DAISY Chittilapilly, president, India and Saarc, Cisco, had a rather strange conversation with a senior leader in her organisation a few months ago. The leader, a man, came up to her and told her about his decision to promote and transfer a woman colleague in his team to a leadership position in Chennai. He was confident that this would be a dream role for her, and since her parents also lived in the same city, she would be ecstatic. Chittilapilly wanted to know if the leader had asked his team member about the role and whether she was willing to take it in the first place. “I knew her. One of the biggest motivations for her was to be away from home. She had a huge sense of independence. I told my colleague that he should talk to her once before giving her the offer. As I had expected, she said she didn’t want to move to Chennai,” says Chittilapilly. The male boss at Cisco was surprised. He had taken for granted that she might be reluctant to relocate to an unfamiliar location and a posting in the city she grew up in would be ideal for her.
India Inc. is brimming with such unconscious bias where women professionals are not even asked if they are ready to take on high-profile leadership roles even if they are qualified for the same. While organisations have little doubt about the potential of women leaders, male counterparts often tend to second-guess about their female colleagues. More often than not they believe it would be unfair to ask a woman colleague to relocate to a new place or travel extensively. After all, she is the care-giver too, and may not be able to do justice to her profession! The result: Only 27% women are given leadership roles in middle management, opposed to 73% men. The percentage dips further at senior levels with 21% women representation, according to a report by consulting firm DDI India.
This story is from the November 2021 edition of Fortune India.
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This story is from the November 2021 edition of Fortune India.
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