Gender Diversity in Companies Often Calls for Cultural Change: Heide Abelli

04-10-2019 16:08:32
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                                                                                                                                                  Photo & Story credits: ET


Heide Abelli, General Manager, Leadership and Business at Skillsoft, a US based educational technology company, believes that greater gender diversity in companies calls for a cultural change. As such, it requires to be driven by the leaders of the Organizations.

During an interview she stressed on the benefits of gender diversity and how companies could bring it about. “While the women comprise just 17% of the technology workforce in the UK, it holds less than 20% of tech jobs in the US. In fact, women accounts for more than half of the US workforce. Even the scenario of the Indian IT industry is also not better. Merely, 26% women are in engineering roles and 7% in C-suite profiles”, She added.

There are several factors behind this lack of gender diversity. Women collectively deal with work-life balance issues, as well as both conscious and unconscious biases and preferences that can negatively impact their opportunities for moving into more senior roles. Moreover, high gender pay gaps, to the tune of 19% in favor of men in the Indian IT/ITES companies, further exacerbate the challenge female professionals face. There is a lot of talk about these issues but not enough action being taken to address the situation.

Women in the corporate space, especially in the tech space, need quality mentoring and sponsorship. It can create a more enabling environment for deserving female professionals. Organizations need to establish formal objectives regarding increasing the number of women leaders as part of their business strategy and track the achievement of those objectives. They need to be transparent about their goals and take a hard look at existing policies and practices which may need to be reconsidered.

There must also be a focus on creating a culture of gender equality by offering flexible working hours, discounted day-care services, when possible, equal pay for equal work and a competitive maternity leave policy. It is also important to train women by providing formal and informal e-learning resources that can prepare them to take on leadership roles. When organizations efficiently tap the female talent pool for leadership positions, they set themselves on the path to better business outcomes.


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