More Than 50% of Men Feel Bias Against Women is Still Increasing at The Workplaces: Survey

Gender bias has been prevalent in India and many developed countries for centuries. With increasing awareness, women are coming to the forefront undertaking crucial roles, however, the bias still hampers their growth financially and professionally. TeamLease did a survey with male employees to understand what they think about gender bias, especially during the maternity phase. More than 50% of the male employees felt that there is an increase in gender bias against women in the last two years in spite of the implementation of the Maternity Benefit Act. As per the research, 48% of male employees have attributed increasing gender bias as one of the biggest reasons for the attrition of women at the workplace. Around 54% of the male respondents stated discrimination at the workplace to be the root cause of women not progressing in their careers. Similarly, more than 28% of men felt that there is an increase in gender bias in the hiring stage itself.

Elaborating about the findings, Ms. Rituparna Chakraborty, Executive Vice President, and Co-Founder, TeamLease Services, said, “It is very disturbing to know that even in today’s world women are treated differently. However, the only silver lining is that there is a growing realization amongst men that the regressive attitude and not talent that is pulling women folks down. As the saying goes, the realization is the beginning of the change, now that there is a unanimous acceptance we are hopeful that the way women are treated both at the corporate world as well as in the society will undergo a transformation.”

A detailed study covering the entire gambit of women participation at work, challenges including policies like maternity bill, as per the findings, it is not only India Inc even male employees perceives Maternity benefit Amendments Act 2017 to be not very effective. Most of the male respondents (36%) echoed that the act is one-sided and they were of the opinion that both the parents should get paid leave for childcare.

Other Key Findings:

· Employee/Employer /Industry sentiments on childcare leave and retention of women talent post-maternity

o Childcare Leave-Male Employee Perspective: 45% believe both parents should be provided paid leave. Most men agree that workplace gender bias has increased against women retention (48%) and career progression (54%).

o Post-maternity women retention efforts by employers: are not aligned with actual challenges highlighted by women. Nearly one in four employers (24%) provide flexible working hours to reduce post-maternity attrition, whereas the key challenge highlighted by women are wage cuts(30%)

· Job Opportunity Loss: Aviation, Retail, and Tourism continued to cause net job opportunity loss for women during FY 2019-20, belying expectations of net gain. Education, Real estate, and Manufacturing also caused job opportunity loss, in place of the expected mixed outlook.

· Hiring outlook forecasts by geography: Of the 28 states and 2 union territories, 13 stayed true to the forecasts and 17 bucked the forecasts, made for the medium term.

o Of the 10 states which were expected to show a negative outlook over the medium term, 6 states, and 2 union territories have posted a higher LFPR in FY 2018-19 when compared to FY 2017-18.

o Of the 20 states that were predicted to have a moderate to a high positive outlook, 9 states ended up posting a lower LFPR in FY 2018-19 than in FY 2017-18. Himachal Pradesh has the highest LFPR of 64.1% and Bihar has the lowest LFPR of 4.5%.

Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act 2017: Revisiting the impact is a follow-up report of The Impact of Maternity Benefits on Business and Employment – 2018. This survey was conducted with male employees to understand the impact of the bill on female counterparts. The current edition of the report covers the current opinion of corporates compared to the reaction when the act was amended in 2017, and steps taken by employers for implementing the provisions of the act. The analysis covers around 10 key sectors comprising aviation, BPO / ITes, Real-estate, e-commerce, education, BFSI, IT, Manufacturing, retail, and tourism.