Women, Workplace and the Web!

Women, Workplace and the Web! Creating Digital Women— for the Digital Era!

Women, Workplace and The Web!

Creating Digital Women — for the Digital Era! WILL Report and Survey: 2018

WILL Report and Survey: 2018 1

Foreword Poonam Barua CEO, WILL Forum India Forum for Women in Leadership

We are standing on the threshold of a New Frontier— where the present formats of business, cultures, societies, operations, and partnerships will have unprecedented dynamics of change, unleashing a range of new energies and new vision. This new frontier will generate a model of “New Age Companies” – that will embrace equal opportunity and leverage all stakeholders equally, in the quest for best performance, best innovation, and excellence. This Report seeks to address the critical question of how the New Age Companies and digital technologies will deliver to the aspirations of the vast number of women who comprise half the global population – and are standing on the threshold of finding their own space and professional fulfillment. With the dismal minority numbers of women on corporate boards, and senior leadership levels of most companies around the world, how will the digital revolution help to change these numbers and create more “flat –structure organizations” of empowered individuals? Will digitization be the great

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Women, Workplace and the Web!

gender equalizer in the workplace and lead to a greater gender-neutral assessment and performance structure? And will women be empowered with the social media that will finally give them a “voice” that can be heard across hierarchies, continents, nationalities, and stakeholders? These are the critical areas that this pioneering Report seeks to address, so that companies can prepare their roadmap and policies for the Digital Era – that will create “Digitally Empowered Women” in their organization. This Report is not about women in science, medicine or engineers – it is about how women across functions will interact with the new technologies, to transcend the barriers that have been holding them back for centuries. We must ensure that each women professional gets the opportunity to benefit in the digital era, and we must commit to closing the Digital Gender Divide. We welcome your engagement and leadership -- on this important mission for creating Digital Women – for the Digital Era!

Girish Wardadkar Head-India, Sogeti Sogeti is a Capgemini Group company

Globalization calls for a new world order which has led to higher demand for ICT skills in most sectors. Creating policies to access digital knowledge at the national and global level specifically for women would help in the advancement of their digital skill set. Providing platform to women without any discrimination will accelerate progression of their career and higher inclusion levels in organizations globally. Capgemini has been on the frontier of Digital technology deployment worldwide. Gender bias needs to be overcome, if we are serious of reaping benefits of Digital innovation. Our endeavor to provide a platform for women leaders to come

ahead and contribute actively to the digital change. This can be achieved by encouraging women employees to embrace the digital DNA and agility. Besides we simply have to increase our proportion of women leaders in core technical functions. My thoughts completely resonate with a statement by Christine Lagarde, IMF Chief on women inclusion, where she said- “I genuinely hope there will be a focus on inclusion of Indian women in the economy. We have research to show that India’s GDP can grow by 27% if the women are brought to the same level of men in terms of economic and workforce participation”

Capgemini is committed to leveraging digital to enabling an equal opportunity workplace

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Executive Summary As the onslaught of rapid technology, unprecedented pace of artificial intelligence and social media takes place around the world – it is becoming clear that no business leadership story will be complete for any sector or industry, that does not leverage the vast resources of the new technologies, and understands its dramatic impact on redefining the workplace and empowering diverse stakeholders. We are witnessing the new miracle of the Digital Era -- where online travel, rapid communication, and unprecedented exposure are literally in the “palm of our hands”. However there remains a clear “Digital Gender Divide”, as participation of women in the tech industry remains a low 17% - 25%, and there are 12% less women users of the Internet in developed nations, and about 35% less in developing countries. The Information Technology industry is earning more than $100 billions in revenues and contributing a significant amount to India’s GDP. The technology sector in India is uniquely positioned to change India’s economic outlook, and women in the technology sector can play an important role in this transformation. As 95% of jobs will soon have an intense technology component in the coming years, women professionals, executives, academics, social scientists, entrepreneurs, and all working class women, are already empowering themselves with these new technologies to close the “digital gender divide.” They are creating their presence

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on the social media, giving visibility to their competencies & capabilities, their stories & their aspirations, their power and their skills, which so far could not be heard as there are less than 10% women in decision making positions in organizations and companies. Women are also defining new ways of doing work –with the new technologies, as it allows them to work from home, at the shopping store at the play school, at anytime, anywhere. Most of all, the new digital technologies are allowing women to be seen as “professionals” who simply get the work done that is allocated to them, or be seen as “creative and innovative” executives, without any gender stereotype being attached to them. There is therefore a high probability that the Digital Era will lead to Greater Gender Equality and equal opportunity in the workplace. For this to become a reality, we need to understand two things: (a) what is the differentiating style of women in leadership, that will come into sharp and valuable focus with the new technologies, and (b) what are the “New Age” diverse and inclusive companies that will be the best employers for women in the digital era.

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Introduction

We are witnessing the miracle of the Digital Era — that will empower women in unprecedented ways! 6


The emergence of the Information Technology sector in the mid-1990s has unveiled a plethora of opportunities for women and men. The Indian Information Technology & Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry emerged as the largest private sector employer in the country with direct employment of about 2.23 million professionals. The percentage of female employees, over the years, has steadily increased from 35% in 2006 to 36% in 2008 at the entry level. The Information Technology sector’s boom introduced white-collar jobs with high salary, comfortable indoor work environment, interaction with international clients, foreign travels and overseas assignments. At the outset it seemed like gender-neutral work based on knowledge-centric skills possession and thus attracted not only men but women too. The important factors that motivated women to participate in the IT industry was that for the first time in history of work, women did not have to compete with muscle, as it was only based on using their education, intellect, and skills. Growing female participation rate in this sector shows that it has also encouraged women into professional, technical and higher education. While there were only 5 to 8 percent of female engineering graduates in the IT Industry during 1980s, the figures have gone up to 20 to 30 percent in 2009. Digitalization is often discussed as if the labour market and the workplace were completely gender-neutral. In principle the new opportunities created in the blooming IT-BPO sector should have been equal for both men and women, but the data shows a different scenario. National Association of Software Services Company (NASSCOM) Report 2009, has revealed that over the years the proportion of women at the entry level as well as middle-level management has increased considerably, but there is lack of adequate representation of women at the senior levels. This poses some serious questions to the society, about whether the corporate world is exploiting women workers’ labour to get their work done and shying away from their responsibility on advancing women in the organization? And whether the world is depriving women from reaping the benefits of their hard work?

