Housework burden just got heavier for women entrepreneurs in pandemic

Domestic responsibilities emerged second only to weak demand as major obstacle to running a business: Report

For most Indian entrepreneurs, muted demand has been a major challenge to business during Covid times. But women entrepreneurs in India face an additional burden of domestic care, revealed a joint report by Bain & Company, Google, and AWE Foundation.

In a survey among women entrepreneurs in India, domestic responsibilities emerged second only to weak demand as a major obstacle to running a business. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with nearly 350 women solopreneurs and small business owners in urban India.

Titled Can Covid-19 be the turning point for women entrepreneurs in India? the report finds about 30 per cent of women citing personal challenges, including significantly greater at-home care responsibilities, as a major obstacle to running their business. This was second to almost 45 per cent of women citing lack of customer orders as the biggest challenge.

Megha Chawla, Bain & Company partner and the study’s lead author, said, “The pandemic has been especially devastating for women entrepreneurs, not only due to business coming to a grinding halt, but also because of an unforgiving increase in domestic care burden.”

It is not clear if working from home has had a negative impact on productivity for women entrepreneurs. However, if any, the impact is greater for entrepreneurs in metro and tier 1 towns. The report said, “Fifty-seven per cent of our interviewees report having the same or higher productivity while working from home.” However, the report findings also suggest the remaining 43 per cent that experienced a drop in productivity attribute it largely to increased domestic responsibilities.

The nuclear family system may also be adding to a women’s domestic work burden. The report states the number of women reporting domestic responsibilities as a reason for the decrease in their productivity was higher for those based in metros and tier 1 towns, “potentially due to a higher prevalence of nuclear families”, the report said.

The report’s findings also suggest women’s choice of business has helped them to pivot better. “The fundamental attributes of these women-owned enterprises, such as being service-oriented, smaller, and less capital intensive, have enabled them to adapt faster to the changing environment versus larger or more capital-intensive businesses,” the report said.

As a result, more than half of the women interviewed said they have already changed their business model in response to Covid-19, and another 24 per cent plan to make a change by December. Only 6 per cent suggested they will not be able to shift their business model.

In addition to weak demand and domestic care responsibilities, financial crunch is another challenge women entrepreneurs face amid Covid. In the survey, 22 per cent of women said lack of financial resources has been another challenge. The survey also found out nearly 80 per cent of those interviewed have not applied for financing support, potentially due to growth constraints during the pandemic.

Disruptions due to Covid has hit most businesses in the country, including those owned by women. In the survey, 73 per cent of the respondents said they have been negatively impacted by the crises, with almost 20 per cent witnessing the revenue of their businesses nearly wiped out. Most of the entrepreneurs’ businesses have not returned to pre–Covid-19 levels. “After an abrupt drop in March and April due to the lockdown, growth in businesses is at about one-third of pre–Covid-19 levels. Only select entrepreneurs have been able to return to pre–Covid-19 levels,” the report added.