women were greatly affected by the changing society after 1815.

Not only did their status

change in the family, but outside of the home as well. Opportunities evolved for them in the
work place, and society. They began to work in factories, and this change brought economic
independence for women.

From Bread Bakers to Bread Earners- The changing

roles of Indian Women

 ARTICLE
 
 COMMENTS

The portrayal or understanding of a Woman in India has been an evolving phenomenon since time
immemorial. From once worshiped as divine and pure creatures, to the medieval roles of child bearing
and rearing, and now to the contemporary portrayal of power and resistance, the women in India have
changed myriad social roles over the past. However, the social presence of Indian women has got
much more significance in today’s developing times. Where until lately, they were shadowed by
patriarchal dominance, the contemporary women in India have moved beyond all social boundaries to
emerge as triumphant leaders of tomorrow. Not only has She taken up courageous roles in society,
her own individuality as a ‘woman’ has now got an improvised meaning.

The world has changed for females in India now. The daughters are pursuing successful ambitions in
the male dominated corporate scenario and mothers are taking up flextime jobs to showcase their
exceptional managerial talent. Today, our women have stepped out to become bread earners of the
family. Although the trend is yet developing in India, there are many families who choose for the men
to stay back at home and manage household whereas their female counterparts take up challenging
professional roles. The IT-BPO sector is becoming a female dominated industry in India with a
significant number of capable and qualified female workforce delivering exceptional performances at
the corporate level. Hospitality, Retail and Financialsectors are also not lagging behind in such
changing scenarios.
According to Raju Bhatnagar,VP,Nasscom,women constitute an important economic force for the
country and suitable enabling provisions must be made to harness their abilities to benefit the
economy. (Quote source- Times of India). Keeping aside the hard core brick and mortar sectors that
demand much physical strength, the strong, intellectual and determined women in India are set to
take on remarkable careers in the promising professional arenas of today.

Supporting their ambitious endeavors and putting forth their entrepreneurial talent, the SHEROES
Summit, presented by Fleximoms, is an excellent platform for the aspiring and successful women
professionals to meet, interact, explore and gain insight about the evolving industry trends and
opportunities to work with leading corporate houses in the country.

SHEROES brings together stakeholders in context of women and work – CEO’s, business owners,
women professionals, career coaches, entrepreneurs and women professionals across stages of life.
 The SHEROES Summit 2013 celebrates choices women make for themselves and making them work
for them.

.
Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

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LEADERSHIP

New ‘Right-hand Men’: The

Growing Role of Women in Indian
Family Business
Women have always been powerful forces in Indian politics. Indira Gandhi was
probably the most dominating prime minister the country has ever had. Today, her
daughter-in-law, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, is the most powerful
person in New Delhi, though she has no official role in the government.

When it comes to business, however, women have had little opportunity — expected
to move from the parental hearth to the husband’s home, rather than play any role in
the company.

Today, that is changing. Globalization, liberalization, the decay of the institution of

marriage and a growing emphasis on education have helped to raise the status of
women in family businesses. Roshni Nadar, 27, daughter of HCL Technologies
founder Shiv Nadar, was appointed CEO of the group’s holding company in April.
She has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and has worked
with CNN in the United States and Sky News in the United Kingdom. Ashni Biyani,
24, daughter of Future Group (formerly Pantaloon) chief Kishore Biyani, has already
joined the business. She won her academic spurs at Stanford. “Savvy girls in their
twenties are new scions,” says The Economic Times, adding, “They are their fathers’
new right-hand men.”
Among the others making headlines for winning senior positions in their groups are
26-year-old Lakshmi Venu (Yale and Warwick), daughter of TVS Motor supremo
Venu Srinivasan; Divya Modi (Brunel University; University of Southern California),
the 25-year-old daughter of B.K. Modi of the Spice Group; and the 28-year-old
Devita Saraf (University of Southern California) of Zenith Computers, started by her
father Raj Saraf.

