What holds women back in the corporate world

So much has been said and written about this as to how women can rise to become leaders in the corporate world, profession, business, politics etc. and there are role models out there who have been there done that. Yet these are a very small percentage of the women population in the world.

Specifically, when you look at countries like India, the overall composition of women is around 48% and yet the working population is an average of 20% across the entire spectrum of services that generate the country’s GDP.

Focusing on the statistics in respect of careers within India’s corporate sector, according to a study conducted by Zinnov [1]in 2019 of 60 companies comprising Global Capability Centers (GCCs), Technology Service Providers, Start-ups, there is 30% representation of women in corporate India, with 31% and 26% in non-technical and technical roles, respectively.

However, there are only 11% senior women leaders in the ecosystem. This begets the question, why is this percentage so low? Whilst several factors have already been discussed and debated in various forums, I would like to share a few pointers for us to ponder over:

Role models

Considering women continue to grapple with the challenges of having to balance home and work, there are a few factors that motivate them more than others. Having role models who they can relate to and aspire to be like can act as a catalyst in stimulating their passion to progress. However, there are very few role model senior women leaders in comparison with the number of women who are in the workforce.

To some extent this is attributable to the shrinking pipeline of women after they complete anywhere between 5–10 years in their career due to marriage, motherhood or other domestic priorities. However, this is not the only reason.

Lack of a level playing field

It is widely acknowledged that despite conscious efforts to provide a level playing field[2] to #women, except a few cases, women tend to get marginalized when it comes to giving them exciting opportunities and turning the spotlight on them at all levels. It is quite easy to see that up to certain levels of hierarchy the visibility is generously given to women achievers. But at senior levels this is patchy as in some cases, high performing women are made to hide their light under a bushel, especially where their success is seen as a threat. This has adverse effects in more ways than one; for one, the enthusiasm of such women wanes rapidly, and this can also dent their confidence and self-belief in their ability to rise to senior levels.

Weak networking

Women tend to underestimate the value of #networking thinking that their excellent work alone will take them places; as a result, they tend to take a passive approach to networking. Initiatives in the workplace to help women build their networks in a way that can also show tangible results will go a long way in building their belief in the power of networks, i.e. seeing someone from their business leverage networks, gain visibility and get elevated to become a top leader can inspire other women to have greater trust in networking, else this can become a mere tick in the box exercise.

Feedback

Whilst several companies have Gender #Diversity high on their agenda, they often do not do a root cause analysis to find out why the needle is not moving. One factor that can go a long way in helping high #potential women to succeed is to give them constructive and unbiased feedback to help them plug gaps if any in reaching the top, rather than generalizing based on assumptions and presumptions.

Unequal Access

It has been reported that men and women tend to get promoted based on different criteria, often rewarding men for potential and women for results. This inadvertently benefits men while putting women at a disadvantage. Conscious efforts must be taken to provide equal opportunities for both men and women for promotion and progression in their careers.

If the above aspects can be taken seriously by corporates and concerted efforts put in to address the challenges, with continuous monitoring of outcomes and initiation of interventions, moving the needle significantly in having more women in top leadership roles will become a reality.

[1] https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/zinnov-intel-india-gender-diversity-benchmark-study-released-841386549.html

[2] https://www.tiaraleadership.com/tiara-blog/applied-leadership-level-the-playing-field