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Two books that I read recently gave me insights into the experiences of two powerful women who have carved their place in male dominated workplaces. One of them was Justice (retd) <keyword id="138835" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Leila-Seth">Leila Seth</keyword>’s autobiography, On Balance and the other one was Lean In, the book on the experiences of Facebook chief operating officer,<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/How-Sheryl-Sandbergs-grandmother-taught-her-it-was-okay-to-lean-on-other-women-for-support/articleshow/52909071.cms"> Sheryl Sandberg</a>. 
 
In her book On Balance, Justice Seth recounts her initial days at after being elevated as judge in the Delhi High Court. She says that people used to address her as the “new lady judge” and she had to frequently correct them, “I am not the new lady judge, but the new judge.” In her own words, she had to be “equal-plus” in order to be taken seriously. On a similar note, <keyword id="611995" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sheryl-Sandberg">Sheryl Sandberg</keyword>, in her book describes the gender stereotypes that have existed since her childhood and were even visible in her workplace environment. These books give a glimpse of the conscious and inadvertent biases that exist around us. They also bring out the physiological impact of <keyword id="3590826" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="gender-disparity-in-employment">gender disparity in employment</keyword> and what women go through in such situations. As most of the top level positions are held by men, it is assumed to be natural that women cannot break the glass ceiling. Unfortunately, many educated and working women have also started believing in this theory. Being a woman in a corporate set-up, I could relate to their accounts. 
 Amidst a raging debate around <keyword id="499855" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gender-diversity">gender diversity</keyword>, a recent ASSOCHAM-Thought Arbitrage Research report indicates that there was a spurt in the number of working women in India during 2000-2005. It jumped from 34 percent to 37 percent. However, the female labor force participation rate has reduced continuously thereafter and reached 27 percent in 2014. 
 
It is ironical that this downward trend was more pronounced during the period when economy was experiencing unprecedented growth and less and less women were contributing of this boom period. This was a loss for not just India Inc. but for the entire country. We lost on the prospects of nurturing women leaders’ bridge the gender gap. 
 
As the Assocham study shows women are usually seen leaving their jobs when they get married or plan their families. In fact, it is the single largest cause of females leaving their careers mid-way. They are expected to handle domestic responsibilities around children and elders. 
Then there are issues such as gender biases, extreme work conditions and the lack of learning and development opportunities – all these make women quit their jobs. It glaring that despite having good academic qualifications, there are very few women who actually attain leadership roles. We can think of role models like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Kiran-Mazumdar-Shaw-says-Government-should-make-consistent-policies/articleshow/51124909.cms">Kiran Majumdar Shaw</a>, <keyword id="68907" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indira-Nooyi">Indira Nooyi</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/SBI-Chairman-blames-stalled-projects-for-Indian-banking-sector-stress/articleshow/53080413.cms">Arundhati Bhattacharya</a> and <keyword id="225262" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chanda-Kochchar">Chanda Kochchar</keyword>. They have been the epitome of success through hard work and persistence. But we need to create more such role models for young girls to believe in themselves and repeat the success. 
 
Move the needle on gender diversity 
 
Irrespective of the sector, organisations need to make women centric agenda a company priority. Clear targets need to be defined to promote diversity at workplace and obstacles that stifle women talent and empowerment have to be removed. If marriage or maternity are the prime reasons for attrition of women employees, companies should have policies to offer continuity of career if they return, and even incentivise top talent to come back. Earlier this year, Telenor Group took a lead and declared a mandatory 6 month <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Maternity-Bill-passed-in-Rajya-Sabha-26-weeks-of-paid-leave-for-working-women/articleshow/53666268.cms">maternity leave policy</a>. More organisations have followed and even the Indian government is seeking an amendment in the Maternity Benefit Act to provide 26-week maternity leave to all working mothers. Initiatives such as giving flexi working hours or having a crèche or day care centres in the office premises has helped new mothers strike a good work-life balance. 
 
