| | OCTOBER 20218While researching for this article, I was shocked to find out that according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report, women's participation in India's work-force has plummeted from 37 percent to 18 per-cent in 13 years and we are now at 149th out of 153 countries, right at the bottom of the barrel. Another report says the Women's labour force participation (LFPR) has tumbled from 42.4 percent in 2004-05 to 23.3 percent in 2018. What's even more shocking is that this across the entire spectrum ­ both urban and rural working women and we haven't measured the effect of the pandemic on women's jobs yet.What are we getting wrong? Even as more girls are completing their education and getting entry lev-el jobs, they seem to simply fall off the map in the middle years. According to an article in Forbes, over 34 percent women in America earn MBA degrees, but less than two percent make it to the C-suite. Clos-er home, in a first ever pan-IIM survey on women in the workplace, more than 65 percent women said representation in their top leadership was insignifi-cant and they needed more role models to look up to.There are challenges that women face that most men simply don't have to. It's not to say one is better than the other. For most women, there is no let's chill after work mode, it's a child after work. The second shift of taking care of home, children and elderly par-ents is also a woman's primary responsibility. I even heard some people say, work for women is a hobby, just to keep themselves busy while kids are at school. There is also an assumption that women are not the THOUGHT LEADERSHIPDO WE NEED TO CALL IT WOMENTORING?By Indira Rangarajan, National Content Director, MirchiIndira has been associated with Mirchi for over 14 years, and conceptualises, green lights and produces digital content, including podcasts, webradio and original content.JUST GETTING WOMEN INTO THE WORKFORCE IS NOT ENOUGH, UNDERSTANDING THAT THEIR TRAJECTORY IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT FROM THE TRADITIONAL MALE WORKFORCE IS IMPORTANTIndira Rangarajan, National Content Director
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