Subconscious biases exist in every organisation in varying intensities, say women leaders

While the global pandemic has led to a lot of disruptions, hardships and life-changing transitions in everyone’s lives, the impact has been especially a significant one for women professionals. Adgully’s marquee Women Disruptors 2021 event turned the spotlight on ‘Impact of Pandemic on Women in Marketing, Media and Communications’.

The panel discussion on ‘Women leaders of tomorrow- Are we encouraging them enough?’, provided a lot of interesting insights into how Indian corporate are grooming and mentoring future women leaders. The discussions also touched upon topics such as gender sensitivity, harassment at the workplace and much more. The session was moderated by Girish Huria, EVP, Growth and New Initiatives, Avian WE, Western Region Chair, PRCAI, and the speakers who joined him were:

Arushi G Phillips, Senior manager Corporate Communications lead, FCB India

Priyanka Mehra, Director, Marketing & Communications, Havas Group India

Rohini Saldanha, Director - Corporate Communications South Asia, Wunderman Thompson

Saloni Shah, Digital Head CPD, L’Oréal India

Simran Kodesia, Country Communications Lead, Airbnb

At the outset, Girish Huria asked the panelists whether the industry is encouraging the women leaders in India, and also what their respective organisations are doing to encourage them and other women leaders.

Havas Group’s Priyanka Mehra responded by saying, “I think I can very confidently say that after completing two and a half years with this organisation I know one thing for sure, that if you come with a certain expertise and a certain skill set, you have a seat at the leadership table now. What you do with the seat depends on you as there is equal opportunity for everyone, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a male or female leader.”

Mehra went on to talk about their ‘Women who inspire’ initiative last year, which looks at changing an entire cultural mindset, whether it is from a point of view of policy making or it is an initiative. “We sometimes have biases that we are not conscious about and that is something that we are working on at a leadership level,” she added.

Mehra further said that they had laid stress on diversity of views and that there are male colleagues who are part of the core committee. She also said that her organisation has tied up with the UN Chapter on Stereotyping. “I am happy to belong to a place where women leadership is encouraged, nurtured and there’s mentoring that happens within these programs. Going back to the umbrella theme, this topic is so vast that it will take us the entire day and may be more to discuss about because there’s so much to do,” she added.

Wunderman Thompson’s Rohini Saldanha added here, “While we're headed in the right direction towards building an optimal gender balanced workforce, we still have miles to go. I truly believe only when you empower and enable women to be their confident best will a revolution be underway. To come to your question, I think that question still remains relevant because subconscious biases exist in every organisation in varying intensities, so more often than not owing to societal expectations, responsibilities, pressures women take extended breaks, drop out of the workplace and there have also been incidents in companies where people have reservations about hiring women because they might go on maternity leave for an extended period. So, I think the first step in that direction is to remove any unconscious or conscious biases that surfaced in any part of an organisation and you have to do that through a concerted and sustained effort over a period of time.”

She also stressed on the need to actively work on identifying these biases as well as invest in the diversity and inclusion training programs and pave the way for a more balanced gender approach. The ultimate goal should be to encourage workplace gender equality, where women shouldn’t have to choose between sacrificing a home or work domain owing to the competing demands of both.

Watch the entire conversation HERE.