However, to build a pipeline of women leaders we also need create a career roadmap for them. Education, training and professional development modules have to be designed to bring them on a par with their male counterparts. Additionally, companies can focus on setting targets for women representation across all levels of the organization – including senior leadership and develop action plans to achieve these targets. Last year, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) came up with directions for listed firms to appoint at least one woman director on their boards with this objective and was stringent enough to get it implemented. Clearly apart from internal plans, a regulatory push always helps. 
 
But policies are not the only intervention required. The work culture and the mind set needs to change. Time and resources have to be invested towards women oriented initiatives. Taking cognizance of this important topic and to promote women leaders, Telenor Group has started an initiative known as Women Inspirational Network (WIN) across all its 13 business units. WIN will provide focused leadership development to women leaders at CXO-1 and CXO-2 levels – ensuring gender balance in the organization’s overall leadership planning. 
Companies need to consciously and cognitively take such steps for inclusive growth at workplace. Studies have shown that by meaningfully engaging with the women employees improves the overall functionality of the organization. The 18th Annual Global CEO Survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) had recently reported that 85% of CEOs whose companies have an inclusiveness strategy said it improved their bottom-line. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Apple-says-it-pays-women-the-same-as-men/articleshow/53530954.cms">Apple says it pays women the same as men</a> 
 
With <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/What-India-Inc-leaders-love-to-do-when-out-of-their-Boardrooms/articleshow/52779268.cms">India Inc.</a> getting noticed keenly globally for their business acumen, the world will be keenly scrutinizing the diversity agenda being pursued by these companies. The new age companies and start-ups are throwing up innumerable opportunities for career oriented women to come forward with their own set-ups. The journey has begun, how long it will take for us to reach the destination only time will tell. 
 
About the author: Pooja Thakran is the Chief Communication Officer &amp; Head of Social Responsibility at Telenor India Communications 
 
<a href="http://stg.businessfirstmagazine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Depositphotos_49517177_m.jpg">Image source</a>