The Digital Gender Divide: How large – and how deep? In 2012, the Indian technology industry had $100 billion in revenues and contributed 7.5% to India’s GDP, and women contributed a significant part of it. The IT sector offered a number of different categories of jobs differing in areas, skills and hierarchy levels. The higher-end jobs included Software developers, Analysts, Architectures, Tech leads, Consultants or Project managers. A bulk of lower-end jobs was also created such as testers, programmers or quality assurances support. The lower-end jobs paid less and have fewer channels of growth, fewer chances of communication with national and international clients, and lesser chances of going career progression. Women clustered at the lower level of the job ladder leading to feminization of certain service activities and consequential segregation. Very few women reach the higher level of managerial jobs. In 2009 only 5% of women were at the senior levels of most IT related organizations. This is also the typical pattern in most organizations across different sectors in India. The average number of women at the entry level is about 50%; at the mid-level is about 40%, and at the top-band of the executive leadership the number is as low as between 1-10%. In fact, it is hard to find companies in India that have more than 10% women in the top-level. Poonam Barua in her book ‘Leadership by Proxy: The Story of Women in Corporate India’, explains, “The reality is that a large part of the declining women at the top-brackets of company leadership is a clear reflection on the lack of equal opportunity and fair-promotions at the top-end of the business unit- that keeps most of the women in the “mid-level” for almost their entire careers in the organization” Women are still excluded from the core business of the companies and are concentrated around the support roles. The job profile of women from support roles to core business was increased by only 2 percent since year 2012, as per WILL Forum data on demographic spread of women in management.

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Gender Divide in the Access to New Technologies There has been a rapid growth in the ICT sector since the late 1980s and the use of ICT has dramatically expanded since the 1990s, postliberalization and globalization. The number of Internet accounts is growing at a fast rate. But women have had limited access to the new technologies in India. There is a huge gender divide when it comes to owning cell phones, computers, gadgets, or the Internet usage. Although new technologies provided a lot of work opportunities for women, but at the same time the sector has witnessed “feminization” of IT industry at the lower –levels of jobs. Women workforce in IT sector clearly face a “glass ceiling”, and are not able to rise higher above mid- level management. Women also fail to bargain for pay scales, perks, stock options, and incentives. They lag behind in opportunities for upgrading their skills, tend to attach to a company for a longer period, and are reluctant to put up late hours to build informal networks , which limits them from getting information on career openings. Their career choices are constrained by distance from home, domestic responsibilities, job securities, and company reputation.

Other constraining factors include recruitment and promotion filters for selection of certain jobs, lack of mentors, and network at higher position. Non-implementation of women sensitive company policies further hampers promotional prospects of women software professionals. The level of work has a direct relation with the earnings. Women reportedly earned USD 6,000 less than men in their current jobs. Women and men received similar amounts of on-thejob trainings, but women received fewer of the on-the-job experiences. The “hot jobs” as they are called, such as international assignments, or mission-critical jobs, which gives anyone an opportunity to prove their ability and becomes a critical milestone in career advancement, were missed from women’s platter of jobs. There is sufficient data now to highlight the “Digital Gender Divide” gap when it comes to participation of women in the tech industry.

Digital Gender Divide: 51% of women are still at the entry level in IT industry -- it raises serious questions about their intent for closing the Gender Gap 8

Women, Workplace and Web! the Web!

17%

19%

23%

have women in their

technology staffs,

respectively Facebook

Only

Google

17%

Apple

26%

use the Internet in India, compared with women globally

More than

440 million, or

No more than a

quarter of U.S.

Only around

26%

72% of Indian women do not have cellphones

computing and mathematical jobs

are held by women

of the STEM (Science, technology, Engineering, mathematics) workforce in developed countries is female

The International Telecommunications Union reports that the proportion of women using the Internet is

12% lower than the

this gender gap

widens to 32.9% in the least developed countries

proportion of men

According to World Wide Web Foundation, women are 50% less likely to use the Internet for economic and political empowerment, due to many barriers like £

high costs,

! lack of know-how,

and social obstacles to speaking freely and privately online, without facing online hostility

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Further multiple surveys continue to document systematic discrimination against women in the workplace, and in the tech industry – and regarding the challenges that women face in advancing in their careers, from the iconic Silicon Valley firms to the giant tech firms operating across the world. Women also hesitate to use the Internet and social media freely to their best advantage, due to the large number of documented reports of the culture of hostility that women may have to face online. A World Wide Web Foundation report says, “women around the world report being bombarded by a culture of misogyny online, which makes women hesitate to use the Internet to their best advantage”.

Benefits of Women Harnessing Digital Online: Rise of the “Femalepreneuers”! Women are not only workers; they are entrepreneurs too. In the new wave of startups (companies) women are also trying to get their share of business, though much lesser than men. In 2016, approximately 1020 companies secured seed funding in India, out of which only 15 percent were either founded by a woman or had a woman co-founder. While we see more and more women founding startup companies, and leading them

as CEO’s, there is still a long way to go for gender parity in business. Further, 35 percent of the female-led companies are into ecommerce of popular soft- industries like lifestyle, fashion, healthcare, food and beverages and wellness. Women are great customers for online products as they have busy schedules due to added home and family responsibilities, and often do not have time to visit stores. Online retail and groceries has cut down the amount of time women have to spend on house-keeping, and adds to their productivity outflow, with less stress and greater time to devote to themselves, their families, childcare, and their own private time and space. Online banking has also empowered women exponentially to be financially more independent, as they can operate their bank accounts online, raise money if they need to, and grow their businesses—especially in socially conservative countries in Asia and Middle East regions. Digitization is also helping women bypass the bureaucracies and social restrictions via using Internet and mobile Apps. Thousands of women across the world have established Instagram businesses selling handicrafts, food, clothing and accessories – via internet forums like WOMENUER, that helps emerging and early stage “femaleprenuers” to get their complete documents and tools to succeed in business.

