Women Leadership Summit: Closing the gender gap

Last week’s Colombo Women Leadership Summit 2017 clearly sent out a message that mirrored what Kathleen Schafer, a leadership guide, speaker and author had said, “Leadership is not about men in suits. It is a way of life for those who know who they are and are willing to be their best to create the life they want to live.”

This annual conference held mid this month provided an interactive stage to swap views and ponder upon the challenges confronted by South Asian women in achieving leadership roles and learn from their experiences to create a culture that endorse gender diversity in a sustainable way.

While it was agreed that now more than ever there're women in the executive leadership and board level roles, it was discussed that that elusive glass ceiling still exists; however, women are slowly grinding down that glass barrier and reaching their professional goals.

Many a testimony was had that in these pale, male corridors of corporate power, females are now painting a picture of female entrepreneurship that's far larger and far richer than the prevailing business culture would suggest.

Many panellists discussed how to promote gender equality in management by exploring such issues as discrimination, equal remuneration and gender mainstreaming.

Finances and cost management are always big themes for women, who face both systemic and personal barriers to accessing capital; women have trouble getting loans because they lack the collateral to back them. “We need to continue to build out the ecosystem so that women are an active part of the funding cycle. We still have a long way to go,” a participant told the Business Times noting that women entrepre- neurs still do not fit the typical profile of a young, tech male. “Investors need to be open to diversity of ideas, age, and geography. We need a more open environment.”

On the actions and attitudes of men that must change to effect long- term change in the conditions of women, Archana Bhatnagar, Managing Director Haylide Chemicals Pvt Ltd told the Business Times that they need to trust in what a woman does. "That is to say that stop doubting her actions and stop correcting her at each step," she said. She highlighted that instilling confidence that even a woman can take risks is an important step in this journey. "A male can fail in business and is entitled to restart, a woman if she fails in business once, is forbidden to take the risk again. This shouldn't be."

Encouraging sons to respect women and helping domestic work from childhood, sans any special demarcations of what a son or daughter should do where equal opportunities for both at home should be practiced, she added.

Dignity and respect

Mainak Maheshwari, CEO Maitri Consulting told the Business Times that men need to see that women are treated with dignity and respect - both at home and work. This will ensure that people around them, and the next generation of kids and employees imbibe the same spirit of equality, she said adding that they need to realise that given the multiple roles that women (specially working women) handle, they need the extra mental and physical support to manage the multiple tasks. Men should go beyond just the "bread-winner" mindset and start sharing the workload.

“At offices, business leaders should ensure that programmes and policies are implemented so that there is no discrimination against women and both genders are provided the same opportu- nities. Women might have different needs as they manage multiple roles, therefore flexibility in working and work environment is provided to ensure their success.”

Ms. Bhatnagar said that women empowerment, is about getting your fundamental rights to education, economic empowerment, spending your own money and equal wages as men and in a bid to ensure implementation and monitoring of gender- empowerment policies in a workplace, the top management has to make a start and filter to the peon below, that harassment of women will not be tolerated. “For me at my factory, straight away male employees are suspended, whenever such issues surface. Enquiries at all times have revealed that 98 per cent male employees are at fault, however the 2 per cent, is attributed to a "hither to" behaviour of the female employees as well.”

According to Ms. Maheshwari, women's empowerment implies women having a right to make choices/ take decisions on all matters which affect their lives. “Gender equality for me implies women and men having access to the same set of opportunities in life - both in personal and professional fields.”

Spelling out ways to enhance women's participation in economic development in South Asia, Ms. Bhatnagar added that there has to be proactive government support and specific gender policies, for finance, technology and marketing initiatives for women entrepreneurs, creation of common facilities as crèches, clinics for women and children, etc in central and easily accessible places are things that can be done.

Ms. Maheshwari said that the governments in the region need to create the right environment for women empowerment. “This can be done through making effective changes in the existing laws, including allowing women to work night shifts and also providing specific tax breaks. It is being successfully done in India: Providing financial loans/ grants specifically designed for women - example at lesser interest rates; without any collateral, etc. Government can also look at opening a bank to specifically serve women.”

She said that governments can nudge the corporates by setting up targets for gender diversity. “They can create a policy on having child care facilities to be provided by the government/corporate, while the corporate, individually or through their associations/ bodies can set targets for gender diversity and publish annual reports on the topic, share best practices from across the globe, and create model policies/programmes that can be copied by others and specific programmes for women are created.”

Many governments have stepped into shatter the glass ceiling through regulation: Norway requires 40 per cent of directors be female, France has a 20 per cent female requirement for public boards in 2014, increasing to 40 per cent by 2017 while in the US public companies must disclose whether and how their nomination committees considers diversity in selecting directors. Panellists said that this is ample proof for South Asian countries to follow suit.

Firms that are the most inclusive of women in top management achieve 35 per cent higher return on equity (ROE) and 34 per cent better total return to shareholders versus their peers and research shows gender diversity to be particularly valuable where innovation is key, according to research data, it was also discussed.

Experience shows that introducing simple, concrete measures can lead to a substantial improvement in the gender composition, it was noted at the summit, but to bring about a more sweeping change, leaders within the sector must play an active role.