Representation without economic power will curb gender equity gains

This article is authored by Sarika Pratibha Deshmukh, founder, Advvita Incubation.

The passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill is, in many ways, a long-overdue correction. It ensures that more women will have a seat at the table where national decisions are made. That matters. Representation has symbolic value, but more importantly, it shows intent--India is choosing to make inclusion official instead of just talking about it.

The Women’s Reservation Bill (ANI)

But beyond that first layer of progress sits a more uncomfortable question: Will presence translate into power?

Because representation, by itself, doesn’t create power. It reflects how power is already distributed beneath the surface.

The instinct is to look at Parliament, boardrooms, and leadership roles when we think about gender gaps. But the real constraint shows up much earlier.

India’s female labour force participation hovers around 20–25%. That number is easy to overlook, but it changes how everything else works. If a large share of women are not part of the workforce, then the pipeline that produces future leaders is already narrow before it even begins.

Leadership is rarely accidental. It is built over time, through exposure to work, responsibility, decision-making, and risk. When that exposure is missing at scale, representation at the top becomes something that has to be engineered through policy, rather than something that emerges naturally from a broad base.

To India’s credit, there has been real movement on this front. Over the past decade, policies like Startup India, Stand-Up India, and Mudra Yojana have made it easier for women to start businesses.

You can see the shift. More women are entering entrepreneurship. More are running MSMEs. More are showing up in the startup ecosystem.

But there is a quiet gap between starting and scaling.

Most women-led businesses remain small. Very few grow into companies that raise large amounts of capital, expand aggressively, or shape industries. And that distinction matters more than it seems. A large number of small businesses improves inclusion. A smaller number of scaled businesses determines who has influence. Right now, India is improving the first, but struggling with the second.

If you trace this gap back, it leads to one uncomfortable truth: Capital is not flowing evenly.

Women-led startups receive roughly 4% of venture capital funding in India. In a system where funding dictates how fast a company grows-- and whether it survives at all--that imbalance compounds quickly. This is not about whether women are capable of building large companies. It is about whether they are being given the same opportunity to try.

Without access to growth capital, businesses tend to stabilise rather than expand. They optimise for sustainability, not scale. Over time, this creates a pattern where women are present in the ecosystem, but underrepresented in the segments that actually shape markets.

And in any economy, the ones who shape markets eventually shape outcomes.

Capital is only part of the story. The rest is less visible, but just as important. Entrepreneurship doesn’t operate purely on policy, it runs on networks. Introductions, referrals, early believers, and informal circles often determine who gets access to funding, partnerships, and opportunities.

Women founders, especially those building businesses for the first time, are often outside these networks. Not excluded, but not fully included either. That difference shows up in slower access, fewer opportunities, and less visibility.

Then comes the challenge of market access. Building a business is one step. Getting it into large supply chains, government procurement systems, or global markets is another. Many women-led businesses stall here, not because they lack capability, but because they lack entry points. What looks like a growth problem is often an access problem.

This is where the conversation loops back to political representation.

The Women’s Reservation Bill will bring more women into Parliament. But the question is: What kind of leaders are we preparing before they get there?

In most cases, influence in governance is built on prior experience--running organisations, managing capital, negotiating systems. People who have built something before entering policy tend to approach it differently. They are not just participants; they are stakeholders.

Right now, India’s approach risks treating economic empowerment and political representation as separate tracks. In reality, they are connected. If the earlier steps remain weak, the final outcome cannot fully compensate.

The Women’s Reservation Bill is a necessary step. But by itself, it doesn't make a complete plan.

For representation to have real power, it needs to be backed by a strong economy. That means more women not just entering the economy, but scaling within it--building companies, controlling capital, shaping markets.

Because in the long-run, power doesn’t come from occupying a seat. It comes from the ability to shape what happens beyond it. India has made an important move by expanding representation. The next phase is quieter, but more consequential: Strengthening the system that produces leaders in the first place.

If that happens, representation will not just increase. It will begin to matter in a much deeper way.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Sarika Pratibha Deshmukh, founder, Advvita Incubation.