THE LONG CLIMB UPHILL

Many more Indian women are rising up the corporate ladder.

Despite problems, more Indian women are rising up the corporate ladder

Iwas disappointed to hear my daughter say one day that one of her first time clients had presumed that a male subordinate reporting directly to her was her boss,” says veteran banker Naina Lal Kidwai. “In her initial interactions with the client she had to work quite hard to set right this misconception.”

In the 1980s when Kidwai herself was climbing the corporate ladder, such a presumption would have been no surprise. But that it was still being made by some, despite all the glass ceilings broken and peaks conquered by women in the last three decades, dismayed her. “Once informed, clients acknowledge it and change their approach quickly, but the fact is that such biases are still there,” says Kidwai.

It might be the 21st century but the issues that plague women in the workplace remain the same with inherent patriarchy and unconscious bias being seen as normal. This very attitude forces a lot of women to drop out of the workforce along the way.