Father raises daughter to lead

On the eve of International Women’s Day, Flipkart has released unveiled a campaign titled, #RaiseHerToLead, that calls upon families running businesses to break away from gender stereotypes and reconsider how they view women in their often traditionally male-centric families.

Flipkart’s #RaiseHerToLead unfurls an emotional journey of a father who has reared his little girl into an independent, strong, and responsible woman. The film presents a ‘vidaai’ or a ‘giving away one’s daughter in matrimony’, where Mr. Mishra, the father of the would-be-bride another day, has groomed his daughter as his heir and successor. 

The film ends by showing celebrations by friends and family who have gathered to applaud the start of her entrepreneurial journey, as the father takes in with pride the sight of his daughter taking over as the CEO of his company. 

The call-to-action of #RaiseHerToLead is the appeal to parents not to ignore their daughters, but instead invest in their future. Although women today work shoulder to shoulder with men on more or less equal terms in the corporate world, running their own businesses does not seem to have been accepted as a career option for them. 

The Flipkart film seeks to turn around the dominant discourse by urging more and more people to groom their daughters to be business leaders and help usher in systemic transformation.

The Flipkart platform hosts many second-generation entrepreneurs — many among them women — who have used technology and online marketplaces to help expand their parents’ businesses often exponentially. Yet, running a business is still widely seen as a man’s turf and daughters or women are either not encouraged or viewed as being capable enough take over the business baton when the time comes. 

Interestingly, e-commerce, has democratised and de-gendered the domain of business, with many women stepping out of traditional domains and setting up enterprise. Flipkart Seller Hub professes to usher in that substantive change by providing equal opportunity to every aspiring entrepreneur regardless of gender.