Current state of Diversity and Inclusion in India
18%
increase over business-as-usual GDP or $770 billion if more women join the workforce
28%
is the share of women in the Indian workforce
is the share of women in the Indian workforce
8.8mn
jobs were lost by women in 2018 as compared to 2.2 millionn lost by men, according to CMIE
12%
is the representation of women at top management level
Women in present day India constitute about 48.5% of the population but with less than a third being admitted into the workforce has resulted in India being ranked a shocking 120th out of 131 countries in the world on female labour force participation. Although, the Indian corporate scene has acknowledged the existence of this gap by adhering more strictly to the legal bindings such as the enhanced Maternity Benefits Act or developing in-house HR policies speaking to solving the drop out rate of women representation across industries due to marriage, maternity, spouse relocation, societal commitments etc., the leadership is still struggling to manage its workforce planning. Landmark initiatives such as 'Back to Work' developed by major corporations / MNCs have more "failure stories" than "success stories".
The high rate of failure, almost 80% in some cases, have deterred organisational leadership from investing further time and resources, as sustaining a gender neutral environment poses to be an expensive affair. This has resulted in a women attrition rate of about 50% more than overall India attrition rate of 11.5%, with maternity attrition eating one-third of the pie.
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One of the key trends seen in this context is that representation of women significantly reduces as you climb up the corporate ladder, from early career professionals to top management leadership roles.
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22%
Share of women at junior level
17%
Middle management
14%
12%
Senior management
Top level
Diversity in the technology industry workforce worldwide has been a topic of deliberation for a long while. Numerous reports suggest that the ratio of women opting for STEM courses in their academics and technology streams in the careers is not sufficient. There are societal influencers (STEM is too hard, marriage, childbirth, family responsibilities, etc.). There is an increasing trend among technology firms to have “only for women” jobs, but these efforts are hampered by the lack of women with necessary qualifications.
Women and IT Scorecard
Numerous case studies and survey results have suggested that corporate initiatives directed at increasing the representation of women across career levels have been inadequate, with one Economic Times article stating a 50% ineffectiveness rate. It claims that the gap is primarily rooted, not in the designing stage of the initiative, but in the execution or implementation on the the organisation. The BCG survey notes that "Companies cannot expect progress by simply putting down policies on paper. Instead, they need to focus on practical challenges faced on the ground to make the interventions truly impactful".
While 60% of women respondents agree that the company is doing a lot to improve gender diversity, only 29% of women have actually benefited
The disparity in perception is not only restricted to the management and women in the company but also transpire among the peer gender - Men.
81% of men, but only 56% of women, feel the entire management team is committed to gender diversity
Poor implementation - Key reasons
The aforementioned data justifies that the gap in perception between either the management - women or men and women is real and it is a grave hurdle in developing a successful diversity initiative that truly creates a positive impact on the workforce structure. The key issue that we face in India concerning the gap is that corporates aren't taking a holistic, iterative, and feedback based approach to the development of programs.
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A good exemplar of how corporates seem to have overlooked the essentials is described by a BCG analysis conducted in 2017 published in a paper titled "From Intervention to Impact - Bridging the diversity gap in the workplace".
The analysis is a well-defined study which enumerates that there is a sincere a gap in the understanding of diversity as an issue and the nature of measures that should be taken to counter it.
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Anti-discrimination policies
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Flexible working hours and location
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Onsite or subsidized child care
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Availability of parental leave over and above regulatory requirements
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Public commitment to gender diversity targets by CEO/Executive Team
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Grievance systems
74%
61%
49%
46%
45%
42%
Based on this analysis the report has also analysed the top five measure which a not only effective but also important from the perspective of women.
Focus areas for next steps...
McKinsey&Company in their study titled The Power Of Parity: Advancing Women's Equality In Asia Pacific have enumerated basic focus areas for developing effective diversity and inclusion politicise and initiatives.
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Focus on higher female labour-force participation, with steps to address unpaid care work as a priority to boost economic growth
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Address the pressing regional and global issue of women’s underrepresentation in business leadership positions
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Capture the economic and social benefits of improving access to digital technology
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Shift social attitudes about women’s role in society and work in order to underpin progress on all aspects of gender inequality
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Collaborate on regional solutions as powerful catalysts for gender equality.