Quotas for women in leadership??

Recently I was interviewed by Susan Galer from SAP News and among many things we talked about we also touched upon how we can close the gender gap for women in leadership. Though couple of years back I was completely against quotas for women I have to admit I do think differently today. The fundamental reason for this thinking is because things have not really changed that much for women in senior leadership positions compared to the last 15 years. The number of female leaders on corporate boards worldwide remain stubbornly low! If change really needs to happen then something has to be changed as compared to the status quo of how things are dealt with at present.

However this resulted in some very passionate and emotional discussions among multiple people. Several women wrote to me privately thanking me for being bold and not making it all sound very hunky dory. Some men got really vocal and some even emotional and wrote back to me that this would be seen as inequality from their perspective. Some even got super worked up and tried to link the existence of caste based quotas in India to quotas for women in leadership!! Atrocious, I think  they somehow missed the whole train in the discussion and I was thankful that they were in the fewer minority of those who wrote back showing their support and encouragement.

SAP clearly has the goal to increase the percentage of women in management from 18% in 2010 to 25% in 2017 (a goal common to other players in the IT industry). You can read more here in the integrated report.http://sapintegratedreport.com/2014/en/performance/social-performance/employees-and-social-investment.html

There is also a new German law on gender quotas (30 percent of women) in Supervisory Boards.  You can read more about it here Women in supervisory board in Germany.

So in summary the train has already left the station. The debates can continue to rage but we will all see where we stand in 2017. I  think that will be the real test with real results and figures to prove that change is possible. I would really like to hear your opinion and also share your experiences from the workplace. Would really appreciate if you write back!

For those of you who would prefer reading the interview in German you can find it here http://news.sap.com/germany/2015/08/28/frauen-sap-fuhrungspositionen-sindhu-gangadharan/

P.S. The picture was taken with my friend Coco who works in the SAP Durban office as part of the facilities team there. She shared her dreams with me on how one day she plans to move to Johannesburg and maybe even some day move to Germany. Its all about following your dreams!

Strange but true...

It’s been a while since I have been on this space. But I still recall the second week of December 2013 very vividly in my mind’s eye. My usual cheerful self was on a flight to Bangalore to tackle 5 days of work. I was completely charged especially because the mission was clear and also realizing that after I get back I had the promise of the whole Christmas vacation ahead of me.

As always, like any other business trip it is only when you actually sit down on your seat on the flight is when realization strikes. I was really eager to meet the team in Bangalore, work with them during the next days and also felt a general sense of excitement to be back in Bangalore the place where I was born.

All through the flight I had this kind of nagging feeling, but kept dismissing the thought without really focusing on the thought. You know especially when you have more important things like clean up the slides for next days presentation, enjoy a nice movie on the flight or catch up on lost sleep.

When I looked into the monitor some hours later I realized that it was only couple of hours to go for the flight to land in Bangalore. The persistent nagging thought came back and I got all tensed. The flight was going to be landing close to 13:30 am in the morning and I was supposed to take a shuttle from the airport to the Marriot which translates into travelling from one end of Bangalore city to the other end all on my own in the middle of the night! Now for some of you who are reading this post you probably do not even realize why this would be worrisome. The last months though, I have been reading about a lot of horrible incidents that happen to women in India. Some of them have been quite prominent in the media

Always read about these articles in the comfort of my home and commented heatedly about them on different media sites, but here I was stricken with fear few hours away from landing in India in my own hometown Bangalore!!

I frantically started looking for some familiar faces on the flight hoping that there must be somebody with whom I could share the cab ride to the hotel. Flight landed, I cleared customs, and got hold of my baggage as well. I was still unsure what to do, the airport was bustling with activity but I was still petrified. I came out of the airport and promptly the shuttle driver showed up placard in hand and all smiles but wondering why I was not happy to see him. I told him that I was looking for colleagues who could join me on the drive to the hotel. He happily nodded his head and told me that was fine. He also told me that there was a security guard who would accompany me in the shuttle as requested from the company, hoping to calm me down. On the contrary this made me even more nervous, two against one and it was already 14:30 am in the morning.

Then I saw a group of Swedes who had been on the same flight from Frankfurt to Bangalore talking about their shuttle to the Marriot. I heaved a sigh of relief, thanked my stars and went over boldly to them and asked them if I could tag along and share their shuttle as I was also staying at the Marriot. Now it was their turn to look very nervously at this Indian woman whom they did not know at all asking them if I could accompany them. Figured out that they were in India for the first time, which added to their nervousness. I somehow managed to convince them, told them that I was also there on work and that I did not want to travel alone at this time of the day. They worked for the company Volvo and they seemed to be a really nice group of people and they agreed. I quickly told my shuttle driver that my company would foot the bill but I will actually not be taking his shuttle. He was very confused and told me that I would have to speak to his manager on the phone and explain why I was doing this as it was his duty to take me from the airport to the hotel. I did that and finally after settling everything with everybody found myself on a shuttle from the airport to the Marriot with a group of 3 unknown Swedish visitors to Bangalore. I found the whole experience very strange to be honest. On the drive to the hotel I tried to engage in some pleasant conversation, actually trying to put them at ease talking about my last trip to Stockholm and how my daughters loved all the books from Astrid Lindgren and how Pippi Langstrumpf was one of the kids favorite characters. Also told them some of the nice places where they could go shopping in Bangalore.

But all through this time I was actually thinking that it is really unfair that I would feel the way I felt not in any other country but in my own country and in my own hometown :-(

Strange but true!

Normally don't blog about politics...

Normally don't blog about politics, but sometimes I am jolted into harsh reality about the craziness that exist in the world. I was deeply horrified when I heard that Todd Akin, suggested that 'legitimate rape' rarely resulted in pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,”. 'Shut that whole thing down????' for heaven's sake... I refrain to call the guy Senate candidate Rep. How can such an uneducated guy qualify to be Senate Candidate representative? I am assuming that he did not attend any biology classes in school where the fundamental learning is - if you put sperm near an egg - women can get pregnant! Now if the guy does not believe in abortion then he should just say that instead of making such atrocious statements.

As a counter statement to what Todd Akin said, President Obama made the following statement
‎"We shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women." I am glad that he made this statement, but on the other hand I can't still believe that these statements are being made in this century that we live in!! And it's not like these statements are being made in any of the developing countries but in one of the supposedly most advanced nations in the world! What a shame!

Gender equality anybody?

Finally, finally it seems to be happening. So many discussions around gender equality and plans to mentor women to take on leadership and management positions. Many times in this part of the world for a women to take on a leading position is definitely an uphill battle. Finally there seems to be some form of official acknowledgement of the fact that something needs to be done!!! I am quite ecstatic about the fact that there will indeed be a defined quota for women to take on leading positions. I remember the times when I used to be completely averse to any such kind of quotas but in the last 12 years of understanding the system and how it works this move is definitely welcome. Don't want to make things more complicated thinking about how many changes need to happen for the entire eco-system surrounding you to also evolve to support the needs of working mothers. First things first, after all don't they say that little drops of water make a mighty ocean :-)

Shocking!

Coming back home from work in the evening is the best time of the day. Lovely to be back in your nest with your dearest ones. Today there was the latest edition of the Time magazine also waiting for me. Usually this puts me into even better spirits as that normally means something to browse and read while having a quick evening tea. But the front page took me by shock today. You can read the abridged version of the article here. It may take 10 to 15 years before Afghan women can truly walk alongside men.

Little bunny kept asking me why the lady has an 'auwa' (wound) on her nose. I told her that some terrible people had done that to her. And she replied that the lady in the picture should actually be angry. Shock, anger, sadness was what I was feeling.