Companies must bring in their women leaders to talk to college-goers about how the workplace is like and what behaviours will help them build a career.
According to a McKinsey Global Institute Report, if India achieves gender equality, $700 billion of GDP could be added in 2025. The share of GDP output generated by women is only 17 per cent in India. Gender disparity is as much a moral issue as it is a social, political and economic issue and changes need to happen in each of these spheres.
WOMEN DO 10 TIMES UNPAID WORK THAT MEN DO…
On the social front, traditional ingrained thinking and attitudes about women’s role in non-paid, domestic and family work must change. Research shows that women in India do around 10 times the unpaid work that men do. Should this move into paid-work it would contribute $0.3 trillion to India’s economic output. Equally important, it would create a larger group of financially independent women and change the thinking of future generations.
One argument is that the woman’s earnings would go towards paying for child-care, eldercare and domestic help. But this does not take into account the fact that an educated career woman’s wages will grow at a faster rate than that of the domestic help. India is still at a point where employment as household help is an opportunity for women and men to contribute to their family’s financial well-being and we should make the best possible use of it.
We boast of the demographic dividend that India has. Part of this is the educated women who can join the workforce. But we don’t seem to have thought about how we will deploy it to create an economic boom. This article will focus on what companies can do, as they would be primary beneficiaries of tapping the female talent pool.
Most parents want their daughters to graduate from college. However, aspirations for daughters seem to stop there. For women, a career is a choice that they make. The default is still that the man in their lives, either a father or a husband, will support them. As a result, women students focus on academics as an end-result, not as a means to build a career. Small wonder, career planning lacks intentionality. How can companies help address this?
INFLUENCE BEFORE THEY INDUCT
Companies can bring in their women leaders to talk to students, right from the first year onwards, about what the workplace is like and what behaviours will help them build a career. These leaders must emphasise the importance of not turning down today’s opportunities by imagining tomorrow’s constraints.
Mind-set change takes time. Over the four years of college, when students listen to successful women talk of a meaningful career that earns her not only income but respect, they will begin to see a path that they had not considered. These ‘Leadership Connect’ sessions should help encourage women to dream, to understand that ambition and aspiration to reach the top, are excellent traits.
Indra Nooyi is a fantastic aspirational role model, but young women need role models who they can relate to, who are no more than 5-10 years older. These younger leaders would have life-experiences that are similar to the students and would, therefore, be life-sized!
SUPPORT AND SUSTAIN
Marriage and Motherhood is a big part of a woman’s life. Companies need policies that actively support their female workforce through these milestones.
Policies must address providing the right opportunities for pregnant women and young mothers to help them manage their various commitments. Flexi-time roles and part-time roles that encourage women to handle their responsibilities smoothly are essential to retaining women through those challenging years. Crèche and day-care facilities that allow parents to monitor the wellbeing of their children will lead to a more engaged human resource.
