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Women Empowerment in 21st Century

Conference Paper · January 2017

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Shubhada Mohan Kulkarni

KCES's Institute of Management & Research, Jalgaon
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 Women Empowerment in 21st Century

Prof Dr Shubhada Mohan Kulkarni

KCES’s Institute of Management and Research,Jalgaon

smkulkarni2006@gmail.com

Introduction

Empowerment is a multi-dimensional process which should enable individuals or a group of

individuals to realize their full identity and powers in all spheres of life. According to websters
dictionary the word empowerment indicates the situation of authority or to be authorized or to be
powerful. Empowerment is a process that gives a person freedom in decision making .
What is women empowerment?

Women empowerment means emancipation of women from the vicious grips of social,
economical, political, caste and gender-based discrimination. It means granting women the
freedom to make life choices. Women Empowerment itself elaborates that Social Rights ,
Political Rights , Economic stability , judicial strength and all other rights should be also equal to
women. There should be no discrimination between men and woman.(
https://www.iaspaper.net/women-empowerment-in-india). Empowerment is an aid to help
women to achieve equality with men or at least to reduce gender gap considerably.( P.K.B
Nayar)
Swami Vivekananda, quoted that, “There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the
condition of women is improved” Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said “when women move forward the
family moves, the villages move, and the nation move.” ‘There is no tool for development more
effective than the empowerment of women.” Kofi Annan. “We cannot all succeed if half of this
are held back.” Malala Yousafzai. If we understand the quotes then we find that thinkers all
across the generation and continents favor women development and empowerment.

Paolo Colella, head od Region India, Ericssons talks about how organizations with balanced
representation of men and women perform better. (Yasmin, 2015) An inclusive environment that
nurtures a diverse workforce makes the organization more productive, innovative, agile and more
responsive to the internal as well as the external environment, including customers. In order to
grow, we need to rely on a broader talent pool and this is an important reason for not excluding ,
by default, 50% of the base for gender reasons. Talent is genderless. According to a study, India
can increase its 2025 GDP estimated at $ 4.83 trillion, by 16-60% simply by enabling women to
participate in the economy on par with men, thus the ideology should be on embracing and
leveraging differences for the best possible business outcome. (Yasmin.Taj@timesgroup.com
TOI 9 Dec 2015)

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Current Scenario on Women Empowerment

Based on the ideas championed by our founding fathers for women empowerment, many social,
economic and political provisions were incorporated in the Indian Constitution. Women in India
now participate in areas such as education, sports, politics, media, art and culture, service sector
and science and technology. But due to the deep rooted patriarchal mentality in the Indian
society, women are still victimized, humiliated, tortured and exploited. Even after almost seven
decades of Independence, women are still subjected to discrimination in the social, economic and
educational field. India is positioned at the 29th rank among 146 countries across the globe on
the basis of Gender Inequality Index.

Let us look at two important factors that can help in empowering women: Education and
Entrepreneurship

Few Women on Top in Indian Academia

India’s higher education lacks women academic leaders, according to a survey of 810 institutions
that include the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs).Only 54 out of 810 such places of learning, including, central, state, deemed
universities and institutes of national importance (INIs), have women at the helm. That 6.67%
compares poorly with the US (18%), Australia (21%) and the UK (17%).
(Sreeradha.Basu@timesgroup.com) Reasons for Low Numbers: Inherent bias against women,
Limited talent pool, Few women apply for job of director at IITs/IIMs (The Economic Times,
2015)

Catching them young

It’s a well known fact that not many women opt for careers in the science, technology,
engineering and math or STEM fields. As a result, gender ratios are highly skewed towards male
employees. Several companies are running programmes targeting girls-only schools with an
objective to build a future bench strength which is more diverse in nature. (Singh, 2015)

In India, MastrCard has established a tech hub. India is the first country in Asia-Pacific where
MasterCard has launched the Girls4Tech. Dell India has a programme called “IT is not just for
geeks”, specifically targeted at school girls, in an attempt to excite them about careers in this
space. Sudha K V, executive director, Dell Product Group, said:”We talk to students what they
want to pursue, and when we get the usual responses like teaching or writing, we tell them how
they can join a tech company and join learning and organizational development or tech writing,
which correlates with their aspirations. We have also covered rural schools.” HCL Technologies,
too, is associated with an after-school coaching programme to help girl students on STEM. The
focus is to enable 50,000 girl students by 2020. (Namrata Singh@timesgroup.com)

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On an average, gender diversity in software and IT at entry level, according to a TeamLease
report, is at just about 15%

Entrepreneurship Development for women in India

When we compare ourselves with other countries, it is observed that women Entrepreneurs get a
raw deal (Times of India, 2015) Which is the best country for high-potential women
entrepreneurs to succeed? It’s not certainly India which ranks a lowly 70 among 77 countries
covered in the 2015-Female Entrepreneurship Index. The main reasons that the study identifies
for the countries poor score are lack of labor force parity and access to first tier finance. Women
entrepreneurs find even initial debt funding required for day-to-day operations , difficult to raise.
India’s neighbors have fared worse, with Bangladesh at 75 and Pakistan occupying the lowest
rank at 77. The US, Australia and UK are the top three with high potential female entrepreneurs
i.e. women who own and operate businesses that are innovative, market expanding and export
oriented. Of the 77 nations surveyed, 47 (including India)scored less than 50 points out of a top
score of 100 on various parameters. (Times of India, 2015) This indicates that significant
changes are required to reduce barriers for female entrepreneurs.
The country lacks also large-scale women-oriented venture capital funds or institutions, like
Wells Fargo in the US which provides customized offerings to women entrepreneurs such as
collateral-free loans of up to $100,000(Rs 63 lakh). Golden Seeds, a US-bases VC fund, invests
exclusively in women-led enterprises.

