Link:- http://women.siliconindia.com/women-expert/Gender-Diversity--Workplaceeid-462.

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Gender Diversity @ Workplace

Pooja Bajaj Sapra

Technology Consultant with DIT - Dept. of Information Technology, As a part of State e-Mission Team
Pooja Bajaj Sapra comes with an 6 years of experience in IT Project Management. She is currently ... more>>

We always talk about 'Unity in Diversity' but are we following it at our workplace?

I have worked with organizations which were more skewed towards one gender and I strongly feel that there is a need
to bring a Gender Diversity at our workplaces.

Though the situation is improving in many of the business sectors like Technology Services, Finance & Banking and
Retail and one significant change now is that men and women are being employed in the same roles within a
organization but the right proportion of diversity is yet to be seen.

[The Impact of Gender Diversity]

Surveys have shown that Fortune 500 companies with more women on their boards tend to be more
profitable.

Report by McKinsey showed that companies with a higher proportion of women at board level typically
exhibited a higher degree of organization, above average operating margins and higher valuations.

In another report it was concluded that women's leadership styles have been characterized by task
orientation, mentoring others, and concern with the needs of others. According to NASA, crew members
have reported general sense of 'calmer missions' with women on board. Plus, 75% of male crew members
also noted a reduction in rude behaviour and improved cleanliness.

Women leaders foster a better environment and bring in a strong team orientation into the culture.

Greater Gender Diversity could be related with stronger corporate performance.

Internal study at IBM in 2009 showed that women leaders scored better than their male counterparts in the following
categories: customer insights, team leadership, teamwork, building organizational capability, personal dedication and
commitment and innovation. All of this adds up to economic value, as the study at IBM shows.
[History/Past]

Till a few years or may be a decade ago companies would be in two minds before hiring a female staff. They would

think that unmarried girls would get married in some time and would either leave the organisation to become a fulltime housewife or would move to another place along with her partner. If the female staff stayed with the organisation
she would have to be granted maternity benefits. Not only that but she would become less efficient after childbirth
and hence would pay less attention to her work. Women with children were understood to care more about the
children than about work. In addition, there was a widespread belief that women were not as capable as men, either
physically or mentally or emotionally.
[Current Situation]

Today, Organizations have been slowly adjusting to the changes, learning to treat women as the equals of men and not
as a pool of potential dates. Both discriminating against female employees (in terms of hiring and advancement) and
-=treating them in a sexual manner (sexual harassment) are now against the law.
CSC India's 'Gender Diversity' initiative works affirmatively to attract and retain talented women employees. CSC
India has launched the Diversity initiative, a program to support gender diversity and attract and retain their women
employees. The underlying principle of the initiative is that gender diversity leads to a more creative, flexible and
innovative organisation that is in tune with the society and the market. As part of the diversity initiative, a diversity
council has been set up at each CSC location in India, which is supported by an HR representative. A helpline
called "Helpline@Planet W" has also been launched to support communication between their women employees
and council members.

Google re-launched and re-branded all its women's groups such as Google Women Engineers, Women's Leadership
Community and Women's Professional community, led and driven by women employees under the women@Google
umbrella. "The network provides networking and mentoring opportunities for women across Google.

According to a study China has seen the greatest improvement over the past six years : only 6.5% of companies had
any gender diversity at board level in 2005, but this increased to 50% by end of 2011.

[Way Forward]

There would be plenty of hurdles which may limit the female representation at the top management level. Biggest
challenge is that a woman's status is often perceived as lower than that of a man and hence she isn't given the equal
footing that is believed to be a key ingredient in achieving success through diversity.

Juggling between job and managing the family - is another challenge for working women. Starting a family means
taking a little break from the workplace and this is often not compatible with the demands of a high profile leadership
position. Maternity leave and reduced mobility are seen as impediments to promotion and fulfilling a management
role; more than 60% of women feel that family obligations were an obstacle to promotion. The potential solution is to

engineer a working environment that is compatible with family life, which should be t o the benefit of all employees men & women. Flexible working hours, flexible working locations or provision of child care services like a day care at
workplace.

Women would like to be treated at par. Organizations need to realise that by recognising the strengths of each gender,
working relationships become more productive, increasing the mutual understanding, respect and trust. Apart from
the benefits mentioned above the greatest benefit is the impact of the different perspectives brought to the table by
women. Women bring decision making and risk-taking to boards. More rational decision and better enterprise risk
management.