Women’s Day Special: Deciphering what today’s women REALLY want

The world is celebrating International Women’s Day amid growing voices against the harassment women have been facing at homes, place of work and virtually everywhere. It’s a sad and worrisome thing that movements like #MeToo and “TimesUp have to be launched to give women a platform to fight back even as the world progresses towards greater technological advancements.

According to the World Economic Forum, women represent only 37 per cent of the total work force in the media and entertainment industry. And the gender pay gap stays at 18 per cent. An authoritative piece of research reveals that India’s highest paid female actor today still earns only one-third that of her male counterpart. We know that India is not isolated in these numbers, but we are also no better than the others. It has also been reported – and this is interesting – that male characters receive 2 times the amount of screen time as female characters in the films that were made in the year 2015, which is 28.5 per cent compared to 16 per cent globally.

This Women’s Day, Adgully approached some remarkable women leaders in diverse fields like media, advertising, digital, marketing, women’s rights, to find out what today’s women aspire for. Though the responses are varied, the one common thread running through is that women are fighting for Equality, Respect and Recognition that is due to them – nothing less, nothing more. Read on and be inspired…

Sonia Huria, Head – Communications & CSR, Viacom18:
“Women today are aspiring towards equality. Not preferential treatment, but equality. To not having to make a choice between career and home; PTA meetings or board meetings. The balancing act aims at bringing equity in their investment of time and productivity.

The error that many make while championing the cause of women’s rights is to perceive the aberration or the ill-informed as the norm. Just as the concepts of equality and equity have to be propagated within the female population, so has it to be to our male counterparts. At Viacom18, we have been strongly focusing on gender diversity conversation amongst both men and women. Our policies such as work from home,flexi timings, 30 days of paternity leave and soon to be launched crèche service for both men and women help build an ecosystem that encourage women to move forward in their careers and reach for more leadership roles.”

Nisha Narayanan, COO, 93.5 Red FM:
This year’s International Woman’s Day theme is #PressforProgress, which essentially champions the strong global momentum striving for gender parity on the back of the movements like #metoo or #timesup. The World Economic Forum’s 2017 global gap report findings tells us that we are still 200 years away from gender parity, but the promising thing is that there’s been immense progress on bringing up a strong and growing global movement of advocacy, activism and support towards the cause. Women are seen celebrating womanhood like never with the global representation of woman on top increasing every year! The idea is not to be overtly feministic in approach but vouch for equal human rights. Women today aspire to be challenging the limits of womanhood, make workplace more inclusive, be a role model for equality and at the same time have a firm voice against any inappropriate behaviour!”

Archana Anand, Digital Head, ZEE5 India:
“Women today aspire to live in a world that celebrates freedom of thought and expression. They want to live in stable and just societies that promote balanced living, equal opportunities, respect for the individual irrespective of gender, and safe public spaces.

There is no denying that we have come a long way on all these fronts. Be it as a working woman or a homemaker, we are multi-tasking and excelling in all aspects of our lives. However, the very fact that we need to celebrate our gender with a specific day indicates that a lot needs to be done before we can claim true equality.”

Megha Tata, COO, BTVI:
“Women today aspire to have equal opportunities and recognition in work roles as their male counterparts. They strive towards having a work-life balance. Organisations play a key role in providing a conducive work environment for career development. Creating a gender sensitive workplace with guidelines and policies will further encourage women to pursue challenging roles. Providing women with access to career development programs and ongoing positive feedback will aid them towards leadership roles.”

Priyanka Shah, Director – Mobile, Isobar India:
“What are today’s women aspiring for? A question which is very easy to answer, but difficult to perceive. There is this spectrum of womanhood you see in India. Unfortunately, a majority of them still aspire to be the good woman as per the patriarchal standards. Increasingly, many women are fighting for what they want out of their lives professionally and personally. Today’s women aren’t afraid to follow their passions and aspire to create their own legacies. Ambitious Indian women want their freedom and manage to find a path to their dreams. Today’s women aspire to carve a world for their successors, where they can be proud to be born a girl, where she can have every bit of freedom, respect and adulation that every boy would enjoy. Today, women aspire to create great ideas that transcend cultures, backgrounds and geographical boundaries.”

