How start-ups are opening up options for women
Following the birth of her daughter, Aarthi Kannan ended her successful stint as Vice-President of a multinational finance company in London. Searching for the middle path that would keep her between her career goals and motherhood, Kannan used her passion for mathematics to keep her ambitions alive. The Bengaluru-based former software engineer became a work-from-home teacher on the online start-up teaching platform Cuemath.
Start-ups opened new avenues for women, said Kannan
Like countless other women, who walk the tightrope between parenting and careers, Kannan too had made her choice. As another International Women's Day came around and the discourse again centered around equal opportunities, Kannan said start-ups had opened new avenues for women like her who were looking to strike a balance between their personal and professional lives without compromising on either.
What Kannan said on her opportunity at the start-up
"Spending quality time and being the primary care provider for my daughter through her formative years was non-negotiable for me. So when she turned one, I started looking out for meaningful opportunities that would allow me to work from the comfort of my home."
Cuemath offers women to pursue work along with parental responsibilities
Kannan is not the only one, there are 2,500 like her in Cuemath alone, each "teacher-entrepreneur" preferring to be their own boss, said founder Manan Khurma. "Cuemath has teacher partners teaching 20,000 children across 80 cities in India," Khurma said. Ventures like Cuemath offers women to pursue work along with their parental responsibilities; it is not always a level playing field for women.
India, third largest start-up hub in the world: Study
According to an Assocham India study, India is the third largest start-up hub in the world, but only 9% of the founders are women. A 2015 report by McKinsey Global stated that advancing women's equality at workplaces could add to national as well as global growth. Many women in India are triumphing the odds to become part of the admittedly slow growth story.
When women need a break due to 'personal' reasons
Delhi-based Ayesha Sultana was welcomed as a tech trainer on Simplilearn, a professional training provider for different professions when she needed to take a break from her full-time job due to "personal" reasons. She was earlier associated as a tech professional with a renowned company, is now a full-time trainer on the platform helping over 700 participants in various technical domains.
PayPal survey shows 48% account users are women
A survey carried out by PayPal, an online payments platform, showed that a huge percentage of freelancers, 48% using a PayPal account, are women. According to Narsi Subramanian, Director Growth of PayPal India, the autonomy of freelancing acts as a bait for most working professionals and works the best for women who want to strike a work-life balance.
