More women in the workforce could add to the GDP. | |
| Did you know that IBM hired its first woman employee way back in 1899, declared equal pay for equal work in 1935, and appointed its first woman vice-president in 1943? |
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| Clearly, as Pari Sadasivam, IBM India's vice-president (HR), has pointed out, "IBM has a long heritage of firsts in the advancement of women in the workplace," and women's leadership continues to be a strong focus area for the company. |
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| In India, too, gender barriers in the workplace are becoming a thing of the past, and women managers in the corporate sector have begun piercing the glass ceiling. |
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| They include such figures as Madhabi Buch, Head Operations-ICICI Bank Ltd; Amrita Gangotra, Chief IT Solutions- Bharti Airtel Ltd; and Sally Master, President WIPS, among others. |
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| Sadasivam says the advancement of women is desirable not merely on the grounds of promoting the cause of diversity and attracting and retaining talent of different backgrounds, but is also a business imperative. |
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| According to Roopa Purushothaman, chief economist at the Future Group (earlier known as Pantaloon) and one of the authors of the BRIC Report when she was with Goldman Sachs, a survey done by her company shows that "more women entering the workforce could add $35 billion to the GDP over the next five years. Women's employment participation has grown 31 per cent in 2005 from 26 per cent in 2000, the first rise seen in decades." |
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| The growth in participation between 2000 and 2005 has been more rapid for rural women than for urban women, according to Purushothaman, with the former's participation at 34 per cent vis-à-vis that of urban women at 20 per cent. |
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| But, as Reena Ramachandran, Director General of the JK Business School points out, there must be a critical mass of women at the managerial level for organisations to be able to promote women to the next level. "Women themselves have to equip themselves," she stresses. |
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