Last year, the UK Resource Centre (UKRC) published a report stating only one in 20 women were employed in any science, engineering and technology (SET) profession, compared to nearly one in three men, raising questions about what is preventing women from pursuing a career in these fields. UKRC is a body set up to tackle under-representation of women in science, engineering, technology and the built environment.
Although the lack of women in SET professions continues to be a problem, I personally feel there has been a vast improvement in opportunities for women in the technology industry in particular. When I started my career in IT in India 25 years ago, my induction batch had a ratio of 2% women and when I studied computer science at a leading college in India, I was one of only 100 women on a campus of more than 2,000 students in the engineering stream. The same college has attracted a 50/50 split in terms of the male/female ratio at its peak a few years ago. As the IT industry is growing by leaps and bounds, specially in India and in other parts of the world, I believe the role of women in IT will continue to grow as well.
It is not only at an industry level that there is a lack of women professionals. A recent report published by the former government minister, Lord Davies, stated there was a lack of women in the boardroom, with only 9% female representation on FTSE 100 boards. Lord Davies is now calling on businesses to increase this to 25% by 2015. This has led many to ask the question: are businesses and HR departments doing enough to encourage women to climb ranks in the workplace?
There are many advantages to having women in the boardroom, as companies with women on their boards can benefit from a fresh point of view, increased diversity and are more likely to avoid the dangers of unilateral thinking when making business decisions. Indeed, a recent report from consulting firm McKinsey showed that the operational profits of companies who had women on their boards were 56% higher than those without. We only have to look at high-powered women in the FTSE 100 to see proof of this.
Women such as Marjorie Scardino from Pearson, Clara Furse from the London Stock Exchange and Indra Nooyi from PepsiCo, recently voted Fortune's most powerful woman in business, are great examples of women leading their boardrooms to success.
Naturally, there comes a time in a woman's professional career when she may want to start a family. Many women unfortunately end up seeing this as a deterrent to the growth in their careers, worrying they may not be able to balance family life with their professional roles and that they may lose out on promotions to male colleagues or that they will struggle to reintegrate into the workplace after they return from maternity leave. However, starting a family need not mean that women have to give up on growth in their careers. There are a number of initiatives companies can provide to help women balance work and family life and encourage more women to reach boardroom levels if they have the aspiration and drive to do that.
For instance, companies can provide female employees with the opportunity to develop skills in lateral roles in the IT industry itself, which are more steady state in terms of work distribution - and these roles can be easily managed with a better work/life balance. I certainly found this helpful in my career and also found the diversity of roles I played in my career in quality management, manpower allocation and training - in addition to IT management and consulting - very useful in getting to my current role of geo-unit head of banking and capital markets for Europe in Infosys Technologies.
If businesses are seeking to encourage more women in managerial positions, they must continue to provide such opportunities. It is also important to ensure women are comfortable knowing their HR departments are championing their cause and I believe there are certain steps that can be taken on a sustained basis to achieve this.
Specific schemes companies can offer may include: offering lateral career growth opportunities, short sabbaticals, flexible working hours and extended maternity leave for new mothers for specific periods in their careers. At Infosys, these steps have helped to boost the percentage of female employees returning to work to 88% - up from one third in 2006. Another option to put in place is a tracking system to make sure women are able to grow effectively in the workplace and are not being sidelined in terms of growth opportunities.
Furthermore, HR departments could also look at enhancing mentoring schemes that enable new mothers to adopt a work/life balance, as well as a 'buddy' system that enables women in managerial positions to mentor aspiring junior employees.
Steps such as these may not necessarily put women at board level, but they certainly can provide a stepping-stone to move up the management chain more easily for those female employees who are ambitious and driven. The Lord Davies Report and the recent news that Nick Clegg is planning to extend paternity leave demonstrate the Government's support in making the workplace more flexible.
It is now down to businesses to help support this and recognise such policies by having their own diversity schemes in place to ensure a diverse and balanced workforce and maintain the right talent.
Jamuna Ravi, VP of banking and global markets at business technology consultancy Infosys
