Women professionals still face more absurd queries about their marriage and family plans at job interviews and appraisals as compared to their male peers, taking their interest away from the job, found a recent TimesJobs survey. While India Inc. celebrated the International Women’s Day with much zest earlier, the ground reality for most working women hasn’t changed on many counts. TimesJobs surveyed 1,564 women professionals, aged 28-40, employed in different sectors to understand how their work life changed in the last decade.
In the survey, most women professionals said that work-life imbalance was their biggest challenge (voted by 48% respondents), followed by gender pay gap and a bias because of life events as motherhood or caregiving (voted equally afterwards). This finding cements the long due rue that working women juggle between many chores, switch roles endlessly and hence the challenge.
Company policy/culture and no transparency around salary increase gender pay gap:
Many workplaces – in India and abroad – have been harping the ‘same work, same pay’ slogan for long but that hasn’t changed many ground realities. When the survey investigated the reasons for prevalent gender pay gap, most respondents said that company policies/culture (that promote pay gap) and no transparency around pay were the two big culprits (each voted by 34% respondents). An unconscious gender bias was named as the third prevalent factor, as voted by 32% respondents.
Most absurd queries for women professionals:
The TimesJobs survey asked if women professionals face unnecessary probing about family at job interviews and appraisal meetings, and the unanimous answer was a ‘yes’. About 66% respondents said that they faced absurd questions about marriage or plans on having children more than their male counterparts.
Lockdown fatigue for women professionals, more women lost jobs too:
The TimesJobs survey asked the female respondents if the COVID-19 induced lockdown was tougher for them v/s their male colleagues. Most (74%) respondents said yes, hinting at a latent exhaustion from managing work and home non-stop during the pandemic. The survey also probed if any women they knew lost job during the pandemic. The answer here too was a ‘yes’, voted by 70% respondents.
Women leaders preferred for the perspectives they bring to the board
The TimesJobs survey uncovered some progressive trends too. When asked if women leaders were taken as seriously as their male counterparts, most (52%) said yes. The biggest reason for preferring a competent female leader was a different perspective (voted by 36%). The second most voted reason was their focus on team work, as voted by 29% respondents.
Women professionals made most progress in the IT domain:
The TimesJobs survey asked the domains where women professionals made most progress and impact. Most respondents named IT/ITeS sector as the top domain where women professionals progressed most, as voted by 35% respondents. This was followed by the Hospitality sector, as voted by 16% respondents. The least voted went to Automobiles sector (just 3% votes) and the Pharmaceutical sector (voted by 6% respondents).
Commenting on the findings of this survey, Sanjay Goyal, Business head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “For years, corporate house have been talking about introducing radical changes to make workplaces more gender inclusive. However, as our survey shows, there’s still a lot of ground to be covered. I urge corporate houses to take this survey like a lighthouse and work on areas that need immediate improvement. The first focus should be helping workforce reinstate work-life balance, especially in the work from home scenario where professional are toiling to keep their office and home running simultaneously.”
___________________________________________________________________
About TimesJobs:
TimesJobs is a platform to help competent professionals enhance their career growth. With over 25 million registered job seekers across the board and more than 60 million page views every month, it is the most preferred career portal among ambitious and talented professionals who want to make smarter career decisions that accelerate their career progression.