Perspectives of Indian Women Managers in the Public Sector

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Perspectives of Indian Women Managers in the Public Sector

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Editor’s Introduction 279

Environment and Urbanization ASIA, 1, 1 (2010): vii–xii

Article

Farah Naqvi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Organisation Behaviour, Indus Business Academy, Plot No. 44, Knowledge Park III, Institutional Area, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201308, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Perspectives of Indian Women Managers in the Public Sector

Farah Naqvi

Abstract

Women in India have struggled to establish an identity and create a space for themselves at their workplaces, especially in terms of leadership. This study explores and portrays women’s perceptions and dilemmas when confronted with the ideas and expectations of traditional society while conforming to a contemporary code of conduct at work. Women managers working in a leading public sector company were asked four key questions. Their responses highlight the values, attitudes and beliefs of the women and the challenges faced by them in their careers and within the family system, raising many issues and giving pointers for future research.

Keywords

Indian women managers, women in the public sector, role conflict and working women in India

Introduction

The percentage of women in the Indian workforce has been steadily increasing since Independence in 1947 (Human Development Report, 2010). Women now comprise approximately 31 per cent of the workforce

Indian Journal of Gender Studies 18(3) 279–309

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280 Farah Naqvi

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 18, 3 (2011): 279–309

in both rural and urban sectors (UN, 2000). The Female Economic Activity Rate (FEAR) for India was 42 per cent in 2001 (Human Development Report, 2001). According to the Registrar General of India, the work participation rate of women increased from 19.67 per cent in 1981 to 25.68 per cent in 2001, with a higher rate in rural areas at 30.98 per cent, compared with only 11.55 per cent in urban areas (United Nations, 2000). In the new economic environment, with rapid global changes taking place in the concepts of work and workplace, one can foresee positive implications for Indian women in the workforce (Gothoskar, 2000; Jhabvala and Sinha, 2002). Among other effects the liberalised Indian economy has created a large number of employment opportunities for women, though mainly for educated women residing in urban areas (Das, 2003).

Economic reforms initiated in the early 1990s have resulted in many macro-level changes in Indian organisations (Datt, 2003). Earlier, a mix-ture of social, organisational and personal biases contributed towards keeping the employment of women, particularly in managerial positions, at a lower level, but attitudes are now changing. To survive in the current dynamic business environment, firms operating in India are also now looking for talented human resources (HR) from all quarters (Budhwar and Boyne, 2004) and are realising the need to change their traditional stance towards women employees. On the one hand, new work dynamics are changing social values in Indian society; on the other, increased global focus on women’s issues is significantly affecting woman’s role and career progression for the better.

An attempt has been made in this article to collate the perspectives of a group of Indian women managers to throw light on women’s problems and dilemmas at the managerial level. On the whole, women’s repre-sentation in management is low. Globally, women comprise only around 10 per cent of senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies (Chadha, 2002). While liberalisation of the Indian economy has created considerable employment opportunities for many, including women, who possess marketable skills and talent, women are seen mainly in HR and Information Technology (IT) departments and servicing activities. Their presence in hardcore production or marketing is less than men’s and still lower at strategic policy-influencing levels. This is despite claims that women in India have played significant roles in social organ-isations, politics and administration (Gupta, Koshal and Koshal, 1998).



Perspectives of Indian Women Managers in the Public Sector 281


The traditional role of Indian women into which girls are socialised is set in the domestic sphere. India is still largely a traditional society where widespread gender-based biases and practices prevail. There are dis-parities in literacy and nutritional levels, girls growing up in a culture that assumes that their duties and capabilities are different and their position lower than that of boys. There are complaints on record from women graduating from premier educational institutions that boys are preferred to girls in academic placements despite girls having better educational attainments (Chadha, 2002). Nevertheless, over the last three decades, a minority of educated better-off women have been entering a variety of occupations and are diversifying into different professions for-merly the exclusive domain of males. These include banking, market-ing, advertising, the civil services, the police and armed forces and new careers opening up in the emerging fields of IT and communication. Through these avenues women can aspire to the acquisition of money, knowledge and power. Yet, social stereotypes held by their male col-leagues and bosses about women’s role in society have influenced the position and treatment of women managers. A study by Khandelwal (2002), based on a sample of 230 respondents, suggests that male man-agers stereotypically working in the fields of production, sales and mar-keting are considered good bosses, leaders and decision-makers, and carry out ‘hard’ field work and challenging assignments, particularly in sectors such as manufacturing and engineering. On the other hand, female managers are observed to be working predominantly in HR, Public Relations (PR) and administration at subordinate or junior levels, and are often found in ‘soft’ fields like fashion, clothing and beauty prod-ucts. A large number of women also work in newspaper organisations, the electronic media, the IT industry and service organisations.

There is some evidence which shows sector-wise differences in the career development of women. For example, women are playing a sig-nificant role in the expansion of the Indian software industry and they constitute 45 per cent of the high-tech workforce. A high concentration of men exists in export software firms, whereas women are present in higher proportions in domestic low-end and IT-enabled services (Suriya and Craig, 2003). All the same, entry into IT and related service sectors are helping women in India to move out of their traditional household roles and develop a career in business organisations.