Having studied abroad is almost universally common. Many have also worked
abroad before returning home to take up jobs with the family business. “Education
and exposure have led to greater societal acceptance of women participating in
various walks of life, including business,” says Pradeep Mukerjee, founder-director of
Confluence Coaching & Consulting (CC&C), who earlier headed human resources for
Citigroup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

“Perhaps the biggest change in the past couple of decades has been the increasing
importance of educational qualifications,” says Sona Rajesh, practice head,
organization effectiveness, at Tata Strategic Management Group. “The distinction
between female and male members of a family is also going. More women are
inheriting now than before.”

Education was an escape route. In India, daughters of business families are still
regarded as marriageable assets, useful for tying up business alliances. This is truer
of smaller groups than large industrial houses. Young women are guarded all the way
to the school or college gate by drivers and security personnel, and are picked up the
same way. Once, it was simply tradition; today the excuse is kidnapping and terror
threats.

Breaking Through the Periphery

“Women who go abroad to study develop a mind of their own,” says Mukerjee of
CC&C. “Work broadens this further. In India, they would only be permitted in
peripheral roles such as CSR [corporate social responsibility] in the family business.
What happened in the West as an economic necessity post-World War — that is,
greater economic participation of women in society due to sheer lack of manpower —
is happening here because of education and greater exposure to the West.”

India is not a unique case, but some factors are peculiar to the country. The law on
the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is one. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act
of 2005 removed gender discrimination with regard to inheritance in Hindu joint
families. Previously, only the male line, to great-grandson, had inheritance rights.
“The trend of daughters inheriting family businesses picked up steam after 2005
when the HUF succession norms were amended and girls were allowed to inherit
equal shares in family businesses,” says B.K. Modi of Spice Group. Modi has kept a
51% stake in the Spice Group, giving 24% to his daughter Divya and 25% to his son
Dilip, who is the elder of the two. “I have always been a vocal proponent for equal
rights for daughters,” Modi says. The one-percentage-point difference in holdings
can be attributed to a difference in age. Dilip is 35 and Divya 25. Divya has just
stepped in, while Dilip has helped run group companies for several years. (Eldest
daughter Ritika is managing her own business with her husband, Nikhil Rungta.)

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“It was only in 2006 that I decided to join the group full-time, at which time I went
back to school to professionally train myself and get further educated in order to take
on greater responsibilities within the group,” Divya Modi told The Economic Times.
“We aspire to be a $10 billion group in the future and I would like to play my part in
making that happen by creating value in the areas of business that I’m focusing on —
innovative technologies and finance.”
While culture often keeps equity holdings in the male line, daughters aren’t sent to
their husband’s home empty-handed. In poor rural households, a tree is planted
when a daughter is born. By the time she is of marriageable age, the tree is cut down
to sell. In business households, they plant a subsidiary that is often handed over as a
“dowry.”

Globalization and liberalization have also played a role in the emancipation of

women in business families. So has the decay in the institution of marriage and the
acceptance of divorce — which means a son-in-law isn’t necessarily for life. Many
women now keep their own names, so the family doesn’t lose its identity after
marriage. “All these explanations find merit in different contexts,” says K.
Ramachandran, associate dean and Thomas Schmidheiny chair professor of family
business and wealth management at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business
(ISB). “The entry of women is recognition of a social change from two angles: one,
acceptance of the potential of women, and two, ensuring that ownership and control
do not go away even if there are in-law problems.

“Besides, there is greater recognition that women are equally capable of managing
the ‘rough’ world of business,” Ramachandran continues. “There is also a huge
change in attitude toward girls, with the number of children in any family coming
down. Families sometimes have only one or two girls. I do not say that it is newfound
love for daughters but realization of an opportunity to share parental wealth among
all children independent of gender.”