Ambika Sharma, Founder & Managing Director, Pulp Strategy:
“Women today have crossed the threshold of merely aspiring to inspiring others achieve their dreams. From female athletes winning global accolades to actresses receiving worldwide recognition for their performances, from business magnets spearheading home-grown unicorn start-ups to business leaders driving multinational banks – women are increasingly challenging the default setting of male-dominated environments across industries. This constant show of talent and grit becomes all the more praiseworthy considering the skewed numbers of the Indian working population, with female participation in the workforce roughly 27 per cent against about 79 per cent of the same for men in India. It is such societal imbalances that, I believe, women are aspiring to eradicate, to end the social disparity that prevails in our society and bring about equality, something that they truly deserve.”

Tripti Lochan, CEO, VML South East Asia and India:
“Today’s women are aspiring to be able to be in control of what they want to be. They want the independence to make decisions that are their’s. They want to be steering their own ship, making choices – to work or to be a home maker, to party or be a teetotaller, to say yes or no to sex tonight. Their career is a natural extension of choices they make. It’s not about being allowed to make choices.  It’s about wilfully deciding what road to take.”

 

Kranti Gada, Senior VP, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd:
“Today`s women aspire for freedom! The right to think, act and speak what they want. Women want to be empowered to make a free choice without being judged by a predetermined yardstick. So, whether she wants to run a family or a business or both together, it should be her free will.”

 

 

Vrutika Dawda, Director, IdeateLabs:
“I feel the aspirations of today’s women have transformed into actions. There are no more sidelines or fences. Today’s woman chooses courage over adversity, when it comes to gender-biased pay. Change over comfort, when it comes to male-dominated professions. Curiosity over acceptance, when it comes to finding innovative solutions. They will not stand for just okay, or anything less. They forge new roads and are emerging as game changers at home and at workplaces. Today’s women are changing the world, and their drumbeat of change is loud.”

Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India:
“I think men or women, everyone wants the same thing – respect and recognition unfettered by bias.”

Gayatri Yadav, President and Head, Consumer Strategy & Innovation, Star India:
“It is a subject close to my heart. ‘Nayi Soch’ is much more than a tagline for us, but came from a fundamental belief that women have a limited role and we often see that society is imposing stereotypes and the progress of women. So, when we did the ‘Nayi Soch’ campaign and we went to MS Dhoni and asked him if he could put his mother’s name instead of his name on his jersey, Dhoni’s response was, “This is awesome. I’ll not only do the campaign, but will take it to the field.” The whole Indian team walked onto the field with their mother’s names on their jerseys. It was not just a tribute to mothers, but a way of addressing stereotypes. Why should a person’s identity only be derived from having their father’s identity, why not the mother’s identity? It was for the first time that a women’s identity was appreciated and acknowledged by everyone present there to watch the match. We followed it with the Aamir Khan commercial, where Aamir plays a shopkeeper and the signboard says Gurdeep Singh & Daughters.

Now coming to what are we doing this Women’s Day, Star India, in collaboration with PWC and MAMI, is doing a first ever study on gender equality which is very extensive. Called ‘Nayi Soch – A Report of Women in Hindi Cinema’, the report is staggering. It highlights the under-representation of women in Cinema, their invisibility, as well as the opportunity to really make a change.”

Neha Kaul, Marketing Head, Shine.com:
“Women today aspire for the same things as men. A great career and a great personal life – balance between the two. Today’s women weren’t brought up with the idea that there is a glass ceiling. A millennial woman doesn’t believe that she has to struggle for equality or try to prove oneself because she’s a woman. She expects to be treated the same as any guy at her workplace. There’s a lot of debate about gender wage gap, but when we did an analysis of Shine.com salary data, we found that there was no substantial wage gap between men and women with under 10 years of work experience, though there was a pay gender gap amongst professionals with more than 15 years of experience. While it’s true that there aren’t enough women in leadership positions, it looks like things are changing and the women of today are definitely aiming for the top.”

Click to Read More on Women’s Day.

