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On Women's Day, let's look at IT diversity

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” wrote George Orwell in his landmark novel Animal Farm. Whenever we talk about equality - be it gender equality or social equality — this very quote underscores our double standards.

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What is the equality that women have in the so-called modern society?

NASSCOM president Som Mittal once remarked that around 45 per cent of the country's working population contributed to IT/ITES. But we would have lesser idea of the women's ratio in the country. On the occasion of International Women's Day, CIOL gives a look at the diversity reports of various leading companies.

According to analysts and HR executives, the ratio between men and women employees maintain an equilibrium at the fresher stage but gradually declines at higher level of the corporate hierarchy. But the gross ratio of diversity is growing with time, with companies looking at women participation keeping their interests and challenges in mind.

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Starting with Indian IT MNCs, TCS in its latest quarterly announcement of Q3 2010-11, reported that 30.5 per cent of their workforce is women. “Our policies to recruit and retain women professionals continue to bear fruit and the number of women in the company has risen to 30 per cent of the total workforce,” said, Ajoy Mukherjee, vice president, and head, Global Human Resources, TCS, during the announcement.

TCS runs a program called Maitree with an objective of bringing TCS associates and their families closer and making them feel a part of the TCS extended family.

Infosys, on the other hand, claims to be the first Indian IT company to establish an office for diversity and inclusivity. Today, women constitute more than 32 per cent of their workforce. And it also runs Infosys Women Inclusivity Network (IWIN) program to promote a gender-sensitive work environment. IWIN recognizes the unique aspirations and needs of the working women.

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Around 2008, Wipro started an initiative called Women of Wipro (WoW), which according to them is aimed that helping women shine and progress in the company. The company claims to have around 33 per cent women employees. It had started working on the diversity ratio for many years now. The ratio therefore improved from 17 per cent in 2000 to 29 per cent in 2009 and 33 per cent 2011.

It was in 2010 June that Wipro launched “Women in Leadership — Mentoring Program for High Potential Women” to enable more women to achieve leadership roles, in Wipro’s IT Business.

And, on the occasion of this Women's Day, Wipro said it will be recognizing its women leaders.

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“Unlike some countries where women still have to fight the gender diversity at various levels, Wipro understands the importance of engaging women in their workforce and providing them a platform to hear their voice,” said the company.

Cisco, the global networking giant which has got Padmashree Warrior as global CTO, shared in a report a few years back that it has around 22 per cent women employees (including trainees), and 14 percent of the total workforce in the higher levels. They say that within Cisco, two (of twelve) Employee Resource Groups are dedicated to women namely 'Connected Women Technology Network' (CWTN), focused on the aspects of women’s careers in technology and 'Connected Women' (CW) which has over 30 chapters.

In a recent interview given to CIOL, when HCL founder Shiv Nadar was asked whether he did you ever think of including a woman in his founding team, he said, “At the time when we were just a start up, the choice was not between men or women, but the very best or less. The only criteria for our selection was merit and it was only incidental that it was all men who founded HCL back in the 1970s. We are all a product of socio economic ethos and in those days we saw fewer women entering the work force.”

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According to a recent survey by Sylvia Ann and Hewlett, on Advocacy vs Mentoring, “Among survey participants who had advocates in 2008, 72 per cent of the men and 65 per cent of the women had received one or more promotions by 2010, though through an advocate.”

Having said that, the concern for participation of women at leadership positions is still a question.

The live report from Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) on International Women’s Day, brought similar concern from managing director of Microsoft Australia, Pip Marlow and Gloria Farler, marketing officer, Telstra; both of them opined that gender equality in technology front is still a long-term goal.

And when will we achieve that goal? No one answers.

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