Workplace Gender Equality
CAREERS HAVE NO GENDER!
This is the sole purpose of our survey on Workplace Gender Equality.
Through this survey, we want to understand on the key focus areas: -
KEY FOCUS AREA
-
Gender Equality Landscape in the workplace
-
Challenges to Gender Equality in the workplace
-
Organization’s initiative to promote and foster gender equality
-
Key policies for enhancing gender equality in the Indian corporates
-
Gender Diversity in Leadership
Many people see achieving gender equality as a women’s issue but it’s a human’s issue. Although there have been a lot of changes to achieve parity at workplaces, gender equality is still far from being achieved as the big talks of policies to make this happen just remain on paper and never see the light of the day. Over the last decade, people have become increasingly aware and sensitized about equality in the workplace to create an inclusive culture. We want to observe the approach of the corporates towards fostering equality and the extent to which the policies, if any, are implemented and practised in the organizations. The motive is to baseline key practices for enhancing gender equality in the Indian corporates.
It's to come up with active solutions and measures to guide these places to achieve the parity that’s promised on paper as any serious shift towards a more inclusive, egalitarian and sustainable society starts with gender equality. This survey will provide us with an insight into what happens at workplaces, how wrong and right the policies are and what we can collectively do and suggest to change it and encourage equality. Achieving gender equality requires the engagement of women and men, boys, and girls. It is everyone’s responsibility
SURVEY METHODOLOGY
This report is based on a Quantitative survey that was conducted with 313 Corporate Human Resource professionals from all over India and across the industry, as well as qualitative discussions with over 25 Senior Human Resource professional to gain a greater insight into the survey subject
WORDS FROM THE WISE
“Indian companies use a broad-brush approach. Corporates are lacking Gender Equality and women are struggling for several reasons. Not much is done by the leaders- from senior positions to the CEO. The unconscious bias is very strong where men leaders don’t want to take a chance on women leaders. We need to put bets on women and their work.
Even when the government rolled out policies in CA 2013, there was no pipeline suggested.
Women have to grind 20-30 years before getting a place on the board. Many women who reach the top think that they have become a man. Why is this necessary?
Why is the thought that only men can reach the top and only when you reach the top you come to par with men, is still prevalent in society?
Women are not promoted however knowledgeable they may be for the fear that they’ll quit in some time and that the role requires a lot of attention and responsibility. Both organization and women have a 50-50 role to play- organization can create a good and welcoming ecosystem while women need to be more competitive and break the mindset of the society.” -Mr. Cyrus Jalnawala - Ex -HR- Director
“Some organizations tend to fake what they are not. This refers to the hidden nature of the corporates where they appear to be running diversity programs and all but don't do enough in that matter and are not very active in Gender Equality. So, what appears in front of you may not be real, we should not form any judgment before knowing the truth. At the end of the day, it is just for the sake of branding, the diversity agenda is not aligned to the hiring practices and corporates only do so to showcase it to the external world” - Human Resource Head MNC Manufacturing
“Women need to work harder, smarter and longer than men to get appointed or promoted into leadership roles. Businesses need to reassess their process and criteria for promoting talent in order to break this deeply ingrained bias towards male leaders. Men and women are seen differently and the difference in my experience and observation is that women need to show competence more times before the company believes it. This inequality has a profound impact on the talent pipeline which has made organizations realize that they suffer this ‘hollow-middle.” Head of Talent Acquisition, India & Middle-East, MNC
BREAKING FREE FROM THE CULTURAL CONFINES
Women in general, working or not have been subject to certain expectations in society that are not the same for men. Somewhere between being married, raising children, and always having to make family their priority, women had to give up their careers. The main reason they quit is that they are in a constant dilemma as to how to be effective in both their professional and personal lives. Indian women have more responsibilities than men as they have to wear multiple hats at the same time. Lack of proper support forces them to sacrifice their career and look after their home.
Some do, however, come back into the workforce after a few years. Even though women making a comeback into the corporate world seems like an encouraging idea, it is often not as rosy.
Most women share similar challenging experiences of juggling multiple roles - as a wife- being a companion to her husband in both good and bad times, as a mother - responsible for the education and upbringing of the children, as a daughter-in-law - taking care of the household responsibilities, and as a working professional - meeting organizational responsibilities.
