Empowering women in India Inc

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It’s still early days for women in corporate corridors. Although women’s social and economic empowerment has many exponents and avid supporters, the neglect of women in the corporate world agitates few minds. So what does empowering women at work really mean?

An Assocham survey (2007-08) says 66.3% urban Indian women prefer to work rather than keep house, though only 16% of them work for a living. Yet, paradoxically, according to available data (2004), Indian women had cornered 14% of senior business posts. However, they still have a long way to go. Says Janet Gasper Chowdhury, principal consultant, PricwaterhouseCoopers: “While Indian Companies are moving in that direction, they still have a long way to go. We do see more women joining Companies, but as we move up the hierarchy the numbers start dwindling. The lapse is not by Companies alone. Our socio-economic background does have a major role to play.”

Chowdhury is a believer in merit, and argues that women workers should be rewarded for merit. “It is important to note a distinction between empowerment and reservation. The latter does have an in-built implication that performance does not count and gender is what sees you through. Firms should steer clear of this, and instead, focus on providing opportunities to women to help them demonstrate capability and then reward merit.”

Although Assocham data mentions that 17.7% of women in India tend to give up their work in middle-management positions, many Companies have taken care to ensure that the female talent is retained. Says Chitra Ramakrishna, managing director, National Stock Exchange (NSE): “About 50% NSE staff is women and that has been a way of life with us. At junior levels, we employ 40% to 50% women professionals; they progress up the ladder and at middle and senior management levels, we have 30% women. Also, the fact that if women take maternity leave, it has not gone against their promotion has helped.”

Liberalisation, globalisation and the consequent business expansion have raised the aspirations of women. In tandem, several industries have taken steps towards positive discrimination of women.

In Apollo hospitals, women have 55% share of the jobs. Says Shobana Kamineni, director, projects, Apollo Hospitals group, “We have both the genders working in all the functions starting from front office, diagnostics, medical and nursing to all the administrative and support services. We have women employees working in bio-medical function which generally is a male-dominated area.”