Challenges Faced by Women in India’s Start-up Ecosystem

The rapid expansion of India’s start-up ecosystem in the last decade has opened new entrepreneurial opportunities, but women founders remain under-represented and face persistent barriers. This study examines the principal challenges encountered by women entrepreneurs in Maharashtra’s start-up ecosystem, focusing on five dimensions: access to finance, societal and cultural barriers, work–life balance, mentorship and networking, and government/institutional support. A descriptive research design was adopted using primary data collected through a structured survey administered to 50 women founders and co-founders of start-ups across Maharashtra. Responses used a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree) on the five challenge domains. Data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel using descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation), frequency distributions, and Pearson correlation to explore relationships between perceived barriers. Results indicate that access to finance emerged as the most critical constraint (mean = 4.12), followed by mentorship and networking gaps (mean = 3.86), and societal/cultural barriers (mean = 3.74). Though government initiatives such as Startup India and Women Entrepreneurship Platform provide support, respondents reported uneven access and limited awareness of targeted schemes. The study offers managerial and policy recommendations — including gender-sensitive investor training, structured mentorship networks, flexible financing mechanisms, and targeted outreach for government programs — to enhance women’s participation and sustainability in the start-up ecosystem. These findings contribute empirical evidence to ongoing debates about gendered constraints in entrepreneurship and propose actionable interventions for stakeholders.