Published: The Hindu
At: Hyderabad, Chennai
On: December 14, 2011
To read The Hindu's online version, click here.
A recent article in a newspaper announced that IBM India is set to launch custom made training programmes for its potential women leaders in technology and sales. In UK, firms have been told to up the number of women by 25% on their boards by 2015, thus ensuring talented and gifted women get top jobs.
We have travelled from an age where parents didn't believe girls needed education to an era where girls' education is the norm. Women with high education are career-oriented and focused on moving up the ladder.
A case in point is Chanda Kochhar, Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank is amongst the five Indian women who have made it in the top 50 women in world business awarded by Financial Times for the year 2011. Her father, she says, “believed in equality between daughters and sons and encouraged all of us to build a career.” Yet the progress is not without challenges.
Challenges
The mightiest challenge comes from society itself. Inadequate social support and stereotyped woman's role affects the motivation of women. Quite often, a woman's role at workplace is seen as secondary to her role as homemaker and nurturer.
As a supply chain consultant for a supermarket chain says, “Women don various hats - raising a family, meeting varied home demands besides being a competent professional. Here's where the conflict arises and majority of us agree to downsize our career or prefer to quit”.
Discrimination is another challenge that raises its face often. Juliana Doreen, a senior consultant in a relocation firm finds balancing between work and family as the most challenging to deal with. However, with constant encouragement from her spouse, she is successfully moving ahead in her professional journey. As a woman, Doreen had been subjected to gender bias in her previous company where she was told that she could not handle events as it involved travelling to the villages and interacting with the people there. She overcame these challenges, she observes, “There is certainly a positive change for women in India in the workplace.”
Need for women managers
Since women are increasingly playing a vital role as consumers and financial decision-makers, it is imperative to welcome women managers who can bring in unique perspective to decision making and problem solving. A diverse leadership with a healthy mix of competent men and women embodies different perspectives and approaches to work. Men and women's different social roles imply different experiences and values that can benefit the organisation. It can create a win-win situation.
Roy Adler of Pepperdine University, USA did an extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms showing a strong correlation between a strong record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability.
Corporate approach
To advance, women need support from the top management. Encouraging diverse management practices and opening doors to women – through positive human resource programs – is one way for the organisations to increase their talent pool. Mentor programmes are an excellent way where strategies can be identified for advancing their careers. This gives them the opportunity to grow and provides exposure and experience through various projects.
Catalyst, the US based study group focusing on women's corporate advancement identifies, “Rotate women across functions and ensure they have experience of line assignments amongst others as crucial to promote gender diversity within an organisation.”
In order to retain women, many companies are offering flexitime, telecommuting, daycare programs and maternity leave. As a project manager in a payroll processing company happily observes, “With time, the attitude towards women as managers are significantly becoming more positive.”
At: Hyderabad, Chennai
On: December 14, 2011
To read The Hindu's online version, click here.
A recent article in a newspaper announced that IBM India is set to launch custom made training programmes for its potential women leaders in technology and sales. In UK, firms have been told to up the number of women by 25% on their boards by 2015, thus ensuring talented and gifted women get top jobs.
We have travelled from an age where parents didn't believe girls needed education to an era where girls' education is the norm. Women with high education are career-oriented and focused on moving up the ladder.
A case in point is Chanda Kochhar, Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank is amongst the five Indian women who have made it in the top 50 women in world business awarded by Financial Times for the year 2011. Her father, she says, “believed in equality between daughters and sons and encouraged all of us to build a career.” Yet the progress is not without challenges.
Challenges
The mightiest challenge comes from society itself. Inadequate social support and stereotyped woman's role affects the motivation of women. Quite often, a woman's role at workplace is seen as secondary to her role as homemaker and nurturer.
As a supply chain consultant for a supermarket chain says, “Women don various hats - raising a family, meeting varied home demands besides being a competent professional. Here's where the conflict arises and majority of us agree to downsize our career or prefer to quit”.
Discrimination is another challenge that raises its face often. Juliana Doreen, a senior consultant in a relocation firm finds balancing between work and family as the most challenging to deal with. However, with constant encouragement from her spouse, she is successfully moving ahead in her professional journey. As a woman, Doreen had been subjected to gender bias in her previous company where she was told that she could not handle events as it involved travelling to the villages and interacting with the people there. She overcame these challenges, she observes, “There is certainly a positive change for women in India in the workplace.”
Need for women managers
Since women are increasingly playing a vital role as consumers and financial decision-makers, it is imperative to welcome women managers who can bring in unique perspective to decision making and problem solving. A diverse leadership with a healthy mix of competent men and women embodies different perspectives and approaches to work. Men and women's different social roles imply different experiences and values that can benefit the organisation. It can create a win-win situation.
Roy Adler of Pepperdine University, USA did an extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms showing a strong correlation between a strong record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability.
Corporate approach
To advance, women need support from the top management. Encouraging diverse management practices and opening doors to women – through positive human resource programs – is one way for the organisations to increase their talent pool. Mentor programmes are an excellent way where strategies can be identified for advancing their careers. This gives them the opportunity to grow and provides exposure and experience through various projects.
Catalyst, the US based study group focusing on women's corporate advancement identifies, “Rotate women across functions and ensure they have experience of line assignments amongst others as crucial to promote gender diversity within an organisation.”
In order to retain women, many companies are offering flexitime, telecommuting, daycare programs and maternity leave. As a project manager in a payroll processing company happily observes, “With time, the attitude towards women as managers are significantly becoming more positive.”
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