Accenture & ET discuss "Reinventing opportunity looking through the lens'

The roundtable was an exchange of perspectives and ideas regarding workplace dynamics between the thought leaders (both men and women) and women corporates. The event started off with a keynote address by Chanda Kochar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank. In her address she said that women need to take up challenges and give a job at hand all that it needs. She further noted, "When the country is growing, every Indian grows, every youth grows and more importantly every woman grows."

The address was followed by a presentation of Accenture's study on the women in corporate sphere. The study covered 24 countries and tried to gauge woman's career satisfaction and aspiration. The study found out that there was a difference in the way women aspired in the emerging countries when compared to developing countries. In India and China the aspirational levels amongst women is on a rise and it was also seen that very few women however aspire to be CEOs. More and more women believe that advancement in workplace comes with hardwork the study said.

Then a panel discussion took place which included discussion on issues like-

- Is women empowerment a process of awareness and conscientization?

- How do we make education, health, safety and inclusiveness of women look beyond urban and into rural gaps?

As closing remarks De recited two lines from the poem written by Anasuya Sengupta which read- "Too many women in too many countries. Speak the same language of silence." She further added that it was time to break the silence and prove your mettle. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]