From Mom to Ma’am: Such a long journey for women

It is with a sense of deep satisfaction that I read the news item stating that four Indian women executives have reached the Financial Times 50 top women in world business. Indra Nooyi, Pepsico CEO, topped the list.

The other three Indian Women who made it to this coveted list are Britannia Industries head Vinita Bali, Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and HT Media chairperson Shobhana Bhartia.

Women are making their mark in all fields, and are movers and shakers in all spheres in today's times. IPL, the biggest newsmaker of the year, has many women co-owners.

Besides adding the glamour quotient to the teams, these ladies are actively participating in the game as team owners. Nita Ambani, has been bitten by the cricket bug and besides mentoring, is traveling across the country, scouting for fresh, young cricket talent.

The banking sector is creating a benchmark of sorts with its large share of women leaders. Banks were first nationalised three decades ago and the first woman CEO was Ranjana Kumar from Indian Bank in 2000. The second woman who made it to the top position in banking was H A Daruwalla in Central Bank in 2005.

The much-talked about HSBC India CEO Naina Lal Kidwai and ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar are considered among the smartest brains in the banking sector. Shikha Sharma also joined the prestigious ranks when she became CEO of Axis Bank in 2009.

Juggling work with parenthood and managing the hearth can be relatively easy in India in comparison to the West. Here we have a host of people - family, friends, relatives, servants and drivers to baby sit the children and ferry them from one hobby classes to another.

In the West, since the entire load of household work from cooking and cleaning to doing the laundry and washing dishes, besides managing a career has to be borne by the individual. Working days can end up getting very tedious and strenuous. 

Most working mothers experience nagging guilt at neglecting their kids and house work in pursuit of a career. Leadership positions can often demand long hours. There is also that added element of carrying work-related pressure and frustration back home, and sometimes even letting it off on the kids.

Despite the challenge of balancing work and the home front, women continue to make their presence felt in all areas of existence. Whether it is swimming across the Indian Channel or climbing the Mt Everest, whether it is air, water or land - pilots or army positions, whether it is IPS or IAS, private or public industry, politics or the judiciary, sports or beauty, authors or poets, education or social development, Indian women have proved their mettle everywhere.

The country today has a woman president, a woman Speaker, a woman leader of the ruling party and several political leaders in oppositions. The country's governance and political leadership has a fair share of women too.

Women workforce has come to form an integral part of all sectors. Women bring sensitivity and emotional intelligence to the work space which can have a complementary effect on the task-orientation of the male workforce.