35% of the 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) students and students in the country say that they do not have the same opportunities for career development as there are men in their organizations.
The response was based on the second PAN-IIM survey on ‘Women in the Workplace’, an initiative of IIM Kozhikode, which is celebrating its silver jubilee year. However, the figure showed a decline (49%) from the previous version of the survey conducted last year, a press release here said on Monday.
The survey received over 350 responses from alumni and 20 IIM students, with the majority of respondents working in the middle at senior management levels across industries. Most of the responses came from India, but it was interesting to see a mix of responses from 15 other countries, the release said.
Sharing the idea behind conducting the survey, IIM Kozhikode director Prof. Debashis Chatterjee said that business schools are a microcosm of the larger society that create a large ecology of business. “Business is no longer just a male-dominated one. Our move to bring in 54% women in 2013 changed the 50-year-old IIM tradition, with women from the first 8% to 10% class not having it, ”he said.
This game-change process, in turn, signaled a major shift in the representation of women not only in B-schools, but also in occupations. “With this survey, we try to go a step further to decode and give voice to the women of IIMs who continue to challenge stereotypes and break new grounds,” said Prof. Chatterjee.
Prejudices
About 58% of respondents said that they faced gender stereotyping and prejudice at the workplace. The most commonly encountered prejudices ases prove it again are ‘and e the titrop’. About 26% encountered a ‘Prove it Again’ bias, where women are held at a higher level than men and must prove themselves consistently. Women are promoted on display, while men are potentially promoted.
Another 23% encountered ‘The Tratrope’ bias where professional women are seen as too weak or too outspoken – and in response, should try to strike a balance between the two.
The lack of women in leadership was clearly evident with 61% saying that female representation in the top leadership tiers of their organizations was meaningless and that more role models were needed to be seen. And, 81% of respondents said that they preferred to work from home to at least partially post epidemics.
Add Comment