A girl child! such a priced possession. From the
day a girl learns to stand and walk, she learns to work. As she grows,
she becomes a symbol of tolerance and an epitome of sacrifice. How often
do we hear success stories of empowered women amid the male dominated
world of business? Most studies by renowned groups including McKensey,
Boston Consulting or Big 4 firms show that, women who make it to board
room in most countries is as low as 10-15%.
The studies quote that, women give up their career due to predominantly two reasons, home or dominant power:
1. The most often quoted reason being, the pressing need to be good moms at home; and
2. and the less quoted but often occurring reason being prejudiced promotions to men.
W
Women who have greater literacy rate and graduate in equal or more
number to male, slow down in career, as compared to men. 'Gender
Equality' is most often prejudiced in the world of business. What makes
women decelerate in career is studied to be the need to balance family
responsibilities amid challenging gender prejudice. The challenge in
maintaining the work life balance predominantly works against career
growth for women. In other words, behind every successful man there is a
women, but, behind every successful women there is high level of Personal Sacrifices.
"Career at the high cost of compromised family relationships."
The cover stories about successful women often fail to cover her
turmoil, losses and personal sacrifices. Gender equality and women
empowerment is more a myth than a reality limited to literature boasted
on annual reports. The big corporate think tanks do not want to open the
realms of working style to suit the women needs and benefit the society
at large. How often are company policies amended to allow and legalize
flexible working hours and working from home. Even in the world of
gadgets when you can always be connected with work, work-from-home is
not legalized or recognized well. After-all in today's cost cutting era
of business, such mobilization of workspace and reduction of running
cost for work space should be seen as a welcome measure. Why the
corporate world does not encourage women oriented working environment,
like planning a creche for working mothers?. Why are these often heard
as an astonishing achievement by a small hand full of companies?. As a matter of fact, it must become a normal part of the corporate environment.
"It
is not how much you work that matters but it is how smart you work that
can really increase the bottom-line of the companies."
I
welcome the day when the world awakens to this thought and welcome
change like amendment to corporate polices to legalize work-from-home
and recognize flexible work hours. That day will be the Worlds Women Empowerment Day!
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