Working with a Lady Boss!
The utopianism and the paradox.
Sometimes “gender equality” just seems to be a decorated label that more or less holds no real significance. It is more like a theoretical concept prevalent everywhere, in our society, our workplace, our schools, our parliament, and even our houses.
The discussion on equality has been ongoing for many decades however equality for women in technology has gathered pace in the past few years. Women, in order to prove themselves are made to go the extra mile, just to be considered equally competent to their male counterparts. With an increase in literacy amongst girls, thanks to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the increased presence of social media platforms encouraging social interaction among women across the globe, the urge to be free, to be independent and to be empowered has increased in girls, which of course has had a reflection on the Indian society at large.
Now coming back to the IT sector, employers favor men during hiring- not because they are prejudiced against women, but because they have the perception that men perform better on average at certain tasks. The interesting question here is why this perception? The answer to this to some extent is the underrepresentation of women in the IT sector. Other factors such as considering the female candidates' marital status, her leadership qualities, and the effect women leaders may have on the patriarchal mindset still prevailing also weakens her candidature.
Now, let’s make it more personal. 21st-century women are educated, independent, empowered, and ambitious. She believes in having a successful professional life along with having a stable personal life. This passion and vigor itself make women different and in-fact superior to men. However, the data has a different story to tell. It's startling to find, that the once female-dominated retail industry shows ZERO women in the C-suite of 18 of the top 100 retail companies. With the exit of Virginia Rometty, CEO and President IBM, the number of female CEOs stands at a dismal 34 amongst the fortune 500 companies. Take Apple, for instance, where just 33% of the staff is female. When it comes to leadership positions, this figure drops to a mere 29% of the Cupertino-based phone maker. The possible reasons for this are not because she is underqualified or under-motivated but the fact that she is underestimated.
Another way, this pans out for women is the pay disparity. Not only this, but women are also more often than you think subjected to sexual harassment by their colleagues or bosses even after companies boasting of their anti-sexual harassment policies. Isn’t it another way for men to look down or lower the self-esteem of a powerful, ambitious, educated, and empowered women?
To conclude, women today do not seek the support of men, they do not seek policies at work to favor them to stand up and rise. All they seek is for men to be made self-aware and educated about ways and approaches to deal with an equally competent woman. It’s now time for companies to design policies to educate men to break out of the patriarchal mindset and evolve with time as humans were meant to be.
