Challenges faced by senior women leaders at work

Gender diversity is vital to any workplace.It's not just a laudable goal but it makes bottom-line business sense. Gender-diverse teams perform better than single-gender teams for several reasons. Men and women have different viewpoints, ideas, and insights, which improves problem-solving and ultimately leads to superior business performance.

Still, women face barriers in the workplace to succeed.

The Global Diversity and Inclusion Summit 2018 hosted by Ask Insights and BW Businessworld talked about challenges faced by women at workplace. The summit brought together some of the most recognized people including Hiroo Mirchandani (Independent Director on corporate boards), Nandini Chatterjee( Cheif Communications officer PwC) Mayuri Mukherjee(Marketing head, South Asia, Nestle) B.Balasubramanium(Partner and Diversity Leader, Deloitte).The panel was moderated by Dr. Niru Kumar (Founder, Ask Insights). 

A candid discussion initiated by research and examples from Dr. Niru Kumar’s rich
experience in the field. Some significant highlights emerged from the discussion were,
the due to unconscious biased, women still have-to prove themselves much harder than
men to be taken seriously specially on boards.Gender stereotypes in terms of dressing still exists. The mandate of hiring women onmboard is still seen as a tick mark and not a value add.

Mayuri Mukherjee remarked about the role of women leaders in creating successful organisation and challenges faced by them at the initial stage. At Nestle, diversity in our business and throughout our supply chain is a real asset , she added.

Hiroo Mirchandani expressed that women need to empower themselves in every sphere of life, not just only work. Companies must invest in grooming women for board positions, said Mirchandani. Research has shown that companies with more women directors produce a stronger business performance. “Experience shows groups with diverse perspectives can achieve more balanced decision-making with innovative and de-risked outcomes,“ she added. Men and women on boards can leverage their differences to deliver higher standards of corporate governance, she added.

B.Balasubramanium remarked that family support to a woman can help her to reach heights.

Nandini Chatterjee advised women to be a leader and fearlessly fight against all the odds. 

Women are the flag bearers of the better tomorrow and fight against discrimination and her right. As it is said that an empowered women leads to an empowered society and ultimately to an empowered nation.