My story continues!
- Written by preethab30
Women’s Independence Coach, the way I have positioned myself, sounds fancy, right? Now, however it sounds one thing I am sure is that this is close to my heart.
Why?
Look at this: Average Time Spent Per Day in Unpaid Work, by men:
Country Women Men
Australia 5 hours, 11 minutes 2 hours, 52 minutes
Canada 3 hours, 44 minutes 2 hours, 28 minutes
France 3 hours, 44 minutes 2 hours, 15 minutes
India 5 hours, 52 minutes 52 minutes
Japan 3 hours, 44 minutes 41 minutes
UK 4 hours, 9 minutes 2 hours, 20 minutes
We need to talk to Indian men, look at the statistics above plus the inequality between men and women in India is stark, and nowhere more so than on the streets of its cities, which are undeniably the domain of men. Of course, this is partly because there are fewer women in the population. With 940 women per 1,000 men, the nation has a low sex ratio, stemming from families’ preference for male children, as well as poor nutrition and health care for women.
What’s more, just 27% of Indian women participate in the work force, compared with 79% of men. This trend is most obvious in urban areas. Although women in India mostly walk, cycle or use public transport to go to work, they are still much less visible in public spaces than men, because many do not have jobs to travel to at all. This has a significant impact on women’s health, and their opportunities in life.
When is the first time I felt I had missed the bus? It is not because I took a natural women/family break that I felt this, but because of the kind of questions that were asked when I went back for interviews in corp orates! This happened even in branded companies, when it came to pay they were not willing to pay the amount I used to get when I left the corporate world. Even though I had worked as a freelancer during the so called gap, it was considered a “gap”. This is the time I felt I had missed the bus. Finally, it is to do with your negotiation skills, alight, agreed. However, what is the kind of signal you get from the employers, what are the kind of questions one asks for the women to feel supported and welcomed? I am not saying one needs to recruit incompetent people. What I am saying is, one needs to be sensitive and trained to ask the right kind of questions, especially with women coming back to the corporate world. The right policies can have a big impact and by engaging senior leaders in driving change.
This is when I took the plunge and said let me become the ambassador for making women self-reliant. Need not necessarily be by getting back to work but by becoming a women entrepreneur!
There is statistics to show that 65% of the men get back to work after trying entrepreneurship, in case of women, there are hardly any. Infact it is abysmal. There is less than o.2% of women who are entrepreneurs.
While there are drives in the corporate world to improve the diversity percentage, for example, Vedanta is looking to increase the representation of women in its workforce to 30% by end 2020 from about 11% at present. Roles earmarked for women at Vedanta are primarily in areas such as in HR, finance and other enabling functions, besides those based in metros. “We tend to choose roles where talent is available, and location is not a problem,” said Srivastava. Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/corporate-india-tweaks-variables-for-solving-gender-diversity-equation/articleshow/68312167.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
More than half of companies hold senior leaders accountable for progress on gender diversity metrics. And it’s making a difference. Seventy-three percent of senior leaders are highly committed to gender diversity, and close to half say they’re working to improve gender diversity. Senior leaders set the priorities in organizations, so when they’re engaged, it has a positive trickle-down effect: Managers are more likely to support diversity efforts, and employees are more likely to think the workplace is fair.
As a next step, companies should push deeper into their organization and engage managers to play a more active role. Compared to senior leaders, fewer managers say gender diversity is a high priority, and far fewer managers say they are actively working to improve diversity and inclusion.
Given the above trends and the changes, I am going to be playing the role of making women self -reliant in whatever they choose to be.
According to online studies conducted earlier this year for rankings on the best places for female entrepreneurship! What’s more, India’s female entrepreneurship environment exposes statistics of improvement. With respect to women finding opportunities to start ventures (60%), validation with respect to skills (52%) and do not feel the impending doom of failure for their startup (57%).
On this happy note, please log into to my webinar happening in the end of Feb 2020, to understand what are the 3 secrets of the brain to improve self and take action to become self-reliant.
Signing off!
Respects, Preetha
Do register to my weekly webinars @ preethabalakrishnans.co/tueregister
My Vision Is To Make 100,000 Women Self-Reliant!