‘Everyone at all levels must #BreaktheBias of gender inequality & stereotypes’

Continuing our series on Women’s Day, today we have Preeti Reddy, Chairwoman - South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar, who shares with us her thoughts on gender equality, sustainability and her role models.

Excerpts:

What are your thoughts on this year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’? According to you, how can women leaders and workers in the formal space create a sustainable future?

I think this year’s IWD theme brings together two elements that are critical if we are to survive as a species – the imperative of a focus on sustainability and the imperative of recognizing women’s role in it.

Despite significant contribution by women to economic and social development, their full participation in leadership and in decision-making is limited, including in decisions that impact them directly. Their contribution is undermined because of cultural norms and systemic barriers and under-valued because so much of what they do is unpaid for work. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the poor socio-economic status of women and has threatened the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of “achieving gender equality and women empowerment”.

IWD2022’s theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” appropriately recognizes the contribution of women across the world in leading the charge on climate change adaptation and mitigation to build a more sustainable future for all of us. The focus this year on highlighting the importance of challenging biases to create a more inclusive and gender-equal world emphasizes why women need to take active roles in tackling the climate crisis. Everyone at all levels must #BreaktheBias of gender inequality and stereotypes to give women the place they deserve in economic and social development.

In my view, there has never been a more appropriate theme and a more appropriate time for the theme.

What is your idea of a gender-just workplace? Please draw from your own experiences to share how a supportive work environment helped you attain your goals?

My idea of a gender-just workplace is one in which:
• Each gender can fully participate in the workplace
• There are equal opportunities for each gender to achieve leadership positions
• There is acceptance of rather than discrimination against those with caregiving and family responsibilities
• Equal work gets equal pay

In my case, the supportive environment started first at home in that I was encouraged to study and to pursue a career of my choice. That is a privilege denied to many young girls. At work, the support came in the form of flexibility when I needed it - at a time when working from home or working at your own time was not the norm. I think that is the greatest support one can give our people – men or women – during their work life.

Which women have been your strongest supporters and role models (both personally and professionally)?

I have received support from both men and women in my professional life. And, in all honesty, there has been more support from men; not because women don’t support each other, but because when I started working, there were very few women in leadership positions. I was lucky in my bosses and in my peers – who tended to be men - in that they were gender agnostic in their approach to professional careers. Their concern was with getting the job done and in finding and supporting the best person to do the job. In the early days of my career, we did not know of or expect affirmative action of the kind we see these days; but I was lucky in that I worked with people who did not think that women needed special favours because they were women. They were people who were in the happy space between the extreme ends of undermining women and ‘deifying’ women as professionals. It is not that I did not come up against people who thought I should not be where I was, but that happens to men as well.

Personally, my immediate family have always been strong supporters of my ambitions – my parents, siblings, my daughter, husband, and my in-laws. My in-laws, in particular, were a bedrock of support, especially in the years when my daughter was young and during times when I had to travel or live separately from the family. I have lasted this long in my professional life because of them.

Over the years, as more women have come into the corporate workforce, I have had the support of a ‘sisterhood’. There are now several platforms for women to build a network and to get help from each other in professional development. CII’s Indian Women’s Network (IWN) is the largest of such platforms and I would urge women entrepreneurs, professionals, and academics to become a member of this network.

How are women in the marketing world reshaping the course of the industry? How do you see women's representation in Indian advertising (both on and off screen)?

Women in the marketing world are reshaping the course of industry, first, by more of them just being there, more of them staying the course and more of them moving into leadership positions. There are certainly challenges women continue to face, but there are plenty of examples of women who are driving significant change and helping shape the future of business by bringing innovation to the workplace, adding a new approach to leadership, helping with inclusion and diversity, and helping change social norms and stereotypes.

Advertising has a powerful role in embedding values and changing cultural codes with its sharp targeting, experiential nature, and frequency-led repetitive format. Presentation of women in advertising, therefore, is a force that should be harnessed to break down harmful stereotypes. According to ASCI’s report GenderNext ‘a journey towards more progressive depictions of women in advertising’ advertisements are seen to use oversimplified images, ideas, and gender roles. To make them easier to follow, advertisements tend to use ‘stereotypes’, which may end up reinforcing and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Kantar has consciously worked towards influencing positive cultural

change through non-biased portrayal of women and men in advertising. This includes a collaboration with the Unstereotype Alliance which has led to the development of the Unstereotype metric (UM) which Kantar now includes as a measure of gender portrayal in advertising as an integral part of its Link communication pretesting solution. Kantar has mapped learnings from advertising evaluated on their potential to deliver marketing ROI with consumer perceptions of gender portrayal and found that gender progressive ads are more effective and trigger positive engagement – they are in general seen to be more enjoyable, relevant, different, and even pleasantly surprising. Progressive gender portrayals, not only impact brand equity and perceptions but also impact the likelihood of immediate sales generated. ASCI’s GenderNext study found that younger women see current stereotypical portrayals of the ideal woman, wife, and mother in advertisements as extremely burdensome and uninspiring. They believe they and the women around them have much more agency in their own lives than those depicted in advertisements. Brands that wish to address this constituency now or in the future, should be careful not to alienate this important consumer group through stereotypical depictions. ASCI, in collaboration with Futurebrands, has created a framework to understand the nuances of gender portrayal and an inventory checklist for review of advertising as part of its charter towards creating more progressive depictions of women in advertising.

What is your advice to the young women who are either working in or planning to join your industry?

There are some ‘life lessons’ I have learned along my journey that I thought would help young women as they start on their career journey – in any industry. These are not the only lessons I have learned, and they are not in any order of importance, but, in hindsight, I find they helped me, and I wish I had learned some of these lessons earlier.

First – create your own opportunities & set your goals ridiculously high. Even if you fail, you will fail above everyone’s success. Do not settle for the status quo, do not settle for your comfort zone, do not settle for the ordinary

Second – change is an inevitability. Therefore, embrace change, don’t end up feeling like victims of change. Stop focusing on the problems that change brings, focus on the opportunities change offers

Third – Exercise. Look after your body. You are going to live a 100-year life & you are going to work for a long part of those years. So, look after your body - you are going to need it in the long life you are going to live

Fourth - Find time to spend with family & friends. Find time to travel. Find time to pursue a personal passion or interest. Find time to read

Fifth – Be a teacher. I don’t mean it in the sense of becoming a schoolteacher or a university professor, though they are admirable professions. I mean it in the sense of sharing what you know. Not only is it your responsibility to share knowledge, but you will also find that you learn even more when you teach

Sixth – Build a support system, build a network. It takes time and effort, but it is likely to be your most useful and significant asset as you move up in your career.