Do Women Matter?

Women the harbinger of life that’s the kind of responsibility that has been bestowed upon them by nature.There’s nothing more physiologically supreme than to breath life into something.Thus women hold a prime position in the hierarchy.While we would cohesively agree to the above but it doesn’t hold any water because people still hold equally diverse opinions when we talk about women in roles beyond being the nurturer.The crown of harbinger of life is a burden.I beg to differ to the statements made above.Remember it takes two to tango so the crown of being the harbinger of life rests on both men and women making them equal.

It’s a long way to go before women can find their true economic freedom and their rightful place in contributing towards the economic prosperity.Talent is a critical factor to growth and success.With the world moving towards competitiveness and talentism the integration of women in the economies becomes all the more important.

Gender Diversity is now a hackneyed topic.But the true progress is far behind.According to McKinsey Women In Workplace in 2017 study, conducted with LeanIn.Org, 50% of men think that it is sufficient when just one in ten senior leaders in their company is a woman.One-third of women agree.In the G-20 countries average share of women on Executive Committees and Corporate boards is 12 percent and 17 percent respectively.In case of India the case is even more grim with the average share of women in Executive Committees being a little more than 5 percent and Corporate boards in the range of 10-15 percent.Senior executive women are more likely than men to strongly agree that they have top-management ambitions and want to advance in their organizations, the numbers being 83 percent and 74 percent respectively.Yet female executives are much less certain they will reach the top: 69 percent of midlevel or senior women say they are confident they will succeed in reaching a top management position, compared with 83 percent of their male peers.

Women make up more than 48 percent of population in counties like India.We cannot afford to miss out on almost half the talent pool.Women in our country face tremendous challenges to be hired, to be retained, to be promoted in their workplace.There are several reasons why women drop out of work most of them during the life stage needs.For some it’s their upcoming marriage, for some its ongoing pregnancy and for some post pregnancy child-care.

While I agree Indian society is rooted in patriarchy and so is our upbringing but our education, exposure to world culture hasn’t been successful in bringing too much change in the way we treat women as our counter parts.Deep within we agree and accept that at one point in their careers women would take a back foot for family pressures or moral responsibilities which are only responsibilities for them. 

So you decided to tie the knot there would be so much on the personal front.Can give same amount of time to your work?

Oh! You are expecting that’s a great news... I think you should take a break.

Are you sure you want to join back.I was wondering the infant needs you more.Would you be able to manage both child care and work?

I don’t see the same level of commitment that you had before motherhood because you don’t stay late anymore.

It’s almost a year you joined back work.It must be too tough to get back to work life.After all you must have got used to the comfortable life back at home.

Do I have to download everything that happened in her absence.Why should I after all she wasn’t around when the work pressure was the highest.She was enjoying her maternity leave while we were slogging.

Women have a good reason to sit at home and still get paid that’s called maternity.

Why do you work your father or husband earns handsomely?

You seem to relate to each of these statements.Don’t you? We all seem to.

It’s really unfortunate that even today these discriminations exists and forget about the rural workforce the situation is even worse there, urban women the educated one’s face this day in and day out.The going get’s really tough when you touch late 20’s (in Indian context) because that’s when most women face a life transition with marriage or motherhood on the cards. Leadership, skill, idea, perspective, experience is never driven by gender.These are like knives which become sharp when put to frequent use, else as useless as a blunt knife.

Keeping aside all the diversity and inclusion strategies and trainings for a while, we can expect the big shift with little changes in perspective.It’s more about a drift in the mindset than anything else.How we treat women at home and at workplace.Treat them like you would treat a fellow human not because she is of a different gender.Change the way you look at your pregnant female colleague, change your perception about your subordinate who is going through a tough time coping with postpartum depression, give flexible work hours to a struggling new mother even if it’s not a part of the company policy, tell her that she wouldn’t lose her maternity tenure and count them in for that years performance review basis their work experience or previous performance ratings.

We need to build a workplace where we see employees governed by a strong value system not by rules or policies.As organizations it is our responsibility not just to better profits but to better each life touched.That’s the mantra to long term growth and survival.

Cheers to the day when gender diversity walks it’s way out of the dictionary.

Subhra is a mother, motivational speaker, an executive coach and a protagonist for bettering the workplace for women.