Breaking the barriers
From voters to leaders. Photo: Shafiq Islam/drik News
I recently wrote a short piece on the economic impact of discrimination against women in Star Business. Though my esteemed readers usually don't expect me to write on non-business related issues, somehow this piece arrested the attention of quite a few concerned.
From the feedback that I have received, it seems that the situation is much worse in many organisations or institutions. If not apparent discrimination, subtle exploitation is taking place in many places. The resultant impact being that organisations do not get the best out of their female colleagues.
I am sure the readers know many more stories of discrimination against the women at the work place or in the family or community. In Dhaka city we see parents sending their son to a better school than their daughter, the boss keeping the young female colleague engaged in "chatting" with him instead of allowing her to do her work and go home in time, not to talk about women losing their jobs or being marginalised for refusing to attend to the "indecent proposals" of male colleagues or seniors.
Therefore, when the time or opportunity comes, the female colleagues lag behind and can't make the best out of their opportunities. But despite all these, many women are bouncing back, standing on their feet, winning against the adversaries and moving forward at home and abroad.
Closing the leadership gap between men and women is one of the central challenges of this century. We might debate this issue, but it nevertheless remains true that there might be many talented women but very few of them take top leadership positions.
Today, we see women around the world taking top positions in various multi-national companies. What has really changed in most other countries putting women in the forefront is the absolute mindset or the outlook of working women and their strong determination. Undoubtedly, women have made substantial progress in this 21st century, but, apart from many developed countries, to a lot of people there is still a question of where they have come since that young woman eagerly took the first step in her career, and how they broke the barriers.
Many women professionals in Bangladesh may deserve equal respect and recognition. Greater educational and employment opportunities for women, influence of western media, and particularly the growth of individualism combined with self-confidence have brought the discussion of women breaking the barriers to the forefront. Some women from our country have had the courage and ability to lead an institution not only in Bangladesh but also outside the country.
Can anyone ever think of a career in a country that is often plagued by war, political instability, and rampant criminal activity? Anyone, man or woman, would think a thousand times to take up that challenge. Nowhere are the conditions more demanding.
For a multi-national bank operating in a country like Afghanistan, finding customers is one thing; finding bankers to serve them is something else. Turning a profit may be the least of a bank's problems. For a woman it is even worse, especially when she sees some of her male colleagues in other banks or institutions resigning and going back to their home country.
In a rigidly conservative Afghanistan, Nasreen Sattar, currently CEO of a foreign bank in Afghanistan, has very competently marked her presence while leading the bank. Quite apprehensive about how the Afghan men would react, she has broken the barrier by successfully managing the bank's growth. She has taken a bold step to take up this challenging position, and proved her leadership in many aspects. A Bangladeshi woman taking up a top-most position in a country like Afghanistan has truly made a difference in the society and can be cited as a role model for many.
For all the real progress women have made in education, in their choice of career, and in their pay, a relatively small percentage ever make it to the top in Bangladesh. Women make up a significant percentage of the overall labour force, but hold only an insignificant percentage of top earning positions, and an extremely insignificant percentage of titles, such as CEO or COO.
A critical element in making it to the top is being in the pipeline to do so -- here women hold only very few key line jobs that make up the pipeline in most corporations. Aside from being in the pipeline, women in our country also have to believe that they can make it.
Studies suggest, and my own experience confirms, that it is hard for women to believe that they can progress if they cannot look up and see faces like their own at the top. We also find lack of confidence in women about reaching at the top. So when highly educated women perceive a dearth of viable options and leave the workforce, the pipeline narrows even further. This creates the possibility of a vicious cycle -- a cycle in which a woman's desire to make it to the top is sapped by the very paucity of other women who have done so.
How do women balance careers with their responsibilities as mothers and wives? Often it takes energy, patience, hard work, and creativity. Millions of women around the world, however, somehow manage to do it all, often at the cost of their own personal time. Perhaps this is nothing to worry about, since it reflects choices made by women clearly in advantageous positions.
But the concern is over the best and brightest women, those future leaders, leaving the country -- not just because it's not what Nasreen Sattar or other successful women leaders in other parts of the world have done -- but because of the ever-increasing need for a highly skilled workforce. It is in everyone's interest to redouble our efforts to help women rise to the top and help close the leadership gap.
We want today's women to realise their dreams and take the challenge of establishing their rights, be it at the workplace or be it in their homes. The challenge for them is not to let go of their own identity and to not give up the possibility to compete with the outside world -- as I truly believe that no ambition is too ambitious.
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