Digital Gender Divide: among companies who startup companies who have received seed funding – less than

15% were founded by a woman 10

Women, Workplace and Web! the Web!

There is also a real possibility that Digital technology will help to close the wide “Gender Pay Gap” between men and women in the workplace, that has been a constant reminder of the lack of equal opportunity and recognition for talents in the workplace. Globally women receive 10% to 30% less pay than men for work of equal value (Source: Morgan Mckinley). Further, while the pay gap varies across companies of different sizes, in almost all tech firms, the gender pay gap is between 19- 28%. For every $40,000 paid to male executives, women get paid $29.000 — the pay gap being 28% (Source: City A.M.).

These powerful equalizers of the Digital Era are vital to encourage greater female participation in the workforce and enable career advancement. Business, government and academia all have an important role to play in closing the gender pay gap, and collaboration among these organizations is key to providing the right opportunities, environments and role models to lead the way for change.

Company size

Salary - Men

Salary - Women

Pay gap

Proportion of women

1-10 employees

£40,000

£29,000

28%

3 in 10

10-50

£42,000

£34,000

19%

3 in 10

50-250

£45,000

£36,000

20%

3 in 10

250+

£47,000

£38,000

19%

3 in 10

There is no economic logic to the existing Gender Pay Gap – it can only be an indicator of Gender bias in the workplace 11

Beyond Business & Economic Growth: Understanding the Opportunity in Digital Inclusion To quote the World Economic Forum’s founder, Dr. Klaus Schwab, “Achieving gender equality is obviously necessary for economic reasons. Only those economies (that) have full access to all their talent will remain competitive and will prosper. But even more important, gender equality is a matter of justice. As a humanity, we also have the obligation to ensure a balanced set of values.” Apart from the many benefits of the uptake of digital technology, can the industry’s advances actually help address this gender disparity? Can it help close the gender gap and set the many multiplier effects in motion? The Fletcher School and MasterCard has derived two important measures for gender inclusion: One is a measure of gender inclusion, an index that combines several indicators of female participation, including female literacy rates, the proportion of women with accounts at a financial institution, female labor force participation rates, and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. The second measure is one of digital uptake, an index comprising adoption of the Internet, mobile or landline connections, digital consumption, and use of digital technology for commercial purposes.

The analyses of the co-relation between these measures has found that: We see this as further evidence that digital uptake contributes to wider benefits across the economy and in narrowing the gender gap. If the large companies and creators of digital technologies can better focus on creating products and virtual environments where women feel more included, more women will use the industry’s products, which, in turn, create these multiplier effects across society. It will also help drive the need to hire more women to participate in building and selling those products. It is useful to remember that all six programmers of Eniac, the world’s first digital computer, were women; it is time the industry caught up with its own history. Even historically, at its genesis, computer programming faced a double stigma -- it was thought of as menial labor, like factory work, and it was feminized, a kind of “women’s work” that wasn’t considered intellectual. In the U.K., women in the government’s low-paid “Machine Operator Class” performed knowledge work including programming systems for everything from tax collection and social services to codebreaking and scientific research. Later, these pioneering tech-women were pushed out of the field, as government leaders in the postwar era held a common belief that women should not be allowed nto higher-paid professions with longterm prospects because they would leave as soon as they were married. Women hold today, in the U.S., about a quarter of computing and mathematics jobs, and that proportion has been declining over the past 20 years. A string of recent events suggest the steps currently being taken by tech firms to address these issues are inadequate, worldwide. We will now need to watch and see if the tech industry can find better ways to both close the gender gap in its own ranks, as well as the gender gap in its customers.

Every percentage in growth of digital uptake over the period 2008-2011 leads to a positive growth rate of gender digital inclusion over the period 2011-15 by about 2.3% 12


Not Only Gender, It’s A Business Case Overall Female Staff 29.1%

Technological 15.6%

Leadership 22.5%

Apple

30%

20%

28%

Google

30%

17%

21%

Microsoft

29.1%

16.6%

17.2%

Facebook

31%

15%

23%

Twitter

30%

10%

21%

Company

Table: Major Silicon Valley Companies and breakdown of their female workforce

In the USA, in the recent years the female staff in major technological companies have been consistent at around 30 percent, but the breakdown of female workforce has invariably been lower in the hard-core technical and leadership positions. In October 2015, Microsoft reported that women comprise 29.1 percent of its workforce, but only 16.6 percent work in technical positions and just 17.2 percent hold leadership roles. Twitter’s women fill only 10 percent of its technical jobs, with 21 percent in leadership. And women Googlers account for 17 percent of the search giant’s tech jobs, while only 21 percent manage others.

These numbers matter, because they show only a few women influence product development, business planning and strategy, which are the most important part of any business. When the women are missed in the core business, they also miss to climb the corporate ladder. That is not just harmful to women; it is bad for business too. There is now no doubt that studies show that companies with diverse skill sets, different points of view, market insights and innovative approaches to problem solving have higher sales, more customers and larger market share than their less-diverse rivals. The WILL Forum research report on “Women and Wealth Creation” has similar findings that companies perform better financially, particularly when women occupy a significant proportion of top management positions. And gender diverse teams demonstrate superior team dynamics and productivity.

