Breaking the Stereotype of Gender Bias in Indian Tech Startup | Elucidata

After the blog by Susan Fowler and Indian Fowler, various articles came up about lax laws against gendered harassment in Indian startups, the ‘bro-culture’ in startups, or perhaps the tech community in general. These things are not new, workplace harassment is still not tackled very well in Indian corporates, the tech community was never women-friendly, and these conditions won’t change overnight.

There are laws in place and implementing them with due diligence should definitely be done. In the meantime, what we need is perhaps a small conversation and some self-confidence.

I want to share a few experiences from my workplace Elucidata which gives me the independence to work freely in the tech space. Elucidata started in 2015, and I was among the first few employees. I have known our founder Swetabh since my college days. I remember my first conversation with him during my interview and it revolved around women's rights, including harassment faced at workplaces. Therefore, we are very open about this issue. If I am uncomfortable with something in the office I know I can talk to Swetabh without thinking twice. We strive to make new-joiners equally comfortable so they can talk openly if they are facing any problems or not liking something.

In our company-wide meetings, we often discuss the importance of diversity. Having people from different culture, castes and religion help you become more open-minded and think differently.

One of the reasons startups have what’s being referred to as ‘bro-culture’ is that there are only ‘bros’ in tech. Gender disparity in technology is wide and deep. They think women and tech don’t go together, but we are here to shatter the hopes of those who believe that is true. I am a woman and am doing very well in tech, and we at Elucidata believe in equal opportunity to all.

Men can’t probably relate to some of the issues that women might be facing and hence don’t realize the little things that go missing. It’s quite possible that four guys working out of their apartment never imagine, they would need a dustbin in the washroom if they want to work with a female intern (this story is true :D). And if you don’t tell them that you need one, they might not even realize. Having a conversation in this situation helped me understand one of the other gender’s blind spot. Now when we think about hiring someone, we try to accommodate their possible needs which were initially not so obvious to us.

Breaking those stereotypes is not easy for any of us. But what I see around is that this company is discouraging such biases, not by snubbing someone, but perhaps making them think through it. This one time, I was late to office, but I still walked in with a big grin and a story about having been driven by a female Uber driver (the only time I was fortunate enough to be driven by a female driver in NCR). I told everyone the story, and one of my colleagues joked about it being a probable cause for my lateness. In all seriousness, we asked why that was a possibility. Such conversations help us think a teeny bit more about what we say every day and the ramifications that such statements may have.

A few weeks back we had a company-wide discussion with Prof. Ravinder Kaur from IIT Delhi about gender biases at the workplace. She pointed out how office spaces have been predominantly designed from a healthy male perspective. We realized it when some street lights near our office were not working and discussed with the people in the neighborhood about getting them fixed. Not only infrastructure, but small things like asking for a day’s leave without hesitation during a particularly uncomfortable and painful period also gives off the vibe of an emotionally comforting environment.

I believe if all of us start having real conversations with our employers, a stroke of change is extremely likely to happen.

[These are experiences of Raaisa Mahajan, a Data Scientist at Elucidata. This is a personal experience, so any connection is purely coincidental.

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