Natasha Mudhar, CEO & MD, Sterling Media:
“International Women’s Day is a stark reminder, not only of the things we have achieved so far, but of the miles of work ahead of us. The call for action here is to challenge stereotypes and bias, as well as forming an assertive vocal platform for equal participation in society. Equality in every shape and form is not a privilege, but an incessant right. It is not about special rights, but equal rights, where opportunity for everyone should be readily available for all.”

Sairee Chahal, Founder, CEO, SHEROES (A women’s community platform):
“We recently did a survey in SHEROES communities and the findings were fascinating. Women value freedom above all other aspirations – freedom to make independent decisions in professional and personal life. They want to pursue careers they feel passion about – from coding to design, and not be held back from male-dominated professions. Financial independence and wealth creation is another strong aspiration. They also want to nurture other aspects of living beyond career and motherhood. For instance, many women have shared their aspiration to travel extensively, and in fact, undertake solo travel. Besides this survey, we host a fun weekly activity called SHEROES Challenges on the platform, where we asked women about the kind of legacy they want to leave behind – entrepreneurship, impact, changing the world, and starting something of their own, were part of the mix. In a nutshell, women really want the opportunity to choose their life, without the pressure of having to conform to existing societal norms.”

Sinu Joseph, Managing Trustee, Mythri Speaks:
“It is not possible to generalise the aspirations of all women in Bharat into one or two categories. However, perhaps we can look broadly at rural women and urban women as their lifestyles, needs and desires are quite a contrast. In Bharat today, we see that the urban women are getting more vocal about their rights and expect the government or society to somehow make them feel socially equal. Whereas, the rural women are quietly going about performing their duties, neither questioning nor demanding that others give them their rights. Of the total population of women in India, only about 30 per cent live and work in urban areas. The National Sample Survey (NSS) data for India show that labour force participation rates of women aged 25-54 (including primary and subsidiary status) have stagnated at about 26-28 per cent in urban areas, and is around 44 per cent in rural areas (2011). So, the real empowerment is happening among rural women who are molding their destiny themselves, quietly, while urban women are crying hoarse for their rights.”

Shenaz Bapooji, CMO, Shopmatic:
“Women today are no longer just aspiring; they are achieving the things they want, both professionally and personally. They are taking up business leadership roles, floating their own ventures, breaking into traditionally male-dominated sectors such as IT and finance. Even in the MSME sector, we are witnessing a surge in the number of women business owners creating livelihood opportunities, for themselves and for other women around them.

That being said, things could be much, much better. The issue of equal pay for men and women remains a challenge yet to be addressed. Moreover, even though the number of female professionals has grown significantly over the years, there is a pressing need to encourage more women to join the workforce and become active contributors to the economy. In fact, the digital world provides a great avenue for women to create unique identities for themselves and get recognised for their talent, skills or even, hobbies.”

Aditi Balbir, Founder & CEO, V Resorts:
“Today’s women aspire for leadership opportunities in their respective spheres of work. As an optimist, I believe that the days when women are simply content with being treated like men are gone. The drive now is to compete with the best and reach the top of the ladder regardless of what the society would otherwise have you believe.”

 

Niyati Vora, Vice President – Brand Activation, Wizcraft International

“Women today are no longer confined by gender norms, they are taking up roles that have traditionally known to be male dominant and are proving to be very successful. A new gender construct which sees a woman balance both traditional roles and roles taken up by free choice (multi-tasking) has been on the rise. Everything we do is performed with a sense of pride and achievement because of the hardwork and struggle that has gone behind it. Achieving a perfect work life balance is something that has become so important today. We are great moms, wives, friends, colleagues & bosses and we only aspire to be greater in every role in the future.  Another thing that I think should be aspirational for any working woman is supporting and uplifting other women in the professional space. Forming positive and healthy business relationships with other women not only creates a better overall work environment but also helps increase opportunities and pay equality for women. This done well will see an ecosystem that supports women employees through their critical life stages, like marriage and motherhood. By encouraging and enabling women and their career development, companies will be far more successful in attracting and retaining the next generation of top talent.”

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Adgully: https://www.adgully.com/women-s-day-special-deciphering-what-today-s-women-really-want-76685.html