Leadership Seminar 2021, by Nutshell

“We have to address specific needs without making women feel that they’re being placed in some special interest group. I think that does nothing but disadvantage women and their own professional prospects” – Saira Awan Malik, President, TCS.

Diversity and Inclusion in the multigenerational workplace has emerged as a flagged priority necessary to keep the wheels greased of trade, commerce and industry, and indeed government, and that was reason enough for this review.

Generation Gap

“Gen Z coming in and traditionalists moving out and we’re all fated to work together. Gen Z doesn’t want to work with older people because they don’t want to work for people their parents’ age. The older generation doesn’t really want to work for the younger generation because they think they don’t know anything, and also a reluctance to work for people younger than themselves. That is unfortunate because we need each other and we learn a lot from one another.”

Plugging the Gap

Speaking on the Pakistani situation, Saira Awan Malik said that pre-COVID there were 15% women in the workplace while comprising 50% of the population. “At TCS we are trying to plug that gap. 10% of our senior leadership is female in a very male dominated logistics industry, and we are proud of that. But as I said we have a long way to go yet.”

Level Playing Field 

What can we do to get there? “We have to address specific needs without making women feel that they’re being placed in some special interest group. I think that does nothing but disadvantage women and their own professional prospects. So you have to ensure a level playing field and yet accommodate their special needs in certain areas.”

Need for flexibility

Talking about the balancing act required, Saira said she had three children and when they were younger working fulltime could be very challenging.

“One has to build certain flexibility as an employer if you want to retain women long term. Getting that balance right is critical. While working from home has given women certain flexibility, for me working from home has been very challenging. It becomes very complex when you have to be productive in a space which is your home and where you are needed for other things like home schooling and other homemaker responsibilities relating to children and dependent parents.”

Enabling small women entrepreneurs

There has been a burst of entrepreneurial activity as far as women are concerned, said Saira. “A lot of women have taken stock of their skillsets and started small businesses. In the logistics sector we enable a lot of small e-commerce players and are really happy to encourage small women entrepreneurs that are coming onto the scene now. Women have had to reevaluate their place in the workforce. In summary we have a long way to go before women can claim their rightful place.”

Damsels in distress

The ladies want to have their cake and eat it too is a predictable male response that leans towards a mild case of male chauvinism. But they can rest easy for as Shelly Zalis (an earlier speaker at the seminar) disclosed  it will take us 257 years to close the gender pay gap which has gone up by 25 years because of COVID, and it will take 100 years to close the gender leadership gap.