Did you know that according to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index report, India has slipped the ranks in women’s workforce participation? This implies women’s participation in the paid economy, which is already low, has significantly gone lower. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic made things worse with economic uncertainty deteriorating women’s participation in the workforce. In every sector, there lies a leadership hierarchy, women’s representation in the paid economy is already minimal, and data suggests that women are not adequately represented in leadership either. This applies to sectors that hire more women, such as the social sector.
Women’s underrepresentation in leadership roles
According to a survey of 328 organisations by Dasra, even though women make up 53 percent of the workforce in the social sector, only 34 percent of organisations have women in managerial roles, and barely 19 percent have women in leadership positions. It is important to explore the systematic barriers as well as comprehensive strategies that can support women’s participation and leadership.
It is important to explore the systematic barriers as well as comprehensive strategies that can support women’s participation and leadership.
This would mean not only ensuring equality of opportunity, but also creating a healthy work environment so that everyone has an equal chance to reach the topmost levels of the hierarchy, or, for that matter, continue to remain as a part of the workforce.
As rightly put forward by Smarinita Shetty, founder and CEO at IDR, ‘It is not just about hiring more women in the sector. We need to make sure that they stay and that we have more women in leadership and board positions‘.
A study conducted by the India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS), portrays that a gender-diverse environment in the workforce, not only helps in the managerial process but the boards and leadership position holders in the sector also unanimously acknowledge that having gender diversity allows for the incorporation of valuable well-rounded perspectives. What are these well-rounded perspectives? A gender-responsive attitude towards any organisation’s internal and external policies.
What are these well-rounded perspectives? A gender-responsive attitude towards any organisation’s internal and external policies.
For instance, policies on addressing any incidents of workplace harassment or just ensuring whether the organisation’s vision and mission also aligns with their policies for their employees within the organisation. For instance, if an organisation works in remote areas and the role of the employee involves a lot of traveling, is the extended workplace environment, including the commute to the remote locations involved within the work, safe for the employees, especially women and queer individuals?
Moomal Mehta, Founder and CEO of Crossover Catalyst while speaking with FII took us through her own personal journey of transitioning from the corporate world to the social impact sector. Moomal with her team at Crossover Catalyst now helps provide solutions to the leadership needs of the social sector helping new talent have a smoother transition to the social impact sector organisations.
Building trust from the process of hiring itself, to ensuring that the trust is maintained because of a flexible working space is something that Moomal believes has helped her team at Crossover Catalyst thrive. ‘It works on trust, ownership and just loving what we do.‘
Are we building organisations that value women?
Expectations surrounding work-life balance can disproportionately affect employees and leaders even in the social impact sector. Especially for women, those in caregiving roles or with familial obligations may feel the pressure of balancing work and personal life, which can affect their ability to fully dedicate themselves to leadership development opportunities. These expectations not only lead to biases in the process of hiring but also affect leadership ahead.
Gayatri Nair Lobo, CEO of A.T.E. Chandra Foundation in conversation with FII mentions such hurdles that women face. ‘I have seen boards with hardly one woman on board.‘ Such tokenised representations may not do any good as Sudha Srinivasan, CEO of The Nudge Centre for Social Innovation also mentions in the ILSS study, ‘The main question we need to ask is ‘Are we building organisations that value women?’. If the organisation isn’t wired to leverage feminine styles of leadership, women will continue to struggle to ‘fit in’ and run into barriers in attaining their full natural potential.‘
However, shaping organisations that value women needs time and work. This work involves organisations’ conducting inclusive leadership trainings for themselves to prevent their existing intended or unintended biases against women.
However, shaping organisations that value women needs time and work. This work involves organisations’ conducting inclusive leadership trainings for themselves to prevent their existing intended or unintended biases against women. ‘You may not even realise that you are not hiring women who just got married‘, as pointed out by Gayatri. These could be some of the unintended biases.
Moomal Mehta, Founder and CEO of Crossover Catalyst says, ‘From a 4000-5000 person organisation, I moved to an organisation of 10-12 people. In a large machinery, how much an individual can ultimately shape and influence things is quite limited because the machine itself has a momentum and its own trajectory. But when you come to a much smaller organisation, every hour or every day you spend at work, actually makes a tangible difference.‘ Crossover Catalyst provides solutions to several social impact organisations
Building safe and inclusive spaces for diverse leadership
This work also involves organisations to be shaping a safe and inclusive environment for their female workers to thrive and succeed. Many organisations in the social impact sector in India are working towards ensuring safe workplaces for all, including the Martha Farrell Foundation based in Delhi, which not only takes up the issue of ensuring safe workplaces in the formal sector but also in a large share of our economy which is left out from such conversations, the informal sector.
The existing leadership at the top needs to think, listen, and understand the experiences of their existing employees to ensure shaping such workplaces that are inclusive of all. ‘A lot of women, unfortunately, have to drop out for reasons like marriage, taking care of children, or even taking care of the elderly. That role falls on women. So trying to see how we can help women balance this out in situations where it’s going to be tough for them is important. I need to be anticipating that there are going to be certain exceptions that I have to make to my policies because I want to be able to meet strong women in my organisation.‘ says Gayatri Nair Lobo, CEO of A.T.E. Chandra Foundation.
So, instead of the organisations’ holding biases towards people while hiring, they should ensure their policies are adjusted well to suit a diverse group of people.
So, instead of the organisations’ holding biases towards people while hiring, they should ensure their policies are adjusted well to suit a diverse group of people. Flexible working hours or opportunities for work-from-home could be good options to consider.
According to a 2024 report titled, Work-from-home: Benefits and Costs, over two-thirds of companies in India, still offer work-from-home and remote work options to employees more than three years after the covid-19 pandemic, as they believe the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. The report shows how employees stress about commuting and work-life balance. However, according to the report, this doesn’t necessarily mean increased efficiency.
Organisations can play a part here by asking for anonymous feedback and listening very intently to understand what they can do to improve their culture. ‘But that needs to come from the founder and CEO, that commitment to inclusion needs to start from there,‘ says Gayatri. And in the end, she says, organisations should remember that, ‘how they make their employees feel would be how they then treat others in future organisations.’
This is the second article in a 4-part series supported by the ATE Chandra Foundation.
About the author(s)
As an independent journalist, writer, and aspiring documentary filmmaker, Stuti covers about social and political issues. Interested in development journalism she also highlights issues on human rights, gender, education, unemployment, law and others. She aims to start her own news media initiative in the future to transform the way development is covered and discussed in the news.
