Integrated Perspective on Women

Effecting diversity anywhere is about establishing more affable human culture. Diversity is expected to teach tolerance. But this certainly is not the reason why many of our statesmen are now advocating
for one of the widely talked about of it all — gender diversity. From the small group discussions, gender diversity has now moved to the centre table of national debates. Quota based and other methods are adopted to see that more women are brought on to the mainstream economic and social activity. For most countries this is about ensuring the close to 50 per cent of population, which is a hugely underutilised resource pool, is utilised to meet the resource challenges of the country. Quota in education, jobs and governing bodies, focus group training in grass root levels and supporting women with micro-financing are initiations aimed at achieving this.
Ensuring women’s participation in the economic activities at lower levels is not essentially the only dominant agenda for some countries, it is also about bringing women to the realm of affirms on par with men. The community that has embraced this idea is the industry slice of the societal aggregate. A couple of tenacious reasons are compelling organisations to be the ambassadors of gender diversity. 1) studies indicate that diversity implemented at various rungs of the corporate hierarchy insures creativity 2) Gender based diversity on leadership levels augments the corporate financial performance impressively.
With 940 females for 1000 males and with a total population close to 1 ¼ BN (2011 census) women represent in a behemoth figure in our country. Statistics hinting their economic contribution indicates the colossal underutilising of this resource. Why women are such under-representation in the economic scene is the question that can be explained in the back drop of the patriarchal culture that is in existence in this country from time immemorial. Having said this, the transformation from the patriarchy based autocratic social system to a more democratic, participative and justice insured social system is easier said than achieved. This is, irrespective of our legislature that affirms equality among citizen.
The crucial question is about ‘where to start the change’ to see more women participate in the nation building activity. State’s focus primarily would be at the grass root level, as it is meaningful to make a difference to the lives prevail at the bottom rungs. This is inarguably right. But to have a large scale impact, multi-dimensional movements should be prompted.
It is important to note that certain legislatures (mandating at least one woman to be on the boards of all listed companies being an example) initiated by the government are significant, but legislatures alone might not bring in the desired changes unless people who are responsible for implementation conceive the purpose and are committed for the change. Else this will be just another futile law which one is ‘forced’ to implement. Current love the industry has for gender diversity can be a change maker and a great backing to government in this endeavour.
To fathom the current state of affairs and to comprehend the reason why this wailing about gender based leadership diversity, a peek into some numbers may be of help. Some industries in India such as IT, ITES and BFSI are gender neutral generally. At some stage of its mammoth growth, for the IT and ITES industry, tapping unused/underutilised resources was more a matter of survival than the love of it as a concept. Though figures of some of the entry level roles could be impressive, the complete story cannot be read out of it. India employs around 2.8 million people in the IT/ITES industry (which brings home, a revenue of more than USD 65 BN) and around 25% of them are women. This includes entry, middle and leadership roles. The representation of women is more attractive in the entry level roles. However, the number of women who represent the leadership roles in this industry is a skimpy less than 5 per cent . Currently organisations in general and the above mentioned industries in particular are scurrying to recruit more women and are also busy devising methods to accelerate the growth of women to higher levels. This euphoria, however, is now limited only to countable few industries. Many other industries are yet to be smitten by gender diversity kinetics.
Diversity, as mentioned earlier, brings in more human centric culture. A mind beyond gender, colour, race, language, physical make and intellectual make and a place where everyone is treated with respect and where the opportunities are shared can sound like an idealistic idea. Our problem is that we are always on the fire fighting mode and the struggle is to straighten things that we have already damaged. While we focus today on women (and marginally on men to have an inclusive approach) for their empowerment and justice, the focus to make the future better is missing. This can be accomplished only by focussing on our children. Families and schools play the key role in influencing children’s attitude.
Schools should consciously scheme gender neutral actions. Though we cannot completely go gender neutral in approach, an approach that eases strong gender hues is desired. In some countries including UK, US and Australia, some schools have implemented (or are reviewing) gender neutral school uniforms, rest/change rooms and sports teams. This is not only to bridge the gender gap between boys and girls, but also to recognise and accommodate the ‘third gender’. For the conservative Indian minds, talk about the ‘third gender’ is still to be done under wraps. How long can we run away from these realities?
The role of home and school cannot be under- estimated in influencing young minds. Suggestions and symbols, that emphasis on gender discrimination may be evaded with. Too much of fairy tales, creating the distinctive pink and blue worlds, suggestions about what men are supposed do and what women are supposed do, etc. are some examples of areas to be neutralised.
Gender Diversity and Justice cannot be looked at from a quick fix angle. There are short term, long term and very long term approaches that are needed. Only an integrated and inclusive approach would give sustainable outcome.