Gender Issues at Indian Workplaces

KSS KANHAIYA
BE, DCPA, MBA, MA(App. Psy.), PhD(Mgmt.)
CE(I), FIE (I), MIMA, MISCA, LMCSI, LMIIMM
kss.kanhaiya@gmail.com
http://ksskanhaiya.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/kss.kanhaiya

• Introduction:
The International Women’s Day has just passed. In India, there
have been several seminars, workshops, lectures and discussions on
the topics related supposedly to women. It is a matter of concern that
we are yet to accept the women-related problems as one of problems
related to human society as a whole and not to women as a different
species.
The problems faced by working women are not only the ones
termed as “Sexual Harassment” but also the various issues related to
policies, biases and approaches are equally important. This article is an
attempt to highlight the present status and to examine what the least
should be done urgently to ensure equality.

• The Current Status in India:

Most organizations refuse to recognize sexual harassment as an
issue of concern for them. At the same time, one or other type of such
harassment is rampant, though unreported in a vast majority of cases
due to reasons like fear of damage to reputation, apprehension of loss
of job or related advantages, fear of being subjected to different types of
harassment and torture at work, peer-pressure, knowledge or
imagination of indifference of the management over such complaints,
meek acceptance of certain things as usual “occupational hazards” etc.
There is widespread ignorance amongst women as well as men
employees as to what other than direct sexual advances or demands
constitutes such harassment.
The 1997 Guidelines of the Supreme Court in the case of Vishaka
& others vs. the State of Rajsthan and others define sexual harassment
and require employers to take certain steps. These guidelines not only
have the force of law, but are also one of the most talked about items in
respect of gender based HR issues at various forums. But many
organizations do not comply with the guidelines and many others
manage to show on paper that they have complied. One specific
guideline is a case in point. The guideline says that these guidelines
stressing the rights of women should be promptly notified at all notice

By Dr. KSS Kanhaiya, First Published in 2004: Page 1 of 6

boards, office bulletins etc. But, most of the women at work are ignorant
about these guidelines per-se even after so many years since these
were issued. Keeping the majority ignorant helps in ensuring that no
complaints are received and organization can claim that sexual
harassment is absent on their floors.
This not only displays the attitude towards sexual harassment but
also is representative of the overall attitude of managements towards
the notion of equality of genders at work place.
When it comes to recruitment and promotions, a survey
conducted by AIMA as reported in 1998 reveals the general bias
permeated in the organizations against women. The findings, sadly,
cannot be dismissed even today.
The survey revealed that majority of managers believed women to
be less desirable recruits because of the possibilities of pregnancy.
More women employees believed that gender played a role in promotion
related decisions. Half of the women respondents were of the view that
they must sacrifice their feminity and work/ act like a man in order to be
successful in business. In general, women feel that they are expected to
keep proving their competence while men are assumed competent until
proved otherwise.
Turning towards the policies prevalent in organizations, we can
find several areas of pure or perceived discrimination.
The practicing managers are aware of situations where female
employees cease to enjoy certain perks like employer-sponsored leave
travel concessions or medical expenses for dependent parents, HRA
payments etc. – if they marry some employee of the same organization.
Similarly, organizations usually fail to formulate clear-cut policies related
to maternity benefits and there are companies that do not have clear
provision of maternity leave in the rules governing pre-confirmation
trainees – even in case where leave due to sickness is available to such
trainee-employees. There are instances where temporary female
employees have been required to submit HCG test report confirming
absence of pregnancy to get their contracts renewed for next six
months. A woman needs to provide full-time care to her infant and
generous employers provide the facility of leave for child-care. However,
an issueless woman employee may be deprived of the pleasure of
adopting a newborn infant just because she may not get child-care leave
even once from the same employer on the same conditions as would
have been the case had she delivered the baby.
General attitude of male employees towards their women
colleague in the organizations also has a bearing on latter’s efficiency,
self-esteem, and extent of the sense of belongingness. Though

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employers may not have total control on attitudes, yet it is established
that they introduce HRD interventions aimed at refinement of attitude in
other areas of concern. One such usually ignored concern is to improve
the general attitude towards creating more conducive work environment
for women employees. Statistics is not needed to support the presence
of situations where women employees are subjected to wide spread
gossips, eavesdropping, unwarranted interests in their personal lives,
comments having origin in gender related contempt but technically not
of the nature of sexual harassment, gender based jealousy, assignment
of less critical tasks within the same group and sometimes even undue
compassion hurting their self respect as a competent person.
Managements usually treat married male employees as more
valuable assets in so much so that due to the family responsibilities
these employees are less prone to “flight” while married women
employees are considered a liability as the one who will mix her family
responsibilities with work. This has a direct impact on allocation of high-
power/ high-opportunity assignments.
Employers also feel that recruiting more women would give rise to
more problems related to equality and discrimination/harassment issues
and would perhaps diminish the efficiency, sincerity and diligence of
male employees. This puts women to disadvantage in getting
employment in different sectors.
Managers in several organizations opine that women employees
hesitate in treating themselves as “employees” rather than “women
employees” and avoid mixing with their male counterparts freely. Those
who think so agree that it may be due to the general attitude of male
employees towards women colleague; but also feel that this attitude can
partially be corrected if the latter mix up in healthy and frank manner.
Managers – both male and female ones-- feel that in general, women
employees may like to be excused when a need arises for late-hour or
before-time availability in the office. These result in more and more
women employees stepping the corporate ladder rather slowly. Women
at work may create situations to counter these assumptions. This calls
for a rethink on the part of women employees towards their general work
practices.

