What’s keeping Indian women from taking on leadership roles? Learn about the impact of gender bias on women and what we can do to support women in the workplace.
Gender discrimination is not only a problem in India but also abroad. It prevents women who have visible leadership qualities from claiming senior positions in their workplaces. In 2018, only 20% of women had senior management roles in the corporate workforce in India.
What Is Keeping Indian Women From Taking On Leadership Roles?
Before we start developing women leaders, we need to address the elephant in the room – the key reasons that prevent Indian women from holding deserving positions in workplaces.
Here are some observations that may shed light on that:
Avoiding the misogyny
For years, India men have dominated the workplace. The entry of a woman into a male-dominated workplace may seem threatening to some men.
Most Indian women prefer to avoid the misogyny and stay out of situations where insecure men are likely to try everything possible to make her feel undeserving and out-of-place.
Lack of security
Women face sexual harassment almost everywhere. The #MeToo movement underlined this dark truth in the lives of women who suffered from sexual harassment in the workplace.
This fear of being harassed at work often makes women hesitate from claiming leadership positions, where they need to network with a lot of new people.
Women hesitate to socialise with colleagues
As women are more likely to be subjected to sexual harassment most of them refrain from socialising after work.
While men may go for a drink with their new clients or bond over a glass of beer with their bosses, many Indian women hesitate to do so.
This is because of the fear of being propositioned by men and having them hit on them at every opportunity.
Overestimating a man’s abilities
Many organisations have a tendency to overestimate a man’s capabilities, giving them more opportunities than women. As a result, women suffer from lack of confidence, stress, and anxiety.
They tend to feel (and rightly so) that they’re not being given enough credit, which often leads to lack of motivation at work.
A sense of loneliness
Even women who have leadership qualities feel lonely in a man’s world, the cynosure of their judgmental gaze, waiting for her to fail or make a mistake.
Women often feel more stressed than necessary, as they have to maintain a higher level of perfection to avoid gender-based criticism.
Young India, however, has changed a lot, and it is changing still. More women are learning assertiveness skills and how to become physically and mentally strong so they can combat disrespect and chauvinism.
However, developing women leaders requires a lot more than that. When looking at their long term career plans, what are women looking for in an organization?
The findings of a survey conducted among women working in fifty companies across thirteen different fields revealed the following results:
- Women tend to put their families first
- Women spare very little time for themselves
- Women feel undervalued in the workplace
- Women feel underestimated in the marketplace
- Women feel underserved
The issues that drive a woman to work and the choices and priorities that she makes during her career are very different from that of a man.
When it comes to choosing a career, women tend to look for work that offers more meaning and goes hand-in-hand with her lifestyle and responsibilities.
What Do Women Want At Work?
The main benefits a woman looks for in her work include:
- A supportive work atmosphere
- A reasonably good balance between work and home
- Recognition and scope for achievement
- Good compensation
- Working for an organization that has high values and a sense of social responsibility
- A job with good prospects
A survey conducted by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India showed that 82% of working women prefer flexible office timings.
The option to work from home, have day-care facilities for children, friendly leave policies and flexible office hours provide women a huge amount of support to help them climb the corporate ladder on their own terms.
Here are a few other interesting revelations from the survey:
- 82% of mothers with children aged between 0 and 4 prefer flexible office hours.
- Only 16% of women opted to work full-time, away from home.
- 85% men of want to marry working women because they believe such women can manage home and work efficiently.
- 71% of women agreed that HR policies are improving with time.
Marriage Vs Career
The Indian census reports show that every year, nearly 5.5 million Indian women join the workforce. But not even half manage to hold on to their jobs.
Irrespective of position or income, the traditional shackles that prevent Indian woman from working outside the home remain strong. When family responsibilities take priority over work, it can leave a working woman feeling judged for her commitment.
Almost 50% of women in India tend to drop out of their careers following marriage or children, and a number of them do so more because of cultural pressures. Bias in the workplace is another reason that many women quit work.
Emerging Trends in Indian Companies
Following in the footsteps of multi-national organizations, a number of top Indian companies are updating their existing HR policies and becoming more sensitive to the needs of their woman employees. These new initiatives will also help them retain a higher number of women workers.
In an increasingly competitive market that demands versatile skills, it is important for companies in India to improve their management policies for women, as they’re now an almost equal part of the Indian workforce.
Gender discrimination has kept many Indian women from achieving the heights of success they deserve. However, organisations like SHEROES are empowering women not only to educate themselves and start earning their livelihood from home, but also to lead and mentor women in different sections of society.
From career guidance to remote work and home business opportunities, there are many initiatives started by SHEROES to help Indian women find work from home for women in India.
The Indian government also needs to take measures to control and eliminate gender bias from workplaces to help women take on leadership roles in the workplace. After all, in a world that promotes equality, gender discrimination should be done away for good, shouldn’t it?