Indian women are leaving the workforce, but improving these 8 factors can help them return: report
A report, titled ‘Tipping the Balance’, by Mumbai-based startup Kool Kanya, identifies eight reasons Indian women are leaving the workforce, and suggests actionable strategies to help them return.
According to a report by the United Nations, gender-diverse companies show higher financial returns, profits and consistent growth in the long run. Other benefits of increasing the number of women in the workforce include higher GDP for the country's economy, lower attrition rates, and a wider pool of talent to choose from.
Data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) also shows that female participation rates in the workforce across India decreased from 34.1 percent between 1999 and 2000, to 27.2 percent between 2011 and 2012.
Why are so many women dropping out of the workforce, and what can be done to get the numbers up?
Kool Kanya, a Mumbai-based startup aimed at creating an ecosystem of women in the workforce, surveyed 700 women across India to find out why many are leaving the workforce, and what needs to be improved in order to encourage them to continue working.
The survey results were released as a report, titled Tipping the Balance, in June this year. According to the report, there are eight primary factors that have an impact on women in the workforce - work satisfaction, learning opportunities, salary benefits, female representation, safety, work culture, work-life balance, and maternity benefits.
Work satisfaction
The report says that 46 percent of women do not enjoy working at their current companies, citing reasons like less trust in leadership, dissatisfaction with performance management, and less teamwork in their work area. The women also said they felt less valued and involved in decision making, and felt that their managers treated them unfairly.
Learning opportunities
The report found that 78 percent of women agreed that their work got uninteresting and boring. Respondents who had been with their organisations for more than a year but less than three years expressed an "utter lack of motivation."
Only 42 percent said they have access to training, can attend conferences, gain technical knowledge, or develop professional skills to help them in their careers.
Female representation
Fifty-one percent of women surveyed agreed that there wasn’t a good mix of men and women in their teams, and 62 percent agreed that there was a lack of adequate female representation in the company.
The report says,
“An alarming factor was the lack of female representation, especially at the top levels. A direct result of this was seen in discontentment with the top management of the company who seemed indifferent towards gender equality, pay parity, safety at work, maternity benefits and work-life balance.”
Safety
The survey points out that safety for women at work in terms of late-night transport and the way sexual harassment is dealt with are subpar. Fifty-four percent of respondents said that there are "no robust policies to prevent and deal with sexual harassment and ensure women's safety."
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Work culture
The report found that 60 percent of women felt that their coworkers weren’t friendly, respectful, professional, or unbiased while at work. They also said they felt bullied, manipulated, and constantly told off. Among other factors, the report says, “The lack of women CEOs also leads to dissatisfied culture.”
Work-life balance
One of the major concerns among respondents was the lack of flexible work hours, with 40 percent saying they did not have the option to work from home if needed. The women felt they would be much happier if their organisation understood their needs for "a more balanced place of work."
One of the respondents said,
"There is female exploitation and mental trauma that one has to go through. We are pushed beyond our limits for work."
Salary and maternity benefits
More than half of the survey's respondents said they were not given adequate maternity leave. They also said that the lack of a creche and lactation room facility left them struggling to balance work and family.
Some women felt they were not compensated for their performance, because managers used maternity as a reason for lower pay. They also said they were harassed to leave the company after revealing their pregnancies.
Forty percent of them said they were not supported by the company when they returned to work after maternity, and 63 percent felt they are not paid well despite being equally qualified.
Observing the emerging pattern, the report noted that work satisfaction was the most important factor when evaluating a job, while maternity benefits were the least important.
It says, "The work itself (learning opportunities and work satisfaction) is a more important factor to women as compared to the work environment (culture, female representation, work-life balance)."
In an article by the Government of India in 2017, Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, says,
“India has the potential to grow at over 10-11 percent if women are included in the economic process. They can contribute to building new businesses – from traditional industry to startups.”
Improvement strategies
The report identifies three main methods that should be implemented to encourage more women to join the workforce - inclusion, retention, and development.
It says that all companies should make entry-level hiring more conducive for women, enhance policies that support women at work and encourage them to continue working after breaks such as maternity, and offer mentorship and guidance that can accelerate their careers.
"Challenges are simply areas for opportunities. Many companies in India have seen the importance of gender parity in the workplace and are already focused on creating solutions for the same,” the report states.
It cites examples of companies that have policies in place: Infosys, which allows both male and female employees to work from home, and Godrej, which offers unlimited sick leaves to all its employees.
When it comes to learning opportunities, the report mentions the Women of Wipro programme that has various initiatives like career mentoring, daycare centres, and women in technology workshops.
It also takes the example of the healthcare unit of GE Co. in India, which organised ‘Bring Your Mother-In-Law To Work Day’ so that mothers-in-law could see what their engineer daughters-in-law do at work. The programme saw big shifts in mindsets, and helped in-laws understand the challenges and demands of their jobs.
The report also mentions certain companies that have taken out-of-the-box measures, like Culture Machine and IndustryARC, which provide 'first day of period' leave, and Team Lease, which helps women travelling for business take their child under five along with them and bear the cost of a caregiver as well. It also mentions Citigroup Inc. which has an India-only annual provision of Rs 1.32 lakh for childcare.
Kool Kanya was launched by 26-year-old Vanshika Goenka in January 2019. She says she started the company because she was frustrated with family members and others around her not taking girls seriously, and only considering boys and men capable of running a business.
By the end of October this year, the company aims to launch its peer-to-peer networking app, which will provide women with a platform to connect with each other, either as peers, or as mentor-mentee, and "find prompt solutions to everyday work problems."
Towards the end of 2020, Kool Kanya also plans to start advising companies about policies that will help create more women-friendly work environments.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
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