WOMEN SPECIAL Fighting for a Happy End Via Social Change

Women tackle gender oppression to emerge as leaders

Mumbai : Three women from different sections of society came together to speak of their experiences with the gender gap and violence against women and how technology played a part in bringing about empowerment.

Kirthi Jayakumar, Nitasha Sihag and Pragya Singh spoke of their experiences at the ET Women’s Forum on Friday. Jayakumar, an activist, artist, entrepreneur and writer from Chennai, founded and runs the Red Elephant Foundation, a civilian peacebuilding initiative that works for gender equality through storytelling. She spoke about how she came to crate the Saahas app after late-night phone calls from a friend with an abusive husband.

Sihag, from Haryana’s Khari Sureran, said her journey began when she heard stories of several women from her state and took it upon herself to address such issues.

Singh is an acid attack survivor, activist and social worker who is fighting for relief and rehabilitation for other acid attack and burn survivors. She told the audience how she and several other women are fighting back.

“I’m not what happened to me--I’m not my face. I’m what I think of myself and I have a story with a happy ending,” declared Singh.

There were several lifechanging events in her life but none came close to what happened to her when, in an act of vengeance, a man threw acid on her face for rejecting his advances.

“There was a darkness I faced in my life, darker than the most vivid imagination and most frightening nightmares,” said Singh. She was able to cope with the agony and endure the pain with the help of her family, mainly her husband, but she was not at ease.

“I was not at peace with just fixing my own life and moving on. I had to do something for others who were left alone to suffer in the darkness,” said Singh.

She founded the Atijeevan Foundation, an NGO that works with doctors for medical advice and treatment. She also counsels acid attack survivors on developing a permanent source of income by training them to create handicraft products and marketing them.

Sihag shared her experience of coming from Haryana, a state from where news about caste-based violence and attacks on women are commonplace.

“I do all the domestic chores and handle a gas agency which is about eight kilometres away from my home, where often women would come to me to seek help and I would try my best to resolve their problems,” said Sihag. However, she was often frustrated at her inability to be effective.

“My husband suggested that I join politics if I wished to bring about real change. I competed against three men to win the panchayat samiti elections with a thumping majority,” she said.

Sachin.Dave

ET19MAR18

BOOK SPECIAL ....Six books to read if you’re switching jobs

Six books to read if you’re switching jobs

Stumped about your next career move? Start by reading these books to make things work your way

How to Win Friends and Influence People

 by Dale Carnegie

Nearly a century after its original publication, this book continues to be a hit among people looking to be better with people. In fact, Warren Buffett says the book helped him overcome his social awkwardness and ultimately changed his life. The late Carnegie advises readers on how to have smoother interactions with others — perhaps most importantly, by letting them talk about themselves. Whether you’re gearing up for job interviews or networking events, Carnegie’s classic advice is a must-read.

Designing Your Life

 by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

This book, by two Stanford professors of engineering, is a bestseller for a reason: It’s at once reassuring, empowering, and enlightening for anyone in the throes of the job-search process. The most important takeaway is that there isn’t just one career path out there for you. You probably have lots of passions, and you can definitely have lots of jobs. The authors share anecdotes alongside exercises to help you figure out which careers would suit you best — like “mind mapping” and “Odyssey planning”. It’s a fun and very actionable read that helps you see the careers forest for the trees.

What Color Is Your Parachute?

 by Richard Bolles

The most popular job-search guide ever has been revised every year to reflect the realities of modern work. The late Bolles covers the basics — résumé writing, interviewing, networking — but also helps readers pinpoint their ideal career through the ‘Flower Exercise’. The book has stayed relevant because Bolles focuses not only on the job search process but the emotional and psychological side of job hunting.