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Some of the key strengths identified in women as managers include:

Greater sensitivity in relationships (being more understanding, compassionate, sympathetic and empathetic);

Ability to ‘network’ better amongst their colleagues; Ability to better understand and perceive situations; Stronger sense of dedication, commitment and loyalty to their

organisations (women managers are perceived to be less likely to ‘job-hop’ than men);

Ability to perform multiple tasks; Better management of crisis situations; Greater readiness to share information and power (which highlights

their interactive leadership style); Ability to behave in a more gender-neutral manner; and Ability to solicit input from others which leads to an atmosphere

of greater degree of trust, self-worth and respect for ideas (Gupta et al., 1998; Kulkarni, 2002; Mehra, 2002).

It is a truism that women who hold jobs carry a double load as em-ployee and housewife (Abraham, 2002). The author of this article inter-acted with women managers in a week-long programme on ‘Women in Management’ held at the Centre for Organisation Development in Hyderabad in 2008 that brought different issues and questions to the discussion table:

What are the questions relating to the challenge of maintaining work/life balance?

Why do women stop aspiring after reaching a certain level? Is it lack of family support or because they feel that family comes

first? Do the different expectations of men and women at home and at

the workplace have a role to play? Why does an organisation think 10 times before promoting a

woman to a leadership position or do men find it difficult to work under a lady boss?

Why is the income of women still considered more like pocket money?





Why is due importance not given to a woman’s career and aspira-tions? Is the cause of this women themselves or our societal culture?

An increasing number of women in public forums, in alumni seminars and symposia and various professional bodies have felt that a research study of this kind was long overdue, that there is a need to explore some of these questions. Within the feminist paradigm, researchers seek to understand human behaviour and through that understanding to change social life (Foss and Foss, 1988). Hence Anderson (1988) contends that there is a need for scholars to describe the world by examining women’s experiences. Many of the women managers in our study stated that their viewpoint often goes unheard and they feel dominated in the workplace, most likely because the experiences of women have ‘been invisible to men as the dominant class’. As Anderson pointed out, scholars doing research from a male perspective have generally not been able to ‘see’ women or understand their experiences. This research was undertaken to investigate the changing role and status of women managers in the new economic environment. Some of the major issues discussed in-cluded their aspirations, the key challenges and issues they faced at home and workplace, competencies required for effective role performance and reasons for the low percentage of women in senior managerial positions.

Methodology

The structured interview method consisting of open-ended questions was used for collecting data. Each interview lasted for not less than 45 minutes. The interviews were conducted with around 50 women working in managerial positions in a leading public sector company based at Hyderabad. The survey was a five-month project starting in the last quarter of the year in September 2008, reaching completion by February 2009.

As per Harding’s proposal, a listening technique such as the inter-view, and a qualitative data-gathering scheme outlined by McCracken (1988) were the two cogent methods used in this study. Long interviews



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are similar to in-depth interviews; but long interviews go beyond study-ing individual perceptions and feelings—they help identify shared men-tal categories among participants. The long interview’s emphasis on participant-centred testimony is important. That is, in-depth as well as long interviews provide an opportunity for women to speak for them-selves. As McCracken pointed out, the most important principle to keep in mind when conducting qualitative interviews involves ‘the recogni-tion that the first objective is to allow respondents to tell their story in their own terms’. Given this consideration, a schedule of questions was developed. Four key questions were put to each of the respondents after asking them to give a brief introduction about themselves.

1. What are the challenges and issues faced by you as a woman at home and at the workplace?

2. What are your aspirations?3. What do you think are the key competencies required for effective

role performance and which make a woman successful?4. Why do you think there are so few women in top level positions?

Respondents and Their Voices

McCracken’s (1988) blueprint suggests that when choosing respondents, ‘less is more’. As he pointed out, working longer and more carefully with a smaller number of people yields richer data than working superficially with many people. Studying a small number of people raises the red flag of the quantitatively trained scientist. But, as McCracken explained, the quantitative investigator most likely is striving for generalisability—determining how many and what kind of people share a certain charac-teristic. Thus, an adequate sample size is crucial. In the qualitative case, however, the researcher is more interested in depth. Deep probing allows the investigator to discover the analytical categories and assumptions according to which respondents construe their world. Keeping this in mind, the selection of 50 female interviewees obviously was not dictated by sampling rules, and limiting criteria were not used. Any woman who seemed to be a woman manager with enough experience (at least five years) was chosen to shed light on the research questions.





A clear-cut formula for analysing the results of qualitative interviews was not used. However, feminists’ concern with showcasing women’s stories suggested that these women’s ‘voices’ in paraphrases and direct quotations provide the ‘data’ for this phase of the research design. With this in mind, notes and tapes from the interviews were reviewed. Responses were transcribed either verbatim or in summary form. Next, themes were identified, comments were arranged under these categories, and differing opinions were documented.

Apart from the primary data collected, information was also collected from other sources such as magazines, company reports and the Web. This qualitative information was content-analysed (Table 1).

