Indian companies should act on gender diversity

The upper house of Indian parliament has passed the historic Women's Bill which aims to reserve 33% of the seats in the parliament and state legislatures for women. People with any sanity should welcome this. And those who tried to stop the bill should be condemned.

It has taken over 10 years for the bill to reach this landmark no thanks to protests by male-dominated political parties. Now the bill needs to be passed by the lower house before it is sent to the president for signing into a law.

Ruling Congress party and the main opposition party BJP as well as the leftist parties supported the bill. Most likely the bill will see through the lower house.

India already has such quota for women in village councils which has improved the governance of these councils. But women in India face severe discrimination in other spheres of life. Last year, India ranked the 114th among the 134 countries in The Global Gender Gap Index computed by the World Economic Forum.

What it means for businesses?

While politicians have taken the step to bring more women in the mainstream of governing the country, what are companies doing to improve gender equality? Women remain largely unrepresented in the middle and senior management in businesses in India, except, perhaps, in the IT outsourcing industry. Women are rarely included in the governing boards of Indian companies.

Once the Women's Bill becomes law, the focus will be on businesses to introduce policies to ensure gender diversity. With 33% of lawmakers being women, businesses will have to rethink their attitude toward women. Business groups will also need to develop new skills and managers for effectively lobbying with female lawmakers.

If companies don't take proactive measures to enhance gender equality and diversity across organisation and supply chains and vigorously protect women's rights, new women lawmakers may push for a regulation for a similar reservation for women in private employment.

Should companies wait for the government to pass a bill to ensure women are fairly represented in companies' management? Or should they voluntarily, and sincerely, start promoting gender equality and gender diversity at all levels in the company? The choice is theirs. We all know voluntary action is the smart thing to do.

Asia's economy rising but women falling behind

Asia Pacific is rapidly turning into an economic powerhouse with a vibrant growth story in spite of the global recession which has crippled the conventional economic powers in the west. But when it comes to the development of women and protecting their rights, Asia Pacific continues to be at the bottom of the pile, according to a new report by the UNDP.

The report titled Power Voice and Rights: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific , says that discrimination and neglect are threatening women’s very survival in the Asia-Pacific region, where women suffer from some of the world’s lowest rates of political representation, employment and property ownership. Their lack of participation is also depressing economic growth.

The Report focuses on three key areas —economic power, political decision-making and legal rights— to analyse what holds women back, and how policies and attitudes can be changed to foster a climb toward gender equality. Asia, the Report asserts, is standing at a cross-road and by putting the right policies in place now, countries in the region can achieve positive change.

Some of the major challenges women face include lower pay than men for the same work, forced to accept lowly paid jobs that men don't want to undertake, widespread illiteracy, poor representation in politics and legislatures, shorter life expectancy, female infanticide, domestic violence, low ownership of property and inadequate laws to protect their rights.

The report recommends removing barriers to women’s ownership of assets, such as land; expanding paid employment; making migration safe and investing in high-quality education and health to address the problems women face in the region.

While the local governments have to accept much of the responsibility to actively promote the well-being of women and protect their rights, businesses too can play a significant role in the development of women.

Non-discrimination in employment, ensuring gender diversity, protection from sexual harassment, protecting rights of migrant women workers, reasonable maternity benefits, work-life balance policies, training and career growth opportunities and developing women managers are some of the things companies can do to contribute to the development of women.

At the community level, companies can consider actively investing in women education which in turn will ensure more number of educated women are available for jobs.