Empowerment, Independence, rights and so on are the customary things which most feminist groups muddle about… And until the time I got there, it was just another meeting.
Indian Women in Global Business @ Sheraton not only paved way to witness a bunch of powerful women in their late 50s but also reminded me that I’m on my way :)
Incredibly diverse the crowd remained though not by gender but by behavior, attire and age. The milieu assured me of key take-away thoughts and as surmised I did happen to learn for life. The speakers were no way less than expected; the mistresses of the conference were mostly grads from Carnegie Mellon, IIMs and who had been in the industry for 20+ years. Couldn’t ask for more, I waited for the program to start.
The seminar started with Mrs.Vijaylakshmi, President of Empowering Women in IT briefing about the EWIT’s activities. She accentuated on few things which I truly agree is the differentiating factor of EWIT from that of the other groups. A network of professional women who pull each other up the ladder by keeping in good touch and helping the needy, as against just enjoying a glass of beer in the evenings and travelling places to build the network, remain deeply appreciable. We had few speakers talking about readiness of women to take lead roles and the pyramid structure with the drop out of women etc…Amongst these the most noteworthy one was Mrs.Vanitha’s talk on work life balance in globalised world. She is the Managing partner, Global Business Services, IBM, South ASIA region. Well I should say, her one hour speech was a paradigm of an ideal presentation. I, not very lately though, recognized the affirmative upshots of proper planning and preparation. She started with the book “The New Normal” which talks about the evolution of individuals from 40’s to now. Pointing out the trend at various stages, she spoke about the role of women in every epoch.
I realized women have always been managers; if not as managers by function but as managers by influence. Just that we have not been the head of the family, but we have always decided were the head has to turn :) Also our traditional women are too good a managers as compared to the traditional men. They had a great command over the family matters, which is the most complicated of all businesses. Women belonging to the subsequent eras grew up seeing their mothers and grandmothers managing their family. So they tend inherit the managerial qualities as against men who remain alien to this. Traditional Indian men do not know how to adapt but women has always known it better. The global business wants women to just transport these acquired skills to the workplace. This becomes very important as we bring in the cognitive diversity in decision making, which is crucial for a triumphant business. Career development is also about managing these transportable skills. To make this transportation easy we have to understand that organizations are not demanding stressed out and hard working people. Organizations look for people who know to prioritize and contribute. We should learn to invest in ourselves. Remember these things planning, prioritizing and networking to have a positive encounter. Only because women don’t prioritize things in the much needed way they opt out in the professional ladder. As the statistics says, the proportion of women to men seems to be 50:50 in the junior level and it goes down to 10:50 in the senior level. This is because women opt out. All the nature imposed career breaks we take are just opportunities and not obstacles. Provided we have the aptitude, the opportunity will keep knocking our doors. At that time more than being hospitable, we should learn to be flexible and we should know to prioritize. Flexibility is the currency here and I firmly believe in it.
I am now prepared to be very flexible and I am sure to prioritize :)
With the common knowledge, I thank you for the time spent on the read.
interesting read.. i especially like your take on why the gender ratio decreases as we go up the corporate ladder. but i feel it would be slightly unfair to say that traditional men do not know how to adapt.
ReplyDeletei would say that adaptability is a gender-neutral characteristic and one reason why the gender ratio decreases is that the society- which includes both men and women, perceives what you call opportunities, as obstacles, or much worse, detrimental to social balance.
the social changes that we are seeing now are coming after centuries of male domination of administration because of various reasons and though the speed of change is much faster this time, it'll still be a while before we see the ratio become uniform all over the ladder. besides, this social change is something that the men are adapting themselves to as well.
there is no denying the fact that given a chance women make great managers and that they have an inherent sensitivity which is often missing in their male couterparts. but, at the end of the day, an organization wants and needs to make money.as long as it gets the right person who can keep the accounts growing ethically and legitimately, it does not matter whether the person is male or female. though you have pointed out some key areas that women need to watch out for to ensure that their careers are not sabotaged by society's expectations, i feel all professionals in today's corporate world must realize that it is profitability that drives employability. and all our skills and our talents boil down to this one fact at the end of the day.
P.S - I'm really glad you don't advocate the "when in Rome, do as the Romans" philosophy which is so common these days. Good going! :)
A nice read. Seems straight out of the column of a leading newspaper! You have analysed it with a surgical precision and have even driven your argument forward with some possible suggestions and solutions. This post is definitely worth being on the editorials. Do give it a thought.
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