Women at work

Economic Survey 2020 says that 14% of our farmers are women. It is very good that this number is growing.?I know that women constitute more than 50% of farmers in some of the South East Asian countries like Thailand. Women farmers have demonstrated their progressive nature in farming.

But when we think of a farmer we rarely think of a woman. We always refer to the farmer in masculine gender. It is time to review this. In actual fact the number of women who actually look after agricultural operations must be more than 14% but they may not be counted since their work is not recognized or they don’t own the land. Women actually are involved in farm operations, keeping dairy cattle, poultry birds, goats and other livestock at home and being involved in ‘production’ of agricultural output. Women suffer because their work is not recognized and they remain in the background. ??A major obstacle is lack of property rights for women. This has deprived women farmers of access to bank credit and several benefit programs of the government. In spite of doing all the work, the revenue from their operations goes into husbands’ bank accounts. Financial independence eludes them in spite of their hard work. The Self Help Groups movement has brought financial freedom to women in rural areas but we have a long way to go. Governments should definitely ensure property rights for women.

Digital literacy of women in rural areas, including farmers wives, should be taken up on priority so that they are not left behind in the digital revolution that is taking place. ?If rural women ?are trained in using digital applications it will empower them. They can then complement the efforts of their husbands in accessing markets, credit, insurance and several other enablers which will make the family’s income grow.

It is great to see three new women judges taking charge in Supreme Court and the fact that we will have our first woman Chief Justice of Supreme Court in a few years time. It is great that our Supreme Court is pushing some of the traditional bastions of men like defence forces to allow women among their ranks. But why should the SC force us? We should bring these changes proactively and voluntarily.

It is heartening to see that the representation of women in corporate boards has inched up to 17.6% from 11.4% in the last six years which is a good progress. However we are still lagging behind US, UK and Europe who are around 30-35%. But we are getting there. It takes time for the emergence of ?women suitable for these roles as it needs capacity building efforts too.

In general we do not have women participating at work in many sectors except perhaps in the IT sector where the transformation happened in the last 20 years or so. Number of women in senior corporate jobs is still low at 6%. Even advanced countries are low at 13%. Some sectors like banking have seen more women CEOs in India but that is not so in other sectors. It would be interesting to see why we have more women CEOs in financial sector in general and in banking sector in particular. Women can potentially do very well in many industries and in many functions. Many talented women lose out on career growth as they prioritize, either willingly or unwillingly, the family responsibilities over their career possibilities. This is unfortunate as still in many segments of our society the families expect the women to follow this stereotype behavior of sacrifice.

We need better support systems to allow women to continue to work through the most productive time of the career which is between 30 years and 45 years of age. If they make good progress during this period they can reach top jobs with more ease. Families need to be educated on the importance of girl education, employment and career growth.

I have observed during my corporate life that many men need training on how to manage relationships with women colleagues. Many men are brought up in households where men dominate and women are not working, although this is changing slowly. They come into the offices with an air of privilege and entitlement. It becomes very difficult for them to accept a woman colleague who is better than them at work. I suppose the situation is better in IT and modern technology companies because of the large percentage of employees being women.

Counselling is also required for women in dealing with male colleagues and team members. I observed in some situations that some of them, when they get into positions of power, develop difficult vengeful attitudes towards team members and peers which can become obstacles to growth. At work women have to deal with men ?on equal terms and not from any position of weakness or superiority. These delicate matters have to be ironed out by the HR department in each organization.

In many corporates HR Lead and ?CEO have to work together to build a culture of inclusiveness and diversity that brings in people of different gender, region, religion, caste, physical abilities together to build a strong team. Constant training, counselling and affirmative action is needed. That is a better method than imposing reservations which generate a lot of negative vibes in teams and society.

The political scenario presents a very poor picture. Except for the Finance Minister and the CM of West Bengal, we have very few women in important positions in legislatures and in parliament. Women should form at least 35 to 40% of our legislatures and the parliament. Although their number is increasing we need more of them in leadership roles and hope that they will bring about greater focus on development of the country and reduce corruption in the system.

In the sports field our women have made us proud in the recently held Olympics at Tokyo. Our women’s cricket team keeps our flag flying high. It is time we paid more attention to building sports talent among our young women. This calls for creating specific facilities and support systems for girls at school level itself so that they can get trained and coached from young age.

One area where women play a stellar role is the social sector. Perhaps because they are more compassionate and kindhearted that they find their comfort zone in the social sector. With leading educational institutes now offering courses in social development and public policy let us hope more women will get qualified in these fields and move into working in the social sector.

In the upcoming digital and agri-tech start up system too we need greater participation of women. It is a matter of training them from early stages and capturing their innovative skills through well structured systems that we can bring them out into these kind of ventures.

We have to pay attention to developing technologies and conveniences which suit women and help them in going full speed in their work. Gender neutral technology development in agriculture and other fields is important to make it easier for women to perform activities like agronomic practices, operating irrigation equipment, etc. Women should be trained in these activities and they need not remain domains of men.

Women and farmers, both are ‘revered’ in print and speeches but in actual practice they are exploited sections of the society. The tag ‘Annadata’ is a great disservice to the farmers as is the tag ‘Grihalakshmi’ to the women. These are specious glorifications which actually tie them down to backwardness.