“Family businesses in India have been changing,” says Harsh Mariwala, chairman of
fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer Marico Ltd. “New generations bring
discontinuity, often altering the direction of the business; the open environment and
increased competition have also helped create this change. There is no one model of
managing succession.” Mariwala’s children — Rajvi, 29, and Rishabh, 28 — joined
the business a few years ago. The Marico chairman is unequivocal that his is a
professionally managed company with a clear separation between ownership and
management.
At the Avantha Group, chairman Gautam Thapar — who has two daughters — is
installing a structure that will allow his children to manage their wealth without
interfering with the day-to-day running of the company. “The best that I can do for
them is to leave them with a structure and people that allow them to do that,” he
says. “If they’re interested in running a business day-to-day, then they will have to go
through the grind.” (See Avantha Group’s Gautam Thapar: ‘I See Myself as an
Entrepreneur’.)

Thrust into the Spotlight

For some business families, the process of turning to women started because they
had no choice. Sushma Berlia, president of the Apeejay Stya Group, says,“My father
wanted to retire and there was nobody else. Being the only child, I had no option but
to take over the reins.” Berlia, who has run the show for nearly 20 years, says she
“accompanied my father to work from a very early age. I am doing the same with my
children.” Her eldest son is already in the business. Her daughter and younger son
are studying management in the United States. Will her daughter inherit? “Yes, as far
as the family wealth is concerned,” Berlia responds. “But it is up to her to decide how
much she wants to be part of the family business.”

At Thermax, the Pune-based boiler manufacturer, Arnavaz “Anu” Aga was thrust into
leadership when her husband and then her brother died. The company was originally
floated by A.S. Bathena, Anu Aga’s father. Anu married Rohinton Aga. (Today,
Rohinton Aga — not Bathena — is considered the founder of the company.) Anu Aga
was not involved in running the business until Rohinton suffered a heart attack in
1982. “My father had brought her into the company after his first heart attack in
1982, but in human resources,” says Anu and Rohinton Aga’s daughter Meher
Pudumjee. Rohinton died of another heart attack in 1996. Within a year, Pudumjee’s
brother and Thermax heir apparent Kurush died in a road accident. Anu Aga landed
in the hot seat. “There was no succession plan in place then,” Pudumjee says. “My
mother had to take over in circumstances that were not so good, and had a rough
time.”

While Anu Aga, despite being the owner’s daughter, had never been trained to take
over, it’s been different for Pudumjee. A post-graduate in chemical engineering at the
Imperial College in London, she’s been given a proper education. She’s also been
given proper training; Pudumjee joined Thermax as a trainee engineer in August
1990. She managed Thermax’s U.K. subsidiary before joining the board of directors
in 1996. She’s had stints in treasury and working capital management. In October
2004, she took over as chairperson on the retirement of Anu Aga. “My mother didn’t
want me to go through the same difficulties, which is why she decided to bring me in
properly,” Pudumjee says. “We were all prepared for me to become chairperson.
Most important, I was prepared. My mother did a lot of hand-holding before she
handed over the reins. That’s very necessary. Every business family must have proper
succession planning, just as in professional management.”

In more recent times, daughters have not just inherited the business, they’ve been
deeply involved in running it. At Apollo Hospitals, founder Prathap C. Reddy recently
appointed his eldest daughter Preetha Reddy, 53, as his successor. She is managing
director of the group. Her three sisters — Suneeta Reddy, 51, Shobana Kamineni, 48,
and Sangita Reddy, 47 — are also directors and very much hands-on.

Earlier this year, Jayanti Chauhan, 24, joined her father’s business Parle Bisleri. Dad
Ramesh Chauhan is best known for building cola brand Thums Up, which he later
sold to Coca-Cola. (Thums Up remains the leading cola brand in India, despite all-
out efforts to establish Coke.)

At Parle Agro, meanwhile, the daughters of Ramesh Chauhan’s brother Prakash are
running the business. Eldest daughter Schauna, 33, is CEO. Her sisters Alisha, 31,
and Nadia, 23, are directors. Alisha had wanted to run a chain of health and fitness
centers on her own. But that has been brought into the Parle fold.

For Sminu Jindal, 34, managing director of tubular pipe company Jindal SAW (her
father, Prithvi Jindal, is vice chairman), joining the firm was a matter of choice.
“Neither of my two sisters have followed suit,” she says. “They have opted to become
homemakers instead.” Though married, Jindal still goes by her maiden name and
corrects you if you refer to her as “Mrs.”