Why We Work

 by Barry Schwartz

In this relatively short read, Schwartz, a psychologist at Swarthmore College, explains how human motivation works — and doesn’t work. Schwartz argues that people are motivated by purpose and meaning. There’s no evidence to suggest people are motivated primarily by money. But most companies — from education to law — incentivise workers with financial rewards anyway. As you’re moving into the next phase of your career, you’ll want to learn more about what makes employees excel and what makes an organisation great. Schwartz’s insights are invaluable in that domain.

Pivot 

 by Jenny Blake

Blake is a former Googler who’s “pivoted” — i.e. changed career directions — multiple times, once when she was working at the tech giant, and again when she left to launch her consulting business. And she knows how scary it can be.

Pivot guides readers who are confused, intimidated, or just plain curious through the stepby-step process of figuring out what you should do next — and then doing it. She’s nothing if not cautious, telling readers they should run some tests to make sure, for example, their startup idea is viable or this is really their passion.

Insight

 by Tasha Eurich

Before you head into a job interview and start pitching yourself to a hiring manager, you’ll need to get a better handle on who exactly you are, in terms of your strengths and weaknesses. Eurich is an organisational psychologist who helps people overcome obstacles to professional success — and the biggest one, she argues, is being oblivious to your flaws and mistakes. The problem? Self-awareness is key to success at work. Insight guides readers through the process of knowing themselves just a little bit better. Each chapter juxtaposes an anecdote about a struggling client Eurich has coached with relevant scientific research, and ends with some practical exercises readers can use in their everyday lives.

businessinsider.in

ET19MAR18

SMARTPHONE SPECIAL ....Phone charging slowly? Here’s why

Phone charging slowly? Here’s why

There could be hardware or software issues at play that prevent your phone from charging as fast as it once did

Your smartphone can do a whole lot—but not if the battery’s exhausted. Unfortunately, as your phone gets older, it might take longer to charge. Let’s talk about how mobile device charging works and the different charging methods available for current-generation phones. We’ll also see why older phones might require more time to charge and what you can do about it.

Understanding rechargeable batteries

A cell battery contains two electrodes (one positive and one negative) and an electrolyte. Through usage, ions form in the electrodes, which drives a flow of electronics to your battery’s negative outer terminal, thereby giving off a charge.

With rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, like the ones found in phones, the chemical reactions are “reversible.” Thus, recharging allows the cell to absorb power.

“Fast Charging” technology has increased wired charging speeds considerably in recent years. This technology typically requires a newer USB Type-C. Fast charging specifications differ by manufacturer and device. Most claim a certain percentage of the battery becomes recharged in 30 minutes. For example, with fast charge, you can recharge an iPhone to 50 per cent in 30 minutes.

The most significant reason to stick with wired charging, at least for now, is efficiency. Not surprisingly, cables are the biggest reason to ditch wired charging technology. Cables are annoying and can become worn over time. Besides, they’re ugly to look at.

This brings us to an increasingly popular form of phone charging: wirelessly. Here, you just set your phone on a stationary charging pad. This means less wear and tear on your device and fewer costs, at least in the long term. Convenience is another reason consumers are embracing wireless charging, and many charging pads now allow you to charge multiple devices at the same time.

However, wireless charging is still slower and less efficient than wired charging. Wireless chargers also tend to generate some wasted heat, which could lead to your phone overheating. To avoid injury, make sure you only buy certified wireless charging bases, which are more expensive.

Why your phone is charging slowly

Now that you know how battery charging works, it’s time to look at what might be slowing down your older phone while charging. Most likely, it’s because of one of the following reasons:

Bad accessories

The most straightforward reason your cell phone might be charging slower than before might have nothing to do with the phone itself. Instead, you could have a bad cord or adapter, or weak power source.

USB cables get put through a lot, especially in homes with multiple users and devices. These cables are often dropped, bent, kept in locations where temperatures can vary significantly, and even stepped on. Therefore, before anything else, change the cable and see if that eliminates the problem.

You should also switch out the adapter and see if that makes a difference. In your household, do you continue to use the same adapter even after buying a new phone? You should probably use the newer one.

