Women empowerment in corporate world[/b]
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The contribution of women as leaders is essential in every sector for the success and prosperity of nations across the world. Inspite of the various challenges faced by women across the globe, they continue to make incredible progress.
Today’s corporate would is facing a challenge of managing its human capital which has become a critical and significant issue. The demand for talent is enormously growing across all sectors in the world. Today women are competing at par with their male counterparts and organization are also recognizing their talent and providing equal opportunities to them organizations are trying to hire the best talent irrespective of the gender. Women have made their presence felt in every area. Moreover they are front-runners you change and are emerging as leaders in their respective fields.
Impact of women in India economy[/b]
The rise in the member of women employees as professionals like managers and executives influences the national economy and society. When there is a competent and skilled work force, there will be options for recruiters to choose talent you better productivity and gain more revenues. To attract competent and talented workforce most large organizations are trying and creating a positive and conductive work environment for women to work effectively and enthusiastically.
Problems Faced by Women at Workplace
Women have come a long way and today they are no less than “super women” juggling well their family and professional lives. But still women folks all over suffer from certain limitations unlike their male counterparts. In earlier days, women used to be quiet and passive in their attitude at their workplace since very few women actually stepped out of their home to do jobs. On the other hand, women today are believed to have well utilized the optimum use of their intelligence and education to scale the heights of success unlike their predecessors who didn't have access to such wide resources of education and proper awareness.
Statistics reveal that almost 40% of business school graduates are women, 38% of all businesses in America are owned and operated by women. Also 25% of doctors and lawyers are female while 43% of all students in any medical or law schools are females. Famous social psychologists believe that in order to manage well both family and home they need to possess dual personality as its commonly believed that assuming a flirtatious and bubbly character at work results in wider acceptance among male workers whereas at home they are expected to be more reserved.
The jobs in India for women have gone up and new career development programs are being initiated by organization which serves as boost to job positions for women. Women have made their foray into retail jobs, finance, executive jobs and even top managerial jobs. But still women face some obstacles at their workplace which can be related to:
v The hazards, which working women face along with their male colleagues, i.e. those risks which are common to all the workers.
v The risks, which working women face in their families and in the society.
Health Risks Faced By Women At Workplace:
While we talk of problems faced by women at corporate level its worthy to mention that those women who are working at rural sectors are at equal risk when it comes to their health. It is generally believed that women prefer part-time or work from home jobs as such jobs enable them to balance their work along with their domestic responsibilities. But in some cases its observed that specially in case of works like-nursing jobs, contract jobs fact, flexible working hours as per the requirement of the employers makes things quite difficult for women.
Its important to note that absence of clearly defined work schedule increases the stress and impacts their health. A large number of women workers is said to complain of frequent headaches, back pain, fatigue and high blood pressure. Also factors such as-- Poor nutritional status, anaemia, tension, concentrated attention required by some jobs in industries related to embroidery, electric appliances, gems, jewelery etc, which demands intellectual or mental activities increases fatigue. A large number of women workers complain of symptoms such as irritability, mood swings, depression, sadness and concentration problems.
Problems Faced by Working Women in India
The status of Indian women has undergone considerable change. Though Indian women are far more independent and aware of their legal rights, such as right to work, equal treatment, property and maintenance, a majority of women remain unaware of these rights. There are other factors that affect their quality of life such as age of marriage, extent of literacy, role in the family and so on. In many families, women do not have a voice in anything while in several families; the women may have a dominating role. The result is that the empowerment of women in India is highly unbalanced and with huge gaps. Those who are economically independent and literate live the kind of life that other women tend to envy about. This disparity is also a cause for worry because balanced development is not taking place.
Discrimination at Workplace
However, Indian women still face blatant discrimination at their workplaces. A major problem faced by the working women is sexual harassment at the work place. Further, women employees working in night shift are more vulnerable to such incidents. Nurses, for example, face this problem nearly every day. There is nothing that is done in hospitals to tackle and address the danger they face. Such blatant disregard of current Indian laws is one reason why sexual harassment at the workplace continues to increase.
