Women empowerment gone wrong
Policy 1: Sex ratio
Many companies have a policy of maintaining the sex ratio in the engineering teams. Most of them have separate bars while interviewing male and female candidates. The lower bar for female candidates has been pissing off male candidates for very long. The men in the office don't respect the management decision of having women with lower calibre. To decrease the displeasure among the men employees and to justify pay as per productivity, the management offers lower pay scales to women candidates. It creates discontent among the women.
If the bars are equal, the ratio decreases. Suppose, there are 80 boys and 20 girls in an engineering college and the percentage of smart ones is the same for both, say 20%. The set of selected candidates will have 16 boys and 4 girls. If the bars are different, the policies for maintaining the ratio will create unemployment among the male engineers or a shortage of women engineers in the long run.
What is the solution to this? How to create a 50-50 ratio among the engineers?
For having a 50-50 ratio in the companies, the colleges will have to select students in the same proportion. If an equal number of girls are trained to be eligible for the corporate world, then the ratio will be maintained. But it has been seen that fewer girls crack the entrance exam. So, the objective isn't achievable, unless the bar is lowered. Lowering the bar will create the same dissatisfaction in the colleges, instead of the companies. It will be a bigger problem because at least the employees in the companies are peaceful, but college students are not.
It is an old scientific myth that women are better in arts and creativity, while men are better at problem-solving. There are many great examples of female achievers in the engineering field like Gwynne Shotwell, COO of SpaceX and Priya Balasubramaniam, a VP in Apple. The training goes all the way up to the upbringing of the girls in the families. If an engineering mindset is instilled from the childhood, girls can be as competent as boys in engineering fields or even more.
Policy 2: Maternity leaves
Women have been dropping their careers after pregnancy for years to support their family and kids. It's an expectation from the women in the family as well as it's the choice a mother takes herself. This phenomenon had prevented the most of them to excel in their careers and also the companies to maintain the diversity among the employees. The Karnataka Government have passed a bill to increase the maternity leaves from 135 days to 180 days for supporting the female employees to maintain a work-life balance. This policy was adopted by the established private companies as well.
The median tenure for employees age 25 to 34 is 3.2 years. For companies, giving almost 180 days leave is an enormous loss of resources. So, the companies avoid having dependencies on the women employees and due to which the women are even more dissatisfied. This policy seems to be failing because of management enforcement.
Startups
Overall both the policies, sex ratio and maternal leaves, are creating chaos in the technology world. The startups, whose average life is three years, will surely avoid hiring a woman due to these factors unless the candidate is exceptionally skilled.
Is there no perfect solution to this problem? Please let me know if there are any.
All the measures are implemented to empower women globally. Is it mandatory to have an equal number of women in the realm of technology? Why? There are many fields where women excel a lot where men don't. I can't think of any practical reason, other than the vote bank for the Pappu.
Many companies have a policy of maintaining the sex ratio in the engineering teams. Most of them have separate bars while interviewing male and female candidates. The lower bar for female candidates has been pissing off male candidates for very long. The men in the office don't respect the management decision of having women with lower calibre. To decrease the displeasure among the men employees and to justify pay as per productivity, the management offers lower pay scales to women candidates. It creates discontent among the women.
If the bars are equal, the ratio decreases. Suppose, there are 80 boys and 20 girls in an engineering college and the percentage of smart ones is the same for both, say 20%. The set of selected candidates will have 16 boys and 4 girls. If the bars are different, the policies for maintaining the ratio will create unemployment among the male engineers or a shortage of women engineers in the long run.
What is the solution to this? How to create a 50-50 ratio among the engineers?
For having a 50-50 ratio in the companies, the colleges will have to select students in the same proportion. If an equal number of girls are trained to be eligible for the corporate world, then the ratio will be maintained. But it has been seen that fewer girls crack the entrance exam. So, the objective isn't achievable, unless the bar is lowered. Lowering the bar will create the same dissatisfaction in the colleges, instead of the companies. It will be a bigger problem because at least the employees in the companies are peaceful, but college students are not.
It is an old scientific myth that women are better in arts and creativity, while men are better at problem-solving. There are many great examples of female achievers in the engineering field like Gwynne Shotwell, COO of SpaceX and Priya Balasubramaniam, a VP in Apple. The training goes all the way up to the upbringing of the girls in the families. If an engineering mindset is instilled from the childhood, girls can be as competent as boys in engineering fields or even more.
Policy 2: Maternity leaves
Women have been dropping their careers after pregnancy for years to support their family and kids. It's an expectation from the women in the family as well as it's the choice a mother takes herself. This phenomenon had prevented the most of them to excel in their careers and also the companies to maintain the diversity among the employees. The Karnataka Government have passed a bill to increase the maternity leaves from 135 days to 180 days for supporting the female employees to maintain a work-life balance. This policy was adopted by the established private companies as well.
The median tenure for employees age 25 to 34 is 3.2 years. For companies, giving almost 180 days leave is an enormous loss of resources. So, the companies avoid having dependencies on the women employees and due to which the women are even more dissatisfied. This policy seems to be failing because of management enforcement.
Startups
Overall both the policies, sex ratio and maternal leaves, are creating chaos in the technology world. The startups, whose average life is three years, will surely avoid hiring a woman due to these factors unless the candidate is exceptionally skilled.
Is there no perfect solution to this problem? Please let me know if there are any.
All the measures are implemented to empower women globally. Is it mandatory to have an equal number of women in the realm of technology? Why? There are many fields where women excel a lot where men don't. I can't think of any practical reason, other than the vote bank for the Pappu.
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