Ms. Farnawaz Mistry, Head Legal & Compliance - India, ROQUETTE

Celebrating Diversity – Women Leaders and Inclusive Growth

A lone woman may not be able to change the world, but she can cast a stone across the water to make many ripples …..

Social media has been abuzz lately on what the corporate world should or should not demand as work ethics for achieving excellence, or what dedication to work must look like. 

As we each go through our professional journeys, we are also simultaneously navigating the paths of our personal lives, juggling the myriad roles that we all must play in the 24 hours that we are afforded. Whether as sons or daughters to aged parents, as wives or husbands or partners to our significant others, as parents to our children, friends to our near and dear ones and many more. Just as the professional life demands our time and energy, so does the fulfilment of each of these other roles.

There is much debate today on the need for the protectionist laws we have for women, which debate has also extended to whether a focused drive on DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) in the workplace is the right path ahead. Equity is understood through different lenses and some are of the opinion that Equity is a threat to meritocracy and equal opportunity and negatively impacts corporate productivity.

Nothing can be further from the truth and the fact remains that women participation in Corporate India, especially at a leadership level, is dismal and needs focused efforts. 

Just as there is a need for protectionist laws on the rights and safety of women to address the societal imbalance of power which puts women at a risk and disadvantage, so also there is urgent need for a focused drive for DEI in the workplace to address the uneven societal burden and responsibility that falls on the woman in matters of family welfare.   

Without exception to the nature of industry, we observe that women participation in the workplace dwindles with age progression, as societal structure and expectations puts a higher burden on women for family welfare, than on their male counterparts.  

At a minimum, corporates must have gender neutral policies providing flexibility and opportunity to women such that these inequities are balanced, and the family unit as a whole is benefited.   

Apart from structural inequities, there are unconscious biases and preconceived notions / stereotypes, which further impede on women achieving their full potential.

Creating an inclusive culture is certainly a top-down approach, to be driven at a leadership level. Any policy initiative will remain a paper initiative unless we have strong women leaders exemplifying them. Strong women role models become critical to effect behavioural changes and break psychological barriers throughout the organization. They serve as mentors to other women and foster an environment where women are looked upto and trusted for strategic and critical decision making.

We need to be the change we want to see ….. and Corporate India needs to act now, not just with paper policies, but with firm actions on inclusion at all levels, especially in leadership.