The first face……
The first touch….
The first love……
The first affection…
The first hug……
Mother……………..A women.
Do I need to say about “the first” anymore??
And what is the common traits among Indira Nooyee, Mira Nair, Medha Patkar, Naina Lal Kidwai, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw ????
They all belong to that minority community which has always faced the axe of male domination. But now the path has taken a dramatic change. Women are not participating and in fact actively contributing toward the tremendous growth of Indian Economy. Whether it is the case of Indian Women Army facilitating a peace mission in Liberia or the case of Kiran Majumdar Shaw showing entrepreneurial and developmental fore sight of Biocon, all are there to give the male dogma a shiver in their spine. The only community to withstand a blow of Sati, house violence, sexual harassments and the status quo of “Burqa Clad” community. The veil has fallen and now the globe is witnessing a participative role of women in each and every field of man dominated work.
Who can guess the name behind the successful running of ICICI in India? Lalita Gupta and Kalpana Morparia…….the women of Honor have proved their worth in a million better ways than those men who always believed women as a homemaker rather a fortune maker. Women in top management positions are still a rare species. But things are changing and more and more women are heading teams and delivering results. Women at the top are still rare. Globally, they comprise only 10 per cent of senior managers in Fortune 500 companies, less than four per cent are in the uppermost ranks of CEO, president, executive vice president and COO and less than three per cent of them are top corporate earners.
Then there are two women who have had to display their leadership skills at a young age. Priya Paul became the president of Apeejay Surrendra Group at the age of 24 when her father was assassinated in 1990. Sulajja Firodia Motwani, managing director of Kinetic Motor, has ensured that in the past six years her company has collaborated with firms in Korea, Italy and Taiwan and has helped it grow from a niche moped maker to a manufacturer of a full range of two wheelers and auto components.
Another sector in today`s India that can boast of female leadership is technology. Since joining Microsoft India as its managing director in 2005, Neelam Dhawan has helped it grow 35%.
Now let us take a look at what data says about this community, which is still to come into the mainstream of the business fully and are still a latent resource.
The report, ‘XX factor: the Impact of Women on India’s Growth, Incomes and Consumption’, says, more women entering the workforce could add $35 billion to GDP over the next five years, lifting incremental demand by 10%. This trend could make Indians 5% richer than otherwise projected by 2015 and 12% richer by 2025. It is an interesting trend, and one that has largely passed under the radar. This trend has started to make a play of sorts in India. To start with, women employment has risen from 26% in 2000, to 31% of the workforce today. While this is in no way comparable to the situation in countries like Vietnam, China and Thailand, the rise is significant.
India`s booming IT and IT-enabled services industry is a favorite destination of job-seeking women, whose employment in the industry is set to rise dramatically to 45 percent in 2010 from the current 30 percent, says an industry survey.
A survey by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the representative organisation of the Indian software firms, says this is due to the inclusive human resource policies of Indian IT firms, which recruit, train, retain and promote women employees as a strategic business plan.
`As the IT-ITeS sector moves up the value chain, more women are joining the industry. The male-female ratio is expected to improve to 65:35 by this year-end from 76:24 in 2005’. (Nasscom president Kiran Karnik)
So why this trend is so fast about women? Why they are in limelight all of a sudden? Why the graph says a different story all together?
Management studies show that women`s style of functioning, which is essentially `interactive leadership`, involves several characteristics including encouraging participation from others, making inter-personal relations positive for the entire team or department, being able to share power and information with others, getting people passionate about their work and increasing people`s feeling of self worth.
This participatory style is not something that women `acquire`, instead increasingly it is being said that it comes to them naturally due to their inherent ability to nurture and take people along. There are also other things that come naturally to women. As Neerja Sharma, General Manager and Company Secretary, Ballarpur Industries Limited points out, "Women are a lot more organised and their commitment levels are higher. They also plan their job more efficiently and are more effective in delivery.``
Sue Evans, who was earlier with Gillette in the United Kingdom, recalls that one of her best bosses was a woman. " I remember watching her carefully, but very cleverly manipulate the men at a meeting and bring them to agree with her point of view. However, her maneuvers were not political and I really respected her for the way she did it.``
In 2003, in one of the most-reprinted Dataquest articles ever, columnist Deepa Kandaswamy had written about “talibanism in technology”: why women have remained invisible in technology through the ages. “I have found seven reasons,” she wrote, “social myths, conditioning, media, networking, deterrence, balance and marketing.” So how relevant is a statement like this today? Says Indrani Ghose, VP, IT, Oberoi Group, “After 17 years in the industry, I think that the glass ceiling for women in technology still exists to a large extent and it will be a while before people are ready to shed their stero-type images of suitable jobs for women.”
One of the strongest skills in women managers is their ability at multi-tasking. Women are used to performing different roles and struggling with different tasks at the same time, in the kitchen, at home and also at work. "She`s adept at keeping a lot of balls in the air and juggling around the tasks she has to perform, this gives her an added advantage.”
And perhaps that`s where the truth lies. Women are great managers but very few make it because of not being ambitious enough or because it`s primarily `a man`s world`. On the other hand, men find them aggressive when they are only assertive and getting the job done. Why they are so different:
· Women leaders are highly persuasive
· Women leaders feel the sting of rejection but rapidly learn
from adversity and develop an "I`ll show you" attitude
· Women leaders have an inclusive team oriented style of
problem solving and decision-making
· Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take
risks"
If the women are so talented and nurturing personality then why they can’t be treated at par with men?
Can there be a world where both of these lives can prosper together, can co-exist? Can they be called as “Ardh Shakti”?
Think………………!
