A lot have been written, talked about and debated on gender equality. Coming to the ground realities of the way the society works today, in the entire world, one really gets disillusioned on this aspect.
World might have been swept with the ideas of free market, equality, globalization, democracy, etc. But, if you get into the every day working of most of the corporate houses, big and small alike, lie the dark patch of gender inequality present.
Sometimes we hear the politicians, sometimes head of big public sector corporations, and sometimes department heads of big corporations – all expressing their bias towards male community for getting things done. A lady is always taken appropriate as a thing of beauty – to be adorned when you want to make something charming, or eye catching. Be it advertising, public relationship department or the front office desk. It looks like that the fairer sex has to hit the glass ceiling beyond these roles.
The proponent of the male camp has various instances to prove that their bias towards male makes lot of business and economic sense. They say after all a women need to go for maternity leave, she cannot work late at nights; she is very emotional, she cannot travel, etc etc.
Having a woman in the team makes it dicy. You never know when she needs a very long vacation. And then the fate of the project is uncertain!
The other day there was some “big guy” proclaiming in one of the news channels how much business sense it makes not to have a lady pilot for the Indian air force. It looks like having a lady as the pilot does allow the Indian Air Force to do a break-even for the investments done on the pilot’s training!
Unfortunately many among us approve the idea of having equal opportunities for women just on paper, to sound good, and be politically right. When most of us are on that decision making chair, we prefer to have a guy for the post, not a girl.
Unfortunately most of the enterprises – mainly the small and medium scale industries in
Well, it might be unjust to expect a for-profit business organization to have the social welfare on its primary agenda. But, labeling gender equality as yet another social welfare scheme, is blasphemous.
It not only is utmost social responsibility of the corporations to maintain its gender diversity, it certainly makes lot of business sense.
It is really questionable to think that if a couple of months of vacation taken by a person in his entire career in an organization would impact the bottom-line of the organization. Certainly the organization has to create back up plans to support its lady employee needs.
In many cases, the gender inequality goes completely unnoticed. With all good intentions decisions are taken without even thinking about this aspect.
Mostly in the technological companies, it is very hard to find woman in top positions. It is an urgent need for the corporate heads to un-learn their superstitions of male superiority and surrender to the fact that female representation in the company makes the workforce well rounded. In the long run, it has a major impact on the company’s culture and organic development. Certainly in short term, going through the economic objectivity, the male camp might win. But, going into depth, looking towards the long term future, it makes real business sense to have gender equality in an organization.
The best way to mandate gender equality in corporations is to link it to the performance report of the organization. This might help giving the issue its legitimate importance.
Today big corporate houses like PepsiCo, ICICI Bank, BioCon, to name a few, are all headed by lady CEOs. Gradually the male dominance on the management bastion is losing up. It is nice to have this well rounded picture. But it is certain that we have miles to go before gender equality is taken seriously.
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101% i agree with u on this topic.
ReplyDeleteBhupender Rathor, mother of two daughters