Table 1. The Details of the Respondents Who Participated in the Research Study

Sample size 50

Average work experience (ranging from 9 to 19 years)

The average number of years of experience was 12 years. 70 per cent of the respondents’ work experience ranged between 0–10 years while 30 per cent of the women managers had more than 10 years’ experience.

Qualifications B. Tech (68 per cent); post-graduate (30 per cent) and higher professional qualifications like CWA (Cost and Works Accountant) (2 per cent).

Marital status All were married.Parent status 98 per cent had children.Careers of parents on both sides

19 per cent of the respondents had been raised in a family where both parents were working and 10 per cent were married into families where both the in laws had careers; the rest came from single income families.

Type of family 60 per cent lived in a joint family and 40 per cent were nuclear families.

Source: Author’s own data.

The majority of the participants were professionally qualified in dif-ferent branches of engineering. They had many years of experience rang-ing from 9 to 19 years. They were married and had children. The majority lived in a joint (not extended) family. The information elicited is discussed below.



286 Farah Naqvi


The Role of Parents

Seventy per cent of the respondents described the role of their parents in encouraging them to enter careers. Research suggests that parents occupy a unique and critical place in the lives of young people that often goes unrecognised by parents as well as policy makers. In a study of a US programme designed to involve parents in their child’s career planning, Cochran and Kush’s (1993, p. 437) research finding indicated that ‘through career planning with a parent, adolescents in Grade 12 showed greater career certainty, less indecision, more career salience, and stronger ego identity’. This finding is echoed by Taylor, Harris and Taylor (2004) who suggest that ‘without parental approval or support, students and young adults are often reluctant to pursue or even explore diverse career possibilities’ (Taylor et al., 2004, p. 19). Similarly, in a study measuring the intensity of information seeking undertaken by 236 ninth grade students in German schools, Kracke (1997) found that parental involvement in career-related issues is one of a series of factors that leads to young people engaging in more intense and effective information-seeking activities. Young, Valach, Paseluikho and Dover (1997) emphasise the important role of career conversations between parent and child. They label these conversations a co-joint action and suggest that they ‘shape joint goals and shared meanings and regulate action’ (Young et al., 1997, p. 82).

The home environment has an important influence on adolescent edu-cational aspirations. Young people with highly educated parents, who are involved in their schooling and are seen as having high aspirations for them, are more likely to have high educational aspirations and ambitious career plans for themselves (Rice, 2002). Other researchers also found that parents with higher educational qualifications enrol their children in more extracurricular activities, including music, and have higher expecta-tions for them (Peng and Wright, 1994). Parents who do not promote the value of academic achievement have children who do not believe in the importance of doing well at school and going on to college; such children set occupational goals well below their ability. These young people often decide not to attend college, and look for occupations that rely heavily on manual labour or routine service (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara and Pastorelli, 2001). The findings of these earlier researches were reaffirmed by this study, as around 11 of the women managers specifically mentioned





their parents’ expectations of and for them while they were studying. Six out of these 11 women came from families where either both or one par-ent was holding a good position and had done significantly well in terms of higher education in their respective fields.

Trade-off between Marriage and Career

The budding career of a woman is often compromised by marriage. The responses of the majority of these women managers reflected regret for not having taken certain career steps that would have enhanced growth, an omission that most likely affected their career prospects and deter-mined their current position. In a collaborative study designed jointly by four study partners (the International Centre for Research on Women, Washington, DC; the Foundation for Research in Health Systems, Gujarat, India, which collected data in Rajasthan; the Institute for Health Management, Pachod, Maharashtra, India and the International Centre for Disease Research, Bangladesh) qualitative methods were used to collect data through 61 in-depth interviews. The data were coded using ATLAS.ti, and analysed by identifying patterns and variation in the data. The girls’ ages ranged from 14 to 20 years. The findings suggested a trade-off between marriage and education. That is, education and mar-riage are not considered equal priorities for girls and a decision about one directly affects the other. Thus, when parents choose to marry their daughters early, they have also chosen to end their education, while a decision to invest in further education of a girl is weighed against the social and economic costs of delaying her marriage. One of our re-spondents working as Deputy Manager in the manufacturing division recounted her experiences:

I live in a joint family and have a son who is only two and a half years old. My mother-in-law takes care of him. My father used to work in a low level job but always encouraged things like education and music for us. Though I was from a very conservative background he always encouraged my education. The only drawback was that my parents prioritised marriage over career. If I had been able to pursue my studies further I would’ve joined at the next higher level and also got early promotion.



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This account highlights how the parent’s role can be a key deter-mining factor in shaping the career aspirations of a woman. This factor is crucial for young women from middle-class Indian families where the importance of a career for a woman is often undermined.