Many like to charge their mobile devices using a port on their computer. This isn’t always an ideal solution, depending on your computer’s age and whether other ports on your machine are in use at the same time.

Port issues

Your cable isn’t the only element that could have problems from daily charging. Your phone’s charging port could also suffer some damage. Look at the port for corrosion or an obstruction. While this probably isn’t the reason it’s taking more time to charge your device, you should at least rule it out.

To find the latter, use a flashlight and magnification to look around inside your phone’s port. Try to remove any object (lint, dust, etc.) that doesn’t belong, being very careful not to cause damage to the port’s components.

Background apps

Phones that take forever to charge can also have a hard time keeping a charge when in use. A rogue app, or background apps in general, could be the reason for this.

Both Android and iOS now have tools for you to find out what apps are running in the background. For Android-based devices, check out the battery usage menu located at Settings > Battery. On your iPhone, select Battery in the Settings app to see which apps are using the most battery.

When you think you’ve located the nasty app, delete it and see if your battery life and charging speed improves.

Aging battery

If you’ve exhausted the other tips on this list and the battery still seems to take forever to charge, you might think about having the battery replaced.

Apple was criticised for how the company handled batteries in aging iPhones. It did so for a reason, though.

The little industry secret is that lithium-ion batteries don’t last forever and can only be recharged a limited number of times. Therefore, it could be that the battery itself is what’s causing the slow recharging. Take your phone to an authorised dealer for more information on replacing the battery in your device.

The problem is you

Are you the type of person that has to use your smartphone even when it’s charging? Perhaps you’re the reason the device takes so long to recharge. Apps such as Facebook are notorious for sapping battery life on phones. Nowhere is this more apparent than when you’re attempting to recharge your device while also leaving posts on your social network.

Instead of doing this, take a break. Make a rule that you won’t use your phone while it’s charging.

| Bryan Wolfe MM 19MAR18

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON MAKEUSEOF.COM

MANAGEMENT SPECIAL ....What the Body Tells Us about Leadership PART II

What the Body Tells Us about Leadership PART II

Thought Leader interview, social presencing theater innovators Otto Scharmer and Arawana Hayashi  CONTINUE IN THIS PART TO describe how to develop your management skills through physical awareness.

A Company Takes the Stage

S+B: You worked closely with the women’s apparel business Eileen Fisher, using social presencing theater to come to an understanding of the company’s leadership issues. What happened?
HAYASHI: Some of us in the Presencing Institute got to know this company several years ago when Eileen [founder of the eponymous US$300 million company] wanted to make some changes. She was coming more into the public eye in terms of sustainability, and she felt a need for more emphasis on the personal development and well-being of everyone working there.

SCHARMER: There were some blind spots in the company. Some departments were energetic and creative, but others were less engaged, including some related to customer service and customer experience.

HAYASHI: The company conducted a social presencing theater session in which people reflected on their relationships with Eileen Fisher herself as well as their relationships with customers. After that workshop, Eileen became more committed to making personal development not only available, but part of the organizational culture in a way that would affect everyone. She was already doing some of this intuitively, but now there were a number of small changes. For example, they paused in meetings for moments of silence; they held sensing journeys across their supply chain, [in which] teams of employees visited suppliers to better understand how they worked; they began explicitly referring to customers as their “community.” And so on. They also expanded the communication about cultural values out to everyone in the company, from the IT staff to the store clerks.

More recently, we made a video about this work with Eileen, and we did another SPT session with Antoinette Klatzky, the cofounder and executive director of the Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute.  She and others there had created a curriculum for the Learning Lab, a lifelong learning center sponsored by the institute [and since renamed Eileen Fisher LifeWork]. The curriculum in­cluded meditation and arts-based practices, to bring out the whole person. They had offered it not just to full-time employees, but also to other workers in the companies that supplied [the business] Eileen Fisher. But people didn’t seem to be interested in the curriculum the way she had hoped they would be.

