‘Equal, Yet Different: Career Catalysts for the Professional Woman’ by Anita Bhogle is a compendium of factors influencing women’s workforce participation in India.
Picture this: groups of men and women working alongside, and it looks like they are an equal division. But not quite!
While they seek higher education and opportunities and make inroads into several male-dominated fields, women are underrepresented in top positions and roles. It boils down to the enablers they have to clear the hurdles that come their way.
When companies have begun to make gender parity and gender equality in the workforce their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals, Anita sums up the gamut of cause and effect that determines careers for women.
Taking readers through case studies of women across fields talking to successful management professionals, doctors, HR leaders, and DEI practitioners adding insights from research in the field, here is a bird’s eye view of the landscape that has changed over the years.
The inspiration
Equal, Yet Different is Anita’s second book; the first being ‘The Winning Way—Learning from the Sports for managers’ that she co-authored with her husband, cricket commentator and journalist Harsha Bhogle. An alumnus of IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad, Anita has dabbled in different fields from advertising to marketing research and consultancy as an entrepreneur. Working out a successful career, Anita has also been through the rigor as a woman finding her feet in a world designed for men to excel, by putting together her enablers.
So, when she encountered the quote by Australian cricket legend Steve Waugh: “As a leader, you need to treat your teammates equally, yet differently”, she realized it applied to women. Equity, therefore, is the heart of the book, as she explores the dynamics women encounter in their attempt to propel their careers.
The relatable fear of missing out (FOMO) and the eternal guilt that women go through as they juggle roles at the home and workplace, she presents the age-old assumptions and deep-rooted conditioning that women cannot have it all—a well-run home and a successful career.
However, a career is not an isolated game, as she explores in her book. It is also about the importance of financial planning, and planning enablers — from whom they choose to marry to how they manage to get support at home. She also looks at the approach toward gender equality and equity in the form of allies. And, the need to be an ally to yourself—remember, Geet in Jab We Met saying, “Main Apni favorite hoon.”
Positive and full of solutions
Anita narrates the stories effortlessly from both sides—as a senior working woman who has her lived experiences, and as the objective observer analyzing how women have trounced the challenges in their inimitable style.
While she underlines the problem in every possible situation, she presents the solution through the stories of successful women. At the center is the choice that eventually determines how they pull off a challenge. Be it the story of Madhabi Puri Buch, the first female chairperson of SEBI, or the choice made by Kanchan Jain, MD and head of credit at Baring Private Equity Asia, there are lessons on making the difficult call and the importance of spousal support.
The book is as much for women in all stages of life as it is for HR personnel, leaders, and DEI practitioners who can grasp the macro picture of women’s workforce participation.