• Expected Actions:
After this brief review of the present scenario, let us examine the
areas where action is expected. We will outline the expectations from
managers as well as employees of both the genders in order to improve
the overall equality. It should be accepted that till we are required to
organize women’s day, enact laws like Equal Remuneration Act 1976, or

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search for proofs of equal opportunity – we are actually lacking in the
natural attitude and behavior that vouch for real equality.
It goes without saying that all discussed below can be done only
with active support of top management. The managements need
consider the equality issues with high degrees of seriousness and take
actions with urgency.
• Formulation of clear Policy, Rules and Procedures
The organizations should at first conduct a thorough review of
their personnel policy, rules and procedures to identify areas where
these are either discriminatory or ambiguous as regards treatment of
employees of different genders. This is more important in old
organizations that framed their policies well before there was infusion of
women employees in all areas of work and so certain policies may be
oriented only towards male employees. Silence of the rules on certain
aspects should also be identified because lack of clear articulation may
lead to ambiguity in interpretations and scope for discriminatory
discretions.
The identified issues should be resolved with a positive attitude
towards equal treatment of all employees without regard to their gender.
Sometimes this disregard to gender can be ensured only if procedures
are laid down clearly for cases related to both sexes. The procedures
should include complaint-handling mechanisms too. It may be required
to have representation of women in the committees for such review and
resolution.
• Clear Information
Clear information about rules procedures and policies should be
accessible and available to all employees. Provisions related to gender
based issues should be advertised widely amongst all employees urging
male employees to follow and women employees to demand
compliance as well as encouraging reporting of violations.
• Complaint Settlement
Cases of violations of policies and procedures related to gender
based equality should be resolved on priority. It should be in-built in the
system that the complainant is not sullied later on other pretexts.
• Whistle-blower Protection
Whistle- blowers, bringing violations and discriminations to the
notice of top management, should be assured of protection. Such
assurance should preferably be codified in policy and procedures – with
proper safeguards against foul play.
• Training
Training at various levels and with various objectives is necessary
to be arranged. HRD intervention should be designed and delivered for

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gender sanitization. Information sharing events and interaction sessions
would be necessary for enabling women employees to know about
various provisions aimed at equal treatment of genders and to enable
the management to know the gray areas as perceived by women. These
identified gray areas can serve two purposes – first, it may be a learning
to the management for refinement of policies and second, it may serve
as refinement in information sharing content/ methods to clear the
doubts.
Training of male employees is required at two levels. They should
be provided with the knowledge of what is expected from them by the
organization as far as women colleague are concerned and then
general interventions for attitudinal refinements are to be made too.
• Monitoring and Review
Continuous monitoring and review of the implementation of
policies should be ensured till stabilization so that slackness, abuse,
misinterpretation etc. do not creep in. Clear responsibility of managers
in this area should also be spelt out to make monitoring fruitful and
expedite the process of assimilation of new policies and procedures.

• Representation of women
Till the work places become fully gender- sanitized, it is necessary
that a little extra attention be paid to ensuring representation of women
in different committees, task forces, functional groups, organizational
functions and even unions/ associations. This will help in several ways.
Male employees would break their mental stereotypes when they
actually find women colleagues contributing at equal footing at all
activities. Women employees will have opportunities to voice their
specific concerns, if any, and will also get chance to understand male
employees better and help each other to come out of faulty
presumptions.
• Work allocation to women employees
Managers should take care that while allocating work to women
employees they are not presumptuous about strengths, capabilities,
sense of responsibility, sincerity etc. They should also not be assigning
tasks with the hidden desire of proving unsuitability of women for some
tasks or causing undue stress for them. This is necessary because
equality of women can be ensured at work place only if equality in
contribution is also established.
• Expectations from women employees
Women employees should stop considering themselves to be
different type of employees (discriminated against, second grade,
ignored or repressed – whatever) because that sometimes may affect

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their own sincerity and belongingness levels in such a way as to cause
difficulties for those who seriously believe in equality. Women at work
should exhibit more responsibility towards, care for and belongingness
with the job – if they objectively find a need for the same in their work
practices. Some genuine requirements of work should not be avoided
only on the grounds of being a woman. Free mixing with their male
counterparts is not an area of concern for new women employees but
those who joined their jobs earlier may consider whether they require
increasing their social activities at work. These include more active
participation in meetings; free work-related discussions and recognition
of co-workers as friends without regard to their gender. However, guards
should be on for tactful correction as soon as it becomes evident that
some male colleague is unable to differentiate between a colleague and
a woman.
• Expectations from men employees
Men employees should review their own mindset first. A lot of
equality related issues have their origin in the imaginary attachment of
negative attributes like weakness, incapability etc. with women
colleague and nurturing of gender-based jealousy. They should stop
treating women colleague as a woman but consider them as just
another colleague as themselves. This would contribute enormously to
overall efficiency of the human resources at the organization because
this will help women employees to contribute more – without remaining
under stress either to prove themselves or to safeguard their interests in
a perceived work-atmosphere laden with male chauvinism.
• Conclusion:
The expectations from the managers and employees as outlined
above are not very new but their importance warrants urgent rethink. We
need to understand that meeting these expectations in a better way is
necessary for increasing the efficiency of the organizations. Businesses
function in society and it is necessary for both the business and the
society to understand that problems related to women are not the
problems of women but of the society as a whole. Now when women are
manning almost all types of job requirements the needs for equality of
opportunities and complete eradication of discrimination have to be
considered with serious urgency by those in business.
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