How women are navigating the challenges of climbing the career ladder

I put in my papers last weekrdquo Varsha Ramani name changed 38 an advertising executive from Chembur tells us over a phone call ldquoI will never again be held back by a man whorsquos less competent than me I know itrsquoll be hard but Irsquom going to start my own firmrdquoRamani has worked on the client servicing end of the advertising field for 15 years She also worked closely on ideating and executing creative campaigns mdash without credit ldquoWhen I asked for a formal role change to the creative side I was turned down citing my lack of experience Then I saw the same managerial role go to a man six years my junior and hersquod worked on fewer campaigns than me It felt like I was just running at top speed never moving forwardrdquoShersquos not the only woman who finds her career in the doldrums while men around her zoom to the topIn its annual research series ldquoWomen in the Workplacerdquo conducted for the first time in India McKinsey amp Company found that men here are 24 times more likely to be promoted to managerial roles in a given year compared to women The same report has found that Indian women can be stuck in entrylevel and midlevel roles up to seven years longer than men with the average transition age for women being 39 compared to 32 for men before they move up to leadership rolesWhat does this mean Itrsquos something that wersquove always known but finally have empirical evidence for the climb to the top is steeper for women Itrsquos driven by systemic biases mdash inequitable distribution of domestic labour gender assumptions such as presuming a woman will not be as committed to work as a man pay disparity mdash take your pickThe gender gap isnrsquot just about fewer women being hired itrsquos about why they leave On paper it might look like women like Ramani are leaving of their own volition what remains invisible is the systemic barriers that keep them from achieving their leadership aspirations slowly pushing them out This phenomenon is called the ldquobroken rungrdquoItrsquos no coincidence that a 2023 study by CNBCTV18 and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry found attrition rates are highest among women in the 2030 age group 15 per cent and the 3040 age group 13 per cent ldquoMany women take a career break at this stage to build a family Because one women shoulder most unpaid care work childraising caregiving Two in a couple if the manrsquos career is progressing and the womanrsquos is not it makes financial sense for the woman to step back A couple of years later the wife returns for her second innings only to find the opportunities have shrivelledrdquo says Mitali Nikore feminist economist and founder of policy think tank Nikore AssociatesThis aligns with findings in the McKinsey report which states that women are 13 times more likely than men to quit their workplace during the long climb to the leadership rungs Once they make it there though particularly the Csuite CEO CFO and so on women and men are on even footing promotions increase and attrition falls This makes sense when rewarded women stay and performAnd the women who quit where do they go Onward and upward While many do devote themselves to marriage and childraising duties Sunday midday spoke to several women who have gone on to set up their own successful enterprises or moved on to jobs that recognised their value and gave them the promotions they deserveBarriers to dreams of leadership 4137The extent to which family duties serve as a barrier2337The gender bias barrier1337Lack of mentorship barrierlsquoIrsquom here to build a better ladderrsquoDipali Padia 37worked her way up in the fintech industryExperience 16 yearsAfter starting her career in the maledominated banking sphere Dipali Padia moved on to the more modern fintech space only to find the old boysrsquo club at play there tooOver the years Padia has climbed to the top of the field and is now Director of Business Development amp Banking Alliances at the Powaibased fintech firm Neokred Padia is proud of where shersquos reached mdash ldquoIrsquove earned my position and I enjoy my privileges no less than any manrdquo mdash but rues ldquoMy climb surely would have been faster if I were a man who are we kiddingrdquoldquoThere were times when I led revenue growth for a product vertical over delivered on KPIs and still watched as senior roles were quietly handed to male peers with less consistent track recordsrdquo she recalls ldquoThe reason lsquoHe has a certain presencersquo That presence I realised was often code for social comfort mdash who could talk freely in afterhours settings who could bond on afterwork offsites These unspoken access points are rarely designed for working women juggling dual responsibilitiesldquoThe gap is real and systemic It shows up in subtle ways who gets invited to strategic conversations whorsquos assumed to have leadership potential whorsquos lsquoencouragedrsquo to take clientfacing roles and whorsquos expected to hold the fort quietly The McKinsey data puts numbers to what has long been felt women are often not lacking in capability but rather in advocacyldquoI used to think results speak for themselves But in our corporate environment performance often needs packaging and women are socially conditioned not to selfpromote I had to learn how to speak about my wins claim space in strategic discussions and say no to token roles that didnrsquot serve my longterm goalsrdquoNow Padia is focused on using her influence to open doors for the next generation of women ldquoI didnrsquot climb the ladder just to survive at the top Irsquom here to build a better ladderrdquoldquoIrsquove made it a point to mentor younger women create visibility for their wins and question outdated assumptions in boardroom conversations Internal sponsorship flexible role design a proactive returnship programme these are some of the moves wersquove initiated at Neokred Research shows womenrsquos voices are interrupted or sidelined 33 per cent more often in meetings so I make a deliberate effort to bring them into conversations repeatedly ensuring their ideas influence decisionmakingrdquolsquoAny woman can come get a seat at this tablersquoSangita Marda AgarwalNetwork