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‘Corporate policies must be flexible for both genders, should enable women advance in their careers’
Panellists discussed ‘Women in IT: From Coding to Leading’; Eva James, Vice President, Global Service Delivery and Global Hubs, Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Private Ltd, stresses need to formulate gender-neutral policies such as parental leave for men and women
Participants at The Hindu Tamil Nadu Women’s Summit 2024 in Chennai on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: Akhila Easwaran
Designing corporate policies that are gender-neutral like allowing parental leave for both men and women, introducing flexibility for both genders, will help in advancement of women’s careers, said Eva James, vice-president, Global Service Delivery and Global Hubs, Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Private Ltd, at The Hindu’s Tamil Nadu Women’s Summit 2024 held at ITC Grand Chola Hotel in Chennai on Tuesday.
Speaking on the topic ‘Women in IT: From Coding to Leading’, Ms. James quoted well-known corporate honcho Indira Nooyi’s statement that women’s biological and career clocks are in complete conflict with each other.
“ I would like to talk about a sociological research that I came across. It is called ‘Motherhood penalty and fatherhood bonus’. Disadvantages manifests in multiple fashions in women — reduced earnings, delayed or fewer promotions, constant questioning of competence, skills being challenged, etc. But at the same time, when a man becomes a father, he is seen as a more reliable person and promoted faster with his skills even being complemented. These issues still persist at the grassroots level because of mainly two reasons the corporate work environment is designed in a manner which does not entertain any interruptions in a person’s career. And the second reason is the unequal division of domestic work,” she said.
Leave for ‘parenting’
“I talk about gender neutrality in corporates so that we try and move away from maternity / paternity leaves to parenting leaves as parenting is a joint responsibility, no questions asked. I was informed of a policy which said… in a hybrid model, women who have children below the age of six can continue to work from home. I challenged the policy because why only women? Here, it defeats inclusion. Fathers and mothers with children below the age of six should have the flexibility to choose to work from home,” she added.
Srimathi Shivashankar, Global Head of Edtech Services Business, HCL Tech, asked why women needed to be ‘empowered’. She argued that women should be an integral part of economic growth and not simply just social justice. She added that smaller towns are actually talent hubs.
“I want the IT services and the GCC (Global Capability Centres) to ask themselves how they could actually help women progress because many key drivers that can aid women returning to work are missing. This includes identifying a good place to stay which is also close to office, travel arrangements, etc. Just go to smaller towns, which are talent hubs, where there are many women above the age of 35 who are fantastic engineers. They complete masters, and PhDs, and sometimes even double PhDs. The backbone of the economy and pulse of Tamil Nadu is in those towns. Either the IT and GCC should take work to these workers or they should enable these women to get enrolled from their locations to work…if the government is going to facilitate this…I think Tamil Nadu can have an early mover advantage,” she said.
Government’s role
Speaking about the role that the government could play, Ganga Priya Chakraverti, India Site Leader and Managing Director, Ford’s Business Solutions, said, “Government can play an important role in sensitising society at large about the role that women can play and the kind of jobs that women can get into. The second thing is about safety. A lot of women stay away from work, because there is a concern around safety among family members. Seeing more women out in the evening hours, working in places that are visible like a restaurant or a hotel, their presence in public transport…in these aspects the government can play a role.”
Arguing that the changes in policy that could benefit women are not happening swiftly enough, Vidya Prabhu, Associate Director, Global Delivery Leader, IBM Cloud (CII IWN Tamil Nadu, Co lead – Leadership Vertical), said, “Recently we introduced a policy — over and above sick leave/medical leave, we provide two days leave to women who are on their menstrual cycles, or in perimenopause or menopause stage. Even though it is just for 2 days, we face so many changes during the time. Policy changes are definitely happening, but are they happening at the pace we want?”
The panel discussion was moderated by Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner, Catalincs and former CMD, Cognizant India.
The Hindu’s Tamil Nadu Women’s Summit 2024, in association with Guidance Tamil Nadu (TN), is being held on Tuesday. The summit is powered by Naga Foods in association with Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation, KBR India and Indian Bank. Prestige, VFS Global, KPL, Port of Chennai and United India Insurance are the associate partners. Other partners include, Grundfos (sustainability partner); Apollo Pro Health ( Healthcare Partner) Chennai Metro Rail (mobility); Nippon Paint (colour); ITC Mangaldeep (fragrance); Confederation of Indian Industry & CII Indian Women Network (industry); CREDAI Chennai (real estate industry); and Puthiyathalaimurai TV (television partner).
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