The first touch….
The first love……
The first affection…
The first hug……
Mother……………..A women.
Do I need to say about “the first” anymore??
And what is the common traits among Indira Nooyee, Mira Nair, Medha Patkar, Naina Lal Kidwai, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw ????
They all belong to that minority community which has always faced the axe of male domination. But now the path has taken a dramatic change. Women are not participating and in fact actively contributing toward the tremendous growth of Indian Economy. Whether it is the case of Indian Women Army facilitating a peace mission in Liberia or the case of Kiran Majumdar Shaw showing entrepreneurial and developmental fore sight of Biocon, all are there to give the male dogma a shiver in their spine. The only community to withstand a blow of Sati, house violence, sexual harassments and the status quo of “Burqa Clad” community. The veil has fallen and now the globe is witnessing a participative role of women in each and every field of man dominated work.
Who can guess the name behind the successful running of ICICI in India? Lalita Gupta and Kalpana Morparia…….the women of Honor have proved their worth in a million better ways than those men who always believed women as a homemaker rather a fortune maker. Women in top management positions are still a rare species. But things are changing and more and more women are heading teams and delivering results. Women at the top are still rare. Globally, they comprise only 10 per cent of senior managers in Fortune 500 companies, less than four per cent are in the uppermost ranks of CEO, president, executive vice president and COO and less than three per cent of them are top corporate earners.
Then there are two women who have had to display their leadership skills at a young age. Priya Paul became the president of Apeejay Surrendra Group at the age of 24 when her father was assassinated in 1990. Sulajja Firodia Motwani, managing director of Kinetic Motor, has ensured that in the past six years her company has collaborated with firms in Korea, Italy and Taiwan and has helped it grow from a niche moped maker to a manufacturer of a full range of two wheelers and auto components.
Another sector in today`s India that can boast of female leadership is technology. Since joining Microsoft India as its managing director in 2005, Neelam Dhawan has helped it grow 35%.
Now let us take a look at what data says about this community, which is still to come into the mainstream of the business fully and are still a latent resource.
The report, ‘XX factor: the Impact of Women on India’s Growth, Incomes and Consumption’, says, more women entering the workforce could add $35 billion to GDP over the next five years, lifting incremental demand by 10%. This trend could make Indians 5% richer than otherwise projected by 2015 and 12% richer by 2025. It is an interesting trend, and one that has largely passed under the radar. This trend has started to make a play of sorts in India. To start with, women employment has risen from 26% in 2000, to 31% of the workforce today. While this is in no way comparable to the situation in countries like Vietnam, China and Thailand, the rise is significant.
India`s booming IT and IT-enabled services industry is a favorite destination of job-seeking women, whose employment in the industry is set to rise dramatically to 45 percent in 2010 from the current 30 percent, says an industry survey.
A survey by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the representative organisation of the Indian software firms, says this is due to the inclusive human resource policies of Indian IT firms, which recruit, train, retain and promote women employees as a strategic business plan.
`As the IT-ITeS sector moves up the value chain, more women are joining the industry. The male-female ratio is expected to improve to 65:35 by this year-end from 76:24 in 2005’. (Nasscom president Kiran Karnik)
So why this trend is so fast about women? Why they are in limelight all of a sudden? Why the graph says a different story all together?
Management studies show that women`s style of functioning, which is essentially `interactive leadership`, involves several characteristics including encouraging participation from others, making inter-personal relations positive for the entire team or department, being able to share power and information with others, getting people passionate about their work and increasing people`s feeling of self worth.
This participatory style is not something that women `acquire`, instead increasingly it is being said that it comes to them naturally due to their inherent ability to nurture and take people along. There are also other things that come naturally to women. As Neerja Sharma, General Manager and Company Secretary, Ballarpur Industries Limited points out, "Women are a lot more organised and their commitment levels are higher. They also plan their job more efficiently and are more effective in delivery.``
Sue Evans, who was earlier with Gillette in the United Kingdom, recalls that one of her best bosses was a woman. " I remember watching her carefully, but very cleverly manipulate the men at a meeting and bring them to agree with her point of view. However, her maneuvers were not political and I really respected her for the way she did it.``
In 2003, in one of the most-reprinted Dataquest articles ever, columnist Deepa Kandaswamy had written about “talibanism in technology”: why women have remained invisible in technology through the ages. “I have found seven reasons,” she wrote, “social myths, conditioning, media, networking, deterrence, balance and marketing.” So how relevant is a statement like this today? Says Indrani Ghose, VP, IT, Oberoi Group, “After 17 years in the industry, I think that the glass ceiling for women in technology still exists to a large extent and it will be a while before people are ready to shed their stero-type images of suitable jobs for women.”
One of the strongest skills in women managers is their ability at multi-tasking. Women are used to performing different roles and struggling with different tasks at the same time, in the kitchen, at home and also at work. "She`s adept at keeping a lot of balls in the air and juggling around the tasks she has to perform, this gives her an added advantage.”
And perhaps that`s where the truth lies. Women are great managers but very few make it because of not being ambitious enough or because it`s primarily `a man`s world`. On the other hand, men find them aggressive when they are only assertive and getting the job done. Why they are so different:
· Women leaders are highly persuasive
· Women leaders feel the sting of rejection but rapidly learn
from adversity and develop an "I`ll show you" attitude
· Women leaders have an inclusive team oriented style of
problem solving and decision-making
· Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take
risks"
If the women are so talented and nurturing personality then why they can’t be treated at par with men?
Can there be a world where both of these lives can prosper together, can co-exist? Can they be called as “Ardh Shakti”?
Think………………!
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