Originally published in Hindustan Times
About 60 per cent women possess high decision-making and creative thinking at the beginning of their career but due to lack of senior women in roles of authority at the workforce, the figure changes to just 30 per cent when they climb up the ladder, according to a report. “Around 60 per cent women and 40 per cent men possess high decision-making and creative thinking in the beginning of their career. But, as they climb the ladder, the tables are turned, and the figures change to 30 per cent women compared to 70 per cent men,” according to the report by SCIKEY, a marketplace network for talent and technology solutions providers. The report said this major change of events can only be attributed to the rapid decline of the number of senior women in roles of authority at the workforce. The report is based on a survey conducted online with 5,388 IT professionals across India between the age of 22 and 47 years.
“While the glass ceiling has been cracked, we must all put efforts including individuals and corporates for this glass ceiling to be broken once and for all. The major gender disparity in the workplace should be addressed and bridged,” SCIKEY co-founder Karunjit Kumar Dhir said. He added that every organisation must strive to include more and more women and bridge the skill gap in the workspace so that a parity can be achieved. The data of the study further showed that 2.7 per cent women aspire for executive roles and 1 per cent women, having the requisite skills, can be groomed for the same. Women proved to be almost at par with men in terms of capabilities to handle data-driven roles (1.6 per cent women and 1.71 per cent men), design and creative thinking roles (3.41 per cent of each) and technical roles (2.19 per cent women and 2.41 per cent women), it said.
Certain arenas came out to be dominated by women, with 2.41 per cent women possessing skills for a sales role compared to 1.19 per cent men, it said. Similarly, for a customer-focused role, 9.73 per cent women excel in relationship management skills compared with 8.20 per cent men, it added. The survey findings also indicated that women IT professionals avoid risk almost twice than their male counterparts. The percentage of women indulging in risk taking is 6.61 per cent as compared to 10.47 per cent men, the report added.