A Question of First Roles

The arrival of the woman inheritor has raised issues including the question of the
entry point. In an earlier generation, the scions in most business families came in
right at the top. “There was very little training for family members,” says Adi Godrej,
chairman of the multi-product Godrej Group. Today it is considered necessary for a
son to do a tour of the shop floor or its equivalent. But in most companies this is a
male-dominated area. Whether a daughter, qualified engineer though she may be,
should operate a lathe is a delicate question.

Women often, however, are placed in areas such as marketing and finance. Godrej’s
daughter Tanya, the oldest in the fourth generation, is responsible for marketing,
media and running the Godrej brand. “Looking after the brand is a job well suited to
a family member,” Adi Godrej says. This group has managed succession successfully
for several generations so it knows the pitfalls. But some critics see women being
placed in marketing and finance as just another form of discrimination.

The initial training ground is another matter of debate. “In many foreign family
companies, family members work outside the firm,” Godrej says. “That was quite
uncommon in India until five or 10 years ago. I never worked outside the Godrej
group, and when my three children were ready to start working, I thought they would
learn more here than in any other company. Today my views have changed. Some
experience of working in a company where you are not associated with the owners —
especially in the period between undergraduate and MBA study — is good. The
feedback I receive from friends whose children have worked this way has also been
very positive.”

N.R. Narayana Murthy, cofounder and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, has
changed his views on a related issue. He once believed that no family member of an
Infosys founder should join the company. “Over the past five years, after discussions
with many people whose wisdom I respect, I have realized that this is not a fair stand
to take. I realize that it is not correct to prevent any individual from adding value to
any organization. As long as there is merit in the individual and the due process is
followed and as long as the person whose children are being considered is not part of
the decision-making, I am okay with it.” So is his venture-capitalist daughter
Akshata, who recently married a former Stanford classmate, about to join Infosys? “I
am not talking with respect to my children but generally as a matter of principle,”
Murthy responds. It will be up to Akshata herself — and the people at Infosys in
charge of hiring.

The environment has changed, but it will always be up to the woman herself to make
the choice. Mukerjee of CC&C says due credit must be given. “Women are today more
determined to make a mark for themselves,” he says. “They are a lot more career-
oriented than in the past and more assertive about their rights and status.”

Ramachandran of ISB says that

business families must change with
the times. “In any case, it is
important for families to discuss
and arrive at norms that are in tune
with the realities of the day.
TradiWomen in the Workforce:
What Changes Have We Made?
Posted: 12/19/2013 11:24 am

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Statistics, Women's Rights, US Census Bureau, Infographics, Women, Women In The Workforce, Work-Life

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You'd think things have changed since 1970, but you would be surprised at how much
remains the same, according to data from the Census Bureau. The Bureau compiled an
infographic (included below text) examining data on women in the workforce, and
though some of the numbers show that women have made significant gains, others point
to the work we still have to do.
In terms of sheer numbers, women's presence in the labor force has increased
dramatically, from 30.3 million in 1970 to 72.7 million during 2006-2010. Convert that
to percentages and we find that women made up 37.97 percent of the labor force in 1970
compared to 47.21 percent between 2006 and 2010. Women have also made significant
gains in certain occupations: 1970 Census data showed very little participation from
women as accountants, police officers, lawyers and judges, physicians and surgeons, and
pharmacists. However, the 2006-2010 data shows women making gains, including a
strong presence -- 60 percent -- as accountants.
However, there are aspects of the workforce where growth has slowed. The Bureau
reports that the largest gain in women's participation in the workforce happened
between 1970 and 1980 and has since slowed down, averaging an increase of only 0.4
percentage points between 2000 and 2006-2010. That's compared to a growth rate of
4.3 percentage points at its peak in the 1970s.

