India is still struggling to bridge the gender gap at work places. India came in at 113 among 135 countries in the latest gender gap rankings released by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF). While inclusion and gender-diversity practices are in place in most Indian headquartered and Indian-subsidiary firms, the lack of accountability contributes to a lack of progress on diversity efforts.

Practices such as ‘mentoring efforts’, ‘employee resource groups’, ‘flexible work timing options’ and other such support programmes have been implemented across India. However, usage and success of these have not been measured which indicates lack of a sustained commitment.

“In India, gender gap exists due to mindset of an employer, the trend is more visible in manufacturing domain as it is assumed women can’t be effective on shop floor. Moreover women is never perceived as career conscious as she has to balance her household and take care of her family. Another factor effecting gender diversity is low acceptance by male counterparts to accept female as their boss and are generally singled out,” Vinay Grover, CEO, Symbiosis Management Consultants told Financial Chronicle.

Deepali Bagati, a post doctorate scholar and an independent consultant based in Mumbai, said, “Yes there is a gender gap and it widens over time. If a high-potential man and a high-potential woman start out at different levels but receive the same salary increases, the difference in their salaries will grow. That’s why it’s critical to ensure that high-potential professionals, men and women start their careers at the same level, in addition to ensuring that companies’ hiring, compensation, and promotion procedures are free of bias.”

Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council of Catalyst Group, a leading global non-profit membership organisation has conducted a thorough study recently. The research has identified 4 primary categories of people, both men and women, grouped by their career strategies.

The two most proactive categories of people looking to advance their careers are classified as Climbers, looking for opportunities within their current organisation and Hedgers, who look for opportunities both within and outside their current organisation. Although Catalyst research shows no gender difference in aspirations; 55 per cent of women and 57 per cent of men aspired to the CEO role only 11 per cent of the women reached senior executive/CEO level as opposed to the 21 per cent of men that achieved the same.

The report emphasised the way women and men leaders thought about opportunities: women leaders were more likely to adopt a “waiting for” rather than a “seeking” approach, whereas men were more future oriented. As per the findings 51.5 per cent of women and 74.1 per cent of men reported being in management roles. This does go to show that men have a greater possibility of reaching very senior executive levels while women tend to slip through the cracks.

Grover felt that things are changing and in fact looking up. “The scenario is rapidly changing at least in bigger cities, where lot of women folks form a part of working population. Few companies have earmarked certain percentage of total jobs for women. Traditionally services sector particularly IT, Media, Consulting, education has been hiring good number of women but other sectors too have seen a spur still no is too small.”

Bagati is not as optimistic as Grover. “It is difficult to say which sector encourages women in senior management positions, but Indian business organizations and even multi-national companies who have a substantial presence in India have become increasingly conscious about bringing gender diversity into their senior management and decision making processes. Towards this end, some of the leading Indian companies seem to have consciously directed their Human Resource departments to look for talented women to fill their senior management slots wherever appropriate. Advancement of women strategies include programs and practices aimed at the development and advancement of women, including targeted recruitment and retention strategies, career development, leadership development, network groups, mentoring/sponsorship, and work-life effectiveness efforts,” she said.

ritwikmukherjee@mydigitalfc.com