Motherhood and Work

Motherhood confers upon a woman the responsibility of raising a child. This role also changes the way in which she is perceived in society and at her workplace. As a mother, it may be necessary for her to take more than available leave options, and job security can be at risk. Significant social and personal adjustments are necessary to cope with maternal responsibilities. A working mother, especially one who has the good fortune to be able to balance her home and work, enjoys the stimulation that a job or career provides. She develops the ability to raise a child while gaining financial independence. Along with motherhood, work adds to the completeness of being a woman. This realisation and also the associated challenges of being a working mother motivates many women to forge ahead and take bold decisions which earlier they might have found difficult. Even the reputed Ms Nooyi, who has been consistently making it among the top women in Fortune’s annual list of the most influential women in the world, raised quite a few eyebrows in the room when she admitted that in her scheme of priorities her role as mother was the most important, followed by that of CEO and then wife (Bhagat, 2007).

One of our respondents said, ‘Leaving a young child at home to go to work has always brought out guilt in women’. While another respondent with a small child chose a career posting with the support of her family.

I have studied commerce and am a certifi ed Cost and Works Accountant. I have been associated with this company for the past 19 years. I joined the accounts section in the fi nance department at Chennai and later moved to the bills section at Bangalore. I was also sent to New York before being posted to Hyderabad. I had to leave my two-year-old daughter behind and stay alone in New York for three years. I never thought I could take such a step. It was really a tough decision. However it enhanced my career very positively.





I am currently working as a manager in the fi nance section. It was my father who always motivated me to give priority to my education and to qualify for ICWA.

While sharing her experience one could easily perceive her satis-faction, happiness and sense of achievement. As Hillary Rodham Clinton remarked at the Plenary Session on 5 September 1995 of the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, China: ‘If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well.’

Women Put a Husband’s Career First

A woman with superb qualifications working in one of the most esteemed, satisfying, and financially lucrative careers in the country, with qualifica-tions to pursue her own interests, often makes compromises for the sake of her marriage. For instance, one manager, originally from Coimbatore, said she had several degrees (B.Tech, MS and MBA) and 19 years’ ex-perience to her credit. She said,

My father was himself a PhD and always encouraged me to pursue higher studies. I have been with this company for the past 15 years. Earlier I was working at Bangalore. I got myself transferred [to Hyderabad] because my husband is a scientist here; otherwise I was going to be sent on an assignment abroad which I gave up to be with my family. I have two children studying in the seventh standard and I live in a joint family. Currently I am working as a Senior Manager in a naval project.

What does this say about the state of educated working women in India? Does it indicate that wives willingly subordinate themselves to their husbands? Or do men put themselves first and do women accept that? Husbands usually choose where to live, where to pursue educa-tion, where to pursue their career and not to let children or domestic issues interrupt their career, thus placing the burden and responsibility of the decision to follow the husband squarely on the working wife’s shoulders.



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Coser and Rokoff (1970), for example, found that among women with doctoral degrees, those who remained single were far more likely to attain the position of professor. Further research is needed to determine the factors associated with the extent to which women will compromise their career ambitions to accommodate their husbands’ careers and fam-ily demands. However, a consistent pattern of results indicates that job opportunities for wives have carried considerably less weight than their husbands’ in determining the couple’s geographical location (Gilbert, 1985). Studies indicate that women are unlikely to relocate for their own careers but are likely to disrupt their careers to help their husbands to relocate.

Women’s Aspirations

A research study conducted by Wentling (2006) focused on the career development and aspirations of women in middle management in busi-ness firms in the US. The major method of this research study was the individual case study. Case studies relied on personal and/or telephone interviews with the same 30 women managers who participated in the first phase of the study in 1995. The majority of the women managers worked for Fortune 500 companies and were scattered throughout the US. The findings revealed that the majority of women managers had not attained the positions to which they aspired. The majority believed they were not progressing as rapidly as they thought they should. Yet they did aspire to top level management positions. Therefore, the second question we asked was ‘what are your aspirations?’

To be a Good Mother and Role Model

Famous child psychiatrist Fritz Redl (1966) used to say to groups of parents: ‘Get out your paper and pencils. I am going to tell you the three most important things you will ever need to know about raising children’. The parents would wait breathlessly for his words of wisdom. Then he would say, ‘Example, example, example’. Similarly, Eda LeShan (1988), a family counsellor and writer on parenting, has often said: ‘The only





way to raise a decent human being is by being one.’ These two observers are right: what children become probably has most of all to do with the example set by those who raise them. Chances are that the person we become is influenced mostly by the example set by our parents and others close to us. This awareness is the key reason why around 70 per cent of the respondents said that their major aspiration is to be an ideal mother and role model for their children.

I fi rst aspire to be a good mother and a role model for my child besides being a good wife and a daughter-in-law [this response came very naturally to her]. I would like to see myself as Deputy General Manager (DGM) of the development and engineering section, fi ve to six years later [when specifi cally asked].

Women Can’t Dream Big as Family Comes First

At the height of the women’s movement, women were told they could be whatever they wanted, so dream big. When women tried that, they soon had to face and address the real obstacles in their career path. Over-coming those, even to reach a point considerably short of complete suc-cess, took extraordinary effort. If one is married, the burdens of the household are an additional strain, and the issue of whether or not to have children often translates into whether or not to have a successful career or just resign oneself to being primarily a housewife. Unques-tionably, women shoulder the burden of being the primary household manager and caregiver and when children arrive, the nurturing mother at home. This fact was quite apparent in the responses given by the women managers, one of whom confessed that she had not thought much about this issue and could not afford to either.

