One workplace, two experiences

As experts say that a bare three per cent women occupy senior positions in private companies across India. And most of the companies only have five to six per cent women employees.

Male representatives of private companies give various reasons for these appalling figures. Some blatantly say that they are traditional companies and don't hire women. Others cite safety as an issue. Still others say that maternity leaves are a serious interruption of work

Despite of the girls getting higher marks than the young men and performing better, they received less approval and recognition from male bosses and were slower to be promoted. They felt dejected and downhearted.

The dilemma of these young women is understandable. And I empathize with them. Boys are brought up to believe that they can get anything they want and are raised as such. Girls are also told that they can get anything they want, but are raised to have doubts about their ability, to put family first and to subsume their ambitions and dreams in the interest of family and society. They are never told how tough it is to negotiate their way in a world designed and defined by men. And they are not trained for it either.

The corporate world has been, and is one, where men can escape away from home and family. Men made the rules, and when women come into this world, they were not sure how to conduct themselves. In the Indian context, men learn to see women as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. The idea of women as colleagues and as equals is very new and quite intimidating.

Truly twenty-first century corporations will be those that recognise and act on the fact that the world, as we know it, does come in two sexes. Both men and women bring valuable and different experiences, skills and expertise to the workplace. By creating an environment that is less hospitable to women, men deprive themselves of a challenge to work with women. Women in turn are cheated out of the opportunity to use their education and training to make a contribution to society.

Unitedworld Executive.