Whereas, a man doesn’t have to quit his job to look after the family.
It is high time to stop looking down on women because of gender stereotypes and recognize the transition of women from home-makers to career women whose occupation and employment define their fundamental identity and societal worth.
GENDER EQUALITY?
A business is only as good as the people it hires. As every coin has two sides, hiring talented people is not enough, companies need to manage the talented employees well and give them opportunities irrespective of gender so that they stay for long. Despite a substantial rise in the number of women joining the workforce in India, gender parity continues to suffer, especially at senior positions.
Many companies and organizations conduct gender equality and diversity programs for maintaining the balance among men and women employees but the question is how many women employees are actually benefited from those programmes?
How many organizations truly take responsibility and initiative about those programmes?
DO ORGANIZATIONS WALK THE TALK?
Does your organization have a strong focus on Gender Equality in the workplace?
|
69% of the respondents said their organizations are highly committed to Gender Equality 31% of the respondents said that Gender Equality is not treated as a business priority |
|
It is encouraging that so many companies prioritize Gender Equality. However, businesses cannot benefit if they don’t attract both men and women to their workforce. Lack of action, gender stereotypes, and unconscious biases can be the reason these companies are still lagging behind.
“We can’t deny the fact that chauvinism still prevails in the industry. Men are still hesitant to take orders from a woman. But overtime, things have changed and men have started recognizing the hard work put in by women and have grown to respect them.” - Mr. Arnab Mitra - Chief Human Resource Officer
Does your organization have adequate policies for Gender Equality in the workplace?
The equality policies considered are all types of synchronized efforts to create gender equality between men and women at the workplace level. Hence the pivot is on gender equality and not equality in terms of age, ethnicity, sexuality or other issues.
The survey findings clearly show that there is not enough awareness and sensitization about Gender Equality in 35% of the organizations. This could be due to lack of proper training or low importance given by organizations.
The organizations have started giving importance to building an inclusive culture and promoting the idea of having equality at the workplace with the introduction of various policies and measures to promote safety, equal opportunity, and work-life balance of women which further builds a connection of trust between the women and their organization.
|
65% of the respondents said that their companies have adequate policies to support women in the workplace 35% of the respondents said that their companies have adequate policies to support women in the workplace |
|
GENDER EQUALITY – SHIFT FROM PRIORITY TO VALUE!
If we are serious about making Gender Equality a reality, organizations have to move beyond priority and start shifting their thinking around values. With time priorities can change but values are constant.
The most visible aspect of culture is behaviour which is shaped by BELIEFS and VALUES of the organization
“Earlier, women were less likely to be hired at the managerial level and far less likely to be promoted. Now things are different, a lot of companies who are promoting Gender Equality have a task force which is working towards diversity and inclusion projects. The inequality had a profound impact on the talent profile which made the organizations realize they had a hollow middle level leadership.” VP-HR-Manufacturing - MNC
STARK REALITY-WOMEN IN THE ORGANIZATION’S WORKFORCE
The percentage of women in organization’s workforce?
In a country where women are earning more bachelorette degrees than men, they are still underrepresented in not just the senior leadership positions but even at the entry-level and managerial level jobs.
As per our survey 69% of the respondents claimed that their organizations focus on Gender Equality but the harsh reality struck when the data revealed that Only 19% of the organizations have above 40% of women in their workforce 44% of the respondents said that their organizations have less than 21% of women in their workforce
“The first critical step to a manager, the disparity that has now come down (as compared to the last 10 years) is coming at par. Now companies are promoting women and also ascertaining what percentage of women do they want in their organization, consciously looking at a certain percentage of women leaders.” - CHRO-MNC
Percentage of Women in Leadership Roles in the Organization?
In a shocking revelation, 9% of the respondents reported that there is NO WOMEN REPRESENTATION at the Leadership level in their organizations, whereas only 13% of the respondents said that they have women representation above 20% at the Leadership
This comes as a shock because women are underrepresented in not just the corporate pool of the organization but also in the leadership positions.
- What is causing women to leak out in the pipeline to the top management role?
- What is preventing the ambitious women of India to reach the senior leadership position?
