Globally, there is a growing consensus that women at the grassroots have a critical role to play in bringing about positive bottom-up social and environmental changes. Stakeholders across the spectrum ranging from policymakers to private sector companies trying to address rural needs, are exploring avenues of empowering grassroots women to inculcate and leverage their leadership qualities in bringing about change. At Re-emerging World, regular ground level interactions with grassroots communities have convinced us that the most effective way of harnessing the power of women’s leadership is through promoting entrepreneurship. Engaging with women as entrepreneurs can significantly contribute to their social and economic empowerment.

That said, while designing initiatives aiming at women empowerment through entrepreneurship, it is important to acknowledge that the idea of entrepreneurship may not readily excite all rural women alike. The degree of pull grassroots women experience towards entrepreneurial opportunities is a function of a number of socio-demographic, cultural and economic factors. Our experiences from the ground, most recently as the knowledge partner for USAID’s Partnership on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Clean Energy (wPOWER India) program, indicate that while some women exhibit an irresistible drive towards embracing business opportunities, others are more comfortable being followers adopting a cautious wait and watch approach. It is therefore, quite obvious that a women entrepreneurship program should first focus on engaging with the former set of women as it promises to radically raise the chances of success.

The important question however, is how do you find out who are more predisposed to success in business that others. One way to reduce the initial target pool could be to locate existing local women entrepreneurs who have some basic prior experience of business. But one needs to look deeper to be able to assess their true potential for success as entrepreneurs.

Here are six vital attributes that you could look for to begin your scout. They are sector agnostic and pretty much retain their relevance for any grassroots social entrepreneurship opportunity. Most of these attributes depict inherent individual qualities while some refer to external enabling factors.

1. Dynamic and outgoing: Does the potential woman entrepreneur proactively search for new income generating opportunities? Is she buzzing with ideas? Is she comfortable interacting with people? These are some of the questions that need to be answered during interactions with her. She will be more successful as an entrepreneur if she actively goes out and regularly interacts with her community. This is particularly true if the business at hand requires her to generate awareness about and drive adoption of social products.
2. Social commitment: For existing local entrepreneurs, preoccupation with profitability and margins is not unjustified. However, for a grassroots social entrepreneurship opportunity, the prospective must exhibit commitment to social and environmental objectives. Profits should not be her sole motivator.
3. Family/husband support: In the rural context, without family support, particularly support from her husband, a woman will find it extremely difficult to pursue and progress on her entrepreneurial journey. Our field experience shows that in cases where a woman’s husband assumes an active and direct role in running her business with her, the chances of the business scaling up rises significantly.
4. Community acceptance: It is important that she enjoys the acceptance and trust from her community. Our field interviews with consumers have consistently revealed that their trust on the woman entrepreneur was one on the most important drivers for their decision to purchase from her.
5. Education level: She should possess a minimum education level necessary for developing a greater understanding of business and benefits of potential business opportunities. Her education level also influences her ability to communicate and convince consumers.
6. Willingness to invest: As an entrepreneur, she must be willing to invest in her new business. Willingness to invest ensures that she has a stake and sustained interest in her business ventures.