Choose to Challenge
It was sixty-one
years ago, in 1960 when Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected as the Prime Minister
of Sri Lanka (then called the ‘Dominion of Ceylon’). Forced into politics after
her husband was mercilessly assassinated, Sirimavo led the young country for
close to five years until 1965. Touted as the first woman leader in the modern world,
she was succeeded by Indira Gandhi being elected as the Prime Minister of India
in 1966, followed by women leaders from China, Israel, Argentina, Central
African Republic taking up as the Head of State / Government in their respective
countries. Of course, our generation grew up hearing stories about the infamous
‘Iron Lady’ who was elected as the Prime Minister of UK in 1979 who led for
close to a dozen years!
Fast
forward to 2021, we have 24 women actively leading countries across the globe,
and yet we waited unabatedly, fingers crossed for Kamala Harris be sworn-in as
the FIRST
Vice President of USA. Sat 9000 miles away, watching it live on television,
the impending tension and the eerie atmosphere before the Inauguration ceremony,
and equally the unbridled joy after was beyond evident! Until the moment she arrived
and took her oath, it was almost as if even a bee buzzing out of turn, could have
made this historical event, unhappen!
Days
following the event as I read and watched multiple videos of Madam Vice
President, I have wondered why this is such a big deal! We have had so many
women lead us through history – Closer home, Rani Lakshmi Bai and Ahilyabai Holkar
saved their kingdoms fighting on the “real” battlefield in the 1800s &
1700s respectively. And yet we’re at a loss when it comes to role models in the
real world! We cheer (my daughter & I sure do) when we see a woman as a
fighter pilot (even a commercial pilot, to be frank!), an astronaut, a brain
surgeon, an innovator or a CEO (even a VP / Director, to be honest!)
For
instance,
- As an HR
professional, I sub-consciously crane my neck around the board-room to find two
or even one woman, among the dozen-plus decision makers, who will share my
(otherwise divergent) views from a gender perspective
- As a
D&I Practitioner, I constantly hope for 2 – 3 people in the audience that
can relate to my frustration with respect to the ‘Broken Rung’ or the ‘Leaking
Bucket’. i.e. Irrespective of the country/ continent, whether the organization
pyramid begins with 46% or 49% of women, we end up with less than 20% women in
the C-suite and that women comprise only 2.1% of all board chairs even now
- As a
parent, I am conscious that we spend millions on encouraging little girls to
take up STEM education so we can pave a future for our daughters and their
girl-friends, equivalent to our sons and their male-friends!
Only to realize
that something as uncontrollable and unpredictable as a Global Pandemic drives
25% of working women to downshift their careers or leave the workforce
completely[1]!!
And now, with
Choose
to Challenge as the IWD theme for 2021, my question is Who
or What should we #ChooseToChallenge?
Let’s begin
with Societal Norms - Why is it that
women (young and old) still remain the primary care-giver for the young and the
old, the abled and the not-so-abled family members of the home? Oh and when it
comes to household chores and children’s home-schooling, can the “better half”
not #ShareTheLoad? Why is it that research after research predicts that the
Covid-19 crisis could set women back by half a decade? Oh by the way, just curious, are these research papers written by the
same men who seem to be spending an extra 2-3 productive hours per work day
since travel / commute and socializing (read smoke-zone gossip) time has been
cut out!? While in the adjacent room, their equally qualified partner/ wife
is contemplating downshifting or leaving her well-paying job that she perhaps
work doubly as hard to get and keep!?
Which
brings me to Organizational Policies
– How is it that a year into the pandemic, women / parents continue to undergo
increased stress and burn-out? 60% organizations that did not relax productivity expectations and performance criteria during
a global pandemic that lasted a year, and here’s some breaking news[2]:
· Decades of
research shows that women do significantly more housework and childcare than
men—so much so that women who are employed full-time are often said to be
working a “double shift”.
· Women, and
mothers in particular, are taking on an even heavier load - Mothers
are more than three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for most of
the housework and caregiving during the pandemic. In fact, they’re 1.5
times more likely than fathers to be spending an additional three or more hours
per day on housework and childcare
· For the one
in five mothers who don’t live with a spouse or partner, the challenges are
even greater - Unsurprisingly, single mothers are much more likely than other
parents to do all the housework and childcare in their household, and financial
insecurity is one of their top concerns during the pandemic
Are we still genuinely surprised that one
in three mothers have considered leaving the workforce or downshifting their
careers because of COVID-19 citing childcare as a primary reason (particularly
mothers with young children)? Do we
really want the HR Business Partner to meet the employee and confirm the reason
for leaving or loss of pay or that unplanned sabbatical?
In
Feb-March 2020, almost all organizations magically adapted from less than 8% -
10% employees that could
work-from-home to 98% must in a
matter of 2 weeks! Even Dumbledore’s Elder Wand couldn’t have mustered
something this magical and at such a pace! We hurrayed and hi-fied about the
fact that we retained 95%+ of our clientele unlike 1 in 5 start-ups (some with
a multi-million dollar seed funding) that had to wind down operations within
the first few weeks of the Pandemic!
Let’s now
remind ourselves that in the pre-covid era, we were attempting to fix in-your-face
gender discrimination on a myriad of topics (big & small). What has not changed, is that women employees continued
to be discriminated.
A well-kept (yet open) secret across organizations is that
women colleagues (even high performers) may not be the first choice to be assigned to “high-visibility projects” or
front-ending key high-risk organizational programs or a well-deserved promotion
even. This is attributed to a host of reasons - she may get married/ get
pregnant / choose to go on a sabbatical to care for her children/ parents/
in-laws (even her pet may be) at a drop of a hat! Oh and of course in one-odd
case, the infamous card that gets played – “she’s aggressive (not assertive,
mind you!) and hence does not come across as a “leader” or a “team player”.