So we brought together a small group of people for a social presencing theater session, to look at the relationships between parts of the company and the mission of the Learning Lab. As the sculpture unfolded, some people were positioned closer to the center, which included being closer to the person representing Eileen, while others were farther away, on the periphery. And some of the peripheral figures were lying down on the floor, not easily joining in, not really taking care of themselves. There was a sadness coming to the surface, produced by the way this cluster of people had arranged themselves. They seemed kind of downtrodden, like they didn’t have a real place in the company. Then the sculpture shifted, moving into the next phase, representing a potential future, and everyone arranged themselves into a more cohesive overall pattern.

When Eileen saw the characters playing herself and her employees, she said she saw how hard they worked, but also how cut off they could become. Her continuing involvement with the well-being of company employees was strengthened. There were new insights about how to communicate the Learning Lab offerings to people inside the company and to the larger community.

S+B: Do you find that every organization is different, or do the same patterns and dynamics come up repeatedly?
SCHARMER: We’re investigating that question now. There is something unique about every organization, but there are also recurring patterns that we would like to establish as archetypes.

HAYASHI: Some of the dynamics involving leadership attention seem universal. We did a social presencing theater recently with a big multinational company. Two senior employees who had been assigned to overseas roles were peripheral and isolated. No one intended it, but they were ignored and not given as much support as they needed. It happened in such a small way, but it made them completely stuck. And then everyone in the company was so focused on their little group that when they saw the sculpture it was surprising to see how large the whole system was that it represented.

SCHARMER: Sometimes these patterns become clear only in retrospect, long after the session is over. I worked with the Danish healthcare system, which had gone through a process of regionalization, but without the coordination mechanism they needed. The SPT exercise revealed hospitals competing for resources with a lot of self-interest and not much trust. The participants saw this, and they realized that if they wanted to collaborate and share resources, they needed a core process that was focused more on patients.

Two months later, they came back to remap themselves with another SPT. They saw that they needed to connect more effectively not just with patients in the hospital, but with other community members. They needed to go beyond treating the sick, to strengthening their ability to provide health and well-being. By seeing this together, the group created not only a shared map of what currently was going on, but also a shared vision of the future they wanted to create.

HAYASHI: Some of the most revealing things are the connections that people make that we didn’t expect. The word theater, derived from the Greek for to look at, means a place where something significant can be seen. Here, we see how our small actions as leaders set into motion larger systemic structures that keep some people up and others down in ways we didn’t necessarily intend, that marginalize and exclude and disrespect people at times.

The Knowledge in the Body

S+B: You mentioned a feeling of sadness coming to the surface. Does that occur in most of the organizations you work with?
HAYASHI: In almost all of these sessions, there’s a power buildup revealed, where some people connect and others are excluded. You feel how counterproductive it is to have some members marginalized. In one social presencing theater we did on youth engagement with sports and clubs, the sculpture highlighted the social divide between kids with resources and lower-income kids, particularly minority kids. You could see how people had made small choices over the years that added up to an incredibly painful split between those with access to these services and those without.

In one of the debriefs, after people talked about needing to design a better outcome, one of the men said, “Maybe collective grieving should be the outcome. Maybe the heartbreaking recognition of social inequality will motivate us to actually engage and do something.” It’s important, I think, to collectively feel the heartbreak in a way that leads us to step out of our comfort zones. I don’t think sadness is negative. It’s a human feeling that we care.

In another company, the leadership was all equal on paper, but one small group put themselves in a kind of power center and other people felt disconnected; they couldn’t figure out how to get influence. The SPT exercise made this clear. One of the women in the session said to me, “It was a sad and an unpleasant feeling, but it actually gave me strength and clarity.” She was among those who felt shut out; she said now she could figure out how to fit into the dynamics of the top leadership team.