Winning by promoting gender diversity at
workplace

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Mark J. TerrillDonald Trump.</div></div></div>Tech leaders are taking a stand against Donald Trump.In <a href="https://medium.com/@KatieS/an-open-letter-from-technology-sector-leaders-on-donald-trumps-candidacy-for-president-5bf734c159e4#.hunna75a7" target="_blank">a scathing open letter</a> posted by former Twitter vice president Katie Stanton, leaders from some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies, venture-capital firms, and startups voiced their concerns about a Trump presidency - specifically, that Trump "stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy."The letter is signed by more than 140 tech leaders, including:<ul><li>CEOs of relatively young tech companies and startups such as Box, Twilio, Slack, TaskRabbit, and Tumblr.</li><li>Well-known VCs and investors like Vinod Khosla, Pierre Omidyar, Shervin Pishevar, and Chris Sacca.</li><li>Tech industry veterans like former Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, and Interactive Corp. CEO Barry Diller.</li></ul>Tech leaders who openly support Trump are rare, with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-speaking-at-republican-national-convention-2016-7">exception of Peter Thiel</a>, who is a delegate for Trump and will speak at the Republican National Convention next week.<a href="https://medium.com/@KatieS/an-open-letter-from-technology-sector-leaders-on-donald-trumps-candidacy-for-president-5bf734c159e4#.jcv3hsuw9">Read the whole thing here&gt;&gt;</a>Here's the full list of signatories:Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Hyperloop One Adrian Aoun, Founder/CEO, Forward Greg Badros, Founder, Prepared Mind Innovations; Former Engineering VP, Facebook Clayton Banks, Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem Phin Barnes, Partner, First Round Capital Niti Bashambu, Chief Analytics Officer, IAC Applications John Battelle, Founder/CEO, NewCo, Inc. Ayah Bdeir, Founder/CEO, Little Bits Piraye Beim, Founder/CEO, Celmatix Marc Bodnick, Co-Founder, Elevation Partners John Borthwick, Founder/CEO, Betaworks Matt Brezina, Co-Founder, Sincerely and Xobni Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO, TaskRabbit Brad Burnham, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder/CEO, Slack Troy Carter, Founder/CEO, Atom Factory Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder/CEO, Joyus Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer Amy Chang, Founder/CEO, Accompany Aneesh Chopra, President, NavHealth; Former US CTO Patrick Chung, General Partner, Xfund Tod Cohen, General Counsel, StubHub Stephen DeBerry, Founder/Managing Partner, Bronze Investments Peter Diamandis, Entrepreneur; Author, Abundance and BOLD Barry Diller, Chairman, Expedia and IAC Esther Dyson, Executive Founder, Way to Wellville; Investor Amy Errett, Founder/CEO, Madison Reed Caterina Fake, Founder/CEO, Findery; Co-Founder, Flickr Christopher Farmer, Founder/CEO, SignalFire Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; Co-Founder, Techstars Josh Felser, Co-Founder, Freestyle Capital &amp; ClimateX Hajj Flemings, Founder/CEO, Brand Camp University Natalie Foster, Co-Founder, Peers David Grain, Founder/Managing Partner, Grain Management, LLC Brad Hargreaves, Founder/CEO, Common Donna Harris, Co-Founder/Co-CEO, 1776 Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder/CEO, Meetup David Hornik, General Partner, August Capital Terry Howerton, CEO, TechNexus Reed Hundt, Former Chair, FCC Minnie Ingersoll, COO, Shift Technologies Sami Inkinen, Founder/CEO, Virta Health; Co-Founder, Trulia Craig Isakow, Head of Revenue, Shift Technologies Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., President and Founder, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Irwin Jacobs, Founding Chairman/CEO Emeritus, Qualcomm Inc Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm Inc Leila Janah, Founder/CEO, Sama &amp; Laxmi Sujay Jaswa, Former CFO, Dropbox; Founder, Witt Capital Partners Mark Josephson, CEO, Bitly Sep Kamvar, Professor, MIT David Karp, Founder/CEO, Tumblr Jed Katz, Managing Director, Javelin Venture Partners Kim Keenan, President/CEO, Multicultural Media, Telecom &amp; Internet Council Ben Keighran, Entrepreneur; Former Design Lead, Apple William Kennard, Former Chair, FCC Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures; Co-Founder, SUN Microsystems Ron Klain, Executive Vice President, Revolution LLC Walter Kortschak, Former Managing Partner and Senior Advisor, Summit Partners Jared Kopf, Founder AdRoll, HomeRun, Worldly Joseph Kopser, Co-Founder, Ridescout Karen Kornbluh, Former US Ambassador, OECD Othman Laraki, Co-Founder/President, Color Genomics Miles Lasater, Serial Entrepreneur Jeff Lawson, CEO, Twilio Aileen Lee, Founder/Managing Partner, Cowboy Ventures Bobby Lent, Managing Partner, Hillsven Capital Aaron Levie, Co-Founder/CEO, Box John Lilly, Partner, Greylock Partners Bruce Lincoln, Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem Ruth Livier, President, Livier Productions, Inc. Mark Lloyd, Professor of Communication, University of Southern California?