Women entrepreneurs face a series of problems right from the beginning till the enterprise functions. Being a woman itself poses various problems to a woman entrepreneur, The problems of Indian women pertains to her responsibility towards family, society and lion work. The tradition, customs, socio cultural values, ethics, motherhood subordinates to ling husband and men, physically weak, hard work areas, feeling of insecurity, cannot be tough etc are some peculiar problems that the Indian women are coming across while they jump into entrepreneurship. Women in rural areas have to suffer still further. They face tough resistance from men. They are considered as helpers. The attitude of society towards her and constraints in which she has to live and work are not very conducive.

The problems and constraints experienced by women entrepreneurs have resulted in restricting the expansion of women entrepreneurship. The major barriers encountered by women entrepreneurs are as follows:

1. Lack of confidence: Woman generally lack confidence in their own capabilities. Having accepted a subordinate status for long. Even at home, members of their family don’t appear to have total confidence in their abilities and on their decision making. Society in general also lacks confidence in women’s strength, traits and competence. This is quite apparent in the family’s reluctance to finance women’s venture, bankers are reluctant to take risks on projects set up by women, and individuals are unwilling to stand guarantee for loans to a woman.

2. Problems of finance and working capital: Another problem faced by women entrepreneurs is lack of access to funds because they do not possess any tangible security and credit in the market Since women do not enjoy right over property of any form, they have limited access over external sources of funds. Even the members of her family have little confidence in the capability or the women to run a business.

Women entrepreneurs face serious problem in obtaining working capital for financing day to day operations of the enterprises, including purchase of raw materials, meeting pay rolls. The chronic shortage of working capital leaves women entrepreneurs extremely vulnerable to competition and other emergencies. The complex and complicated procedure of bank loans, the delay in obtaining the loans and running about involved, deter many women from establishing enterprises.

3. Social barriers: A woman has to perform her family duties irrespective of her career as a working woman or an entrepreneur. In our society more importance is given to educating the male child as compared to the female child. This results in lack of schooling and vocational training of women. Their lack of attaining technical skills and thereby lack of awareness or opportunities available. This adds to the constraints in

establishing enterprises by women. Even the male labor force is generally seen as not preferring to work under a lady boss. Women entrepreneurs’ are not taken seriously enough by the labor force. All this hinders women entrepreneurship.

4. Tough competition: Usually women entrepreneurs employ low technology in the process of production. In a market where the competition is too high, they have to fight hard to survive in the market against the organized sector and their male counterpart who have vast experience and capacity to adopt advanced technology in managing enterprises

5. Production Problems: Production in a manufacturing enterprise involves coordination of a number of activities. While some of these activities are in the control of the entrepreneur, there are others over which she has little control. Improper coordination and delay in execution of any activity cause production problems in industry. The inability of women entrepreneurs to keep pace with the latest advances in technology and lack or technical know-how results in high cost of technology acquisition and machinery utilization.

6. Inefficient Marketing Arrangements : Heavy competition in the market, and their lack of mobility makes (he women entrepreneurs dependent on middlemen. For marketing their products, women entrepreneurs are at the mercy of middleman who pockets a major chunk of profit. Further, women entrepreneurs also find it difficult to capture the market and make their products popular. They lack information on the changing market. In addition, women entrepreneurs, face difficulty in collection of payments.

7. Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude: Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude is a matter of concern for women entrepreneurs. They have no entrepreneurial bent of mind. Even after attending various training programs on entrepreneur ship women entrepreneurs fail to tide over the risks and troubles that may come up in an organizational working.