Women Inclusion Favours Equity Over Equality

After two years of the pandemic, women have made important gains in representation, but still, in many sectors, there is a lack of women's leadership, especially in senior leadership. However, working women in India are carving out a steady position for themselves in the workplace now, even though many obstacles remain.

As Divya Karani, CEO of Media Dentsu says, India has taken decisive steps towards women's participation in the workforce but it is still far below that of men. At the same time, we are ahead in some sectors and importantly it is not only about equality but equity as well.

On the other side, founder and CEO of CREBACO Global, Sidharth Sogani says that startups can’t take a more lenient side for the female workforce because of their limited resources and accountability.

Sogani also said that blockchain is that this space is so nascent that experience doesn't matter and it provides equal opportunity for both men and women.

However, India ranks 135 among a total of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index in 2022 and is the worst performer in the world in the “health and survival” sub-index, where it is ranked 146.

Sidhant Ryan Malhotra, founder and CEO of SlayPay, quoting the UN’s report, said that to push women into the workforce, communication channels should be empathetic.

Whereas Divya Lal said that in the education sector, there are a lot of women but in the tech sector, the number is skewed. There is a need for support, not favour. There is a problem at the grass root level and extremely skewed. She is the founder and CEO of FlipLearn Education.

Malhotra also said that there are 48 per cent of women in India, but their contribution to GDP is just 13 per cent so it is very difficult to achieve a USD 5 trillion economy.