S+B: Is there a link between the physical body awareness of an exercise like this and the ability to move forward emotionally?
HAYASHI: I think so. There is a lot of research now on emotional intelligence, but very little on the knowledge inherent in the body. It’s not just sensation; it’s connection with other people and with the present. It’s so easy to lose that presence; to be lost in thought and completely disconnected from your environment. Your body is walking to the car in a parking lot, but your mind is thinking about what happened yesterday, and these two sensations aren’t synchronized. You don’t notice the light, or the people standing nearby, or anything about your environment. And that may diminish your ability to act.

Experiences like SPT point to our interconnectedness and the fact that we are always a part of a social body. The body itself is a sensing organ. The signals that it receives are a bit like what Eugene Gendlin, the author of Focusing [Everest House, 1978], calls “the felt sense”: a quality of knowing that extends beyond the five senses to body awareness. At this moment, in this office building, the air and the light have a particular quality. It would be different if it were morning on a beach, or if you were interviewing different people. There would be a different texture, a different quality, even if the words were exactly the same.

This way of bringing the body into the conversation isn’t all that comfortable for some people. But perhaps when it’s successful, it’s successful because it’s not comfortable. People do not know how to lie or cover up in this realm; they have to be open-minded and willing to stretch themselves, to be direct in connection with one another.

The body has a voice. When you let that voice speak, even for 20 minutes out of your day, you change the things you notice. We call this embodiment: the sensation that you live in a particular body, on this big Planet Earth body, and that’s where you start every day. That awareness affects your relationships and your decision making. If you are disconnected from your own body, I think you will be disconnected from the social body as well, and from the people around you.

S+B: Tell us about Theory U and how it fits in.
SCHARMER: Theory U is basically the arc through which people travel when they are transforming their own understanding and capacity for action — when they transcend boundaries or move past their comfort zone. It is also a way of training yourself to pay attention to the seeds of the future that are already residing in your environment.

There are three main stages, each involving a different group of activities. The first is sensing: seeing the system you’re in more clearly, so you can free yourself from your old assumptions and habits. All leaders are sitting in bubbles. The more powerful the organization, the higher up you are, the stronger the bubble that you need to transcend. You cannot see yourself clearly or re-invent yourself otherwise. We also call this stage “letting go”: releasing your old ways of thinking.

There are many ways to do this. For example, you can go to the margins of your system, the places within your influence but outside your comfort zone, and suspend your habits of judgment. Listen with your mind and heart wide open. Access the wonder you feel. You can reflect collectively using techniques such as SPT, scenario planning, storytelling sessions, dialogue, and systems interventions. With any of these, you create a new conceptual map of your situation that shows the systems more clearly and also how each person sees them.

The second stage, after sensing, is presencing: connecting to a deeper level of your own knowledge and aspirations. This is where you develop the story of self and the story of the future that you want to be a part of. One of the most effective mechanisms used to activate this deeper level of knowing is intentional stillness — as an individual or in a group.

The last stage is prototyping new activity, or learning by doing. This includes design thinking practices, in which you innovate a new product or social approach and learn from it. When you change the organization chart of your company, or introduce new types of offerings, or show up differently in the world, you’re in this stage. We sometimes call it “letting come,” as in letting a new way of operating come into existence.

S+B: Why wouldn’t most leaders want to move directly into the prototyping stage, instead of taking a detour through sensing and presencing?
SCHARMER: If you start with prototyping, you just keep reenacting your old mental models, more of the same. If you face a real situation of disruption, you need to put more effort into getting out of your own bubble and immersing yourself in the places of most potential.