Financial training and mentoring programmes help women entrepreneurs get that edge when it
comes to writing business plans and seeking funds from banks and VCs but small steps have
been taken in that direction. But the country need to do much more to improve the ecosystem for
its women entrepreneurs. According to Lloyd, increasing access to bank account, financial
training programmes and improving gender diversity across sectors were key areas of
improvement.

Women Business Leaders

The best way to validate a company’s inclusion of women can be measured by the presence of
women in key leadership positions. Women at leadership levels act as role models for others,
which can accelerate and attract high potential women employees. To handle the issue of female
employees leaving the company at mid-management level due to family reasons, companies
should invest in setting up infrastructure and policies that complement their development and
ensure their holistic growth. If companies are not able to identify core issues and assist women in
juggling their family commitments and official roles, then they eventually lose out on a talented
female employee. Organizations should focus on creating an ecosystem where issues can be
discussed, negotiated and resolved in partnership between the persons working together in a
team. (Yasmin, 2015)

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Diversity creates a huge opportunity. The strength lies in taking on board the different
perspectives that different individuals on a team bring to the table and use that to better the
performance of the organization.

Skillsoft Survey

Women are concerned that their employers are not doing enough to close the gender gap in
leadership positions, according to a new survey of women in the workforce by Skillsoft.

Nearly all (90%) of the 450 women across the globe who participated in the survey cited there
are a disproportionate number of males in leadership positions at work. More than half of the
respondents (54%) stated its important for their organizations to offer leadership training specific
to women, but nearly 70% of women believe their employers do not provide adequate resources
and support to help them drive their careers forward. The respondent’s perceptions mirror the
current state of women in corporate leadership globally. In the United States, women hold more
than half of all professional-level jobs, yet comprise only 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs. In most
European countries women comprise less than 20% of all corporate boards and women represent
just 6% of corporate boards in Asia.

To hone in on women’s leadership development, organizations must acknowledge the key

factors inhibiting women’s career progression. Skillsoft’s study demonstrates that work-life
balance is the top concern for 63% of women. Competing priorities, like domestic
responsibilities, often limit the amount of time women have to develop into leaders within their
organization, according to a recent Eudemonia study.

From a macro perspective, 71% of respondents feel that enough is not being done (fair and poor)
within their organizations to address gender imbalance. Just over half of the respondents (53%)
say it is very or extremely important to have programmes specifically aimed at developing
women leaders as a business objective. Women in today’s workplace see the potential of their
role in growing the global economy.

Only about one quarter of respondents felt their organizations had a strategy in place to develop
women leaders. Another quarter were not aware of any programmes. While these programmes
may exist, visibility may be an issue. The largest proportion of responses (66%) indicates that
organizations are primarily targeting mid-level leaders for women-specific programmes.
Organizations need to make greater strides and commit to developing women throughout their
career cycles.

USA Story

Only one among the 87 new CEO’s named to lead the largest public firms in the US and Canada
in 2015 was a woman, according to a study released this week by the strategy consulting division
of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). (Raighatta, 2016) That single honour went to Andrea

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Greenberg, who was named CEO of MSG Networks in September after it was spun off from
Madison Square Garden.

Worldwide, the PwC study found only 10 women among the 359 permanent or interim CEO’s in
the 2,500 largest global companies it examined in 2015. The study, first reported in the
Washington Post, said at 2.8% of all new CEO’s , it is the lowest rate of female elevation since
2011. Hillary Clinton’s run for the White house is attracting worldwide notice and there is surge
of attention and support for equal pay and equal opportunity for women, the study shows that the
rate of new female CEO’s declined for the third year, and dipped to its lowest point since 2004,
when PwC began tracking the number. Just 11% of the new CEO’s named to the job last year
were women in PwC’s analysis of North American Companies- down from 4% in 2014, 4.7% in
2013, and 7.3% in 2012. Overall in the US, just 4% of S&P 500 CEO’s and Fortune 500 CEO’s
are women-dropping from 24 in 2014 to 21 in 2016. But the distribution of female CEO’s is
uneven. (chidanand.Raighatta@timesgroup.com)

Conclusion

In spite of many hurdles there are bright spots. There are high-profile women achievers from
many sectors, Having the zeal to succeed and reach the top is extremely important. These role
models will prompt others to follow in their foot steps. What is considered as exceptional will
become common and one wishes for a day where the parameters of this new normal will set
women free and empower them.

References

(2015, June 27). Times of India .

(2015, Dec 1). The Economic Times .

(2015, June 27). Times of India .

Raighatta, C. (2016, April 23). Times of india .

Singh, N. (2015, Dec 9). Times of India .

Yasmin. (2015, Dec 9). Times of India .

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/09/new-heforshe-report-puts-spotlight-on-
gender-equality-in-global-universities/ 28 November 2016

http://www.rmttc.com/images/new_pdf/concept_paper.pdf about women empowerment dt 22 Nov

‘16

https://www.iaspaper.net/women-empowerment-in-india/ dt 22 Nov ‘16

http://www.indiacelebrating.com/essay/social-issues/women-empowerment/ 25 Nov ‘16

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 http://www.indiacelebrating.com/essay/social-issues/women-empowerment/women-education-in-
india/ 25 Nov ‘16

http://fortune.com/2016/03/27/keep-women-corporate-america/25 Nov ‘16

https://sheroes.in/articles/why-are-women-in-demand-at-the-workplace/MTgyNw 25 Nov ‘16

http://www.forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/why-do-women-fall-behind-in-the-corporate-
world-or-do-they/ 25 Nov ‘16

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