Every March, during International Women’s Day, the world enthusiastically reflects on the progress achieved in making workplaces more gender-balanced and equitable. Four months later in July, it’s a good time to reflect on the progress. Undoubtedly, we have a long way to go until we manifest gender equality as a reality.
According to Deloitte’s Women@Work 2024: A Global Outlook report, only 10% of women in India believe their organisation is taking concrete steps to fulfil its commitment towards gender diversity. Lack of flexibility and inadequate benefits are resulting in a loss of gender-balance and talent for employers. So, it is upon all of us to shift the perspective through continued enhancements of initiatives and policies and integrating inclusion into day-to-day operations.
Championing inclusivity and diversity in the workplace should be seen as a collective responsibility, going beyond the confines of gender. It’s encouraging to witness increasing conversations aimed at bringing more men within the fold of these dialogues.
All genders need to be equipped with the requisite knowledge and resources to become visible allies to women from diverse career levels and backgrounds. Having women as allies helps because they relate to each other’s lived experiences and serve as powerful role models. But with men and others as allies, organisations will be able to tackle some of the deep-rooted social conditioning and biases that have long prevented women from realising their true potential at work and beyond.
Indian women with partners, for instance, shoulder a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities, including childcare, elderly care and other chores. While it will be a long journey to change societal attitudes entirely, corporates can do their part by creating more enabling mechanisms for sharing the load. Apart from sensitisation sessions, parental care packages that focus on paternity care as much as maternity care may help move the needle.
Around 30% of women in India say they don’t want to progress into a more senior leadership position, as cited in the Deloitte report. Issues with work culture and a belief that such opportunities for progression won’t be given to them were among the top reasons for the same. This suggests that organisations aren’t making enough progress on gender equality at leadership levels and encouraging women to seek senior level roles.
Leaders need to spearhead this mindset shift to promote diversity within executive and C-suite levels by implementing and supporting mentorship and sponsorship programmes.
Sponsors act as advocates and through such programmes, provide guidance, share their expertise, and create opportunities for women professionals with high potential in high-impact projects, thereby endorsing their career advancement.
Also, workshops tailored to the new workforce are pivotal in creating a pipeline of future leaders and creating an environment for women to feel secure and empowered to seize new opportunities.
Leadership development programmes aimed at equipping women leaders with critical skills can prepare them for future success.
As humans, we all have multiple identities, and hence it is important to address the challenges arising due to intersectionality. Consider the example of a woman professional from the LGBTQIA+ community who has an invisible disability and is a caregiver. As unique as this case is, her situation and resulting needs cannot be addressed justifiably through gender-based initiatives alone.
Identifying avenues that can help professionals get the support they need and encourage them to express their unique challenges gains importance here.
Understanding intersectionality is, therefore, important to design inclusion programmes at an organisational level, and offer the right support to professionals to help them grow.
Failing to recognise and integrate intersectionality into inclusion initiatives can lead to unintentional exclusion of employees from larger conversations. This can inadvertently reinforce hidden barriers, impacting the mental and emotional well-being of employees.
When it comes to gender equity initiatives, promoting fair outcomes must be the underlying theme and foundation.
We need to ensure that the workplace and all conversations, processes and initiatives are free from bias and driven by clear communication and transparency. However, there is an undeniable sense of risk here.
With DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), there often tends to be a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), with a strong desire to be seen as votary of all causes, especially on social media. From an organisational standpoint, having a strong social media presence does add value to the brand, but the key to a successful workplace lies in enhancing employee experience by enabling an equitable and inclusive culture.
The solution to create a lasting impact possibly lies in designing focused strategies prioritising the most pressing inclusivity gaps within an organisation and then widening the initiatives in a phased manner to cater to other challenges.
Saraswathi Kasturirangan is chief happiness officer at Deloitte India, and Anupama Kothapalli is diversity, equity, and inclusion leader, Deloitte US-India offices.
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