Gender Diversity in Companies Often Calls for Cultural Change: Heide Abelli
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Photo & Story credits: ET
During
an interview she stressed on the benefits of gender diversity and how companies
could bring it about. “While the women comprise just 17% of the technology
workforce in the UK, it holds less than 20% of tech jobs in the US. In fact,
women accounts for more than half of the US workforce. Even the scenario of the
Indian IT industry is also not better. Merely, 26% women are in engineering
roles and 7% in C-suite profiles”, She added.
There
are several factors behind this lack of gender diversity. Women collectively
deal with work-life balance issues, as well as both conscious and unconscious
biases and preferences that can negatively impact their opportunities for
moving into more senior roles. Moreover, high gender pay gaps, to the tune of
19% in favor of men in the Indian IT/ITES companies, further exacerbate the
challenge female professionals face. There is a lot of talk about these issues
but not enough action being taken to address the situation.
Women
in the corporate space, especially in the tech space, need quality mentoring
and sponsorship. It can create a more enabling environment for deserving female
professionals. Organizations need to establish formal objectives regarding
increasing the number of women leaders as part of their business strategy and
track the achievement of those objectives. They need to be transparent about
their goals and take a hard look at existing policies and practices which may
need to be reconsidered.
There
must also be a focus on creating a culture of gender equality by offering
flexible working hours, discounted day-care services, when possible, equal pay
for equal work and a competitive maternity leave policy. It is also important
to train women by providing formal and informal e-learning resources that can
prepare them to take on leadership roles. When organizations efficiently tap
the female talent pool for leadership positions, they set themselves on the
path to better business outcomes.
