A discussion from our Warp & Weft group on Linkedin

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A long way to go for the Indian woman to shatter the glass ceiling in the corporate world re-iterates the recent article in the Times of India. Extensive surveys and research in the report indicate that the percentage of women in corporate boards or executive boards is a mere six percent. This is at least ten times lower than the percentage found in our global counterparts.

This survey raises very vital questions some of them being:
1.       Is having a handful of women at the top like Chanda Kocchar (Head of ICICI Bank), Vinita Bali (CEO of Britannia) and a few others, enough to represent the power of Indian women.
2.       What happens to the several women graduates who pass out each year?

The Mc. Kinsey survey reports that at least 45% of Indian women leave the workforce each year citing needs of wanting a better work life balance or quoting family problems. Many women succumb to the pressure of juggling the priorities of work and family and tend to quit their jobs or stick to entry level or mid-managerial roles. The survey put out these facts and numbers painting a very bleak picture for Indian women in the corporate sector. Makes one wonder if the Indian woman is being punished for nurturing or taking the role of primary role giver in the family too seriously. These facts also reflect poorly on the dynamics of the society. Questions that arise from this survey are worth a thought and will make a lot of difference to our approach to a mutually inclusive society at the workplace

1.       Is this imbalance in numbers a good example for our little girls? Are we depriving them of role models? Are we teaching them that it is a norm to give up their career or ambitions of being gainfully occupied to bring up a family?

2.       Why is care-giving or looking after a family so gender specific? Why is society imposing such biased stereotypes? How do we change the cultural influence and the traditional mindset?

3.       How can we empower women to stay on in the corporate world and excel in their chosen profession? How do we feed the corporate pipeline with more women leaders who are happy individuals with happy families?

Join our discussion group, Warp & Weft: Threads of Diversity & Inclusion in India on Linkedin and share your thoughts.

Interweave in news: Knowledge @ Wharton

A Bullish Outlook for India’s Female Entrepreneurs

Nirmala Menon, founder and CEO of Interweave Consulting, a Bangalore-based firm that focuses on diversity management and inclusiveness in the workplace, points out that there is a lot of visibility and acknowledgement of women entrepreneurs as reliable partners and vendors. “Some organizations are encouraging them as part of their corporate supplier diversity programs. This is spurring other women to enter the space as well.”

Menon adds that Indian women inherently have an important entrepreneurial trait — resilience. “Women in India have had to traditionally manage with limited resources and that native intelligence helps them manage creatively with frugal resources available,” she notes. “They reuse, save, negotiate, find alternatives — all of which contributes to their success as an entrepreneur.”

But what are some of the challenges that they face?

Menon suggests that women find it more cumbersome than men to navigate the regulatory and procedural complexities. She attributes this to “a fairly complex process managed mostly by men.” Menon adds that while women entrepreneurs have domain expertise, they often lack profit and loss experience and by consequence could struggle with the “business-side” of an enterprise. However, the biggest challenge for women entrepreneurs in India, she says, is coping with societal expectations. “These are changing, but still have some way to go.”

Read full article at http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2012/06/a-bullish-outlook-for-indias-female-entrepreneurs/



Interweave in the news: Desi Cos Help Women at Work

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