I have to take care of my family fi rst. I have to lose out on opportunities because I have to give priority to my family. Field visits are integral to my work profi le such as three month assignments in a submarine. This becomes very diffi cult for me. I can’t go because there is no one to help at home [with a deep sigh].

One could sense that she had the ambition to rise in her career but was sacrificing her desires for the sake of her family. It seemed that she



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had lost the confidence that she could do anything about it and was totally helpless.

One of the outcomes of this type of resignation is that women often take it upon themselves to lower their expectations at work in order to fulfil their obligations at home, compromising on their dreams of making it big. All the participants in this study believed that change for the better could only happen when men understand and share family responsibil-ities. As an example of the change which can happen when men fully understand the ‘life balance’ issue, Quick, Henley and Quick (2004) cite the case of Lewis Platt, CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP) whose wife died of cancer and who then, ‘juggling a demanding job as a single parent had a conversion experience’ and transformed HP into a beacon of family-friendly policies. When Platt retired, he was replaced by a woman, one of the three women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Career Aspirations are Dependent on the Family

Research in career development has long acknowledged that the career path of women is ‘different’ from that of men, and that life stage litera-ture grounded in the male experience is not adequate to explain women’s experiences (Holland, 1966). One area of agreement in most of the litera-ture on women’s career paths is that not only are women’s paths ‘dif-ferent’ from men’s, but that they are more complex. Newer career theories have been developed since the beginnings of the feminist movement in the 1960s that are more pertinent to women’s experiences (Holland, 1966). Gottfredson (1996) proposed a life stage theory that emphasises the importance that gender roles and prestige play in making career choices. Models using cognitive information processing theory and social-cognitive theory have been applied to women’s career develop-ment. Crozier (1999) offers a ‘relational model’ of women’s career de-velopment that suggests an integration of work and family roles rather than a choice between them. The decisions taken by women are mostly decided with the consent and approval of the family members, be it parents or husband.

How a family influences the career decision-making of its members is often related to cultural factors. In a comparative study of working





women and men, Duxbury, Higgins and Lee (1994) state that as far as women are concerned, the work-to-family and family-to-work inter-ference is greater than for men. Work and family roles occur sequentially for men while they are simultaneous for women. In addition, work and family roles are independent choices for men (DiBenedetto and Tittle, 1990) which is not so for women. Additionally, marriage represents stability and support for the men’s careers while a combination of career and marriage is considered a liability and a trade-off for women (by both women and men) and especially when career motivations and success are measured within a traditional framework of social role expectations (Tharenou and Conroy, 1994) making to a great extent the career-related aspirations of women contingent on the family. As one respondent said:

I am very unsure of whether I will continue working or [whether] I will quit. As long as I am working I would like to get all my promotions on time. The reason [I am unsure] is that this decision [to work] rests with my family.

On being questioned why she gave less importance to her career, her response was, ‘In my family, I am the only one who will play my role. No one can replace me. At work, if I am not there someone else will do my job’.

Something Else also Prevents Women from Dreaming Big

‘I see myself as a Deputy General Manager (DGM) after five-six years’, said one woman manager. On being asked, ‘Why don’t you aspire to reach up to the General Manager (GM) level?’ she took a deep breath, gave a shy astonished look and started laughing. This response illustrates the lack of confidence that made her shy of spelling out her aspiration clearly and boldly. This often happens because of the way girls are raised when young. Her goals are often not taken seriously as a child as she is a girl (Das Gupta, 1987); only when gender stereotyping is swept away, when the barriers preventing girls and women from dreaming big dreams—and having the confidence to live up to them—are broken once and for all, can there be change.



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It is unfortunate that many parents and educators have the impres-sion that feminist concerns for gender equity have been fully addressed. Contrary to commonly held beliefs, the attributes, attitudes and strength of sex stereotypes have not changed (Bergen and Williams, 1991). The gender role ideology that underlies widespread gender differences con-tinues to affect the level and quality of social support that a working woman receives in developing countries like India (Rajadhyaksha, 2004). Internal (intrapsychic) and external (real-world) barriers persist and continue to work against women’s achievement, preventing her from dreaming big. There is considerable research documenting the ways in which schools systematically short-change girls, and the ways in which school climates are experienced as significantly less enabling by girls than boys, encouraging girls to conform at the cost of expressing their individuality and developing their autonomy (Bailey 1993; Sadker and Sadker, 1994; Wellesley College Centre for Research on Women, 1992). The research shows that many girls experience a ‘loss of voice’—an alienation from their authentic, spontaneous selves—at about age eleven, which is particularly dramatic and severe for girls who had previously been the most intellectually curious and able (Gilligan, Lyons and Hanmer, 1990).

One explanation for these myriad problems is the identity conflict that gifted girls face at adolescence. High academic achievement, espe-cially when attained in competition with boys, conflicts with prevailing gender socialisation attitudes (Chodorow, 1989; Harter, 1990). Given that appearance and popularity are more important for girls, and achieve-ment needs are more important for boys, even in the attitudes held by parents of gifted students (Jacobs and Weisz, 1994), subsequent sex dif-ferences in academic achievement are a logical and predictable outcome which later form the foundation for subsequent choices that have almost irreversible implications for many academic and career decisions and the ability to believe in dreams.

