Take stock: Three male bastions where women are writing the new code

Mindset a tougher glass ceiling, say women

Trading, coding and state administration- all three seen as male bastions, have increasingly seen more women make their mark. While the change is welcome, most women agree mindsets need to evolve.

The stock market is one the early male bastion amongst the three, where women have taken larger roles for themselves. Shilpa Kumar, managing director and chief executive officer for ICICI Securities points out the change in the model of ownership at brokerage firms helped break the mould.

“One reason is, the brokerages were largely family run, which as the social norms were then, were run by the men of the family. This over the years has changed as professionally managed brokerages have now taken centre stage,” Kumar said.

Over the years, women representation in financial services has also become broad based. “Manisha Girotra, chief executive officer for  Moelis & Co. India points out earlier it was understood that women bankers were limited to retail banking. “Areas such as treasury, equities, investment banking were seen as male bastions. Today you see women across all spectrums of financial services,” she said.

Unlike the stock market, coding is the latest in the list of male bastions where women are creating a space for themselves. The data shared by HackerEarth for participation at Women's Hackathon for the last three years show an encouraging trend. In 2016, the Hackathon saw participation from 149 women, this rose to 255 in 2017 and 425 in 2018. To draw a comparison to their male counterparts, at Smart India Hackathon 2019, the male –female participation ratio was at 60:40, with more than 3000 women participants.

For fields like the Indian administrative service (IAS), the number of women candidates is on a rise. However, the share of representation remains unimpressive. According to data sourced from the annual reports for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), 229 women candidates were recommended for appointments in 2016-17, which is higher from 101 women candidates recommended in 2006. While the number is on a rise, the total percentage of representation is not. In 2016-17, the women candidate recommendation was 19.67 per cent of the total candidates recommended in that year, which is lower than 21.3 per cent for 2006.

Few women IAS officers, however, point out the nature of appointments is changing. “I have heard stories from senior officers, where they had to fight to even get posted as district collectors,” said Ashwini Bhide, an IAS from  the 1995 batch. “ By the time, we joined that attitude was done away, because the state government made 33 percent seats reserved for state services for women under a policy in 1993. The entry level there is no issue, as we move upwards problems arise, which is more of a mindset issue,” Bhide added, who is at present the managing director for Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), the nodal agency for Mumbai’s underground metro corridor project. 

Nevertheless, women still await access to top positions or a change in mindset, while some battle family responsibilities.

Deena Mehta, group managing director for Asit C. Mehta Group of Companies pointed out the biggest challenge at the start of her career was acceptance. ”I had it easier due to my education as CA and MBA. One needs to work twice as hard in order to be taken seriously and given same responsibilities as men,” she said. Mehta added, “Women in current time do not have the entry problem. Taking control of family finances is still difficult due to self-imposed inertia in the ability to manage.”

Few others point out external battle that women still face. “At a company level, there is not much difference in the treatment meted out based on gender. However, if you work in a team where there are fewer women, there could be a mindset issue. Mistakes by women are sometimes given a more magnified treatment. Women coders find themselves under higher scrutiny in such teams compared to male coders,” said Supriya Srivatsa, a coder with a leading tech company.

For those in the bureaucracy, the struggle is with political apprehension over one’s gender. “IAS, compared to the private sector, does not have that kind of glass ceiling, when you move higher, there are opportunities. But at some point of time, there are conflicts where certain posts in certain states remain out of reach, where there is political apprehension (over such appointments),” Bhide from MMRC said. She added that needs to change.

Girotra sees some change in the mindset underway. “The biggest change is coming as the traditional males patriarchal mindset is being challenged at work and they are being forced to change their thinking,” she said, adding “This is different from my times when women were almost apologetic about their ambitions, trying hard to be part of the boys club …. and men were rarely sympathetic of the multitasking woman colleague.”