Women failed to attract men at the Nasscom Summit
By Jaya Smitha Menon   |   Friday, 14 December 2007, 02:57 IST
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Bangalore: Even as they were busy discussing about crossing the gender barrier, entrepreneurial skills in women and the importance of networking among women, the Nasscom IT Women Leadership summit which started in Bangalore today failed to reflect its mission of gender inclusivity due to very few men attending the summit from the industry. Except the three male panelists in the first session which included the Kiran Karnik, President, Nascomm. Jerry Rao, Chairman, Mphasis and Bobby Mitra , MD, Texas Instruments, the hall had just another couple of men from other fields. Any talk on women, diversity and gender inclusion at workplace is incomplete without the participation of men as they are the key participants in practising the principles of diversity and gender inclusion. In the IT industry women comprises of 20 percent of the workforce and the percentage dwindles as it reaches the top level. Hence the absence of men -the majority decision makers of an organization in the summit makes it all just sound and fury. This makes the statement made by Kiran Karnik in his welcome address very true. "Though we are discussing and concentrating a lot on issues relating to women at work place we are not addressing it to the degree it should" said Karnik. The panelists also pointed out the meager participation of men in the summit. The first session on 'Crossing the gender barrier' saw Vinita Bali, Managing Director of Britannia Industries speaking about the need to tap the talent reservoir in women. Bobby Mitra cited various examples from Texas Instruments where women had exceptionally well and been outstanding performers and leaders on par with men. Jerry Rao listed out some of the areas of resistance women face in the corporate world. He said that the HR departments in companies though comprises of mainly women, act as anti-women when it comes to recruiting women especially in sales and marketing area. The panelists where unanimous in their view that communication and networking are vital for women to grow up in the career ladder. The second session saw Nita Goyal, Co-founder of Tavant Technologies, Gayathri Parthasarathy, President- India Operations and Chief Delivery OfficerQuinnox consultancy Services and Leena Chandran Wadia, CTO of Netcore taking the audience on their career journey, with emphasis on the stumbling blocks they faced and the need to tap the creativity and inner power to succeed in life.

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