Anjali Jaideep

Gender disparity and its consequences
Before I get into my personal story, I would like to talk about something very important. I want to clarify, that my story unfortunately does not represent a significant part of (female) Indians.

Gender equality was included in international human rights law by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. 75 years later, gender equality remains unattained across the world.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2022 shows that global gender parity may not be achieved for a further 132 years. Workplace gender parity would take another 151 years. At the current rates of progress, it will take 155 years to close the political empowerment gender gap, 151 years for the economic participation and opportunity gender gap, and 22 years for the educational attainment gender gap. The time to close the health and survival gender gap remains undefined as its progress to parity has stalled.

According to the World GDP Ranking 2023 list, India is the fifth largest economy in the world. Indian women contribute to 18% of the GDP while constituting 48% of the country’s population. India ranks 135 among 146 countries in WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index for 2022. According to World Bank data, Indian economy has grown more than 10 times since 1990, however, its female workforce participation has fallen from 30 % in 1990 to 19% as of 2021. The difference between the proportion of men and that of women in the labour force has remained at ~40 percentage points over the last four decades. The government of India has reported that only 10% of start-up founders are women, and women fill just 22% of positions in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), despite India having the second-largest AI workforce in the world.

In India, there has always been a difference in the way men and women have had access to various resources. Gender inequality is a pressing issue in current times. The Indian constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women, but the situation in real life is far from it.

The International Labor Organisation (ILO) estimates that unpaid care work is amongst the most critical barriers preventing women from joining and remaining in the workforce. This disproportionate burden of unpaid care work creates what is called “time poverty”, which inhibits women’s ability to dedicate time to paid work and acquire the skills necessary to seek better job opportunities. This experience is not unique to India. Globally, in 2016, 46.7 percent of women attributed their absence from the workforce to domestic duties, as compared to only 6.3 percent of men. On an average, women spend 46 percent of their waking hours on unpaid care work, 8 times the number of hours spent by men.

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), reaching gender parity would boost India’s GDP by as much as 27%. The World Bank reports that India’s GDP growth rate would climb above 9% if women had an equitable share of jobs, and that India could boost its growth by 1.5 percentage points per year if just 50% of women could join the workforce. According to Census of India 2011, literacy rate of females is 65.46% compared to males which is 82.14%. Compared to boys, far fewer girls are enrolled in the schools, and many of them drop out.

India has been ranked low on various indices that measure gender equality – including economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; political empowerment; and legal protection Amongst the various causes which are behind this gender inequality, the main ones are poverty, patriarchal setup of the society, lack of education and awareness among women and social customs and practices.

An underlying factor for such low literacy rates is parents’ perception that education for girls is a waste of resources as their daughters would eventually live with their husbands’ families. Thus, there is a strong belief that due to their traditional duty and role as housewives, daughters would not benefit directly from the education investment.

The government of India has introduced many policies to tackle this situation. To name a few:

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) ensures the protection, survival and education of the girl child.
• Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK) aims to empower rural women with opportunities for skill development and employment.
• The National Crèche Scheme ensures that women take up gainful employment through providing a safe, secure, and stimulating environment to the children.
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) aims to enable a large number of Indian youths including women to take up industry-relevant skill training in securing a better livelihood.

To promote female entrepreneurship, the government has initiated programmes like Stand-Up India and Mahila e-Haat (online marketing platform to support women entrepreneurs/ SHGs/NGOs), Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Programme (ESSDP). Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) provides access to institutional finance to micro/small business. More details can be found here.

At every stage of life, the statistics show that women are disadvantaged. This situation may not improve if women keep getting under-represented in places where decisions about them are being made.

My family background
I come from a country where education and hard work are considered your best tools to achieve success in life. To make it big without education, you either need to be born with a silver spoon or need to be lucky enough to have the right opportunities come your way at the right time. When my grandparents moved to a foreign city due to their jobs about 60 years ago, my grandmother learned two new languages so that she could teach her five children at home. My grandpa recognised the potential my mother had and gave her a chance to continue with her education – a brave choice at a time when money and opportunities were both rare and educating a girl child was not the first choice of many. My mother put a lot of time and energy into her education. After getting her bachelor’s degree, she achieved three master’s degrees, the last two being whilst juggling a full-time job and two school going, ever-demanding, extremely challenging kids who needed her full attention. This was around 25 years ago, when home computers were an unknown territory in my country – which means, she did everything on pen and paper. I have memories of her sitting with her books along with me and my brother, trying to teach us while she studied for her own exams. She is the driving force behind the motivation for my own career since she has always told me that there is no age limit to learn something. My mother started working using typewriters. As the modernization of offices started, she had to upskill herself to use a computer and do literally everything on Microsoft Office Suite. She would come back from work just to sit in front of our desktop at home and trying to figure things out with the help of my father. My parents have always emphasised about the importance of education in one’s life and I believe that it came from their own experiences.