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There is no “dreamdeficit” in women — but potential discrimination in the workplace. The Digital Era brings promise of a more gender-neutral workplace

Digital Enterprise The New World Order

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Digitization can be a great tool in the direction towards a more gender equal world, especially in the case of India where girls are increasingly opting for STEM fields. However the challenges remain in terms of tapping this potential pool of talent, grooming them for the job market, taking them into professional jobs, preparing a level playing field for them, making favorable job conditions, and providing safe and nondiscriminatory working environment. Unlike other industries, the high-potential women in India’s technology organizations start their careers in similar positions, have similar levels of responsibility, and earn comparable salaries as men. But despite this promising start, a gender gap emerges over time, which pushes women down the career ladder. Companies will have to make conscious efforts to make gender-sensitive policies and action plans if they want to harness the true potential of women. The WILL Forum India Handbook “50 Best Practices in the Workplace” (2008) based on a survey of over 600 women professionals, provides the first step towards creating an eco-system that is gender- neutral, gender-sensitive, and prepares companies on being best employers for women. The WILL HANDBOOK successfully concludes that women are beginning to create a clearly “differentiating style of leadership” – that is open, collegial, consensus-building, motivational, outgoing, flexible, with a need to get things done. These personality qualities combine to create a leadership profile that is much more conducive to today’s “Digital and Diverse “ workplace, where information is shared freely, collaboration is vital, and teamwork distinguishes the best companies.

In recent developments , the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology , IITs are also waking up to the challenge of encouraging more female candidates in the technology streams. It is proposed that starting July 2018, the IITs will create at least 550 seats solely for female graduate students, with an aim to close the gender ratio. Last year, just one female candidate enrolled for every 10 admissions at the premier engineering institutes. Even though girls do better than boys at the higher secondary school level examinations , just 34,000 girls registered for the IIT-JEE entrance tests in 2017, as compared to 1.38 lakh boys. Just 38% of the girls that cleared IIT-JEE enrolled for a seat in 2016. By 2020, the Indian government has committed that every fifth IIT entrant should be a female, to promote more women in engineering and computer science area. There is therefore a high probability that the Digital Era will lead to Greater Gender Equality and equal opportunity in the workplace. For this to become a reality, we need to understand two things: (a) what is the differentiating style of women in leadership, that will come into sharp and valuable focus with the new technologies, and (b) what are the “New Age” diverse and inclusive companies that will be the best employers for women in the digital era.

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Digital enterprise: The New World Order “Flat Eco- Structures” for Equal Opportunity

Collaborative

Consumercentric

Networked

Innovative

Explorative

Digitalization is the new world order. Digitalization entails the use of digital technologies and of data (digitized and natively digital) in order to create revenue, improve business, replace or transform business processes and create an environment whereby digital information is at the core. The rapid change from analog to digital technologies in the 20th century continues to influence businesses from all aspects. Personal computers, smartphones and social media have streamlined business operations, changed revenue sources, made it easier for companies to communicate to clients, collaborate with peers and create content for users. The digital revolution has re-shaped the modern world in a very slender and chic shape, shed all extra fat of bureaucratic processes, while retaining a steady core. At the “10th WILL Annual Conference” on “Creating Digital Women for the Digital Era!” in December 2017, in Bangalore, the following fundamental features of “New Age Companies” that are embracing Digital Technologies for fostering Inclusive Growth, were discussed.

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...While Retaining the steady state Core

Constant Adoption of Technology


Collaborative The modern work requires a collaborative work approach involving people and resources from different time zones and cultures. The digital revolution has led to better collaboration within teams as well as between departments within an organization. The more effective task sharing and coordination is, the better the project is managed. Better collaboration at work has a long-lasting impact. It is now an accepted leadership style of success to have diverse approaches for innovative growth, and effective communication via digital technologies is at the “heart” of this circularembracing-collaborative culture. Women have exhibited a greater preference for collaborative and team –work as opposed to their male colleagues, and will be the clear beneficiaries of the digital collaboration opportunity. (Refer: WILL Report: “Differentiating Style of Women in Leadership”)

Networked The digital revolution has changed the way companies grow their network. Live chat, email, social media, networking websites -- all of this has made it simpler for brands to propagate information, expand customer base and exchange ideas. The digital revolution has also changed the way companies, employees, and vast range of stakeholders network. New technologies have made communication easier and instant. Employees can now converse via webcam or send instant messages from across the world. Digital helpdesk applications allows companies to perform customer services and resolve issues round the clock.

The impact of digital technology on innovation has been unprecedented. Women engineers and scientist are finding it remarkable to continue their quest for discovery and innovation even while having to leave the office early. We have spoken to several women across industry who are now proud applicants of patents and blossoming in their passion for innovation discovery. This is the result of a “flat structure” without boundaries and hierarchies, that is the emerging the new world order of the Digital era.

Consumer-centric The digital age has changed the behavior of consumers vastly – to being almost unpredictable and undocumented. The vast majority of consumers, many of whom are now “millennial’s and women”, report that they access information from a variety of sources, and many of them have by-passed the big conglomerates that dominated the 20th century. The purchasing decision of the urban Indian women is based on consumer reviews about the product or services, including investing their savings in financial mutual funds. Brands advertise their products and services on social media so they must appear in the ‘search’, when consumers search for content. The good news is this often proves successful.

Old communication methods of face-to-face meetings are being phased out and replaced with the new technology. In a recent WILL Forum survey, over 90 percent of employees preferred “new tech meeting options” to in-person meetings, and 40 % wanted their companies to adopt more inter-communication tools.

Innovative & Explorative The digital revolution has transformed the world of work. Exploration and Innovation are no longer optional, but rather have become key strategies for sustainability, efficiency and profitability of any business.

The buying preferences of India’s female rural consumers, who are around 400 million – and enabled by the mobile phones and internet, are changing fast, and their decision-making power and independence is increasing. These women are eager to purchase branded, high-quality products, use mobile devices to stay in touch with family and friends, and even research brands. They are no longer willing to accept inferior products simply because such offerings cost less than higher-quality ones.

Digital, the Equalizer, Change Catalyst

Leadership Persona in Digital world

Specialists (STEM)

Blurring of Boundaries

Creativity & Emotional Intelligence

Flexible & Inclusive workplace

Agile Decisions, Pivots

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Flat network Organization

Hyper connected and transplant

Fun and dare to try

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Blurring boundaries

Hyper Connected and Transparent

A new era of extraordinary possibility and potential is unfolding. Long- standing boundaries and constraints that have powerfully determined the evolution of business, the economy, and society are dissolving.

The world of business is increasingly becoming hyper connected and transparent. Connectivity and transparency is up to the level that even consumers are getting deeply engaged in the production of products.

