How often, in everyday life we are a party to biases that we do not even realize exist in our minds. In the words of Senior journalist & content writer Ajit Ramachanddran “She’s triumphed over all barriers and rightfully got her place in the world, at large. Women, that is. And yet, women are having to prove their worth, many a time, to toxic power play, mind games and underhand tactics to undermine them.“ Yes it’s true, Women from all walks of life, at all levels, all over the world are subject to conscious and unconscious biases.
Blame it on our upbringing, the society we live in, the people we grow up with, the truth is, biases exist and are an important part of our thinking process. As such we carry our biases into our relationships, in our day-to-day dealings with people and ultimately into our workplaces.
What are some of the biases that we need to address?
Statistics don’t lie, so while we have made considerable headway over the years, women account for only 39% of the global workforce. This means that irrespective of the industry we refer to, sports, IT, finance, creative or whatever, as a society we are still not able to give women their due credit at the place of work. Women still have to struggle and required to give more than their men counterpart to be taken seriously. And we owe a major part of this to deep rooted biases.
Biases are commonplace and quite a many women are subject to their effects. However, only few are lucky to surface them and share their experience with the world. When Sudipta Ghosh, General Counsel, Apraava Energy decided to pursue law, she was asked to consider another profession because going to court and working with criminals was not meant for girls. Then after law school, she joined a corporate legal firm; and she was asked to consider another speciality because the corporate world is too “alpha male cut-throat”. Also, working late nights and long hours are not sustainable for a woman. Then when she decided to join an energy and resource company, they told her that she wouldn’t survive because it’s a man’s world and working at a project site, going to remote rural areas is not safe for women. She proved them all wrong. Expressing concern, Sudipta says, “I thrive on challenges, and these #BreakTheBias motivated me to succeed. But when does this end? It’s time to stop denying women jobs based on their gender instead of their skills.”
What are some of the biases that we need to address?
Statistics don’t lie, so while we have made considerable headway over the years, women account for only 39% of the global workforce. This means that irrespective of the industry we refer to, sports, IT, finance, creative or whatever, as a society we are still not able to give women their due credit at the place of work. Women still have to struggle and required to give more than their men counterpart to be taken seriously. And we owe a major part of this to deep rooted biases.
Biases are commonplace and quite a many women are subject to their effects. However, only few are lucky to surface them and share their experience with the world. When Sudipta Ghosh, General Counsel, Apraava Energy decided to pursue law, she was asked to consider another profession because going to court and working with criminals was not meant for girls. Then after law school, she joined a corporate legal firm; and she was asked to consider another speciality because the corporate world is too “alpha male cut-throat”. Also, working late nights and long hours are not sustainable for a woman. Then when she decided to join an energy and resource company, they told her that she wouldn’t survive because it’s a man’s world and working at a project site, going to remote rural areas is not safe for women. She proved them all wrong. Expressing concern, Sudipta says, “I thrive on challenges, and these barriers of biases motivated me to succeed. But when does this end? It’s time to stop denying women jobs based on their gender instead of their skills.”
Ritika Arora, an entrepreneur and coach ponders “Indeed we have come a long way and witnessed a lot of progress on this front, but looking at the larger picture, at leadership roles, women are still largely underrepresented and grossly underpaid than their male counterparts for the same amount of work.”
She believes that, “representation of business from self to organisation is crucial, more so because the glass ceiling needs to be broken and the conscious and unconscious bias and barriers that hinder an individual’s growth prospects (women employees, per se) must be let go of.”
Adding to this Sonica Malhotra Kandhari, Joint Managing Director, MBD Group says, “Society, in general, is evolving to be more equal, one that opens up a level playing field for everyone to partake in irrespective of gender, caste, or creed. Although it is still some way to go but with the combined effort of governments, organisations and each individual, the future will be far more inclusive.”
Source – From Self To Organizations, Are We Ready To #BreakTheBias?
