Women technologists come to the fore

The companies save a lot of money by continuing with experienced women. They don’t need to invest in new talent acquisition or training or looking at compatibility of a new recruit at that level. At Microsoft India, 40% of the employees are women. “With the fast growth we are seeing in IT, it would be impossible to replace if that percentage of your workforce drop off after marriage or having children. A natural level of progression means that there will be a large proportion of women at senior roles as well,” said Harish Vaidyanathan, director, evangelism at Microsoft Corporation India.

For instance, between 2009-2011, Yahoo! in India has seen an over 84% increase in the number of women making it to the senior manager’s level. “You don't want to lose a talent. Hiring a new talent with same productivity level is impossible. Holding on to a talent is what differentiates between a good company and great company,” said Vaidyanathan of Microsoft, who heads the application development centre. He felt that it is very difficult to compare the scene with the past as this sector has emerged only recently and women participation at his centre is robust.

According to Vaidyanathan certain genre of apps like education, kids, family and social apps are made better and more relevant by women. “Women bring in new perspective. They have an eye for holes in products. Other attributes like being more organised than men and being good at multi

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