The responses of the respondents lead to the conclusion that though women managers hold good positions, have the desire and the capability to move ahead, they are still very unsure whether they can make it to the top.





Challenges and Issues Faced by Women at Home and Workplace

The interview results revealed that the biggest challenge faced by women managers today is managing their dual role as organisational managers and as housewives. They experience tremendous stress juggling work and family responsibilities. Women’s role in corporate organisations leads to an understanding of the multiple roles that women fulfil in society and an awareness of their social and economic pressures.

At Home

(a) Unable to Meet the Expectations of In-laws and Family

This was the cry of the majority (60 per cent) who lived in a joint family. In addition to workplace responsibilities, many women are also primary caregivers of children and other dependents such as parents and relatives. When support systems are not available, the demands faced by working women can be overwhelming. Of the 60 per cent of the respondents who lived in a joint family, some did not get adequate help from other family members in running the household. They were dissatisfied for various reasons. The answers we received reflected dissatisfaction with the level of home support. Reliance on domestic help was partial; either older members of the family were not keen on such help or the domestic workers were not reliable.

In a study carried out by George, Choudhary, Tripathy and Abraham (2009) on the contribution of women in unpaid household work in India under the aegis of the Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF) and Health Bridge Nagpur, India (2009) results showed that 26 per cent of men participate in house-cleaning on a daily basis as compared to 90 per cent of women. Only 6 per cent of men ever wash the dishes, 28 per cent cook and 24 per cent carry water. While it is encouraging to see that men do play some role in domestic tasks, it is clear that such tasks continue to be considered as mainly the domain of women, with men ‘helping’ their



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wives, rather than husbands and wives sharing the responsibility—even in families where women, like men, go out to work for a considerable number of hours per day for pay. One of the objectives of an empirical study done by Chauhan (2010) on Indian corporate women and work-life balance among married women employees of various industries in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, was to identify the challenges faced by women in balancing work and family and their coping style at workplace and home. The findings indicated that owing to the number of roles women play throughout life, they are subject to continuous work-life conflict where time and energy demands imposed by diverse roles cannot be efficiently met, as participation in one role is made increasingly difficult by participation in another. One of the respondents reflected as follows:

Things are not so smooth in my family. I am unable to meet the expectations of my in-laws who expect me to be very dynamic and contribute fully at home. There is no one to help at home. If I am not at home there is no one to give a glass of milk to my children. I have to get up very early in the morning, cook for six people and then leave for work. My husband is very supportive but is somehow not accustomed to doing such things.

However, 20 per cent of women in joint families were very happy with the support they were getting from their in-laws. In fact, they felt that their job was possible only because they could leave their young children in the safe custody of grandparents.

(b) Quality Time and Guilt

Van Fleet and Saurage (1984) in their research findings stated that although women can embark on a business career, they experience difficulty in shedding their role as housewife or mother. Today’s working woman is torn between a career and the home. Every woman has a dream—a dream of success and fulfilment, be it at home or in any other field. Like a man, she too has a purpose and an aim in life. In the case of working women, even when the husband is cooperative, the children self-sufficient, the fact remains that women cannot devote as much time as they would like to their home life. While some women accept this and





start believing in quality time, others are continually ridden by feelings of guilt, especially in regard to their children. Many working women suffer from guilt. They hold themselves solely responsible for their child’s behaviour, illness or failures (Van Fleet and Saurage, 1984). In this study too, 98 per cent of the respondents clearly expressed this feel-ing. As one of them said:

On the family front I have always enjoyed full support from my family, one reason being that my mother-in-law was also a working woman and could empathise with me. However I always feel guilty that I am unable to spend adequate time with my daughter who is in her teens and needs me by her side.

Problems at Work

Differential Treatment

One of the prominent obstacles that most women managers cited was differential treatment at work which embodies men’s belief in the superiority of men, leading to the treatment of women as inferior and less important. Three of the respondents shared in detail how, due to this stereotype, women are offered less challenging jobs and are often not involved in tackling crucial organisational issues—they felt that their suggestions were often not given due importance. With regard to pro-motion too women managers felt that they were in a disadvantageous position vis-à-vis their male colleagues. Previous researches have also found that the rate of progress up the ladder of promotion is often not the same for the two sexes (Borcelle, 1985). Dissatisfaction with training and inadequate training also creates occupational stress for women man-agers. It has been found that many women lag behind their male coun-terparts when it comes to in-house selection, education and training (Buddhapriya, 1999). This is so because it is assumed that women will give up their career for marriage or to attend to their children (Ibid.). One lone respondent mentioned that physical attractiveness too led to differ-ential treatment.



