Man-woman equality at workplace

Dear Ladies,

It is strange to find even in the so called most advanced nations, there is a notion that women are different intelluctually and are graded down accordingly at the workplace. I find lot of debate here in U.S going on in this subject.

I went to purchase a gift for my niece's little daughter who lives in New Jersy on her birthday in the famous 'toysRus' store in times square, New York. I was amused to look at toys for boys like hotwheels and other toys that encourage motor skills and mechanical abilities. Whereas toys for girls are Barbie dolls that say things like, "Shopping is fun... [and] math is hard..." The inequality is brought out very early!.

"Women tend to be better in . . . while men tend to be better in . . ." People always say that, but regardless of whether these generalizations are true or not, I think individuals should not make decisions based on these generalizations.

There is a strong notion in U.S that women are wekaer in maths and science than men. But, the statistics of women taking up computer science, programming etc. are on the rise which contradicts this. In India, I find year after year in recent years, girls are outscoring boys in final exams. The top rankers are invariably girls. Number of women taking up scientific career is on the increase. Our former President Abdul kalam's selection of ten best women scientists of India shows the extent to which thier contributions are growing.

"nice young ladies don't care about science," and "nice young ladies don't work in dirty foundries"? are arguments thrown by males to discriminate their female colleagues. There may be a perfectly rational reason for women to avoid certain fields, based on the biology
of their reproduction. But, it does not mean that they are incapable to work in that field.

I would like to get your responses to the question of 'are you being treated equally at your work place?'.

Regards,

TDU

TDU Sir,

There is a lot of discrimination against women in the workplace. Rural and urban societies discriminate in different ways, but they end up doing the same. In rural India, the women who work in the fields toil the same amount of time as the men. Yet they are paid less, because it is assumed that their output is less than that of men.

When I went searching for jobs in India, I was always asked whether I would quit the job after I got married. This question is never posed to men. Men may not quit their jobs after they get married, but they surely would quit if they got a job with a better pay cheque. But this question is rarely posed to them during their interviews. I was working for an American BPO and after several rounds of interview, I was pulled in. A week later, the American client visited India and was having a session with our team lead who told her that my husband was working outside India and they came to the conclusion that I would be the first to quit from this team. They hand picked some other men whom they thought would stick to them for life. Ironically, a month after the client left India, one of the handpicked men quit without informing the office. A couple of months later a few more quit in the same fashion. I took more than a year to quit and I did so after giving them a due notice.

Rgrds,
Nivedi

Dear Nivedi,

Thanks for your response. It is saddening to note the discriminations blatently meted out to highly skilled professionals like you. The plight of rural women is definitely bad.

My sister who was working as a teacher in a high school in Madurai had to discontinue due to the bullying by her male co-teachers in spite of the fact that she was highly qualified with a masters' degree in teaching. Normal and due promotions were denied to her just because she is a woman. Since it was a private school her voice of protests would have landed her in more trouble. Let us hope that with more advancements in society, these problems are solved.

Regards,

TDU

Dear TDU,

Nice topic. I was working before my marriage. and a year after also. even if u have the same qualification as men, you have to work a little harder to get noticed. in today's scenario, there is no job that a lady will not take. from the lady who serves at the petrol bunk, to the lady who works at an oil rig. There is no stopping them.

But at the same point, i saw an interview with the air-force chief)?) last month in a leading channel, the host of the program was asking if ladies will be allowed to fly fighter planes, he simply said no, the ladies are doing a very good job in other areas, but flying fighter planes is a No.

But there are surveys that prove that a lady driver is far better than a male driver. and when it comes to hr today the trend in most indian bpo is they want a lady than a male. And a lady has always proven she is more efficient by handling the job at the workplace, the job at the home front.

There was a dearth of lady cardiologist in the late 80's and early 90's in chennai. now you have more but when my mil was to be treated by a lady, she was sceptical and asked for a male. I think it is more of a pre-set ideas that lady can do these kind of jobs and cannot do these kind of jobs.

We as a society have to change our notions then the equality at work-place will also come in. It is already visible at many places...


love,
shanthi.

Dear TDU,
Good point indeed. Being in a software industry, i personally have not felt any kind of gender discrimination or bias. I worked hard just as any other male collegue of mine. And I got well timed and deserved promotions, recognition and travelling opportunities. May be other ILites who are in S/W may differ with me. But yes, whenever I have travelled abroad, I have seen that the count of girls in their offices was always very very less. And i always wondered whether Indian women and society is already a way ahead of all these "so called" developed nations.
Not only US but Europe is also same. When I went to Germany and Austria, I asked my male german collegues as to why the girls head count is so less. In fact the office in germany where I was going, I could see only one or 2 girls who worked in Technical areas. He simply told me that women do not take up technical line here. They prefer HR, people management, teaching or receptionist kind of less-technical jobs. Incidentally the same people visited India and they were very very surprised to see that number of women in the Indian offices is so much and they can work equally hard and achieve goals or show good results. And then I made remark at them saying that "and you call yourself a progressive nation"
I attended a training on Interviewing skills and the instructor told us that asking a woman candidate about whether she would leave the job after marriage or having kids would she be able to handle the job and home together, all such questions are considered to be very offensive and one should never ask such questions in an interview. But fact remains that such questions are asked as Nivedi pointed out. People always have doubts.
Yes, Gender descrimination is going on at all the levels in India or any other part of the world for that matter be it modern, backward, developed, under-developed and it is very sad.
Hope to see a better society in our lifetime itself

Dear Tamil'
Actually, for all talk of development and progress, USA still seems to have some quaint notions of inferiority and superiority concerning genders. India, Srilanka and Israel, generally thought to be third world backyards , did not bat an eyelid when women became heads of state; and Sirimao, Indira and Golda happened so long ago too. But in this age and time, Americans are still discussing Hillary's candidature as though its some great wonder.

Glass ceilings are found here too, but i would say, Indian women are adept at shattering it at all levels and at every opportunity. We have lorry drivers, petrol pump attendants, mechanics, driving school instructors, autorickshaw drivers, bus conductors, Building site Mestris, even coconut-palm climbers in addition to top honchos at big businesses and banks who are women.
Sudha Murthy, of Infosys Foundation, has written how she was rejected by Tatas when she , as a fresh Tech. graduate applied for a post that dint have any gender specifications. She wrote to the grand old man himself, sought a personal interview and challenged him on the reason for her rejection when her academic record was so brilliant. Tata realised his company's fault and hired her.
Sometimes women do have to put in more effort to prove their worth and competence, but on the whole, we are succeeding quite well in proving that what a man can do, a woman can too. And men too, on the whole ,have become more accepting. But nitpicking grouches always exist, cant deny that !

Rgds
manjula