-?Annenberg School Luther Lowe, VP of Public Policy, Yelp Nancy Lublin, Founder/CEO, Crisis Text Line Kanyi Maqubela, Partner, Collaborative Fund Jonathan Matus, Founder/CEO, Zendrive Josh McFarland, Vice President of Product, Twitter Andrew McLaughlin, Head of New Business, Medium; Venture Partner, betaworks Shishir Mehrotra, Entrepreneur &amp; former VP of Product &amp; Engineering, YouTube Apoorva Mehta, Founder/CEO, Instacart Doug Merritt, CEO, Splunk Dinesh Moorjani, Founder/CEO, Hatch Labs; Co-Founder, Tinder Brit Morin, Founder/CEO, Brit + Co Dave Morin, Entrepreneur; Partner, Slow Ventures Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder, Asana; Co-Founder, Facebook Amanda Moskowitz, Founder/CEO, Stacklist Alex Nogales, President/CEO, National Hispanic Media Coalition Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder, Reddit Mike Olson, Founder/Chairman/CSO, Cloudera Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay Felix W. Ortiz III, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Viridis; Board Member of The NYC Technology Development Corporation Jen Pahlka, Founder/Executive Director, Code for America Barney Pell, Founder Powerset, MoonExpress, Locomobi; Founding Trustee, Singularity University Mark Pincus, Executive Chairman and Founder, Zynga Shervin Pishevar, Co-Founder/Managing Director, Sherpa Capital and Co-Founder/Executive Chairman of Hyperloop One Brandon Pollack, Director of Global Affairs, 1776 Amy Rao, Founder/CEO, Integrated Archive Systems, Inc. Eric Ries, Entrepreneur &amp; Author, The Lean Startup Justin Rosenstein, Co-Founder, Asana Alec Ross, Author, The Industries of the Future Javier Saade, Venture Capitalist; Former Associate Administrator, SBA Chris Sacca, Founder/Chairman, Lowercase Capital Dave Samuel, Co-Founder, Freestyle Capital Julie Samuels, Executive Director, Tech:NYC Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code Chris Schroeder, Venture Investor; Author, Startup Rising Jake Schwartz, Co-Founder/CEO, General Assembly Robert Scoble, Entrepreneur in Residence and Futurist, Upload VR Kim Malone Scott, CEO, Candor, Inc; Former Director, Google Tina Sharkey, Partner, Sherpa Foundry &amp; Sherpa Capital Clara Shih, Co-Founder/CEO, Hearsay Social Shivani Siroya, Founder/CEO, InVenture Steve Smith, Executive Director, Public Policy Institute, Government Relations &amp; Telecommunications Project, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Jonathan Spalter, Chair, Mobile Future DeShuna Spencer, CEO, kweliTV Katie Stanton, CMO, Color Genomics; Former VP of Global Media, Twitter Jenny Stefanotti, Co-Founder, OneProject; Board of Directors, Ushahidi Debby Sterling, Founder/CEO, Goldiblox Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder/CEO, Honor Margaret Stewart, Vice President of Product Design, Facebook Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp Michael Stoppelman, SVP, Engineering, Yelp Baratunde Thurston, Former supervising producer, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah; Co-Founder, Cultivated Wit Stephanie Tilenius, Founder/CEO, Vida Health; Board of Directors, Seagate Technology Richard D. Titus, Entrepreneur; SVP, Samsung Anne Toth, VP of Policy &amp; Compliance, Slack Bill Trenchard, Partner, First Round Capital April Underwood, VP of Product, Slack Max Ventilla, Founder/CEO, AltSchool Tabreez Verjee, Co-Founder/Partner Uprising; Board Director Kiva.org Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia Hunter Walk, Partner, Homebrew VC; Former Director of Product Management, Google Tristan Walker, Founder/CEO, Walker &amp; Company Brands, Inc.; Founder/Chairman, Code 2040 Ari Wallach, CEO, Synthesis Corp. Padmasree Warrior, CEO, NextEV USA; Former CTSO, Cisco Laura Weidman Powers, Co-Founder/CEO, Code2040 Kevin Weil, Head of Product, Instagram Phil Weiser, Hatfield Professor of Law, University of Colorado and Executive Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center Daniel J. Weitzner, Principal Research Scientist, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Emily White, Entrepreneur; Former COO, Snapchat Ev Williams, Founder/CEO, Medium; Co-Founder Twitter, Blogger Monique Woodward, Venture Partner, 500 Startups Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple Tim Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia University Andrew Yang, Founder/CEO, Venture for America Arielle Zuckerberg, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-ios-android-annoying-problem-2016-6">The most annoying thing about the iPhone isn't changing any time soon</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VibW5jNDE69GzqusUkQ8TPgI7rpDSkvZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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Winning by promoting gender diversity at workplace

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