Transition Blues #13 : Women in New India

I work for an employer where a very high percentage of the new hires are young women, fresh from Colleges. This started the thought process that has resulted in this thought:

The changing demographics (Younger People), focus on women education (Free school education) and pure merit (Marks, GPA) based admission process is resulting in more women getting into Engineering schools.

Overall women are sincere, hardworking and perform better in different selection examinations; as a result, The Knowledge Industry selects more women. In knowledge worker industry, percentage of women is anywhere between 40% (IT Services) to 60% (BPO).

It is elating to see growing percentage of women in workforce in India. It is an essential step in building foundation of new India. Nevertheless, Why am I still concerned?

I believe India is not ready for handling this change in social fabric, specifically the speed at which this change is happening.

In India, the issue is not about diversity, but about how to deal with diversity in a Male dominated, collective group oriented society.

The Indian society is not yet ready for financially secure, independent women. The work culture in the knowledge industry is weird by any work hour norms - taxing work hours (60-90 hrs) are not suitable for traditional joint family. I am also not sure that work culture is ready for Women Managers or Women Leaders.

I have yet to see companies proactively planning for the impact of life changing events like getting married, having baby or having to take care of older parents or older in-laws in a joint family. Moreover, majority of India, outside of cities, is not ready for single women traveling, moving around freely- this security is an essential need for Women Executives.

To be fair, many women are at positions of power, at positions of making change, for better, but the cost is much higher than equally positioned male.

More I interact with women around me, at work, outside work, I can feel the pressure, and I can feel the hope and frustration arriving due to lack of respect – directly or indirectly given to women.
Did I see this in USA? I did, but the frustration level was not this much, pressure was not this much. American women are certainly more independent than current Indian Women. This building frustration, this building of emotions is what bothers me, concerns me. This can make or break new India.