in our country, women have started excelling and outscoring boys/men almost in every sphere of life, for instance, be it academics, professional courses like medical, engineering, law, accountants, business administration etc. Studies reveal that women leaders have been found to be more empathetic, flexible and stronger in interpersonal skills. It is rightly said that, “Strong women leadership start with being able to pull together a group of people who may not have anything in common and getting them to bug into vision of themselves as a collective group who can achieve uncommon result”. Based on the above background, this empirical research article presents a bird's eye view to measure the women awareness and access to various Government schemes to promote women entrepreneurship and also to study the reasons to become future women entrepreneurs in Vellore City, Tamil Nadu.