Industries and sectors have been converging and reducing the lines of originally defined demarcations and codifications. Boundaries between and within organizations are being re-aligned. Old distinctions between products and services are breaking down as businesses are striving towards providing “complete solutions” to customers. Many new business streams have come up which were not heard of just a decade before and which shows the equalizing impact of digitalization.

For example the fashion company Threadless, involves customers for graphics designs for its T-Shirt. It asks customers to submit designs and allows visitors to its site to vote for the ones Threadless should produce. The winner designs get prizes and recognition, and from the business’s perspective they get committed customers’ involvement and cost saving on the designs production.

This shift in the business paradigm is offering unprecedented opportunities to the inspiring entrepreneurs and innovators. However plethora of opportunities bring its challenges as well in terms of capabilities of organizations to adapt change and act proactively to the challenges.

STEM

Creativity As we have become a more technological society, we have also become a more creative society. Technology has expanded the possibilities of creativity and creative processes, while cutting down on unproductive tasks. Graphics and designing applications have helped enhanced creativity to a great extent, and most of the routine tasks that used to take up a lot of time and effort have become automated. Technology enhances creativity not only by facilitating creative processes, but also by reducing costs of failures. In the digital world, we can create simulations, mix and match ideas, and check various possibilities to develop outstanding products before investing in the actual product development. From CAD software to 3D printers, A/B testing to agent-based models, technology lets us experiment in the virtual world before actualizing them in the real world.

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Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), is a term used to group together these academic disciplines. This term is typically used when addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools to improve competitiveness in science and technology development. STEM fields have a great potential for growth and are one of the best-paying jobs in the early 21st century. With the advent of digitalization the job opportunities have grown multifold all across the world.

Projected Percentage in Job Increases (2010-2020)

Projected Percentage Increases in Stem Jobs: 2010-2020 80

62%

60 32% 40

36%

22% 14%

16%

20

0 Mathematics Computer All Occupations System Analysts

However one of the main challenges for STEM education is the infrastructure and, the funds needed to create quality infrastructure. This is an opportunity for the corporate sector and private philanthropists to collaborate with the academic world of education, to bridge this gap.

Flat, networked organizations A new concept that has involved in the recent years in the technological companies is of flat organizations. Flat organizations are the ones that have no job titles, seniority, managers, or executives. Everyone is seen as equal. The benefit of these types of organizations is that there is no hierarchies, no bureaucracy, more innovation, few internal processes, more opportunities to actualize your ideas. There’s quite a lot that can be said about this type of structure. While it does have benefits and is interesting to consider I don’t see this as something that is practical or scalable for larger organizations when we think about the future of work.

System Software Developers

Medical Scientist

Biomedical Engineers

Flexible and inclusive workplace One of the major boons of technology is that it has made work environments flexible and inclusive. Most of the business processes which require interaction with each other have been automated and facilitated by technology, like instant messaging, online document sharing, screen sharing, and web and video conference calling. The inclusiveness such technology brings to small firms and start-ups really make a difference. They can reduce their overheads by equipping employees with the applications they need to work remotely, without compromising on efficiency, or quality of service. In several cases it is reported that flexible working policies that allows staff to work away from the office can improve the daily operations of the business and help boost work-life balance and improves overall job satisfaction. Other than that you get a more productive organization, motivated workforce, better customer service, increased staff retention, and working hours that best suit your employees and customers.

One constraint with flat structures is that it is often more practical in the case of small to medium size companies, but once companies start to grow to thousands of employees then it becomes challenging.

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New Challenge Women Dropping Out from Tech Industry

Women working in the IT sector are smart, hardworking, and technically excellent -- IT industry should be high on the “Gender Maturity Curve”! 20


In a recent trend the female employment in Industries has decreased in last 5 years and stands at 18.3% in year 2017, as compared to 19.1% in year 2012 (World Bank). In the report, “India Development Update: Unlocking Women’s Potential”, World Bank (2017) claims that India remains the fastest growing economy in the world with strong economic fundamentals, and continued reform momentum, however the growth is subdued due to low female participation. According to Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India, “Low female labor force participation, however, remains a serious concern. Higher level of women participation in the economy can help propel India closer to double digit growth”.

• Their simple aspirations to just get promoted to higher levels after fifteen years of service

A special focus of the report has been on the low female labor force participation of women in India. India has one of the lowest female participation rates in the world, ranking 120th among the 131 countries for which data are available. Even among countries with similar income levels, India is at the bottom, together with Yemen, Pakistan and Egypt. Worse still, the rate has been declining since 2005. This is a matter of concern, as women’s paid employment is known to increase their ability to influence decision-making within the household, and empower them more broadly in the society as a whole.

This clearly shows it is not that women are not talented, or they are dream deficient. Rather the problem is that women work in an unequal eco-system, with boundless pressures from society and families, stereotypes in the workplace, and male-dominated systems where they do not stand a chance of being visible.

This is despite the fact that the women’s participation in STEM has been increasing. India has some of the highest share of graduates in science and technology at 42 per cent, but only 34 percent of women with a post-secondary degree are in the labor market. Sixty five percent of Indian women with college degrees are not working, whereas in Bangladesh 41 percent and in Indonesia and Brazil only 25 percent of women graduates are not working. India has only created jobs equivalent to 0.9 percent of the adult population between 2005 and 2012 and most of these regular wage jobs created went to men.