Also, Indian women are often deprived of promotions and growth opportunities at work places but this doesn’t apply to all working women. A majority of working women continue to be denied their right to equal pay, under the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 and are underpaid in comparison to their male colleagues. This is usually the case in factories and labor-oriented industries.
Economic and Social Empowerment of women
Since the beginning of this decade, much has been achieved in empowering women in the economic and social fields. An increasing volume of development financial resources has been devoted to achieving that objective. Consequently, many countries of the region have been able to report increased female literacy and enrolment rates, improved gender equality in education, reduced infant and child mortality rates, declining maternal mortality rates and expanding access to reproductive health services. The participation of women in formal economic activities has also registered a noticeable improvement.
1. Growing economic participation
Economic empowerment constitutes one of the fundamental building blocks in efforts towards the overall empowerment of women. Participation in formal economic activities on terms and conditions which reflect the productive capacity of women, and their control over their own incomes, are some of the important dimensions of economic empowerment. Although the increasing work participation of women has been viewed as part of the general employment boom created by the export-led economic expansion, female labour-force participation rates have tended to increase more than those for men in the Asian and Pacific region, suggesting that women's economic participation has been a critical feature of the region's quest for the economic empowerment of women.
2. Improvements in social development indicators
Fertility rates have declined in the region, even though the total fertility rate and the average number of children per woman remain high (over four) in several countries in the region. The fertility rates on average remain high in those countries of Asia where female literacy is low and opportunities for outside work participation are limited. It is therefore increasingly accepted that, in addition to reflecting general conditions of economic growth and the availability of both health care and birth control facilities, fertility rates also serve as a proxy for women's general empowerment. This is because these rates are closely linked to the literacy and educational status of women, age at marriage, and other important features of women's status.
3. Access to technology, including information technology
Promoting access to productive resources and social support systems constitutes one of the fundamental building blocks in efforts to empower women in the region. Access to productive resources such as credit, technology, infrastructure, marketing links and networking facilities can significantly enlarge opportunities for women to engage in formal economic activities and improve their social status. In that regard, promoting access to new and emerging technologies, including information and communication technology, has become a powerful tool for women's empowerment.
Milestones and Challenges of women
Empowerment is now increasingly seen as a process by which the one's without power gain greater control over their lives. This means control over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology. It involves power to, power with and power within. Some define empowerment as a process of awareness and conscientization, of capacity building leading to greater participation, effective decision-making power and control leading to transformative action. This involves ability to get what one wants and to influence others on our concerns. With reference to women the power relation that has to be involved includes their lives at multiple levels, family, community, market and the state.
Importantly it involves at the psychological level women's ability to assert them and this is constructed by the 'gender roles' assigned to her especially in a cultural which resists change like India. The questions surrounding women's empowerment the condition and position of women have now become critical to the human rights based approaches to development. The Cairo conference in 1994 organized by UN on Population and Development called attention to women's empowerment as a central focus and UNDP developed the Gender Empowerment measure (GEM) which focuses on the three variables that reflect women's participation in society – political power or decision-making, education and health. 1995 UNDP report was devoted to women's empowerment and it declared that if human development is not engendered it is endangered a declaration which almost become a lei motif for further development measuring and policy planning. Equality, sustainability and empowerment were emphasized and the stress was, that women's emancipation does not depend on national income but is an engaged political process.
Drawing from Amartya Sen's work on 'Human capabilities' — an idea drawn from Aristotle a new matrix was created to measure human development. The emphasis was that we need to enhance human well being flourishing and not focus on growth of national income as a goal. People's choices have to be enlarged and they must have economic opportunities to make use of these capabilities. States and countries would consider developments in terms of whether its people lead a long healthy painless life or no are educated and knowledgeable and enjoy decent standards of living. The intuitive idea behind the capability is twofold according to Martha Nussbaum (2003) first, that there are certain functions that are particularly central to human life. Second, that there is something do these in a truly human way, not a mere animal way.