Women Power

Rajya Sabha passed the Women’s Reservation Bill in March ensuring 33% reservation. Lok Sabha has not arrived on the consensus yet to pass the said bill.

Cabinet is likely to take the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Bill for approval which will be tabled in this winter session.

In India, women are already making their identity in Panchayat Raj (ZP, Panchayat Samities, Municipal Corporations and Grampanchayats).

President of India, Speaker of Lok Sabha and President of major ruling party are Women and few of them are termed as powerful women.

CEOs of Most of the private banks are women. Women are really making their space in Indian society including politics and corporate.

In US labour force 51% are women. In India, still long way to go….but improving a lot.

Watch the TV commercials. The commercials are targeting women viewers.

Women make most of the purchasing decisions in everything from cars and computers, to real estate and tourism. They also are majority of Internet users and dominate the leading social media websites.

Fortune 500 Companies with more gender balanced leadership teams outperform their peers financially.

And most importantly, HR forums are dominated by Women.

All of these factors unite to create a huge and unmet opportunity: the massive arrival of women into the same economic roles as men. A whole part of the human population has been (rather suddenly) added to the sum total of human potential, innovation and creativity—for the very first time. And this shift is often seen as interesting but not paradigm-shifting. Yet it has consequences.

The subject of women and gender has long been discussed as an interesting but somewhat minor issue in the business world. It has been variously seen as a diversity issue, a Human Resource issue and an ethical debate about equality and equity. The growing economic, political and social consequences of women’s changing roles have not always been very clear to the people currently in power. Yet the issue of gender in the 21st century represents a major political, economic and social discontinuity. I think of it as one of the 2 W’s that is changing the lives of countries, companies and couples all over the planet:

1. Web: The technological revolution, the rise of the internet and the instantaneous inter-connection of people around the globe.

2. Women: the massive arrival of women into the economy and the resulting shift in gender roles and power, and the growth of the sum total of human intelligence

Getting these 2 W’s right is the key to unlocking huge opportunities and avoiding some of the biggest risks we have yet faced as a species. And getting them right will take the energy, understanding and commitment of both halves of the human population—the male and female.

The question is how to do this…..