My educational path
Now, why am I talking about all this here? It may seem a bit off topic, but it is not. Sometimes, it is not enough to be willing, to be talented or to have resources to achieve your goals. What you also need is an unwavering belief in how and where you want to take yourself. Of course, my life could have gone in many different directions if I hadn’t had access to all these resources that I needed to reach my goal. But often, we also need a support system or a cheerleader to cheer us up when things seem low. I have been fortunate enough to always have good guidance from my parents, grandparents and friends at difficult times.

With that said, I have been extremely privileged to get access to great quality education throughout my whole student life without having to struggle for it – an opportunity which is still rare in third world countries. While growing up based on the gender stereotypes set by previous generations, I was made to believe that I wanted to be a doctor. It mostly works on these lines: a girl would grow up to be doctor and a boy would become an engineer. Well, two years of elementary biology taught me that this was not my cup of tea. One would think that this just crosses out one of the many career options available and I could still select from a sea of professional choices. Reality check (20 years back in India) – when you come from where I come, the only other option is to become an engineer, even as a girl. Anything faintly on the lines of commerce or arts was looked down upon. It was presumed to be reserved for those “not-so-bright students”. I know it does not sound glamourous, but the truth is that I chose engineering as it felt like the safe option. I was keen on picking up economics but with that choice, I did not have a clear career path in front of me.

To tell you the truth, my high school years consisted of more exams, tuition classes and mock tests, than most of my UK counterparts’ put together. This may be shocking news here in UK but back in India it was commonplace. The competition is fierce, with the top colleges having an acceptance rate close to 2%. The admissions are based on rigorous STEM screening exams. And if you did not make it to one of the top colleges, you would simply be extremely lucky to get a seat in a decent college of your choice, in a branch of your preference. I can say that, although not always at the exact times I wanted, good things did happen to me. To say that I struggled very hard to become an engineer or get a job, would be a lie. Yes, I did put in a lot of effort and there were many sleepless nights, but never did it become overbearing. I never felt that I was all alone in this. I believe it was majorly due to my close group of friends – we were always there for each other.

My journey into IT
Back in the summer of 2004, I had enough information at hand to trust that the IT boom was really happening and took the plunge and tried to make a career as a software engineer. I completed my engineering degree in computer science with the highest score. My college was very performance driven – lectures, seminars, paper presentations and workshops dominated most of those 4 years of engineering. During my college time, IT companies came to visit college campuses to conduct placement drives. Students who met the eligibility criteria set by the visiting company were then asked to sit for placement tests which involved aptitude check, technical tests, group discussions and personal interviews. I got selected in three major IT companies within a span of five days. I could literally sit back and choose where I wanted to go. In my head, my life was set. There was nothing that could go wrong now (so I thought).

I opted to go ahead with a worldwide IT company. 15 years back, it was a dream company for many, a 100K employees strong IT giant. When I got my first job, my father had just one advice for me – focus, honesty, and complete dedication towards whatever you do in your job. That has sort of become my mantra at work. I truly believe he has been the sole reason why I have been able to make some tough decisions in my professional life. At this company new recruits are made to undergo a strenuous training programme involving a wide range of technologies. This can last anywhere from 4-10 months based on the skillset they allot to the batch. Classes and hands-on sessions are conducted daily and there are exams to test these skills every other week. Those who fail to clear the main grading exams are asked to leave. Yes, I did panic a few times during this training – it was a make or break for each one of us. I felt an overwhelming relief when I got my final posting.

It was also at this company where I learned how little changes at ground level could have massive impact on a large scale. I learned how important it is to have a solid foundation to contribute positively to the team. We as a team went through frequent trainings, certifications, and brain-storming sessions. There was no compromise on the quality of our work at any cost and I was proud of what I did. I worked there for five and a half years and met my future husband during that period. He also works in IT as a software engineer. After marriage, we decided to settle closer to our hometown, which led me to moving cities and changing jobs.

