Ever since two US reporters coined the phrase "glass ceil ing" in a Wall Street Journal column way back in 1986, workplaces across the globe have continually been scrutinized for the existence of this phenomenon. It is not too difficult to demonstrate that across industries, the number of women working in senior positions is far less compared to the number of men. And new economy sectors like IT are no exception.

The Dataquest-JobsAhead study— conducted among 1.5 lakh Indian IT professionals—found that women constitute over 19% of the total workforce at lower levels (up to three years of experience). The number drops to 6% of the senior workforce, that is with more than 10 years of experience (see graph).

The IT industry is one of the largest employers of women and has seen a significant increase in the number of women making a mark. One finds that the going is smooth from the fresher to the team leader and project leader stage. However, as the study indicates, the percentage of women employees in IT companies gradually drops at higher levels, say for instance, at the vice-president or CXO stage. So, why does growth for women IT professionals often stop at the team leader stage?

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY COMMITMENTS PINCH: Few women rule in the workplace well into marriage. Married women outnumber men in low-experience categories, but in 10+ years’—the stage at which serious seniority should come in—a large number of women either opt out of their careers, or accept less demanding roles.

As Dataquest posed this question to HR heads across the IT industry, it triggered off a spate of responses that largely pointed out to personal reasons rather than a hostile workplace as being responsible for this drop.

"Although the number of women at the top is fewer, I do believe the numbers are getting better. Many women have to assign a higher priority to family over profession, although increasingly women are becoming serious about and are able to assign priority to their professions. One has to be exceptionally good to be able to break the glass ceiling, as a foreign national in another country, or as a woman in a profession," says Padmaja Krishnan, director of marketing and business development at Xansa.

However, an overwhelming majority of respondents dismisse the notion of a glass ceiling. H R Rajashekar, V-P, finance and administration at Mistral Software declares, "As far as the IT industry is concerned, there is no discrimination towards women professionals."

The Dataquest-Jobsahead survey also reveals that women in general achieve any given role and position at lower levels of experience compared to men, or more simply, they rise up the ladder faster than men do. And this trend is visible across levels in the corporate hierarchy. The survey finds that on an average, a woman team leader is just 0.4 years younger than her male counterpart and a woman program manager is 2.8 years younger than her male colleagues. (see graph, "Experience differential").

Offering an insight into this interesting finding, Alok Mittal, COO of JobsAhead says it may be due to "the relatively higher level of effort required by women to enter the workforce. Given the social fabric of the country, this itself acts as a quality filter". Mita Brahma, HR head of Nucleus Software agrees. Bramha says women who manage to enter workplaces by rising above societal biases are probably very strong and, therefore, do well when given the opportunity.

"Also, studies have shown that women make better engineers," says Robert F Danbeck, V-P-HR at IBM India, pointing out that women have qualities like strong team playing abilities, the capability to juggle a variety of issues, flexibility and creativity in abundance.

But then, if women are actually high performers, then why don’t we see more women at higher levels in the hierarchy? The answer to this question, as gathered by views of respondents and other findings of the survey, lies in understanding the unique personal, societal and family challenges and pressures that women employees have to perform under.

How it happens
Why there are just a few women at the top can be explained to some extent by the fact the number of women joining at lower levels itself is quite low. "Historically, the ratio of women entering the IT industry has been lower then men," says Balu Doraisamy, president of HP India, adding that this could explain "why more women have not risen to senior management positions in the IT industry".

LOW ON LONGEVITY: At lower-experience levels, a healthy 19% of the workforce comprises women, but their ratio drops steadily as experience levels rise. At senior levels, women constitute less than 6% of the workforce.

Perhaps the lopsided gender ratio begins in academic institutes itself, as "there are far fewer women candidates as compared to men in engineering and management institutes", Brahma, points out.

However, this may be a minor reason compared to other, far more practical ones. Most respondents feel that more than impediments at the workplace, it is women’s personal choices and abilities to cope up with family and social pressures that decide whether they rise above the ordinary or quit the workplace prematurely.

It is also argued that a large number of women who start off on a positive note cease to take their careers seriously. Besides, one cannot deny that in most families, a woman’s income is still considered secondary to that of her husband. As M L Taneja, V-P, HR of HCL Infosystems says, "Very few women IT professionals are passionate about their jobs as compared to men.