The Dream Deficit or the Discrimination In focused group meetings conducted by the WILL Forum about career aspirations and career advancement, less women are hopeful of career advancement than men. Even the women with many years of work experience were not very hopeful that they could become a top leader of the company, or serve in the corporate board, while this was not the case with men. This leads to the question, whether it is lla dream-deficit on part of the women or a systematic discrimination created by the corporate world? Poonam Barua reports, “Many women from the Indian IT-industry had long conversations with me, over the past seven years – and their questions remain the same:

• Their quest is to someday have a chance to work with CEO-led and their senior leadership teams • Their aspirations is to be appointed as independent board directors in other companies, if they cannot get to their own companies boards • Their need for opportunities to get visible in IT-forums and platforms- as “mainstream” speakers- rather than “diversity” speakers”

Corporates Realizing the Urgent Need for Diversity Strategy Diversity in the technology industry workforce worldwide has been a topic of deliberation for a long time. Numerous reports suggest that the ratio of women opting for STEM courses in their academics and technology streams in the careers is not sufficient. There are societal influencers that act as barriers for women taking up STEM. The influencers range from biological, to intellectual to emotional. They say STEM is too hard, and not for women, or they say women will leave after marriage, childbirth, family responsibilities. The WILL Forum report “Remaining on the Ramp” very articulately puts across, “Corporate India needs to get serious and ask itself if it’s ready and willing to lose its talented women professionals, who constitute 50% of the workforce today, and in whom it invests significantly in terms of training time, effort and resources. There is great potential here to view this problem from an financial standpoint and calculate the loss of economic value that companies can face as a result of women who off-ramp”. Well, the good news is that more and more CEOs are concerned with female talent retention and adopting a diversity strategy for their company. And the situation has changed fast in the last few years and it is on the upswing. While only 12% of the CEOs in 2011 accepted the poor retention of female talent a key business challenge, the number stood at 64% CEOs in 2015 confirming they have a diversity strategy and 13% planning to have one within a year. Talent diversity is both a business challenge and an opportunity with CEOs identifying significant benefits arising from diversity and inclusion in their organizations. 90% of the surveyed CEOs accepted that they have attracted talent with their diversity & inclusion strategy, and 85% accepted they 21 have enhanced their business performance.

WILL Digital Women: Survey Analysis

Survey Profile: Survey conducted across industry, men and women, India and global respondents.

12% No

s Ye

88%

49%

37% Maybe

No

Ye s Women, Workplace and the Web!

35%

Will digital technology lead to less gender -bias in the workplace?

No

33% 31%

31%

s Ye

Ma yb

63%

Will Digital Era lead to greater Gender Parity in the Workplace?

No

22

es

s Ye

e

22%

Y

45% Will the Roles of Women in business change with digital technology?

34%

Will Digital lead to more "gender neutral" roles and workspaces

Ye s

Does digitalization offer new opportunities for women professionals in the workplace?

No

51%

69%

Will women find it easier to advance and get promoted, in digital era due to gender-neutral identity? No

16%

8% 6%

No

ybe Ma o Will N increase in number of women in STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) sector, create more jobs for women?

Will digital bring more Women into the Workplace due to flexible workplace and work time?

Yes

31%

24%

Y

84%

65%

es

Will New Age companies with flat structures, and less hierarchies enable women to exhibit their talent and skills better?

No

Is there really a digital divide with more men benefiting from Internet than women?

es

Ma yb e

Ye s

84%

Y

No

35%

45%

8% ybe Ma

37% Will Digital lead to great Gender Equality in the Organization? o

N

63%

s Ye

Yes

No

53%

Are women hesitant to use social media for personal advancement than men?

39%

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Key Hypothesis from the WILL Survey on the Impact of Digital Technology on enhancing Gender Equality :

1

There is a high expectation of the impact of the Digital Era on enhancing opportunities for women in the workplace.

2

Women are venturing into the digital world not only as job seekers but also as entrepreneurs and job creators. Digital is clearly and decisively changing the roles of women in business.

3

Digital Technology is creating genderneutral jobs. These new roles are not gender-specific, and there are no stereotypes attached to them, and hence they do not exclude women per se, as used to be the case in the traditional workspaces. However the corporate sector will have to be careful about the “feminization” of these jobs.

4

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There is an overwhelming agreement that digital brings more women into the workplace due to flexible workplace and work timing. Digital technology will be a boon for women who want to start their second career after motherhood or childcare break. Men also report that due to the same options available to them they are able to share household responsibilities.


5

Digital technology by itself will not lead to gender parity at the workplace. The visible “glass ceiling” will continue to exist for women and prevents women from going up the ladder of corporate leadership. Companies, CEO, and Corporate Boards will have to commit to gender parity – with our without digital technology.

6

There seems to no clear indication that Digital technology will reduce gender-bias in the workplace The gender-bias is inherent in the sociocultural environment, and mind-sets, which perpetuates itself in the institution and organization.

7

Although it will be easier for women to get the entry-level jobs, as several new jobs have been created by digitalization, women continue to find it difficult to advance to leadership position as fast as the male executives. Gender neutrality works for some levels of promotion, but does not work at the top most levels where personal networking and sponsorship will be critical.

8

Digital Technology has the potential for benefiting women equally in the workplace. This also further emphasizes the gender-neutral impacts of the Internet.

9

Women are equally comfortable using the social media as men, for various job search, networking, brand-building, advertising, and career advancement. Women can reap the full benefits of the Internet and social media, which will be most empowering for the women professionals.

10

With the promotion of STEM sector (Science, Technology, engineering and maths), increasing number of girls and women are joining the STEM sector in school and colleges. The jobs available in STEM sectors are better paid and better respected, which increases the chances for women to get a high-end job.

11

12

The “New Age Companies” are promoting “flat corporate structures”, which provides equal respect for talent and skills, and not baised by position or age or gender. Women are able to perform well in the environment which puts less restrictions on them, allows flexibility, does not discriminate based on their sex, respects their talent and skills, and are welcoming for aspiring and ambitious women. There is overwhelming agreement that “Digital Technology” will not be a panacea for gender equality in the workplace. The glass ceiling and dominant male mindsets will continue to exist, but the women will have a better chance of finding a genderbias free working environment in the coming years.

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Digital Voices

Priyanka Jain, Head Legal and Compliance, Experian India

Has digitalization offered a new range of opportunities for women professionals in the executive market? Digitization is gender fluid, one who moves with the tide of evolving technology will lead it. Digitization can turn the lives of women professionals and could be a discovery of an untapped opportunity. 2017 global surveys indicate only 11% of the engineering workforce are female. In India the ratio of male to female engineers is about 70:30, which proves that engineering is not a preferred career choice for most women. This trend needs to change. Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation spoke about the biases against women on the shop floors almost 35 years ago. We don’t see any different statistics today. We see so many women as coders, developers and software programmers but rarely women in technology are seen in the C-suite. Now it is the time to escalate the game, to be not just an academically qualified professional but a business leader.