- Do unconscious biases and inequality outnumber women significantly?
There is a grave problem when it comes to our collective thought process with women in leadership across the board. The leadership gap is very evident. This problem of not having enough women in leadership is running really deep and visible across the industry spectrum. We need to acknowledge the stereotypes and individual biases that hold women back.
We are cognizant of how women in leadership roles can help restore balance and wholeness to our businesses and communities, then what's that holding us to restore the gender balance in leadership roles?
“Talking about the leadership population division, women are still a minute percentage. Very few organizations are working towards providing leadership opportunities and giving importance to women returning from an employment gap. They are skeptical about whether women deserve such opportunities but I firmly believe women are equally competitive in all ranks, positions, and roles they hold. It is time for people at the top-level management to stop differentiating between employees on the basis of their gender, rather recognize them only on the basis of their performance and contribution in the company.” - Mr. Manu Widge - Head of Talent Acquisition India and Middle-east
Policies which have made an impact on enhancing Gender Equality at the workplace [MCQ]
All talks of Gender Equality have been restricted to some laws and policies which are vaguely implemented but not adhered to. People still don’t feel an immense pull from inside to change their way of thinking and their approach towards women. The Company’s Act of 2013 gave way for some new laws and policies like:
1. Policy for prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace
2. Policy on Board Diversity (appointment of woman director)
3. Succession plans for appointments of women to the senior management
-
84% of the respondents rated POSH as the most important element to enhance gender equality at the workplace.
-
30% of the respondents said policies on Appointment of Women Directors will have an impact on enhancing gender equality at the workplace.
-
28% of the respondents said organizations having proper succession planning of women to the senior management will have an impact on enhancing gender equality at the workplace.
-
9% of the respondents feel that these policies have not been able to create an impact on Gender Equality at the workplace
|
|
Advocate Debasrita Saratkar She is a Senior Legal Practitioner with experience over 15 years in corporate laws, women rights, employment laws, IT and data protection. A certified POSH Consultant handling complaint in sexual harassment and employment issues related to women. |
“There is a regular need for training and sensitizing employees on the dos and don’ts related to the activities that could transcend into sexual harassment advertently or inadvertently will go a long way in curbing Sexual Harassment. Organizations could also make their employees confirm affirmations that employees understand the policy and agree to comply with the policy in letter and spirit. A safe and healthy workplace ensures a robust goodwill for an organization.”
Mr. Sanjay has been a practicing Company Secretary for the last 7+ yrs., handling a mammoth clientele base of more than 700 companies which includes Private and Public listed companies.
The regulatory push through Companies Act, 2013 (w.e.f. 1st April 2014) has made it mandatory to appoint at least one woman Director on Board of a certain class of Companies which includes all Listed Companies, though a high majority of the categorized organizations have complied with the regulatory directives, still, there is a long way to go to bring in the desired Gender Inclusiveness in the Board Rooms.
Sanjay highlights that SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 also required every Listed Company to appoint at least One-woman director on the Board of every Listed Entity. However, many grey areas exist in reality. It has been more of reluctant compliance by the Indian corporates. They have found a way to play around the rule to comply but kill the primary objective behind the law. For sake of technical compliance, boards of many companies roped-in family members of the Promoter(s) or related parties as women directors on the Board to comply with the law.
He says “Women on board of the unlisted public companies are more of a namesake only to adhere to the regulatory compliance. They don’t get to participate in the meetings or decision-making, they are treated as a SHADOW DIRECTOR. These are dummy appointments to keep up with the compliance.”
“When it comes to taking leadership positions, women are not considered as the right choice because they have to maintain a work-life balance. Women are earning more bachelor’s degrees than men but when asking for salaries, promotions, they are paid less attention than men.” MNC - Chief Human Resource Officer
The importance organizations give to foster Gender Equality through weightage accorded to
Recruitment is the first barrier women need to cross as many challenges and biases await her post joining, if weightage given to Gender Equality is still languishing below 30% during Recruitment, how are we going to achieve gender parity?
Equal pay for equal work - is a fundamental first step, to help advance equality in the workplace and society. It’s more about establishing gender equity. Despite the equal pay debate gaining momentum, still, 52 % of the respondents have reported that the weightage given to Gender Equality for Equal Pay for Equal Work is still below 30%. This highlights that wage inequality is a big part of the challenge women are facing.
