Breaking down gender barriers in the M&E industry
Into its 4th year now, WOMEN DISRUPTORS, brought by Adgully, has become an industry-standard in recognising and celebrating the outstanding achievements of women leaders of India from across sectors, who are bringing about a positive and definitive change not just in their organisations, but the industry and society as well.
Over the years, women leaders have proved more than their mettle on their capabilities, crisis handling expertise, leading forward businesses as well as turning obstacles into growth opportunities.
WOMEN DISRUPTORS 2023 comes at an interesting inflexion point when digital and technology are making even deeper inroads than before in all spheres of business as well as our lives.
DEI or Diversity, Equality, and Inclusivity are not just words to showcase an organisation’s empathy card. These have become important benchmarks to gauge an organisation’s value as well as earning the goodwill of consumers and as performance indicators.
However, gender equality in the workplace is still an area of concern, even though significant strides are being made to remove gender barriers and bring parity in organisations.
A fireside chat between Ajay Dang President, Head of Marketing, UltraTech Cement and Nupur Saxena, Heads - Sales for Youth, Music, English, and Kids Entertainment, Viacom18, during the 4th edition of Women Disruptors 2023 covered the important topic of “Breaking down gender barriers in the M&E Industry”.
At the outset, Ajay Dang asked Nupur Saxena, “While there is a substantial number of women in the M&E space, what has been the evolution of getting gender equality in the M&E space?”
Responding to the question, Nupur Saxena said, “Women don’t ask, that’s why it needs to begin and that’s where it is breaking the barrier. As compared to the earlier times, with the provision of the Internet and digital going big, things are going much faster. Now, women in the decision-making room are 3 as compared to 10 years ago when the number was just 1. So, yes the evolution has begun.”
Continuing further, Saxena said, “Now, we have to educate and change the unconscious bias of the minds of the young.”
Dang added here “We all know we should exercise, yet a lot of us don’t follow. We all know something should be done yet barriers come in between. When science and thinkers have thought about problems slightly differently, they have achieved far greater success. If we were to break down the system of what has been there in the past, organisations will realise what they are missing out on by not having enough female talent at the C-Suite and other levels. How would you position it to companies and hiring managers so that it becomes a pull rather than a mandate for organisations to hire women managers?”
According to Saxena, “Mandates will work only by ticking the right check boxes. Organisations can definitely give us mandates, but try to figure out what is the best. Viacom18 has come up with a really good proposition where women get 9 months of maternity leave. Even the men get paternity leave because he has to also take care of the baby and the mother and he mandatorily has to take it.”
These are edited excerpts. For the complete conversation, watch below:
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