S+B: After all these years of dialogue, systems interventions like Theory U, and other innovations in organizational learning, one would expect to see a rise in the general competence of leadership in the workplace. Do you think that is happening?
SCHARMER: It’s a great question for all of us, and the answer is profoundly unclear. When you look at just what the media is mirroring back to us about our society and how it is led, you see us moving backward. The older system of global business and politics was, in effect, a system of muddling through with the same old institutional routines. Now those mainstream institutions are challenged by disruptive forces at a large scale: globalization, an unprecedented wave of refugees, technological changes, populist political movements, and the new realities of climate change.

Whenever a social system — a company, or in this case a larger group of mainstream institutions — is disrupted, and the leaders have not developed an inner capacity for curiosity, compassion, and courage, then you will tend to see a closing of the mind and the heart, and a fanatical expression of will. You will see the amplification of prejudice, an increase in public expressions of  anger and fear, and a greater tendency to blame others. This is a system of freezing — holding tight to relatively closed points of view. It is the perspective of political extremes.

The alternative response is turning toward problems as opportunities for collaborative learning: leaning into the emerging future, being open to prototyping new approaches, and cultivating better relationships across institutional and sector boundaries. If that’s our model of enlightened leadership, then there has been tangible progress. There’s a whole landscape of collaborative relationships based on these principles that we see emerging worldwide. This movement embodies a shift in the social field from “ego-system awareness” to ecosystem awareness. Personally, I think that this subtle shift may well be the single most important event of our time. Methods like social presencing theater make this shift visible and actionable on the level of groups, organizations, and larger social systems.

by Art Kleiner

https://www.strategy-business.com/article/What-the-Body-Tells-Us-about-Leadership?gko=f5217&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20180320&utm_campaign=resp

JOB SPECIAL ....5 WAYS TO Prepare for Your First Job

5 WAYS TO Prepare for Your First Job

It is with the first job that one embarks on a lifelong career journey. The first job is also a turning point in one’s life. A wrong attitude or decision can steer you on the wrong direction, which may even stall in unleashing one’s potential. Prachi Verma Dadhwal asks experts on how to prepare for your first job.

1 Open Minded

It is always best to begin with an open and flexible mind on your first job. Condition yourself even before the on-boarding process. “Our thoughts and knowledge need to be aligned to meet the desired objective of the role. Even if it means to let go of our current beliefs in order to receive new insights and inputs,” says P Padmakumar, head, human resources, flat glass business and research, Saint-Gobain India.

2 Be Patient

Every organisation has its own culture and work ethics, and one learns only with time. Before taking up your first job, it is important to be patient and calm. This mindset will make the learning process easier. “It is natural to panic and take impulsive decisions but a level-headed mind would broaden your horizon,” says Arjun Zacharia, CEO, Wooplr. “Being patient doesn’t mean being idle. Relax your mind and utilise the peaceful energy in the right direction,” says Zacharia.

3 Networking is Key

For any newcomer, it is vital for her/him to play the role of icebreaker. Do not shy away from making the first move to striking up a conversation. “When ‘you’ are the newcomer, do not expect to get a warm reception from your peers,” warns Padmakumar. “Social interactions are great tools to enhance your outreach in the professional world,” says Zacharia. “Most importantly, strong connections can help to build your future career path,” he says.

4 Experiment

“Just because you have a degree in fashion doesn’t mean you have to stick to that field in work. This is the time to explore all fields and options before you settle into a long-term job,” says Zacharia of Wooplr. “Seize every opportunity that comes your way as a lesson for life,” Padmakumar explains.

5 Credibility

“It is the first job that sets the foundation for your personal credibility when you get others to believe in you,” says Padmakumar. “In the end, you might not remember how much money you made, but you, and everyone else, will never forget how much of a difference you made to them.”