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Does involving women professionals into the digital world makes business sense? Diversity gives us a competitive advantage and not involving women professionals in the digital world will be a disaster. What women do to work set ups and the ecosystem gets long-term tangible and intangible results. Women build better teams. They have the natural instinct to build and improvise and no set up, corporate or otherwise can stay away from their contribution. Has digitization empowered women and men equally and at the same levels? Anyone who invests in the skills that will enable digitization will reap the benefits of the wave. Women who will invest in themselves and take upon opportunities will benefit from the digital wave. But one must remember that the one who climbs the mountain top will see the best views. The only team member in our office who is qualified in machine learning is a female. All the men from the technology teams come and learn from her. Machine learning is critical and she has taken the efforts 4 years ago to study this subject and add value. This is how women should think, plan and execute.

Raj Raghavan, Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific Region, Amazon

Has Digital Technology offered a new range of opportunities for women professionals in the executive market, financial markets, and entrepreneurship (start-ups)? Digital Technology is agnostic to gender and that is exactly how it helps avoid bias. I have personally known of several women entrepreneurs, especially sellers on Amazon platform who have built successful businesses, not just careers. A woman entrepreneur started selling on Amazon in 2013 using “Fulfilled by Amazon” model where she simply listed her merchandise and Amazon took care of the entire order processing, customer fulfillment including delivery as well as customer service. Due to her outstanding commitment to business and Amazon’s technology, she crossed million-rupee mark in sales in relatively short time.

Will Digital lead to a “New World Order” with a flat structure in organizations, where women can benefit equally? As for organization structures, my view is that, it has a lot to do with leadership mindset beyond just adopting digital technology. The direct benefit of flatter organizations is for the organizations that adopt them and of course, it can result in benefiting women. However, I do not believe that just adopting of digital technology will lead to a “new world order”. Digital technology is not a panacea for all inequalities in the workplace. It has to be a strategic business decision and with a visionary leader who is committed on avoiding gender bias. Can existing gender inequalities prevent women from fully benefiting from opportunities offered by digitalization? Most certainly! Where there are gender inequalities and where the business leadership turns mute spectator to gender bias, digitization can do little to prevent such inequalities. There needs to be an ecosystem level change and this needs to start from the very top of the organization. Digitization can help pop up data much faster than when pulled-out manually. And when such data shows gender bias, e.g. when the leadership knows that women take longer to promote, make lesser than their male counterparts, work longer hours, etc., then it is incumbent upon the leadership to step in and make appropriate corrections.

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Digital Voices

Gayathri Ramamurthy, Senior Director, Capgemini Technology Services India Ltd

1. Has digitalization offered a new range of opportunities for women professionals in the executive market, financial markets, and entrepreneurship (start-ups)? Could you elaborate your views with examples? Yes, digital platforms provide flexibility of location and work can be executed at the ease of their homes or elsewhere. The future of work is defined through its fluidity, and this will have a positive impact on women in workforce! Training and mentoring platforms leveraging digital tools are quite an enabler and accelerator especially in industries or locations where female role models are few and far. In 2017, we have conducted a successful career acceleration program leveraging digital. 2. Does involving women professionals into the digital world makes business sense? What benefit is in it for corporate sector? Half of the world’s consumers are women and their choices impact more than half the population therefore, it is vital for any business to know their consumer wellhow can they unless they involve women in creating the product/ delivering the service? Digital will also provide for new platforms for expression as well as the inclusion of non -privileged groups, proving to be a great equalizer! Capgemini is committed to equality of opportunity and dignity at work for all. Our differences are a source of innovation and inspiration. They enable us to generate new ideas, anticipate market trends and be thought leaders in our chosen markets. Therefore, we would terms involving women professionals into the digital world is business imperative.

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3. Has digitization empowered women and men equally and at the same levels? Who has got the bigger piece of the pie, i.e. who has gained more and why? Digitization has helped the across genders spectrum, however women can leverage and gain the opportunities created by digitization better as compared to what the traditional ecosystem has offered. In the digital sector emphasis is on intellectual rather than physical resources. It creates and advances equal employment opportunities for men and women, minorities and people with disability. 4. Can existing gender inequalities prevent women from fully benefiting from opportunities offered by digitalization? What are you views about it? What could be a possible corporate action plan to ensure that women are not disadvantaged? Take the provision of flexible working as an acceptable policy in an organization. This impacts women and men differently. Dis-proportionate responsibilities of home and family is a key differential in the way women utilize time. A corporate should and must provide an eco-system for all employees to effectively utilize digital to deliver to their best. Additionally, given the socio-cultural set up, corporate should engage their employees and families on the need to commit to sharing household responsibilities. All Corporate developmental interventions that are specially designed for their women employees should ensure that digital tools at work and building the personal brand are part of the mental make-up of women esp. at mid to senior levels of leadership.

Deepa Jeswani, Director, Capgemini Technology Services India Ltd

1. Has digitalization offered a new range of opportunities for women professionals in the executive market, financial markets, and entrepreneurship (start-ups)? Could you elaborate your views with examples? Digitalization has certainly provided women professionals with a host of career opportunities. There is a burgeoning demand of high-skilled professionals in financial services, data science, cybersecurity and other related fields and a good part of that is being met by women, particularly from the STEM workforce. I think talent shortage in the new age market scenario can be met strongly by women. Also, advancements in new technologies like blockchain provide a strong footing for women to explore financial services and even tech start-ups. Take the case of Tiffany Madison, cofounder of DecentraNet, a blockchain consulting firm. I expect the gender gap in tech to reduce over the next few years 2. Does involving women professionals into the digital world makes business sense? What benefit is in it for corporate sector? Diversity and inclusion of all forms add value to business and, gender diversity is no different. By involving women in the digital world, we add to the existing talent pool significantly. Gender inclusion helps in radically transforming work environment.