leader for support community Lean In MumbaiWhen life pushed me down mdash separated from an abusive husband with two daughters to support mdash it was two women who showed the way to a work opportunity and mentored merdquo says Sangita Marda Agarwal a communications consultant with 29 yearsrsquo experience who is also the Network Leader for Lean In Mumbai leaninmumbai In this community women at any stage of their career can find peertopeer mentorship camaraderie and support Affiliated to the international Lean In network established by former Meta CEO Sheryl Sandberg the Mumbai chapter connects about 2500 women through its website and LinkedIn and another 450 women on a WhatsApp groupldquoOne of the reasons I started Lean In Mumbai eight years ago was to pay forward the kindness of those women I pivoted my career and moved to Mumbai but I struggled for a sense of belonging and to get a seat at the table I decided to build a table myself A table so big that any woman here can just pull up a seat and feel like they belongldquoImagine a world with not just the old boysrsquo club but one for the girls too With that kind of mentorship and networking this could very well be a womanrsquos worldrdquo she sayslsquoWomen are asked repeatedly to prove themselvesrsquoNitasha Berry 37Events head at a Bengaluru firm changed jobs to land a promotion she was deniedExperience 11 yearsLast year at the age of 36 Nitasha Berry broke into the leadership level making events head at her current workplace But that was only after she switched jobs ldquoAt the previous company I had a decade of experience but they gave me a junior designation Then I applied to a UKbased company and they looked at my experience and talent and gave me the division head title no questions asked It was eyeopening for me This is how it should have been all alongrdquo she saysShe proved herself immediately pulling off a largescale conference in London for 3000 people within three months with no team save for two interns ldquoThatrsquos the kind of thing a woman can do with limited resources And thatrsquos the woman my previous company denied the same opportunityrdquo she saysShe adds that she held on to the title when she moved to the Bengaluru company she now works at Appreciated as it is the recognition has come much later that it did for her male peers ldquoIn my industry on average men are promoted to the same designation when they are 2627 Men can sell air and they will still get promoted They can fail up while women are asked to prove themselves repeatedly and are still deniedrdquolsquoThere was no room to growrsquoPriyanka Chandra 34started her own Entertainment PR firmExperience 10 yearsA little over five years into her Entertainment PR career Priyanka Chandra started to feel stifled in her former workplace ldquoSometimes it felt like a lot of opportunities were not coming my way maybe because I was a womanrdquo she recallsldquoThe better I did the more I found insecure male colleagues blocking my access to clients There was no room to grow So I decided to get out and start my own firmrdquo says Chandra who went on to found Mulberry Media four years ago They now represent actors film festivals screenwriters cinematographers and moreldquoThe workplace is full of assumptions from thinking of women as lesser than to questioning whether a woman can handle fieldwork Or the assumption of what one can ask a woman to do mdash a friend told me her employer a man asked her to meet an actor after work hours for a coffee or whisky to lsquogel with himrsquo She ended up quittingrdquo fumes ChandraItrsquos not just the men playing into patriarchy when there are few opportunities to begin with it pits women against each other too and nobody wins says the film and celebrity consultantBranching out on her own Chandra says has been lifechanging ldquoIF a woman feels her capabilities are being stunted for whatever reason be it politics or men restricting her growth they should branch out on their own Itrsquos an act of courage but the moment you stand up for yourself it feels amazingrdquo she saysFixing a loselose situationThere is a solution to empower the female gender at work and it includes health support and leadership development programmesDr Saundarya RajeshWere pushing smart women out of structured systems into solopreneurship or early burnouthellip because the equation simply stopped making sense work 2x harder get 50 per cent of the recognition all while carrying 10037 of the invisible load at home Itrsquos one of the most quietly devastating losses in corporate Indiardquo says Dipali Padia Director of Business Development amp Banking Alliances NeokredItrsquos a bigger loss for the organisation and economy The cost of replacing a midtosenior level employee can be 15 to two times their annual salary And thatrsquos not counting the cultural loss of losing experienced women employees who often hold teams together and mentor the younger members The IMF in 2015 estimated that gender parity in the workforce could boost the countryrsquos GDP by a whopping 27 per centEmployers must deploy genderneutral solutions like ldquoflexible work arrangements worklife integration programmes and parental leave to all employees irrespective of gender This will help level the playing fieldrdquo says Dr Saundarya Rajesh FounderPresident of the Avtar Group which works towards Diversity Equity and Inclusion DEIDr Rajesh who set up Avtar after her own struggle returning to work following a career break for motherhood emphasises that itrsquos midcareer women who fall through the cracks the most ldquoOrganisations tend to focus on entrylevel women and young moms with returnship programmes childcare support inclusive onboarding We need to realise that women need sustained support in the form of womenrsquos leadership development programmes Employee Resource Groups health support to prevent burnout and gender bias trainingrdquo she saysFor men choosing or prioritising between career or family is never even a question ldquoWomen frequently choose a job solely because it allows us to juggle family responsibilities alongside our work duties We must go for the career that yields influence Use career intentionality as a force to tackle the inequitable systemrdquo she says