"Together we stand, divided we fall", a famous line of a Pink Floyd song definitely says a lot about the importance of equality. Yes, working as a team without creating any discrimination among ourselves can guide us to lights of unrivalled success. And this is also desired in a work place, where gender equality is highly missing.

Since the early days, Indian women have always been considered as the second gender and uneducated stereotype house workers. And among them, who got education, were denied of deserved encouragement and support for pursuing a divine career. Only a few countable numbers of women, who made the breakthrough in the so called 'Women Feasible' work profile, reduced their chances of making a career in other emphatic fields. They got stuck in the C-level positions, which picturesque today's inequality of ratio between working men and women in top ranking positions

Apparently, in the beginning of the century, industry realized the importance of gender equality in human resource and now men have started sharing their responsibilities with women. They became women-friendly by raising their voice for women-empowerment. Equal half! Yes, currently this is what men consider women, their work partners.

However, an empirical study depicts that merely 25 percent women in Fortune 500 List, are positioned as CEOs in the world, where the condition of the Indian category is more eye disturbing with only 8 percent women in the top 50 Indian list. This alarmingly low percentage is the root cause of difference in education rate between boys and girls which are 66 percent and 75 percent respectively. 

Issues faced by Women in Workplaces

Despite of their relentless indulgence, women fail to match their working (men) counterparts as every work space in our country reeks of gender stereotyping and favouritism. The toughest challenge any Indian working women has to overcome is the 'Indian Patriarchal Societal System' and the 'Cultural Abhorrence', which has the power of exasperating any sound minded human being! 

Presently, it has become hard for woman to work late at night and finish their pending assignments due to the increasing security reasons. On a contrary to this, Indian professional spaces evaluate employees based on their duration of work in a day rather on the volume of work completed on a single day. Consequently, women workers fail to meet the dead lines of task submission which results in tagging them as 'incapable workers'.

The competition is so fierce in the corporate world that one has to sacrifice their personal life to stay abreast with work targets. This is another challenge that women incorporate in their life. Till now in India, a woman's career is considered as a mere second income source. Her family expects her to quit job on their single say, thereby driving a confident career into a dejected home locked life.

Besides, more preferences are given to men over women these days due to rising number in shocking '#MeeToo' cases against men at high positions. Because of #MeeToo, men have become wary and more reluctant in working with women colleagues to safeguard their image and surprisingly, companies have also stopped considering women for managerial job positions!

Game Changing Requirements

It's always a pragmatic dream for most women in India to get a chance for implementing their acquired skills and begin the journey of infinite opportunities. For this, a change is needed in the way a women perceive her career, which can be emphasized through:

1. Recognizing and chiselling skills of pure ground talents.

2. Initiating self-realizations for having a serious long term career. 

3. Making them strive to stay and reach the highest position in their job role within the organization.

4. Making women more inclined towards self-responsibility.

5. Granting them with the thoughts on proving themselves worthy in the position they aspire to reach.

Education and leaderships Requirements

In India, impartation of quality education to women has started to restore their faith in their communication skills and knowledge. They have realized the importance of confident vibes and working as a team with their male counterparts. Women have also realized the benefits of attaining higher education for upgrading their capabilities and skills. Next to that, their aspirations of securing a top position in an industry have increased emphatically. Women, who have the urge of reaching the elite panel, will eventually find their way through proper initiatives and sustainable leadership qualities. 

Learning is a never ending process and women who strives for knowledge, will definitely enrol themselves in certification programs for gathering skills. Actually by these methods, they gain an extra edge over their competitors to become a better professional. One must remember there is no replacement of hard work and sincerity to foster any dream. It's a universal truth that many people, including women stay stuck at the mid management level despite of their hard work. In such cases, honest commitment towards work by taking extra responsibilities and ardently performing on yielding fruitful results will do the trick! (As Told to HER Team)

Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi

Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi is a young entrepreneur, who is diligently working in the education space with the objective of cultivating a spirit of skills-based learning across the country. As AISECT's Director, she handles the organization's national sales force, marketing strategy for the various AISECT brands as well as the Human Resources for the AISECT Group. Pallavi is also the Founder of Brainy Bear Pre-School & Activity Club, the fastest growing pre-school and activity club chain of India. Pallavi holds a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from MSRIT, Bangalore and an MBA in Marketing and Operations from the prestigious S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. Previously, she has worked in some of India's best FMCG companies.