China outshines India in female billionaire list
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 14 October 2010, 04:05 IST
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China outshines India in female billionaire list
Bangalore: The famous quote "women hold up half the sky" by the founding Communist leader of modern China Mao Zedong seems to hold true for women of China. Just over half of the top 20 global female billionaires are from China, as per the Hurun report. India, however, doesn't have a single entrant. China has gained an advantage over India in one part of the billionaire race: it has outpaced India in its number of self-made female billionaires. The reason for India's glaring omission from global female billionaire lists has much to do with the country's culture and history, The Director of the Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management said,"It's important to look at India's social dynamics. To be an owner-entrepreneur billionaire now it is more likely than not that one has started the career at least 20 years ago. However, in India, the status of women and education back then was very poor, which meant chances of such instances are almost nil. While more women are entering the higher echelons of the corporate world, much still needs to be done to improve the status of women and their education in India more generally. In India, 52 percent of all women above the age of 15 are still illiterate, compared with 13 percent in China. Just 18 out of every 100 women work in India's non-agricultural sector, while in China the number is 40 percent. Daughters are still regarded on the whole as a burden on the family, and female abortion accounts for an estimated 500,000 missing female births in India every year. Even India's family-oriented businesses have tended to give prominent positions and educational opportunities to sons over daughters because girls have traditionally been expected to cut formal ties with their parents after marriage. So while India's young aspiring female entrepreneurs can dream about becoming billionaires, until the worth of a girl child is realized, female education should be made a priority among the country's rich and poor, and daughters are encouraged to dream big, India's women are up against huge odds.

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