• Skip to content
  • Skip to navigation

Grant Thornton uses cookies to monitor the performance of this website and improve user experience

To find out more about cookies, what they are and how we use them, please see our privacy notice, which also provides information on how to delete cookies from your hard drive.

Global site
  • Global site
  • Algeria
  • Botswana
  • Cameroon
  • Egypt
  • Ethiopia
  • Gabon
  • Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Libya
  • Malawi
  • Mauritius
  • Morocco
  • Nigeria
  • Namibia
  • Senegal
  • South Africa
  • Togo
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe
  • Anguilla
  • Antigua
  • Argentina
  • Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St. Maarten
  • Bahamas
  • Barbados
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • British Virgin Islands
  • Canada LLP
  • Canada RCGT
  • Cayman Islands
  • Chile
  • Colombia
  • Costa Rica
  • Dominica
  • Ecuador
  • El Salvador
  • Grenada
  • Guatemala
  • Honduras
  • Mexico
  • Montserrat
  • Nicaragua
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Peru
  • Puerto Rico
  • St Kitts
  • St Lucia
  • St Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Trinidad & Tobago
  • United States
  • Uruguay
  • Venezuela
  • Turks & Caicos
  • Afghanistan
  • Australia
  • Bangladesh
  • Cambodia
  • China
  • Hong Kong
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Malaysia
  • Mongolia
  • Myanmar
  • New Zealand
  • Pakistan
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • Albania
  • Armenia
  • Austria
  • Azerbaijan
  • Belarus
  • Belgium
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Bulgaria
  • Channel Islands
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Gibraltar
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Isle of Man
  • Israel
  • Italy - Bernoni
  • Italy - Ria
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kosovo
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Latvia
  • Liechtenstein
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Macedonia
  • Malta
  • Moldova
  • Monaco
  • Netherlands
  • Northern Ireland
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Russia
  • Serbia
  • Slovak Republic
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Tajikistan
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine
  • UK
  • Uzbekistan
  • Bahrain
  • Egypt
  • Jordan
  • Kuwait
  • Oman
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Yemen
  • Lebanon
Grant Thorton Logo

Grant Thornton logo

Contact us
  • Insights
  • Industries
  • Services
  • Events
  • Budget 2021
  • Careers
  • L&D Academy
  • Media
  • Country corridors
  • Consumer, Retail & E-commerce
  • Healthcare and Life Sciences
  • Automotive and Manufacturing
  • Media, Technology and Entertainment
  • Not for profit
  • Real Estate and Construction
Healthcare and Life Sciences Home
Our publications BillionFit: Technology redesigning healthcare
Our report, BillionFit: Technology redesigning healthcare, navigates through key trends in disruptive technologies in healthcare, with a focus on India. This paper captures India’s Healthcare and Fitness scenario from a technology perspective, while providing some insight into the recent developments globally.
Automotive and Manufacturing Home
Thought Leadership Auto Bytes January 2020
This edition of Auto Bytes focuses on what will shape the future of the sector.
Media, Technology and Entertainment Home
Publication The Digital Accelerate – New regulatory framework implementation guide
The publication summarises the transition process mandated by TRAI for digital television services, and how consumers can select their subscriptions.
Real Estate and Construction Home
Report Improving transparency in secondary real estate market
Holistic pan-India assessment on various parameters in the secondary market & direct impact of a regularised secondary market on stakeholders.
  • Grant Thornton Bharat
  • Press releases
  • 2014
  • Do we really care for our women staff?

Do we really care for our women staff?

18 Nov 2014
  • Do we really care for our women staff?

An inexperienced HR manager asks on a legal networking site: Is my IT company a factory? A factory — a manufacturing entity having the specified number of workforce — has to provide a crèche facility for its women employees. She was concerned, as space for a crèche could not be carved out in the high-end office complex where the company was based. Distributing cupcakes on Women’s Day won’t bridge the gender gap. Concrete practical measures alone will help.

Nearly 15 crore women make up 26% of India’s total workforce. According to a government employment review, in the organised sector, this ratio with 60 lakh women employees is 20.5%. The breakup between those employed in factories (and governed by the Factories Act, 1948) and those in commercial service establishments (covered by the state-specific Shops and Establishments Act) is unknown. But it’s reasonable to estimate that a fair chunk, especially in urban India, is employed in the services sector.

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2014 Global Gender Gap Report ranks India at the bottom of the pile at 114 out of 142 countries. India reflects the highest difference of 300 minutes per day when it comes to time spent by women and men on unpaid work (read: household work). While Indian women spent 352 minutes per day on household work, men’s share was just 52 minutes. Contrast this with the US, where the difference is 87 minutes. Today, 56% of households in urban India have four or less members pointing to a predominance of nuclear families. As far as household work is concerned, however, women continue to bear the brunt.

The WEF report benchmarks national gender gaps of countries on economic, political, education and health-based criteria. The top three countries — Iceland, Finland and Norway — may not make for suitable comparables. Sadly, other BRICS nations also fared better than us. South Africa was ranked at 18, followed by Brazil (71), Russia (75) and China (87).

Women empowerment at the workplace is best reflected by the economic participation criteria, which the WEF measures in terms of the labour-participation gap, the remuneration gap and the advancement (promotion) gap. Here, India’s rank at 134 is much lower than its overall rank of 114. The female-male labour-participation ratio in India was the lowest among BRICS nations at 0.36 against the highest of 0.87 in Russia. As regards wage equality for similar work, India and Brazil had low ratios of 0.56 and 0.51, with other BRICS nations having a higher than 0.60 ratio. In the US, which has a ratio of 0.66, equal pay for equal work has become a rallying war cry.

According to Grant Thornton, globally, 24% women occupied senior levels. In India, this was 14%. With a paucity of women at senior levels, it wasn’t surprising that companies faced difficulties in filling up the women directors’ quota. Sebi has now extended the deadline for listed companies to April 1, 2015.

A Bill to amend the Factories Act will be discussed during Parliament’s winter session. If passed, it will enable women to work in factories during night shift, provided their security is taken care of and night crèche facilities available. Women in the services sector aren’t shackled by laws and work during night shifts. Yet, they aren’t entitled by law to a crèche facility at all.

We need to also take a look at the needs of women in the services sector. A simple facility such as a crèche either in the office or in close proximity to office districts sponsored by the company could help retain women talent. Taking care of such minor needs, could help more women reach senior positions in the corporate hierarchy and a resultant healthier diversity in boardrooms.

The duration of maternity leave could also be re-looked at. Brazil and Russia provide for 120 and 140 days of paid maternity leave, respectively against our three months. It wouldn’t harm to thrown in a few days of paternity leave also, as many countries have done – provided Indian men learn to pitch in and help.

A nation’s competitiveness in the long term depends significantly on whether, and how, it utilises its women. Beginning with simple steps, we need to bridge the gender gap.

The article appeared in the Economic Times. The article can be found here.

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
CONNECTclose
  • Locations
  • Contact us
  • Global reach
ABOUTclose
  • About us
  • Careers
  • Press
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
LEGALclose
  • Privacy
  • Disclaimer
  • Site map

© 2021 Grant Thornton Bharat LLP – All rights reserved.

    • EN
    • Contact us