Higher participation of women in the digital sector ensures balance of perspective. 3. Has digitization empowered women and men equally and at the same levels? Who has got the bigger piece of the pie, i.e. who has gained more and why? Digitalization is highly potent in empowering employees in any organization. I believe it provides an equal footing to both men and women and helps in promoting an unbiased work culture. Digitization is a very high demand and relatively rare skill. It empowers anyone who is skilled in the area- Man or Woman. However, equality still has to set in and this can happen only when more women opt and skill themselves in the area. 4. Can existing gender inequalities prevent women from fully benefiting from opportunities offered by digitalization? What are you views about it? What could be a possible corporate action plan to ensure that women are not disadvantaged? Like I mentioned earlier, given that digital comparatively is new and we have more demand than supply, anyone who knows Digital benefits. But it is also a good opportunity for organizations to implement strong corporate policies and governance to ensure balance and not let it build like other traditional streams that organizations have currently.

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The Next Frontier: Where do we go from Here: Roadmap for “Women, Workplace and the Web!”

The New World Order for business that will be created by the fast-paced digital technologies, will have the following fundamental distinctive features: • • • • • • • • •

Blurring of Boundaries Creativity and Imagination at the Fore-front Hyper-connected and transparent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Flat Networked Organization Flexible and Inclusive workspaces Agile compartments Fun and Dare to Try! Specialists in demand (STEM)

These dove-tail almost perfectly with the distinctive leadership styles of work and leadership that are portrayed aggressively by women professionals. The WILL Report on “Differentiating Styles of Women in Leadership” (2012), mentions that: “Gender inclusion paves the way for a demonstration of equitable and progressive thinking within the organization The notion that women can serve as potential generators of organizational value through their capabilities of increasing the flow of business innovations, simply cannot be ignored by the New Age companies….” There is a volume of research studies, including the WILL Report that conclusively portrays the women’s style of leadership to be fair and transparent in their communication, driving an inclusive and collaborative approach to build an ecosystem that nurtures talent, and a persuasive leadership style that builds longlasting relationships as opposed to mere social networks. These are the qualities that companies will need to thrive in the digital era.

For a clear roadmap to leverage the vast talent pool of women in the workplace, in the digital era – companies will have no choice but to implement the best practices for equal opportunity for all diverse stakeholders, and provide gender-neutral workspaces without any bias. These will be the “New Age Companies” that will prepare for transition to corporate cultures that are more receptive across nationalities, geographies, gender, ethnic groups, and all minorities. They will celebrate the “individual” values without bias; with structured mentoring of executives across all levels of the organization to embrace the change. Businesses will start celebrating “new-age role models” – who will break the traditional mould of successful business leaders and define ways that adapt a collaborative work ethic, respect for families and colleagues, dispense with command and control hierarchies, and embrace diversity in all its respects. The Next Frontier emerging from Digital Technology is no longer about “passion and people” – its about how people are respected and empowered—and how they are interacting with technology to get the maximum benefit for companies, society, and the planet as a whole. This will be the promise that Digital will hold – for bringing greater gender equality in the workplace.

Let us pursue a vision Where Ideas Matter, Where Differences are Respected, and those seeking a Better World find Common Ground …….. - Poonam Barua, CEO WILL Forum India

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Acknowledgments We are grateful to Ms. Poonam Barua, Founder Chairman, Forum for Women in Leadership, WILL Forum India, for her vision, invaluable guidance, and overall direction for the course of this study. We would also like to extend our appreciation and acknowledgement for this Report to the following Gayathri Ramamurthy, D&I Head – India, Capgemini, for her exceptional leadership in driving the Digital Women agenda for companies and women professionals Jagriti Shankar, WILL Forum Mission Partner and Gender & Diversity Expert, for her outstanding research and analytics on this report Nishi Pandey, Consultant , Capgemini India Ltd., for coordinating the report content and design Savio Rebello, Associate Consultant , Capgemini India Ltd. Ramesh Natarajan, WILL Mission Partner, for Online survey and “tech-support” We are thankful for the invaluable insights and contribution of learnings from our Corporate Partners for the Digital Voices section of the report: Priyanka Jain, Head, legal and compliance, Experian India Raj Raghavan, Head, Human Resources, Asia Pacific, Amazon India We are also grateful to all the WILL Digital Survey participants across industries from leading organizations, whose contributions have enriched this study WILL Forum is deeply appreciative of the continuing leadership and partnership of Capgemini technology services in supporting the dedicated WILL Forum mission, on advancing women in leadership, equal opportunity in the workplace, and respect for diversity for best rewards to business and society.

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About the WILL Forum India

Women, Workplace and The Web!

The WILL Forum India was founded in 2007 — with a vision for leveraging the vast talent pool of women, creating best practices for women in the workplace, and advancing women in leadership positions for inclusive growth and “balanced leadership.” Presently, the WILL Forum has more than 6000 women and men, across more than 250 leading companies and MNC’s worldwide, participating in their conference, roundtable meetings, and mentoring programs. It has released over 15 Research Reports on women and wealth –creation, including the best –selling “Balanced Boards for Good Governance” Report in partnership with KPMG, and conducts the pioneering “Best Employers for Women” benchmarking assessment of companies.

Creating Digital Women — for the Digital Era!

The WILL Forum has launched the “WILL Digital Women: Online!” mission– dedicated to WebMentoring 10,000 women Online! , via its web portal the portal www.willdigitalwomen.com

WILL Report and Survey: 2018

The WILL Forum is now a Global Influencer on women in leadership — with a 10-year dedicated commitment to making the change for inclusive growth.

www.willforumindia.com

About Capgemini A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industryspecific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of 200,000 team members in over 40 countries. The Group reported 2017 global revenues of EUR 12.8 billion. Visit us at

www.capgemini.com

People matter, Results count. Capgemini is a sponsor of this report and has contributed in its design and layout only. Capgemini makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the report or the information contained in the report for any purpose. Capgemini is not in any way whatsoever, responsible for your use of information contained in this report