It is that time of the year, time to discuss women?s issues incessantly. The subjects tend to be clich?d, barring last week?s drama over the Women?s Reservation Bill. When it comes to working women, one always talks about the glass ceiling among other things. It is also de rigueur to list the top 20 most powerful women in the country. The same names appear with great regularity. But does anyone know what younger working women want? Young women are now entering workforce in increasingly large numbers.
Sarada Jagan, executive director, HR, of the Chennai-based Sanmar Group, corporate division, and an IIM-A alumnus, decided it was time to find out. When she took over as the chairperson of the Madras Management Association?s women managers? forum, she decided to do a survey of working women in Chennai along with Cerebrus Consultants. A customised questionnaire was distributed to about 500 working women in the city across age groups, income groups and industries in January. A majority of the women surveyed were in the 25-35 age group, earning under Rs 5 lakh per annum and belonging to the IT or ITeS industry.
The results thrown up are not just interesting and insightful but also somewhat surprising.
Women in the workspace say that the playing field is the same for men and women. Women are quite happy with the way they are treated at their workplaces. A majority of them say they are treated as equals with no gender discrimination (75%), their jobs are commensurate with their education and experience (70%), they receive the same inputs to perform their jobs as their male counterparts (over 60%) and they get their fair share of professional opportunities (over 60%).
Women are self-confident and quite conscious of their worth. Most women (70%) are well qualified, with a postgraduate degree or a professional qualification. More than two-thirds of them feel that women are better troubleshooters than men, and more than 75% say women are better at coping with change than men. More than 60% think they are more ambitious than their peers. A majority of them carefully plan their careers and cope well with work pressure.
They have healthy professional relationships. Over 80% say that their subordinates look to them for advice, 60% find their bosses consulting them while making decisions. Most women managers (75%) say their team has exceeded performance expectations under their leadership. Women professionals have high aspiration levels. More than two-thirds declare that they would prefer to be managers rather than individual contributors. Most women over 40 want leadership positions. But at that stage, they start seeing resistance within the organisation. Does the level playing field crumble here?
But then, given all this, are women willing to pursue their ambitions? The survey looked at women?s readiness for ?doing what it takes? in pursuit of professional success. The parameters considered were their willingness to travel as part of work, willingness to relocate to another location for furthering their professional growth, attitude towards networking, dedicating time for professional development (by reading, attending training programmes etc) and willingness to work long hours.
Here comes the surprise. Taking all these factors together, a majority of women surveyed expressed reservations on most of the above. Less than half the women (40%) were ready to travel extensively on work. About one-third were not willing to travel at all. Some were ambiguous. As far as networking is concerned, women like the concept. They like to network sometimes. However, less than 10% set aside time for networking on a regular basis. And at least one-third admit that they rarely or never network. When it comes to professional development, among women in mid to late thirties, 30% say that they have no time for it. Most women (over 60%) admit that they concentrate on achieving day-to-day goals rather than having a long-term focus. Older women (45 and above) with income levels of over Rs 10 lakh per annum reacted differently. But they did not constitute large numbers in the survey.
It does appear as though there is a disconnect between younger women?s professional aspirations and the effort they are willing to undertake to achieve those aspirations. But when the women were questioned about the larger picture, it becomes clear why they react like this. When asked to rank family, career and money, more than 80%?irrespective of age and income?ranked family as their first priority. Only 15% across groups ranked career first. Over 90% of those in the 30-35 age group ranked family first.
What is the single most important reason for them to be in the workspace? More than a third of the women said ?putting their skills to good use? was their single reason for working. ?Contribution to family income? comes a close second. Only 25% rated ?financial independence? as an important reason. So, it is no surprise that most women go through career breaks. These breaks are over and above the maternity and earned leave breaks. By the time they are 30, more than one-third of the women had taken at least one break. This percentage goes up as women go through their 30s (close to 60%) and their 40s (close to 75%). Across all age groups, about 10% have taken three or more breaks.
According to this survey, most women tend to see life as a jigsaw puzzle where career is a piece, but not the biggest or the more important piece. There are other pieces like children, family, domestic issues and so on. To juggle multiple priorities and do justice to all of them clearly makes a woman different from a man in workplaces.
The survey concludes that career breaks and restarts in a woman?s working life is something both organisations and women need to be mindful of. Maybe women should put in more thought into taking breaks and planning for them. It also makes business sense for organisations to build in flexibility to help retain talented women they cannot afford to lose.