EQUAL FOOTING. Do we need quotas for women in firms?

Pose this question to a successful woman in any organisation and the response will, most likely, be an emphatic “No”! Ask a man and he will not know what the politically right answer is. If he says ‘No’, he will be perceived as not supporting gender diversity efforts. If he says ‘Yes’, that could mean he may be valuing gender over merit. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place!

There is no shortage of research on the topic. Just type in ‘gender diversity’ in any search engine and you will find so many articles, white papers and presentations that it comes as quite a surprise.

There are innumerable articles on best practices, there are industry forums that recognise organisations with diversity awards and some countries ensure gender diversity as a matter of compliance. While there have been conversations on the subject for over 20 years, it has come into sharp focus in the past 3-4 years. So what is all the fuss about?

The fact is, we still do not have enough women in the workforce! And the bigger issue is the leaky pipeline. Women form 48.5 per cent of India’s population; about 33 per cent pass out as graduates, approximately 23 per cent enter the workforce and only 8-9 per cent get to senior management positions. This, for the uninitiated is the “leaky pipeline.” So, what happened to all those women that did enter the workforce? There are societal pressures, life changes, and personal traits that pose problems and hamper women from progressing in the corporate world.

These seemingly insurmountable issues are stacked up against women, preventing them from continuing their careers. Do organisations have a responsibility towards changing this situation? Can they do more than pay lip service to improving the gender ratios?

Yes! Organisations can and they should. We need to move forward and put more skin in the game. Let’s share openly where we are and what are we aiming for. We need to move beyond simplistic policies and having women’s networks.

The question is, how do we get more women into organisations and how do we get them to stay?

Positive discrimination is a way to fight inequalities in a society and has been worldwide used as a policy tool. For several years in India, reservations have been a way that the government has tried to address the issues related to minorities.

There are quotas in education, for employment in the public sector and reserved seats in political elections. Recently, the Delhi police announced a 33 per cent reservation of the positions for women. However, the positive impact intended due to reservations are often not felt by the community to which it was intended. There is also a sense of stigma felt by the community for which the reservations are not meant to benefit.

So, can this be applied to the issue of increasing diversity in the workplace? While not many organisations have gone down this path, this may be one of the ways to make a dent in the numbers. We all know that organisations are governed by the principle of “what gets measured gets done.”

Hence, we may find that attaching a number (i.e., quotas) to the target helps track progress towards the goal. Publishing the target within and outside the organisation shows bold intent. But there are very few organisations that are comfortable to make this statement. Therefore, it is important to understand what organisations can do.

Improving diversity metrics is a long haul journey that requires patience and persistence. The progress will be gradual and need measures that are focused on all the different elements that are current roadblocks. In conclusion, let’s have some metrics to measure how we are doing. Let leaders talk the talk and walk the talk. Let’s not be shy about reversing the flow and fixing the leak!

The writer is Director, People Strategy, SapientNitro India.

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