The amazing experiences I had in my first job had set the bar high for my second. I landed my second job at a multinational banking group. The main target my team had each day was to put off the fire until the next day, and so the cycle continued. Little importance was given to improving the way things worked so I tried to voice my opinion and draw the management’s attention towards the issues. Not only was I told to keep my opinion to myself, but I was also labelled as someone who was questioning all set processes and standards of the team. I realised that I had absolutely no professional growth or knowledge gain while being there. I tried to make it work for a year and then decided it to quit as it was not working well for my mental health. There are certain compromises which just should not be made at work.

My next job was with a product-oriented banking company, where I was able to work freely, had many opportunities to learn and develop, and was able to demonstrate our prototypes to several clients. But there is something about that period that I just cannot to get off my mind: one year down the line, I was happy with the way things were going at work and we were expecting a baby soon. There was this one senior manager whose behaviour towards me changed a lot during my pregnancy. He would not assign any tasks to me, would not involve me in any discussions related to the already assigned tasks or invite me to meetings with clients. He would also reject opportunities where I volunteered to pick up pending tasks. I was left aghast! I remember the whole team was very supportive during the last few weeks of my pregnancy and I worked till the very last day. I wondered many times if I should ask this manager why my pregnancy was being treated as a disability, but I did not. I could have, and certainly should have, but I did not. I was hesitant, not sure about how he would react. Not sure if this was a valid concern to raise. I convinced myself that this discussion would not benefit anyone as I was going on my maternity leave soon. I wish that I had asked him. Although he probably would not have admitted that he was biased towards me, it might have stopped him from treating another staff member in the same way.

The (mental) struggles that came with maternity break
When I decided to take a long maternity break, I had thought it through. It was not a decision made in haste. I wanted to take a solid break for 2 years. I did not want to miss out on those precious moments. I knew having a big gap on my resume would be frowned upon, but I would not have it any other way. We moved to UK in early 2018 when my son was a year old. I was a full-time homemaker and my son kept me busy all the time.

Fast forward to 2019, my husband suggested I should start thinking of returning to work as minimal social interaction was driving me nuts. It was only when I sat down to type my resume, I realised that along with the many joys of motherhood, my extended maternity break had gifted me with a lot of self-doubt. I was so scared that I had missed out on a lot of latest/current skills going on in the IT circle. It felt as if I had been living on a completely different planet. I was beyond shocked when every job description spoke about agile, scrum, cloud and devops. Nothing made sense anymore and everything I knew felt irrelevant or outdated. I had a feeling of incompleteness take over me. My confidence was very low, and time was limited. My goal was to refresh my knowledge and read whatever I could find to connect the dots. When someone glanced at my resume and casually commented “your 9-10 years of experience doesn’t look like much of an accomplishment on paper”, I did not know how I would save myself from that situation. I came from a country where the IT scene was brutal. You either had to have all the skills for a job in advance or learn them overnight on the job since in most cases there was little bandwidth for training in new technologies. I knew age and experience did not matter if I set my heart to it, but would that be something employers rely on? I slogged through many nights to read as much as I could. My husband would spend hours helping me cover topics and calm me down when I felt totally daft. From my point of view, two years off work had caused this big rift between me and the IT world. Maybe it was all in my head, but it felt so real and scary…

My journey at 29F
On a Thursday afternoon, I pushed an overexcited toddler in a buggy with one hand (London tube delays had made it impossible for me and my husband to meet at the right time) and navigated through the streets on Westminster using google maps with the other, trying to ensure I did not miss my very first face to face interview. I have a terrible sense of time and I am not built to use google maps. So, there I was, arriving for my interview with a child and all I could think of was “who on the earth would hire me when I could not even manage to arrange for childcare in order to attend an interview?” I remember apologizing profusely.

Well, the interview went smoothly, and I did land the job at 29Forward. I am very thankful that they decided to look past the fact that I had brought my child along – in fact, it probably did not even matter to them. What brought me even more joy than getting the job in the first place, was the reassurance I felt while going through the process. The feeling that I did not make a mistake in choosing my family over work for two years was very valuable.