Yet did you know that women employees at times need to justify and/or may not be meritocratically allocated a laptop or a design software!? Discrimination when it comes to pay and performance ratings (and selection) is passe.. We’re now on to misallocation of technological infrastructure such as the latest software / high functioning laptop and benefits such as flexi-hours? Seriously, you all, is it really 2021!?
This is
perhaps why it IS and remains a BIG deal when we as women #ChooseToChallenge, even
in 2021! Now what does that make our policies and our Organization
Culture – Are these behind by one decade? Or two? Or is it half a century? Or
More? Also makes me wonder if women in
the previous generations were better off! Yet the data analyst in me knows this
is clearly not true.. That I am succumbing to what we refer to as ‘Survivorship Bias’.
Which
brings me to the Survivors i.e. Women
Leaders – Women are over-represented in support functions like
Administration, leaving the one-odd lone ranger in Technology & Operations,
Sales & Marketing and Research & Development—all viewed as critical
experiences for CEO and board-level positions[3]. For instance, 40% of HR Directors are women, compared to
17% of Chief Marketing Officers and 16% of Chief Information Officers.[4]
Take the
case of India for instance. With 64.6% women and 81.5% men tagged as “literate”
in 2017-18, the gap between the male and female literacy rate (16.9%) has
almost halved in the past 30 years (In 1987-88, 31.7% of women and 60.5% men
were tagged as “literate”[5]. Yet India has the
third-lowest Global Representation of Women Managers, ahead of only South Korea
and Japan[6]. In 2019, women held only 8% of management roles, 9% of
business management roles, and were only 2% of CEOs in India. Clearly women
seems to be falling behind in their careers!
McKinsey
Quarterly’s Jan 2019 edition carried an article titled ‘One is the Loneliest
Number’ – While not calling it out, the article is filled with examples of
micro-aggressive behaviors (Jog down your memory lane until you recollect the
Trump vs. Hilary Clinton Presidential Election debate in 2016 – Trump’s
incessant interrupting her is a perfect example of micro-aggression when your
opponent is a Woman, not a Man!). Hillary’s reaction is exactly what happens when
you’re one (woman) among many (men) trying to reach near-parity and/or involved
in making an “important” decision.
She
continues to keep calm, smiles and carries on as if she is okay with him/ them
invading her space, questioning her judgment in her area of expertise yet
repeating her idea masking it as their own, getting her to provide more
evidence of her competence, mistaking her for someone more junior, and subjecting
her to unprofessional and demeaning remarks. It is little/ no wonder these very
women get overlooked for promotion – Clearly, she’s viewed as “being okay” with
what she is currently undertaking or worse still, unintentional about her
career, hence never serious enough to fight back.
Situations
such as these causes “oneliness” – where you feel like you don’t have any
Sponsor or Ally. “Is this even worth it?” they wonder. This typically coincides
with middle-age health issues, growing up children, old parents & in-laws. The
family’s & friends’ counsel typically is – “Get your priorities right!”
i.e. Ignoring your own health and family’s well-being to be part of a
high-stress work environment where you patiently wait for your turn to be the
“leader”, and continue congratulating your much-junior and (in many cases)
not-so-competent men colleagues! A perfect reason why women tend to join NGOs,
academics and/or take up Not-for-profit or even pursue their hobbies – further
reiterating the notion that they were perhaps never “intentional” about their
career and hence settled for something simpler. The real reason though is – it’s
Year 17 / 27 of being overlooked and hence she’s tired of “proving a point”.
And this is McKinsey’s report saying it – not me! “If first-level women
managers were hired and promoted like men, there would be 1 million more women
in management over the next five years.”[7]
In Conclusion
Given the
increasing awareness of the need for ‘Equality’ and ‘Equity’ at the work place,
many organizations have created a blue print to action with a goal to get more
women into management, and more importantly, retain women across the board. Organizations
seem to be ensuring equal access to developmental work opportunities for women,
thus creating an inclusive culture. They’re more serious about about enabling
flexible working and reviewing recruitment approaches that won’t filter out
women in an unfair manner. Mentoring and coaching has been the buzz word with
senior management reward being linked to progress on Gender/ D&I goals.
Last but not the least, targets are being set for gender balance at leadership
levels while training employees across the organization (especially managers)
on Unconscious Bias.
Let’s truly
hope these efforts pay off! Until then, that #FistBump between Michele Obama
and Kamala Harris will remain the most special expression of two sensible and
powerful women celebrating their willingness and that they #DaredToChallenge
222 years of – Is it misogyny? Or Male Chauvinism? Or Lack of Real Sponsorship?
Or may be it was just plain incompetence? I rest my case..
Happy
Women’s Day! Now let’s get the men in the home to #ShareTheLoad of the house
work, and equally preparing children for the impending annual term exams! And
let’s keep an open mind when we find an in-road and take up opportunities we
hadn’t originally planned – Who knows it may well land us on our dream path!
#IWD2021 #ChooseToChallenge #WomenInLeadership:AchievingAnEqualFutureInACOVID-19World
[1] Women In the Workplace 2020,
McKinsey
[3]
International Labour
Organization, ‘Women in Business and Management, the Business Case for Change’
report 2019
[4] Grand Thornton, Women in
Business report 2020
[5]
https://www.orfonline.org/research/literacy-in-india-the-gender-and-age-dimension-57150/
[6] The CS Gender 3000 in 2019:
The Changing Face of Gender, Credit Suisse Research Institute
[7] Women In the Workplace 2019,
McKinsey
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