IT is a level playing field

Sharmila Saha

The IT industry offers a level-playing field for women. Intelligent women can compete and excel as well as anyone else. There is no gender bias — positive or negative. Women are respected and made to feel very much part of the larger mission of the industry. The working environment and conditions are very conducive for women.

MindTree takes the cause of sexual discrimination or harassment very seriously and will not hesitate to fire someone who misbehaves with a girl. I am sure this is the case with most other IT industries in India.

Changing society

Women in IT are respected by society — this is now considered one more “acceptable job for women” like doctors and teachers of yester-years. In a way IT industry is not one of the traditional white-collared jobs! It is easier to accept women in IT than, let us say, on the shop floor.

Globalization has opened the eyes of the society. Today, many girls are opting for an engineering degree and a good career. They are willing to make personal sacrifices for the sake of their careers. IT women are more confident of themselves and economically independent — this will reduce social evils like dowry, dowry deaths etc. over time. Women are now confident enough to get into finance/bio-technology or any of the industries where the working conditions are similar to IT.

Challenges

Personally — juggling time between family, health and work is the biggest challenge. One has to adapt and adjust to different priorities at different points in ones life.

Advantage Woman

Women can definitely multi-task much better than men. They are considered more sincere, creative, responsible and hard-working. They are technically quite strong and can do well in research oriented jobs. Women can definitely express themselves better than their male counterparts and this helps them to interact with customers better. They are generally not very aggressive or cunning — this enables them to be excellent team players. Generally women take fewer risks, are less innovative and cannot handle a large amount of pressure.

Make it more women-friendly

HR policies and infrastructure to work from home and flexi-timing are needed. A crèche at the office helps tremendously as one always has an option of working with a small child. Option to relocate with the spouse should be allowed. Family support and acceptance in society is a challenge (not a problem in places like Bangalore, but is definitely a problem in small towns).

Need more women at the top

A large percentage of women drop out after marriage or motherhood or relocate with their spouses (IT industry men and women travel a lot). This creates a break in their career. When they join back, they are far behind their other colleagues. The priorities change and working becomes difficult. Women also cannot take up certain career options due to family or other reasons. Of course, these are changing today. Today one does see more women/girls as tech leads and managers. Policies like flexi-timing, working from home etc. were not available a few years ago — one had to struggle really hard. Today this is much better and we will see more managers in the future.

(The writer is a technology evangelist at MindTree R&D Services)

CyberMedia News