Facebook to encourage women startups in tech

MUMBAI: In empowering women in India, one can’t separate social issues from economic issues, said Ankhi Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South & Central Asia.

“We commissioned a study which found that the family is a barrier to women moving ahead in India. For the most part, families are not supportive when a woman wants to go out and start a business,” she said.

Speaking at The Economic Times Women’s Forum in Mumbai on Friday, Das said in their early education, girls were usually pushed to the humanities stream rather than science, which contributes to the lack of women in technology.


Also Read: ET Women's Forum - Complete Coverage

Facebook, for its part, is doing its best to encourage women in business, particularly in technology startups, with tailored programs like ‘SheMeansBusiness’ and ‘SheLeadsTech’.

Launched in 2016, the SheMeansBusiness programme has organised a series of workshops in 126 cities across 16 states so far, training over 15,000 women. These included smaller cities like Ranchi, where 2,500 women attended, and Raipur, where 1,000 have been trained in the basics of starting a small business. SheLeadsTech, on the other hand, is focused on woman-founded startups.

“Of the $5 billion that had flown into startups in India, only $168 million had gone to woman-founded startups. We are trying to rectify this stark inequality,” said Das.