Is It Still A Man's World In Corporate Circles?

Many a people create a big furore, a lot of talk and noise, about women and the corporate ladder.

- Rinky Marwaha

They say there is a discrepancy between men and women when it comes to the salary structure; that this demarcation exists even when it comes to promotions and appointments. Is this true? Most would agree that the corporate world is for men. It is totally a men’s world out there. There is bigtime differentiation when it comes to the fairer folk. Which is why, even today when we are living in times when more and more women are stepping out of their homes for work, there are fewer number of women opting for corporate jobs. Many of us still feel more comfortable in the conventional teaching-writing kind of work which was earlier earmarked as somewhat of a woman’s terrain.

Just for the record, in India, live about 1,2,66,883,598 people, as of June, 2017. Of these, 48.5 percent are women. 46.8 percent of all enrolled undergraduate students in the country are womenfolk. In the year 2015-16, 16.2 percent of all urban workers were women. 13.4 percent of Indian working women are on regular and salaries jobs (2013) as compared to 21.2 percent (2011-12) of working men (of age group 15-59 years). It is estimated that women earn only about 57 percent of the amount which their male counterparts get for doing the same amount of work. Also, it comes forth that the more educated a woman is, the bigger is the gender pay gap she faces. In addition, this pay parity actually hikes up with the advancement of women up the ladder in their respective fields. However, what really is abysmal is that only about 7.7 percent of board seats are held by women. Then again, only 2.7 percent of board chairs are women-occupied.

...a bit of a sordid picture emerges….