America.gov asked businesswomen in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India about their accomplishments. Then we asked their male employees or business partners to describe working with a woman.

Sandhya Volety:
I wanted to do what would give me satisfaction and a chance to give back to the community. I wanted to create jobs and opportunities for others. In this country, when you create employment for one person, you’re feeding an entire family. Of my five full-time employees, three are male and two are female. I also employ about 35 contractors.

Initially, the male contractors couldn’t accept that a woman would be heading the team. They didn’t know how to communicate with a woman in a managerial position and wondered whether I could deliver results. But I showed them that I had the dedication and passion that they thought only men have.

From day one, I realized that I would be dealing with men at every stage of every project. I made sure they knew I was learning from them. Eventually, they began regarding me as part of a team, but it took me a year to earn their trust and respect. Often, men think that because women have too many other concerns, like family and housework, they can’t deal with professional duties. But they saw I was able to manage a good balance between my personal and professional lives.

When we decided to expand outside of Hyderabad, I realized it would be useful to offer our own product line. We worked in partnership with small manufacturers and rural artisans designing decorative house wares to achieve that. We’ve helped them grow by giving them a platform to market and sell their wares. It has been generating business for them and for us.

I also run a mentoring program for women. We teach them management and business skills, marketing, branding. It’s a forum for women to exchange ideas with one another on how to improve their businesses. This program is helping them start or re-start something for themselves — a professional career or small business.

I believe in teamwork and an open working environment. We discuss every issue, and everyone has a chance to initiate a project, as long as it’s in line with the company objectives. Everyone should share the same vision and invest in it. If I come up with an idea and my employees don’t agree with it, they say so. Because it is they who have to deal with its implementation or consequences.

Jagannath Kuppa:
She’s involved from the moment we start conceptualizing a project. She’s actively shaping it, along with the architect.

For a woman to become an entrepreneur here is almost impossible. There’s a huge familial and societal resistance. There is almost no one willing to support financially a woman-owned business. Banks only recently started to lend money to women-entreprenurs, but an initial trickle is growing. It also is difficult for a woman here to balance personal and private lives.

Neither she nor anyone in her family had any previous business experience. She started on her own, with a meager budget. That she has come so far, that she has turned herself into such a good entrepreneur in five and a half years, it’s amazing.

The most surprising aspect of working with her was finding out how much women in India have to struggle to put things together on their own. Through the Ativa brand, rural artisans, mostly women, can sell their products. In tribal areas, they often make good quality products but have no way to market them. She’s an inspiration to these women and their single link to the investors and manufacturers.

When she approached me about working together, I first was apprehensive. I wasn’t sure how long she could survive, and if she could deliver results on time. And I didn’t know what kind of support from her I could count on. Now, her firm is an asset to my business, without a doubt.

Learn about women’s contributions to economies in South Asia.
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