PROMOTIONS - 58% of the respondents have said that the weightage given to Gender Equality during PROMOTIONS is below 30%. If a significant effort is not made to retain and promote women, companies risk losing women in leadership and future women leaders and undoing years of laborious progress toward gender equality.
“We should understand that recruitment of a critical managerial position in the organization is followed by the discussion behind closed doors where women are seen as people who would leave their jobs in some time due to their personal lives. This idea is not put into the heads of people by senior male managers but that by the females in the senior leadership positions. Women pull back other women. They are the ones holding back the younger women to prosper in the career also known as a queen-bee syndrome where women in authority refuse to mentor and share their knowledge with their female subordinates.” Mr. Arnab Mitra - Chief Human Resource Officer
Select among the following initiatives your organization is taking to develop futuristic women leadership [MCQ]
-
50% of the respondents said that their organizations provide mentoring to women for leadership
-
34% of the respondents said that their organizations provide sponsorship for external training
-
42% of the respondents said that their organizations help in building networks and role models for women employees
-
26% of the respondents said that their organizations do not take any initiatives towards developing futuristic women leadership
Policies that promotes the re-entry process of women in corporates after a career break
Policies and Programmes that promotes the re-entry process of women after a career break
-
51% of the respondents said that their organizations do not have hiring policies on women from a career break
-
78% of the respondents said that their organizations do not have Returnee-Internship Programs for women
-
39% of the respondents said that their organizations have never hired women from a career break.
Having a strong women workforce looks like a good idea but isn't practiced in its true spirit.
Lack of proper policies on hiring women from a career break, only makes it difficult for women to set their foot back into professional lives. Women have to face many hardships to fulfil their wish of working in the corporate world again.
A deep-rooted cause of unconscious bias occurs when hiring women from sabbatical as people who lack knowledge about the current market and cannot work up to their managers' complex job expectations.
Let us appreciate the invaluable and priceless contribution of a woman, going for a career break, towards a social and humanitarian cause.
Let us be more enthusiastic in welcoming her back when she is ready and decides to join the main workforce. All we need to do is respect her potential and give her a second chance to establish her career.
Reshaping the WORKPLACE
If change is to happen, work cultures need to be more inclusive of women. Sensitivity and Empathy should be built into the recruitment process with strong accountability on the part of those driving these processes to negate the impacts of biases.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
GENDER EQUALITY has been part of the social discourse for centuries, has gained prominence in the global awareness consciousness as it is the fundamental right of an individual and it has positive implications.
According to the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goal, achieving Gender Equality for all Women and Girls by 2030 globally is one of the 17 goals envisioned by the UN. Despite Serious efforts by the proponents of Gender Equality, it is still a work in progress activity.
Systemic challenges and personal biases are the major factors which create barriers to women's entry into the workforce and hinders the advancements in their careers. Equity will serve as the fulcrum to balance gender and the workplace to achieve equality. Gender Equality is the end goal and Gender Equity is the means to get it.
Gender Equality, Still A Long Way To Reach There ........
Download the research report for more insights on findings and recommendations.
Survey Research Team
|
|
Abhishek Chaudhary - Research Project Head BSc - Chemistry, MBA - Marketing from PIMSR, Mumbai University A Talent Acquisition Professional by training. Passionate about Human Resources and Market Research, how Market Research can be utilised for the betterment of Human Resources. Enjoys reading fiction books and is also a passionate Aquarist. |
|
|
Abhijeet Kothiyal - Project Management Intern MBA. DMS - IIT Delhi Dedicated, passionate and result-oriented team player, with an open mind and thorough approach towards situations. Demonstrated leadership acumen in both academic and professional settings. Tech-savvy and data-driven with a knack for strategy and marketing. |
 |
Kritika Chitlangia - Project Management Intern MBA- BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, MESRA A management student who loves communicating with people and learning from them. An avid Mun-er, she is focused on developing qualities for leadership which will help her achieve the aim of being in a top management position one day. Loves to work out of her comfort zone and challenges herself to improve the team she works with. |
Survey Research By: Her Career Foundation