Research by Avtar in association with the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce has turned the spotlight on what every stakeholder can do to enable women to pursue careers.
There have always been conversations around empowering women, enabling them, and helping them rise to their fullest potential. Their participation in formal employment hovers around 23% and is less than 20% in urban areas, and their contribution to GDP is only 18%.
Avtar partnered with Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), for a research study on ‘The Problems Plaguing the Growth of Women’s Empowerment in India – Organization Context’. It aimed to find out what the governmental and organizational stakeholders can do to help millions of women pursue their career aspirations.
Women constitute half of the country’s population, but a large section is not formally employed and hence not financially independent. In many villages and tier 2 and tier 3 locations, women are deprived of the fundamental right to education.
As per McKinsey research, India could add $770 billion to annual GDP by 2025, or 18% above business by increasing women’s workforce participation. Research has also established that when more women take up formal employment, the living conditions of families improve, children have access to better educational facilities, and crime rates against women reduce.
Many women are withdrawing from the workforce for reasons like:
- Child-care and eldercare responsibilities
- Low/unequal pay
- Long commute time to work
- Poor public transportation
- Lack of family support
- Workplace security concerns
Research shows that for women to be successful in organizations and grow in leadership, organization and leaders need to cultivate an inclusive work environment and devise enabling policies. The research traces these organizational contours through three critical pillars:
- Leadership accountability: Women are truly empowered when the strengths and ideas they bring are accepted in the workplace. Leadership conviction and accountability are crucial in pursuing this purpose.
- Policies and practices: Once the leadership takes charge to empower women, they should also ensure that the policies and processes for ensuring equity are woven across.
- Work culture: Workplace culture plays a significant role for women to succeed in the organization. Many women do not succeed because they feel excluded.
Based on these three pillars, a survey questionnaire was designed and circulated. Here are the findings:
- 89% of the respondents feel that their leadership ensures that no gender discrimination exists in the workplace. There is a culture of safety and non-discrimination that enables their growth.
- 91% of the respondents said that respect in the workplace, irrespective of gender, is an important part of their culture. They feel respected for their ideas and opinions and can speak up without hesitation.
At the same time:
- 34.56% of respondents feel that their organization talks about gender inclusion, its importance, and its benefits of it, but there is no implementation of it.
- 33.33% of the women employees feel that their organization is not sufficiently supportive when it comes to women’s unique needs.
- 40% of the respondents feel that their leaders do not see a strong case for investing in gender diversity.
- 27% of the respondents feel that their organization’s vision and mission are not aligned with their intent to engage with under-represented talent pools like women.
- 38.27% of the respondents feel that they do not have focused mentoring programs for women employees for their career growth.
- 32% of the respondents feel that women employees in their organization are not given sufficient clarity on their possible career paths.
- Many feel that the retention strategies are not in place, and there is no emphasis on retaining women talent returning to work post-maternity.
- The respondents also pointed out that skilling women, adopting inclusion as a policy, and gender-sensitive work culture are important for the organizations.
The respondents listed the following for governmental bodies:
- Tax rebates for organizations employing a specific percentage and above of women
- Mentoring networks for women entrepreneurs
- Government-aided creche facilities
- Inclusive regulations on shift work timings
- Helplines to address grievances of women professionals
- Government-aided job fairs to attract more women
Industry bodies:
- Mentoring networks for women professionals
- Skilling programs and webinars for women
- Awards/recognition for best practices in gender inclusion
- Funding channels for women entrepreneurs
- Events on the aspect of gender inclusion
- Assessing gender diversity policies in member organizations
Organizations, industry forums, and the government are important stakeholders. As we move towards the vision of a more inclusive society, conscious efforts on improving women’s workforce participation are non-negotiable.
Read the entire paper with insightful details here: https://avtarcc.com/resources/whitepaper/problems-plaguing-the-growth-of-womens-empowerment-in-india-organisational-context/