ETP  20MAR18

WORLD’S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2018 ...RANK NO.15 Walmart

WORLD’S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2018 RANK NO.15

Walmart

Walmart

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world by revenue, is the behemoth of big-box stores. With more than 4,700 locations in the U.S. alone—not to mention over 600 outlets of its wholesale subsidiary Sam’s Club—Walmart dominates brick and mortar like no other. In recent years, the Bentonville, Arkansas, based company has also flexed its muscle in the digital retail space, making significant investments in e-commerce services, fulfillment centers, and technology initiatives. In 2016, Walmart acquired Jet.com, a fast-growing Amazon competitor, for $3 billion. It marked the beginning of an M&A spree (resulting in purchases of everything from Shoebuy.com to Moosejaw to Bonobos and Modcloth to Parcel), further building out Walmart's reach in footwear, outdoor gear, private-label fashion, and same-day delivery services

https://www.fastcompany.com/company/walmart

WOMEN SPECIAL.... Boys Club is a Myth Created by Men

Boys Club is a Myth Created by Men

Women agreed that behind every successful woman, there is a supporting father, acting as a buffer between detractors and their daughters
women workforce faces a big issue, one of making a comeback after they take a break, very often for motherhood

The “boys club” is a myth. If a group of women, who have made it big into the fields that were traditionally seen as the male domain says so, you have to believe them.

“I’m not interested in the big boys club because I belong to the coolest club. I have three sisters and the four of us are the coolest club,” said Shobana Kamineni, the first woman president of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Kamineni and her sisters worked along with their father to establish the Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, where she is executive vice chairperson. “We were given the privilege of not knowing that there is a difference between genders,” Kamineni said at The Economic Times Women’s Forum. So, when she was chosen as the first woman head of the 120-year-old industry association that represents 60% of India’s GDP, all she had to say to the members was, “It’s about time, boys.”

Mixologist Shatbhi Basu reflects the same sentiment, “I don’t think there is a boys’ club. They would like to think there is, but it’s not. Not just in bartending but there are a lot of women coming into the beverage and alcohol industry. People say, have the men chosen to let them in, I say no, the women have actually chosen to enter the field purely because they believe in what they were doing and they were focused.” Basu said she had her first sip of alcohol with her father, and her mother gifted her the first book on drinks.

Captain Kiran Sangwan, a pilot with IndiGo, was also supported by her parents in her choice of career. There were naysays, passengers who asked “uda legi kya (can she fly the aircraft)?” to relatives who first questioned her father for his decision to invest in her education and later for not marrying her off. His reply to them was, “If she can choose a career, she can choose her man.”

It is said that behind every successful man there is a woman. The women at the Women’s Forum unanimously agreed that behind every successful woman, there is a supporting father, acting as a buffer between detractors and their daughters, and a mother who silently provides strength, and sometimes, there is also a daughter.

Shashikala Sinha found her biggest supporter in her daughter when she made a comeback to work life after taking a break for 5-6 years after her child was born, at a time when she lost her husband in an accident. Today, at the Defence Research Development Organisation, she is project director for advanced area defence interceptor missiles.

“I told myself that I will upgrade my knowledge of technology to an extent that the loss of five years in my career won’t matter. If you are technically competent, no one can challenge you,” Sinha said. Her tips to women looking at a comeback in career are: avoid falling into stereotypes, upgrade skills and set own goals.

Premlata Agrawal, who began her mountaineering career in her 30s, knows all about breaking stereotypes. She is the first Indian woman to scale the seven highest continental peaks of the world, but when she started out, she was a housewife and a mother. At 48, when she was climbing Mount Everest, her Sherpa dismissed her and told her that at her age, she should be at home to look after grandchildren. “I just stopped listening to him. I used to take part in races as a schoolgirl and always come last. Mera will power bahut strong hai, main harne ke liye paida nahi hui hoon (I have a strong will power. I was not born to lose).”

These women with extraordinary stories may have shattered the myth of any field being a “boys’ club”, but the women workforce at large suffers from another big issue, one of making a comeback after they take a break, very often for motherhood.

“It’s a problem across the world and we are yet to find a solution,” Kamineni said. “Every corporation needs to find a solution because we have to have a right to opt out.”

Rachita.Prasad

ET19MAR18