"Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women" The Economist
In a weighty gathering,Chairman and senior executives from
some of the world’s largest companies were launching the findings of an 18month
inquiry into the future of global business. The speeches by the all-male panel
touched on the challenges facing the world – climate change, poverty and
pandemics, economic and political upheaval, the clash of cultures – and how
business could help to address them.
The inquiry’s report called on companies to “redefine success”,
“embed values” and “create better regulatory frame-works” that would
allow them to meet their environmental and social responsibilities while
generating wealth and providing improved goods and services. Ulf Karlberg, a
former senior executive at AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company, and
founding chair of the Amnesty International Business Group in Sweden, then took
the podium as a member of the inquiry team, which comprised 17 men and two
women.
To general surprise, he began by asking whether the outcome
would have been different if the gender balance on the team had been the other
way round, with women heavily out-numbering the men. “It would perhaps have
been more brave,” he suggested, “more intuitive, and more practical, with some
very clear action plans.” He added later that it would also have been a smarter
team, because its deliberations would have had more dimensions and “less
politics”.
There are both men and women today who imagine that the
world would be better run a deux, with
women taking their place alongside men at every sphere, not as expectations or
tokens, but as full partners with their own identifiable voices.
Here we find women considered as both “equal” and “special”
by a man with due respect to their quality and talent and with proper reasons.
Traditionally, gender biasness would always like to categorise women as “special”
rather than “equal” Women could be mothers, sisters, caring and loving wife,
fun loving girl friend, strict and disciplined teachers but not as equal as man
in any front. So, a “special” soft corner is generously allocated for women but
not “equal”.
I, as a trainer when perform workshops on ‘Women’s
Empowerment’ try to understand the mind set of women at all levels. Surprisingly
I have come across a fact that most of them do not like to be compared with
men, so the concept “equal” is generally not liked by them. We are a different entity, we
have our own identity and we would like to maintain that with dignity .We
should not get exploited or disqualified or mistreated because of our gender.
And if our “Feminity” is treated as ‘Special’ it is no wonder because we are
special as we are different from men.
I am not getting into the theoretical controversy from Human
rights commissions point of view or a Value conflict, instead trying to take
up some incidents that shook the world.
In the legalistic framework, women have been depicted
primarily as victims, men as oppressors, and companies as the scene of the
crime. It began with pretty basic human rights. In one of the earliest sex
discrimination cases, taken by Ida Philips against Martin Marietta Corporation,
the US Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that an employer could not refuse to hire
women with pre-school children while hiring men with pre-school children. In
the UK in 1977, Belinda Price won the first indirect sex discrimination case,
against the civil service. Since those days, the discrimination and harassment lawsuits
have kept coming. In 1992, State Farm Insurance Company in Illinois settled a
sex discrimination class action for $157m.
Lawsuits on Wall Street have attracted huge publicity. The
women claimed they were denied equal pay and opportunities for promotion.
One of the obstacles to this coming age is the tension
between gender and diversity which involves a wide array of complex differences:
ethnic minorities, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, cultural diversity
and gender. One can’t help wondering if the unquestioned inclusion of ‘Women’s
issues’ under the diversity umbrella is not simply a tidy (and effective) way
of ensuring that women are still treated as a minority. It boils down to a
numbers game. To manage a minority companies take the view that it is important
to hear their views, adapt a bit, and welcome them in a comfortable environment.
It is interesting to find out that women were seen to outperform men on seven out of 10 leadership competencies. This
research was taken by Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru from INSEAD. They are :
- Enegisizing
- Designing and aligning
- Rewarding and feedback
- Team building
- Outside orientation
- Tenacity
- Emotional Intelligence
On this issue
obviously women are not equal but no doubt ‘Special’.
We have so far discussed about the so
called educated society and about women at workplace. But down the level at
villages or the lower middle class group is still far from even give it a thought.
I have said earlier that men like to
consider women as a soft ‘Speciality’. I would now like to pose two examples to
conclude this article with a difference.
Niall FitzGerald, the Irish born chairman
of Reuters and former head of Unilever, said in a Financial Times interview
that his attitudes to the gender issue had been heavily influenced by his
daughters: the first, a ‘feisty’ journalist, a young professional woman who
successfully challenged his views, the second, still a pre-schooler, with whom
he wanted to share precious time in the mornings and in the evenings (Maitland
2003)
Next is Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyeds TSB, the UK banking
group.He has made a point of recruiting women into senior management.When
discussing the importance of having a good balance of men and women at all
levels,he often refers to his sister Diana, who was one of the first three
women to get into Harvard Law School.
- The blog post should contain the mandatory code “I’m blogging for the India Today Woman Summit 2015 #WomenPower activity at BlogAdda.”
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