Challenging the status quo ….

Another women’s summit in Bangalore. This one was hosted by NASSCOM at the Leela Palace. Having been part of organizing one of such summit in Bangalore as part of my organisation and attending a few others, this time I was starting to get a little weary. The speakers at these summits are reasonably good, but some excellent.

The companies are the usual suspects from the IT industry, and some of the speakers are repeat.  I see the same folks many times over.  I guess the pool of professional, working and networking women is not much in Bangalore.

According to a study, the number of women is growing accounting for 28% in 2007-08. The numbers look pretty good, but they go below 11% at the top.  This is not something I find surprising.

The agenda at the summit is all around women in leadership, what skills they need and what companies can do to help the women achieve their full potential.  Having spent about 12 years in the industry, I can say this much; the opportunities almost always the same, its just how we women are able navigate the complexities of an organisation large or small. 

There were lot of suggestions from the women attendees about what the organisations should be doing to make work-life balance integration much easier for women. Also, there was chatter about networking skills, leadership skills etc. 

I felt the summit fundamentally lacks teeth because it is keeping itself away from influencing public policy.  A lot of talk which cannot be followed up action, because a lot of it revolves around influencing public policy.

To give a few examples -

The lack of a licensed, well kept, groomed day care centers which allow women to work without any tenstions from 7.30am-6pm – are just absent or not enough or not close to work or home. This prevents the women from being successful at work in those intervening child rearing age. Sometimes even forcing them to pull out. This if ofcourse the situation in Bangalore. But I wouldn’t be surprised if story is same in other cities.

Our fundamental social structures have unwritten rules on how women are to take care of the home  while also following their ambitions. This puts a lot of pressure on the women. A sick child takes a couple of days away from work while the male colleagues are able to focus without those  disturbances.

Indian men, a majority of them, still don’t enter the kitchen or help with household chores or take care of the kids. A majority of well educated women are unable to negotiate an equal relationship at home. The lack of confidence that prevails among these women, further disempowers them when they meet their male colleagues at work, who often are of the same kind as their husbands. They also find it difficult to negotiate the organisational politics as women are more likely to be confused on what is ethical and unethical when navigating the organisational ladder.  This confusing state of affairs, and the pressure at home, often force women to bolt out of their careers to become home makers. 

The infrastructure situation in bangalore is hindering smart, young and talented women from finding a role in an office that is not too far, allows telecommuting and other flexibile options.

So my request to NASSCOM and other industry bodies organising such an event – Please include substantial discussion around public policy initiatives and social change. I believe that will have more impact in the short-term and long term because just organisations alone cannot do everything to get more women to take on leadership roles.

Obviously you can take the horse to the water but you cannot make it drink.

Been a while, that I got a chance to sit down and write what’s on my mind. You make so many observations, and India seems to present with many opportunities. But to sit dow and write requires time and effort. Work/personal life took a toll last few months. Hence, the silence. Hoping to get back to my writing.The nice thing about the “young india” is more women are entering the work force today, very noticeable compared to 20 years ago. However they still constitute only around 20% of the workforce especially in the IT industry. When we were launching the women’s network at MindTree, a colleague observed that there must be some 40% women in the company…I laughed out, and wondered what if really there were 40% women in the workforce. Just imagine.  The entire ecosystem would shift – from the maid, the drivers, the shops selling formal clothes, the iron man, the laundry places, everyone – would become so much more used to there being no one at home during the day. Just imagine the plight of the courier services in India. It will just crash if no one is there to receive your courier! An entire ecosystem depends on the assumption that there’s a housewife at home.We bought a new Samsung refrigirator and the demo person never made it for a demo because he just wanted someone to be home between 9am-7pm and that was never true for us during the working week. The dude never wanted to come on a satday and we stopped following up with him.These are just minor concerns or rather irritants. The bigger issues are – Day care, promotions, salary, extended family, spousal support etc. An interesting trend that many like me (those who are vocal!) have observed, is with rising incomes in India for both spouses, many women give up on their careers to take care of the children. While I do not want to be judgemental, it umnerves me when I think whether the ‘women were working in the first place just for the money’.  Very likely this is the case with the majority but in a few cases the women would rather have more flexible jobs that gives them more freedom over their time and leverages their ability to juggle & multitask. The sad reality is that as soon as the smart women take this route,  the husbands who now earning more, start taking liberties and dump all the household responsibilities on the women. And there goes the flexibility and the woman ends up with no job at all. Only those who are able to push themselves are able to carve something out which keeps their professional experience intact as they wait for the children to grow up to school age.Then there are those who just were housewives from the begining. These are the smart, educated types but now have husbands who earn a lot more. So they employ all the household help they can including a full-time nanny which now frees up more of their time for gossip, kitty parties, shopping and movies. Some of these types even get into non-profits in-order promote themselves and display to the world they are serious …Trust me, no one does take them seriously.There are the more traditional types anyways with a 9-5pm job in teaching, doctors, banking, etc. Not much has changed here since my mother’s era except they do spend more now on shopping thanks to all those malls and credit offers one gets in India. I doubt they are smart money managers like how our mom’s used to be. But they are the most likely folks to be involved with community activities, volunteering and other such initiatives. Our local residents association was headed by some women who were principals/teachers in a local school. It was a nice thing. However, when it came to running the show, the men would again butt in with their views and didn’t give the women a chance to speak in meetings Finally, there are the countless women working as cleaners, maids, nannies, shopping assistants, cashiers, etc. Not much changed for them. They perhaps earn more these days but the cost of living has also gone. Many of these women struggle with husbands who leave them with young children for another woman, or are drunkards. But without these women, the average Indian household would just come to stop. Life would become a drudgery in already high stressed work environment further stressed by the commute and traffic.Across these different segments, there’s very little which brings them together. Each segment has its idiosyncracies. And I wonder how can we bring about the 1960’s sort of women’s revolution of america in this country when there is nothing in common which can bring all of them to one platform.