On the wings of tech, women workforce to fly higher

Over the last year, digital technologies haven’t just ensured we worked seamlessly, but have also shaped how society interacts, communicates, and transacts. Although the industry in India has been swift in adapting digital platforms, we continue to look at a massive opportunity to enhance diversity and inclusion in the collective progress of society. Diversity and inclusion have been the corporate industry’s priority for a while now, but each new challenge only highlights that much is still left to be done in this area.

The recent change in the workplace due to the pandemic has dampened global efforts towards gender equity. According to a McKinsey report, despite significant progress in the areas of economic development and offsetting productivity challenges faced by the industry, we may have accentuated gaps in gender equity.

Assessing the situation

India currently stands at a crossroad. The future growth of the nation’s economy depends on an actively growing work force that is inclusive and boosts gender equity and equality. After a couple of quarters of degrowth, we are beginning to see shoots of optimism in industry growth. The role of women in driving the next wave of focus needs close attention.

 According to a report, there are approximately 432 million working-age women in India. Despite the sizeable base, close to 80 percent, or approximately 343 million women do not engage in paid formal work. Similarly, 75 percent or 324 million women are not part of the labour force.

 In addition, 19 million women are in the labour force, but not employed. For 59 per cent of women, being self-employed is their means to reduce their dependence on the family. As a result of these factors, an interesting observation made by the report citing government sources estimates a 6 percent increase in the number of businesses run by women, from 14 percent to 20 percent over the past decade.

Tech as an enabler for women in the workforce

International Women’s Day, once again, serves as a reminder that each one of us has a role to play in bringing about sustainable economic development. As the past year has shown us, technology can play the role of a catalyst in enabling economic activity and growth, even during a pandemic. Technology has shown us that people can connect and be productive even from remote locations.

Organisations have also recognized the importance of employee well-being, especially when working from home and balancing work and family needs. As a result, flexible working hours are increasingly becoming the norm. This creates new opportunities for women who may have taken a career break for personal reasons. Technology now enables them to work according to their schedule and define their own career path.

This means that jobs can now be location agnostic, opening a whole new world of opportunities of women from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, where they otherwise may not have had the access to opportunities in the past. Technology has opened access to opportunities for women in far-flung geographies away from the booming urban metropolises that a lot of us relate to. In fact recent reports have shown that job growth since the pandemic has been fastest in tier 2/3 cities.

Empowering the woman entrepreneur

Access to essential tech infrastructure and the internet has also created new opportunities with the gig economy. Just a few weekends ago, we were browsing online for recipes for our family lunch. I was amazed to see the number of women running their channels online with lakhs of subscribers. If one looks deeper, this is technology enabling women to turn their passion into something productive that has the potential to earn revenues through subscriptions and ad revenues.

 Technology now enables a designer from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh to connect with and work with a fashion house in Italy! With education also moving online, tutors in one city can have pupils from multiple cities take lessons online – all one needs is a webcam enabled laptop and a 4G broadband connection.

How we are doing our bit

Within HP India, we have initiated Disha (direction) as a Leadership Development Program for Women for last 4 years. Through the program we advocate our belief in equal emphasis on women leaders and out of 143 Disha graduates, 43 percent of them successfully transitioning into a new role at HP. It’s always a delight to see small steps pay off and bring about a much deeper and positive impact. 

We also run the Women in Technology program at HP India, as a go-to forum for women in engineering. Here, women can network and seek advice and resources on career development and guidance. This fosters an environment where they can meet with colleagues and seniors and seek valuable guidance and grow together as fellow women in technology. Similarly, we help working mothers led through the Matrikas program where new mothers and mothers-to-be can work in a supportive environment with access to resources and opportunities crafted for them.

 HP India was recognised at the World HRD Congress Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Awards for the Best Diversity & Inclusion Practices. Besides this, HP India has been ranked among the Top 10 Best Places to Work for Women in India in 2020.

A bright future awaits us

With vaccination picking pace, the impact of pandemic will hopefully be reduced significantly. Regardless, it has changed the ways of working for the future. The new normal as we call it, opens a new horizon for our workforce especially the women workforce with technology enabling them to work from anytime, anywhere.

This Women’s Day let us celebrate the role women have played in enabling our society and economy, and let the coming year be one where they are able to play an even greater role, with technology playing the enabler.