Understanding The Challenges Of Women Leadership Development And Solutions For The Same

Over the past several years the focus of the business community is on minimizing the gender equality within organizations. The fact that a handful of Indian women have already made a mark in history by redefining corporate leadership, business landscape, and even the political arena has further fuelled this idea. However, for every successful woman, there are tens and thousands of others, who are not even given the opportunity to showcase their skills as a potential leader. In fact, the organization development consultants in India are of the opinion that the absence of a level playing field for most women in business organizations is a cause of major concern.

Getting To Know The Challenge

India is currently placed at the 87^th position in the Global Gender Gap Index and has only 27% of its female population as a part of its massive workforce, which is one of the lowest in the world. The good thing is that of this 27 %, as much as 11% of women are placed in top management roles within the major private, multinational and even state-owned organizations. Despite this, various researches have proved that the overall participation of women in senior leadership roles within the workforce is quite dismal. The most common factors that have been responsible for this limiting placement of females at the senior position are discussed below.

Societal Norms And Traditions : Women in India are expected to give topmost preference to their husband and their kids irrespective of the level of professional success they might have achieved. This often leads them to quit their jobs after marriage or the birth of a child. Hence business organizations generally feel uncertain about employing females in top management positions irrespective of them being more skilled and competent.

Bias About Capabilities Of Women Leaders : Companies providing leadership consulting services are of the opinion that most organizations are biased about hiring women for leadership roles. They feel that the top management within such an organization tend to have a more orthodox view about women having the capabilities and the competence to fulfil their responsibilities as a business leader. They doubt the ability of the women to make strong business decisions and take calculated risks to ensure the growth of the organization as a whole.

Ego Issues Of Junior Managers And Other Male Employees : Most organizations limit the growth of their female employees to prevent any ego issues in other male members working at similar positions. Moreover, being a male-dominated society, a majority of men in India are still averse to the idea of working under and taking orders from a female. Hence, business organisation take the safe way out by promoting male employees even if they are less competent.

Finding The Right Solution

The problem of gender disparity is a complex one and finding the right solution is not that easy. It is important to first eliminate the causes of this disparity and includes creating awareness within the society about women being as capable and as competent as their male counterparts. In addition, organizations need to adopt a skill-based growth system making it easier to promote females with the right expertise and skillset.