Women also continue to be overwhelmingly employed in certain occupations that have

been traditionally oriented toward women. Women make up 96.3 percent of dental
assistants, for example; 95.9 percent of secretaries; and 91.2 percent of registered
nurses. It is within the occupational standings where we see the least change in our
workforce over the past 40 years. The leading occupations for women in 1970 were
secretaries, bookkeepers, and elementary school teachers. In 2006-2010, the leading
occupations were secretaries and administrative assistants, cashiers, and elementary and
middle school teachers. Some of this is numbers-driven: there are many more jobs
available for elementary and middle school teaching positions than there are for
surgeons, for example. Yet there are careers with similar numbers of job openings in
other occupations that may not be for women traditionally. The problem is that there
doesn't seem to be any movement among occupations based on gender for both men and
women. Men are holding on to the same types of jobs they had back in 1970: the leading
occupations then were miscellaneous managers, truck drivers, and production
supervisors. Today, they are truck drivers, miscellaneous managers, and freight, stock,
and material movers.

A big part of this is our own culture, which hasn't changed very dramatically, according
toNorma Carr-Ruffino, an expert on women in management who has taught at San
Francisco State University's College of Business. She has also authored multiple books
on women and diversity in the workplace. "The culture is important and it affects
corporate culture," she said. She noted that the change in terms of women's participation
in the workplace began in the 1970s when a single-income household could no longer
support a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle. "It's not so much that opportunities opened
up for women but economic need" that drove women to work, she said. But just because
women were now in the workforce did not mean that all avenues were open to them. It is
here that Carr-Ruffino credits affirmative action for helping to push the boundaries of
what was culturally acceptable. She noted that affirmative action forced people to
"experience women and minorities in roles that they thought they could never be good
at." And that forced experience began to change a cultural mindset.
However, the change is happening very slowly and, as Carr-Ruffino notes, not across the
board. "It's what I call pockets of traditionalism," she said, "and we find that not only in
geographical locations but in certain kinds of industries." She added that the automobile
industry for example, is only now seeing its first female CEO in Mary Barra, who will
take the helm at General Motors. Silicon Valley isn't an exception to a lack of women,
either: Marissa Mayer caused a stir by first becoming CEO of Yahoo!, and then by simply
being a woman in a position of power: everything from her pregnancy and giving birth to
herpolicies for employees were under scrutiny. And let's not forget Sheryl Sandberg, who
started the Lean In conversation back in March. The focus of her book is on empowering
women to be ambitious and to not succumb to some societal understanding of what
women need to do. Arguably the book is written from a very privileged perspective, one
that does not fully incorporate race and socio-economic factors in its analysis.
The above examples however, are of women who have succeeded in their chosen careers
and are doing well. For many others, discrepancies in wages and occupation segregation
continue to be the reality. The most recent numbers show that on average, women earn
$0.77 for every dollar earned by men. This may not be true for all women and certainly
would depend on sectors and occupations. Nonetheless, the discrepancy exists and must
be addressed.
Carr-Ruffino believes that it's good to pay attention to issues that women are facing, yet
she questions why we're having the same conversation in 2013 that she had back in the
1970s. She noted that one aspect of this conversation that women continue to face is
work-life balance, as evidenced by a much talked about article by Anne-Marie Slaughter
in The Atlantic. Carr-Ruffino notes that we won't stop having this conversation until our
cultural understanding of the role of mothers and fathers changes. "I would like to see
the culture move to a place where the fathers could be as responsible [as mothers] so it
wouldn't be such a
n expectation that the mothers have the primary responsibility [for child rearing]," sh
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arr-Ruffino believes that it's good to pay attention to issues that women are facing, yet
she questions why we're having the same conversation in 2013 that she had back in the
1970s. She noted that one aspect of this conversation that women continue to face is
work-life balance, as evidenced by a much talked about article by Anne-Marie Slaughter
in The Atlantic. Carr-Ruffino notes that we won't stop having this conversation until our
cultural understanding of the role of mothers and fathers changes. "I would like to see
the culture move to a place where the fathers could be as responsible [as mothers] so it
wouldn't be such an expectation that the mothers have the primary responsibility [for
child rearing]," she said.
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
 

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