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Finally, research has pointed to the glass ceiling which limits women’s upward mobility. But expressing a contrary view, HSBC CEO Naina Lal Kidwai has been quoted as saying: ‘Many women believe that there is a glass ceiling as they go up, but many a times [sic.] it is a glass ceiling that is self-created.’ She urged women to take a leap of faith and push them-selves to the top through this perceived hurdle (e-paper version of Business Line, the business daily of The Hindu group of Publications, 3 October 2007).

Women Work Harder to Prove Themselves

Women’s overload comes from the pressure to work harder to prove themselves. Around 20 per cent of respondents expressed the view that while Indian men do not mind having women as subordinates, they do not like them as bosses. The dissatisfaction of subordinates is a source of stress for women managers, which they see as a challenge to be con-fronted. The study clearly shows that women managers in India have to deal with the male ego, which is viewed as a serious barrier to women moving up the managerial ladder. While this finding needs further ex-ploration through a survey of male subordinates working under a woman, for a start, a review of secondary data was done using journals, magazines, newsletters, etc. Some of the responses of a survey on this issue were reported in Daily News and Analysis (DNA). The material presented a mixed picture:

Although I have a friendly female boss, I would be more comfortable working under a man. I cannot behave very freely with a female boss around. Male bosses are easy-going and can bond with their male employees better. I can never share a drink and hang out with my female boss. Women bosses can be very emotional too. (Tanwer, 2008)

My immediate superior is a woman and she is the most inspiring colleague I have had till date. A good motivator, she regularly sits with the team and encourages each one of us. I have a lot of respect for her. Personally, I don’t think it makes any difference if my boss is a man or a woman. All I want is to learn something new from my boss. Who said men have egos? I enjoy working under my boss. (Iyer, 2008)





As Ann Harriman (1996) argues in her book, Women/Men/Manage-ment, that just as men and women differ biologically and socially, they also differ in the nature of their social interactions. Men and women tend to interact with each other in ways that enact their stereotypical role and also reinforce their differential power and status. Males tend to have traditional sex role attitudes (Zimmer, 1986) and because they often socialise in same sex peer groups (Herbert, 1962), may have little or no experience of interacting with women as equals. Macoby (1978) reports that 40 per cent of the male managers he interviewed believed that the fittest should survive. Once again a double standard survives. As Rufina Fernandes, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation shares:

Till date, whether it’s a developed country like the US or a developing coun-try like India, there are very few women at the top. The reason for this is that very few make it up there. There are many things pulling the woman down—character analysis, want of peer support, a feeling that people don’t want them to get to the top, etc. The women who are able to fi ght all this are the ones who make it to the top. Even I faced such situations but I fought against it by taking it up with the senior management. (Fernandes, 2009)

Men are Preferred for Some Jobs

Studies conducted to find out the nature of work undertaken or assigned to girls and boys discovered that work is allocated differentially. Boys tend to be given more physical tasks than women. Even parents who fight for gender equity in their own marriages find themselves splitting their children’s tasks along traditional gender lines (Dhoundiyal, Dhoundiyal and Shukla, 1994; Shellenbarger, 2006). The women man-agers covered in this study were all from a technical and engineering background. Their work involved working in projects which were often time bound. There was a preference for men in the assignment of tasks at the managerial level. This issue was highlighted by four of the women managers:

My role constantly requires me to meet the set targets. During March I also have to work in night shifts sometimes. I feel lucky that my family is very supportive and considers my work very important. Field visits are common in



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my job. It includes things like three month assignments in a submarine. There are some jobs where men are given preference because a certain degree of physical work is required even though women can perform it equally well.

I didn’t experience any bias owing to my being a woman except when it came to an assignment that required some degree of physical work. I was well pre-pared from the very initial stage but fi nally the assignment was handed over to a male counterpart.

Twenty-five per cent of the women mentioned hours spent at work as a factor in being considered for promotion. However, the literature is still silent on this issue. The response of one particular interviewee shared below makes explicit the linkages between all the issues brought up by women managers. Family responsibilities and lesser consideration and importance given to a woman’s job affect a woman’s workplace contri-bution which in turn affects her drive for achievement.

I am very satisfi ed with the workplace that has provided me with ample learning opportunities. However bosses generally prefer their subordinates to stay a little beyond regular offi ce hours. I can’t do that because I am needed at home. As it is, my income is only considered like pocket money for the family. I feel this might affect my chances for growth. Being realistic I don’t aspire too much. As it is I don’t have a free mind at work because I always feel I am unable to give quality time to my son.

Informal Networks

Sociologists define informal networks as the web of relationships that people use to exchange resources and services (Cook, 1982; Scott, 1991; Wellman, 1983). Informal networks are distinct from formal networks in that they are not officially recognised or mandated by organisations and the content of their exchanges can be work-related, personal or social (Ibarra, 1992). Less than half (20) the respondents said that they were the last ones to get to know about any new piece of information as they have to leave on time for domestic reasons and are unable to socialise or be part of such networks. Informal networks determine to a great extent the ranking of network members based on indicators such as which network member gets priority, the risks that workers take for different





network members, the network relationships with which workers are the most satisfied and with whom resources and information are shared to what degree.

What are the Competencies that Make a Women Succeed?

