Real Gender Parity is Still a Long Way Off

THERE WAS A LOT OF debate, when Rohit Jawa was named CEO of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) after Sanjeev Mehta’s tenure ended.

- Krishan Kalra

It was argued that Rohit’s elevation was due to gender bias and Leena Nair should’ve got the top job. Frankly, it was all misconceived as Leena had undoubtedly done a great job in her domain, HR, whereas Rohit’s experience was rounded across functions and geographies. In any case Leena landed a plum international job at Chanel and added yet another name to Indian women in the global corner offices.

Indian mythology is full of respect for women ‘Sita-Ram, Radha-Krishan, Lakshmi-Vishnu’ are all proof that women were indeed revered. But for the shameful case of Draupadi Cheer Haran, women in Indian mythology have always had a special position. Then we have had glorious names like Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, Dr Annie Besant, Sarojini Naidu, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Padmaja Naidu, Indira Gandhi, Indra Nooyi – perhaps the first person of Indian origin who broke the glass ceiling when she became CEO of Pepsi in 2006 – and more recently, Arunima Sinha, Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, Gita Gopinath and others (my BW Businessworld column 25 March 2023).