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Male representatives of private companies give various reasons for their appalling talks about hiring women. Some blatantly say that they are traditional companies and don't hire women. Others cite safety as an issue. Still others say that maternity
leaves are a serious interruption of work.

Few years back, there was a study conducted on why women were not doing as well as their male colleagues after graduation from business schools. The young women that they had interviewed told that despite their getting higher marks than the young men and performing better, they received less approval and recognition from bosses and were slower to be promoted. They felt dejected and disappointed. Or at times, it was all about being a blue-eyed boy of the boss or maybe Favoritism? The predicament of these young women is understandable. And I empathize with them.

Boys are brought up to believe that they can get anything they want and are raised as such. Girls are also told that they can get anything they want, but are raised to have doubts about their ability, to put family first, and to subsume their ambitions and dreams in the interest of family and society. They are never told how tough it is to negotiate their way in a world designed and defined by men and they are not trained for it either.

Where is this better exemplified than in the corporate world?

The corporate world has been, and is one, where men can escape away from home and family. Men made the rules, and when women come into this world, they are not sure how to conduct themselves. In the Indian context, men learn to see women as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. The idea of women as colleagues and as equals is very new and quite intimidating to them.

It is easy to write women off in the corporate world because of the trend of male domination. Women are looked at as delicate and inferior beings, rather than equal beings capable of accomplishing anything and everything a man can. Men still represent the greater proportion of the corporate world; there are still more male CEOs than female CEOs.

One question that throngs our mind is: Why is bright, capable and ambitious female gender not being made partners at the same rate as their male counterparts?

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Rabia Dhody is an MBA from University of Pune, and is currently working as HR Manager with Reliance Capital - Life Insurance Division.