‘Industry has moved from gender-based to ability-based’

At the e4m Public Relations & Corporate Communications Women Achievers & Summit Awards, a panel of industry leaders discussed the art of cultivating leadership and capacity building in corporations.

Moderated by Bhaskar Majumdar, Head - Marketing Communication, CSR & Digital Egis - India and South Asia, Egis, the other panellists were - Anupama Mukherjee Rawat, Chief Marketing Officer, Wadhwani Foundation; Neeta Linz, General Manager- Corporate Communications & CSR, LG; Saumya Bhushan, Lead - Corporate Communications, South Asia, S&P Global; Tehseen Zaidi, Head, Communications, Syngenta and Bhavna Singh, Vice President – Communications.

Bharat Serums and Vaccines started off focusing on why in departments like sales, there is not a lot of female representation.

“The industry is now moving from being gender-based to ability-based,” Rawat mentioned. “It is no longer about being a man or a woman, it is more about whether you are competitive enough to do the job.”

Bhushan agrees that while a lot of women are indeed in leadership profiles, it is not the same across. “I am happy to see there is a shift coming around, with more people focusing on helping women come to those roles. It started a while back, it has gained momentum now. The more diverse we are, the more productive we can be,” she said.

Speaking of urban India, Zaidi feels that women are still, despite being talented and competent enough, not able to reach the leadership level. “Research says that most women drop out when they become young mothers, they have this fear of leaving their young children behind, they have separation anxiety. So if we provide facilities like creche or daycare, we will be able to retain such talents,” she added.

As far as rural is concerned, Zaidi says, women do most of the work behind the scenes. “They do all the labour-centric work but are never able to come in the limelight because the financial decisions are taken by men,” she said.

Singh further pointed out that if one sees healthcare as well, most of the caregivers are a female figure. “I come from a bio-pharma research-based company, where you find women only in lab coats. Most of the scientists are women, but unfortunately, this is not the number when it comes to functions like sales. We find very few women in the sales force, and that as an industry we need to correct,” she mentioned.

Linz shared that for a brand like LG, women's feedback is extremely important. “After Covid, communication has become a part of a lot of decision making, the pandemic has indeed changed the consumption behaviour. There are gender neutral roles today. Yes there are some gender limitations as well, but after covid the entire scenario has seen a shift. People have realised that if you are using a microwave, men are also going to bake in it,” she shared.

Rawat added that with technology coming in, and the pace at which it came in, the game totally changed for everyone. “I think this was the positive side of Covid, we are heading towards a future where technology is going to lead the game and we are just going to walk the talk,” she said.