They want to settle down to a peaceful personal life after four to five years of work". Mittal of Jobsahead points out that men typically do not exit careers, so all of them are bound to stick on well over 10 years. "As against that, women exit the workforce, either by choice or because of their circumstances," he says.

The survey also identifies a few standard points in a woman’s career at which most women tend to exit the workplace. The first of these drop points, quiet naturally, is marriage. "Once women get married or have children, the pressures of attending to the immediate family compel them to shift focus. This is the first major impediment in their career graph," says A Prabhakar Rao, V-P, HR, Birlasoft.

LOW ON LONGEVITY: For any given job role, women tend to have lower experience than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, the oxymoron is that while women tend to rise faster up the corporate ladder, few reach the highest levels. But for anyone who doubts their innate capability, check the graph—women reach key positions far faster than men, on all counts.

Marriage is perhaps the point when achieving a good work-life balance becomes paramount. The first sharp drop in the number of women professionals is at 3+ years of experience. "This could extend to the event of leaving the first child," says Mittal.

Interestingly, data shows that only 79% of women are married at the 10+ years experience level compared to 91% of men.

Explains Mittal, "The timing is again crucial. At this stage, children may have started school, the husband may also be at a middle or senior level and hence mutual career priorities compete."

The demands of high responsibility may also play a role in keeping women from accepting such jobs. "Women have traditionally shied away from sales responsibilities," says Gita Dang, head of technology practice at Korn & Ferry, "because it involves a great deal of travel. The bulk of the important selling in the Indian software industry, for instance, happens overseas." Dang adds, "It is these business development people who blossom into the CXO roles. Women are left behind as team leaders only." Indeed, as the survey reveals interesting data about relocation preferences of both sexes (see chart "Relocation preference by gender"), it is clear that women are far less willing to relocate. The willingness to relocate is a major factor that drives the growth of IT professionals.

Perhaps the biggest reason for their unwillingness is the fact that in most families, a woman’s income is still considered secondary to that of her husband’s. Even though it may be argued that a lot of men are not willing to relocate either, ability or willingness to relocate is a factor where men outscore women.

The BPO industry as a subset of the IT industry has its own unique conditions that pose impediments to achieving a good work-life balance for women. Offering a reason as to why women professionals tend not to rise above a certain level, Prakash Toppo, V-P, HR at Global Vantedge says, "Night shifts put an additional pressure on all employees in the ITeS sector. For women, it becomes even more challenging and hence the burnout is much higher. Marriage more or less forces women to quit night shift operations."

How can this be changed?
It is clear that untimely exits, either due to circumstance or personal choice, are the biggest reason why the number of women in IT companies declines so sharply with a rise in experience. What can IT companies/HR managers do to encourage women to stay on? Companies could perhaps plan a definite strategy to curb those exits. "A good work-life balance would be most critical for encouraging women in pursuing their careers instead of abandoning them early," says Anu Sharma, V-P, HR, Quintant Corporation.

LOW ON LONGEVITY: Fewer women prefer relocation, both within the country and outside. Add to this other factors—job-role, work timings, time flexibility and travel—and you have the top reasons for few women reaching top positions

"Flexi-timing along with transport facilities will allow women with young children to attend to both their work and home needs," says Cyprian D’souza, CEO, Kanbay India adding that technology can be exploited to help women work, participate in meetings and attend to conference calls from home.

Talking about the unique work demands of an industry like BPO, Arjun Vaznaik, chief operating officer of Tracmail says: "It is not uncommon for companies to provide facilities such as childcare during work hours."

The biggest challenge for organizations is to be sensitive to family and social pressures under which women have to work.

"Organizations should be sensitive to the needs of their women employees. They are wives, mothers and homemakers amongst other significant roles that they play. Various organizational policies must be drafted with these points in mind," says Rajashekhar.

Finally, despite all the good work that HR departments may put in to create truly women-sensitive work environments, the decision to quit still lies with the woman herself. And this is where her personal choices and ambitions come into play, something which HR departments can influence only to a limited extent.

"Ultimately, it is the individual’s own home support system, ambitions and career aspirations that determine whether a woman manager is able to balance her career and family," says Balu Doraisamy, president, HP.

And once she is on her way, there’s no stopping a woman employee from making mark. As Zensar CEO Ganesh Natarajan says, "Women with grit and determination do rise to the top. Some of the most outstanding people I have worked with at the GM and V-P level have been women."

 Manjiri Kalghatgi and Rishi Seth