I was quite depressed when my elder daughter was born, now don’t raise your eyebrows, she is one of the most colorful things ever happened to me in my life, it was more due to the cold reaction of the nursing staff of the hospital, they kept saying, girl child, girl child in my mother tongue with a tone which wasn’t very enthusiastic. It’s been 13 years since that date, I don’t know if people at those hospitals have changed or not but I know for sure that reactions at our highly elite workplaces in this period have been no different than that hospital in a distant town.
Every organisation which wants its piece of PR are quick to jump on to talk about how they are enhancing the inclusion of women and offering equal and flexible opportunities for growth. I must admit that there are some outstanding initiatives by some of the employers in this direction. But I suspect if majority of the organisations have the execution power to make this intent of being an equal opportunity employer truly possible. There is still a huge discrimination, if only people with authority get out of their palatial cabins and listen to the conversations at every level of their organisation!
At the cost of opening a Pandora’s box I thought I would list some of the ‘conversations’ which never get openly discussed but are part of private musings in most organisations. I reckon you will relate to some of them even though you may not agree with them, you may also proudly claim that this never happens with your current employer. It’s a long list…
Now you know you can double those bullet points with your own experiences, if the above pointers are figment of my imagination then I am out of touch from your wonderful real world and guilty as charged!
I don’t know if I can take a ‘holier than thou’ stance on this, as you might imagine I must have been part of some of these conversations or heard them from my colleagues and friends, otherwise how will I know all these?
My own career growth over the last 16 years is attributed to hard working women, 70% of my colleagues in both of those employers were smart, gritty, sacrificing women. Feels a little hollow to say this here as I might have not told this to them directly!
I don’t know if I could have been this candid till about I imagined my sister, wife and daughters to be working in the world of work people like me have created.
So, this is post from a selfish son, father, husband & brother hoping for a better tomorrow for all the women out there!
I celebrate two things today, my mother’s birthday and to all of you women who immensely contributed to who I am today as colleagues, friends, relatives, cousins and customers: Happy Women’s Day!
Happy Birthday Mom!
Hi…..
You are good in soul……kind in words ……….i admire your thoughts and feel proud to be one among your friends …..