This question was put to all the women managers and they were asked to list three major competencies that are critical for a woman’s success. The question specifically used the word ‘competencies’ which is something that is internal to an individual. Despite this clarification, the near-universal reply cited ‘family support’, which is an ‘external’ factor. Family support was thus the most highly rated factor (90 per cent) in women’s success at work above all competencies (Table 2).

Table 2. Factors Crucial for Women’s Success in Rank Order

Good family support. ‘It is the support in the family that helps a woman succeed. If this is missing then everything becomes difficult.’Talent Management skillsGood performanceActive and lively natureHard workConfidenceGood networkingFighting spiritSelf-confidenceAmbitionAbility to take one’s own decisions

Source: Author’s own data.

This finding raises two questions:

Is family support therefore the most critical and major cause that determines a women’s success or failure?

Do women in themselves lack the motivation and will to succeed as they seem to depend on ‘externals’ (see Rotter, 1966).1



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Why are there Only a Few Women at the Top Levels of Management?

This was the last question asked of the women managers. Some of the responses are quoted below:

Women lack the support of the family. Men tend to be generally more qualifi ed than women. This later affects promotions and growth. For example, when I joined [work] as an engineer on probation there were only 20 women in a batch of 200. The majority of the boys had an M. Tech degree while the women had only a Bachelor’s degree (B.E. or B.Tech).

Lack of empathy at home. It is not easy to go against the fl ow. Men fi nd it diffi cult to accept women in higher positions. Men have the full support of the family and a culturally given superior status and role in India.

Though organisations have come up with many policies for the safety and welfare of women (for instance, women’s preferences are always taken into consideration before they are transferred), the management still thinks ten times before promoting a women to a senior position, to the level of General Manager. The reason probably is the Indian mindset [according to] which the proper place for a woman is her home. Women are not visualised as leaders.

Women Managers’ Expectations

The majority of respondents expected challenging assignments, more involvement in policy and decision-making, creation of a healthy work environment, an equal workload and recognition by bosses about their capabilities. Most respondents expected their bosses to acknowledge their good work, seek their opinion while making decisions, treat a female employee as an individual and not as a woman, trust in their effi-ciency and accept suggestions from them. In addition, women managers wanted due respect from their male counterparts in terms of free ex-change of information. They did not want their subordinates to feel that it is below their dignity and status to work under a woman. Some of the core HRD issues included performance appraisal, promotions, training, uniformity of policy and preparing organisations for recruiting more female employees. The women managers expected these issues to be tackled in the most objective manner and without any discrimination.





On the positive side, they were happy with their organisation for offering facilities like childcare and accommodation when posted to remote areas. At home they looked forward to more support from members of the family, hoped that their job is given due importance, and that expectations by the family would be based more on their capabilities rather than on the standard role of woman as a typical housewife.

Implications for Organisations

The workplace and the attitudes of society have become a lot friendlier to women in recent years, but it is still not perfect. Many respondents echoed the opinion that attitudes in the wider society as well as the workplace are not conducive to working women. Research shows that even when women rise to managerial ranks, they may still face gender inequities (Dozier, Chapo and Sullivan, 1983). One respondent remarked that when male managers pound their fists on the table, everyone’s sup-posed to deal with it. But when a woman shows a little mist in her eyes, people consider her too emotional. As Creedon (1991) explains, the con-dition of women can be improved by revisioning the value of women’s work. It is not by merely changing women’s position within the organ-isational system but by structural changes in the social system itself.

Clearly, in today’s organisations, facilitating policies and practices for both men and women at the workplace need to be implemented in a man-ner that is fair and equitable but at the same time productive and efficient. Company-run crèches, flexitime, ‘e’-enabled work in the organisation and at home, paternity leave, etc., are examples of policies practiced by progressive organisations, but the organisations need to be increasingly and universally sensitive towards the personal and familial responsibilities of their female employees. There could also be job-sharing arrange-ments between two or more women within the organisation. Paternity leave should be more widespread for reconstructing fatherhood and at the same time change ideas and stereotypes of masculinity itself (Brandt and Kvande, 2002).

Fortunately, nature has made women strong. They are compassionate, sympathetic, understanding and caring. They have inborn and inherent



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qualities such as endurance, patience and responsibility towards work. They are tenacious and can handle pain and suffering. They have the ability to struggle all their lives trying to achieve a balance. Today’s pro-gressive organisation would be better-off if it helps women to attain such a balance. Many working women handle job-related responsibilities well and can function well even without family support. Women appear to be focused and organised especially in handling multiple roles. Today’s working women need to use these inherent strengths as leverage and find their feet within the context of the organisation. On their part, organisations would do well to keep in mind women’s multiple roles as well as imple-ment equality and negate gender discrimination. Women’s new found assertiveness coupled with structural changes within the organisation and at the societal level would enable them to successfully evolve from their current ‘transitory identity’ towards a better defined identity that recognises their work as well as their personal life roles.

Note

1. Rotter’s concept of the locus of control refers to the extent to which indi-viduals believe that they can control events that affect them. Externals refer to the individual’s belief that whatever happens to her/him is due to external factors.

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Perspectives of Indian Women Managers in the Public Sector

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