Glass ceiling surveys

Recently I came across a survey being conducted jointly by IIM Ahmedabad and NASSCOM on women in leadership. I was very disappointed with the survey.

1. It is poorly designed in terms of being able to do proper statistical analysis because the responses are just y/n. You just have to state how good/bad it is.
2. Many questions are leading questions.
3. And worse, many questions are not about the organization but the respondents beliefs, “Personal inhibitions within women prevent them from reaching leadership positions.”
4. And you can’t state whether you consider the criteria even important or not. For example you can only state whether the org encourages “Motivational talks and workshops by senior women” or “Self development”, and whether they are good or not. Whether I think they are useful or important is not asked for any questions/criteria.

The whole thing looks like a survey designed by a student for a class project, not by ‘top’ institutions and associations.

That’s the problem with most gender research. It is, I’m sorry to say, all very silly – the way it is designed and therefore the results it shows. And none of them get to the bottom of the real issues faced by people.

What all these people forget is that just because we are women, we are not necessarily all the same. Who would go about doing a men’s survey, asking them if the org has a “Retiring room for women”. Perhaps such a thing is needed during pregnancy – but then why not ask a more specific question – what are the things you need at work during pregnancy. Are you getting them? Why ask non-pregnant women about a retiring room, but not men? Why should only women need flexibility in work hours and not men? It is all so silly.

Women are after all people, just as men are people. What organizations need to assess, and understand, is whether they are able to meet the different needs of their employees. Some employees (men and women) will have young children to care for, some will have elderly parents. Some will want to have ‘fun at work’ while others just want to work and spend time with non-work friends. Some need motivational talks, some don’t. So why assume just because I am a woman, I need a special retiring room, motivational talks, self-development?

I do think that “motivational talks by senior women” can help, for those who need them. But you can’t just pick any senior-level woman and try to get her to motivate others. Being a senior woman doesn’t automatically grant you motivational powers (same goes for men).

Women after all make up 50% of any population (well, lower in many states in India…but regardless). 50% is a huge %. We can’t all have the same needs and different in the same way from some preconceived notion of an average man.

In my experience, all my frustrations at work have been because I want/expect different things than most people and not because of my womanly needs (whatever they are). I want flex-time because spending hours a day in traffic zaps any energy and thinking ability out of my head. I want to be able to work from home on some days, because I want to be able to run an errand and work the rest of the day. I want people to not set up meetings after normal business hours because I can’t be on a company bus after the roads become full of smog/pollution and cause incessant coughing. If the company makes me stay late at work, I want it to pay for my taxi home. If I travel for business and want to take a convenient personal detour, I want it to allow me to pay for the detour, not force me to either make the whole trip personal or business. And I want the company to treat me as a responsible adult, not a wayward 12-year old.

Wouldn’t men want this stuff too?