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Conferences

Professor Ajeet N. Mathur presented an invited keynote paper ”The gender burden on women in entrepreneurship and some clues to its management” on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at the 4th International Conference on ’Entrepreneurship in New Economy’ (February 14-16, 2008). This paper argues for a reappraisal of (a) the constraints that adversely influence the potential of women in taking up entrepreneurship roles and (b) factors underlying success of those who do. Drawing upon IAMR’s documented and published experience of the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana in India and the experience of women in representational leadership positions, the paper draws on empirical evidence to relate differences in styles and repertoires of women and men to the way they developed their coping responses and defense mechanisms in early childhood. The conclusions of the paper point to the need for deepening inquiries into processes that surround institutions of professional advancement. The findings have implications for raising a girl-child, suitability assessments for selection of women as potential entrepreneurs, and the design of gender-sensitive entrepreneurship development programmes.