Featuring keynote conversations, panel discussions and interviews, the first day of The Greater 50 Conclave and Exhibition, with Her Circle as the Digital Media Partner, connected inspiring leaders over the significant exchange of ideas, driven towards actionable solutions. With modern-day interpretations of diversity and inclusivity taking center stage, the conclave cast a spotlight on the different challenges faced by women, along with result-oriented growth strategies.
Gender Intelligence is Key
Inaugurating the session, Ms Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development, Government of India spoke about the need for propagating gender intelligence over diversity. “If you want to bring about gender balance, and gender parity, you must recognize that the term gender does not mean only women. It means the inclusion of every gender,” she stated. Introducing the conclave to the next crucial step of inclusivity, she affirmed that while gender inclusivity focuses on equal representation of women at workplaces, gender intelligence is about ensuring that women stay at work. ‘How can corporates ensure their policies are driven towards gender intelligence?’ was the question of the day.
For those in attendance, the first half of the day sparked conversations to help empower women both professionally and personally.
Ms Rajashree Birla, Chairperson FICCI Aditya Birla Center of Excellence, in the inaugural session, spoke extensively about The Greater 50 mission, and the unerring ‘we can, we will’ attitude of women the organisation has been empowering through its various initiatives.
Access to finance is the biggest challenge faced by women
Women-led businesses face more challenges as compared to men when it comes to obtaining bank credit. With this harsh reality and some surprising data, the session on financial empowerment moderated by Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Past President FICCI and Chairman, Advent India Advisory Board highlighted the need for a sustainable supply-chain financial model for women entrepreneurs. "Equity has got easier. Credit is still much harder. Credit to women-oriented businesses is still a challenge. I believe not more than eight to 10 per cent of the credit goes to women-oriented businesses," remarked Mr Rashesh Shah, Past President FICCI and Chairman and CEO, Edelweiss Group.
"Financial literacy among women is very low. Only 17 per cent of women in India know about government-sponsored schemes. There is a need at the ground level of educating women,” said Mr Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, MD-Retail & Digital Banking, State Bank of India. Effective training and awareness about financial policies were the key takeaways of this session.
Providing women with the right tools for development was an important conversation where Mr KV Kamath, Former President of the New Development Bank of BRICS countries, discussed the need for nurturing the natural versatility of women. “Women are multi-skilled. We must extend this ability into their professional roles. Skilling and re-skilling should be a continuous process,” he said.
Science has no gender
The session discussed the prevalent gender stereotypes in the field of STEM that often discourage women to pursue a career in this field. The Missile Woman of India burst the myth of the field of science being more skewed towards men with her powerful statement: “Science has no gender. We work as scientists, not women. With advancements in technology, there’s a tremendous opportunity to break the glass ceiling." Dr Tessy Thomas, Director General-Aeronautical Systems, DRDO. She also added that women are increasingly vowing to “dare the difference” in STEM fields.
“Gender stereotypes are barriers created by the society and must be countered with digital literacy,” remarked the moderator for this session, Dr Sangita Reddy.
Don’t wear Pink on the 8th of March
Diversity and stereotypes led the session on inclusivity in workplaces with experts raising some crucial points. “Diversity is not just about gender footprint. It’s about how we create safe spaces for women in organisations,” said Ms Irani Roy, Executive Vice President & Head HR Distribution, D&I, CSR – Max Life Insurance. While some speakers believed that the idea of diversity and inclusion is more about women in leadership roles than equal representation, speakers like Nitu Bhushan openly condemned the tokenism around the Women’s Day celebration on the 8th of March. All panellists agreed that the way to move forward is with equitable inclusion.
The gender gap must be bridged
Is it possible for India to apply the successful policies implemented by some of the most successful and empowered countries in the world? The session witnessed ambassadors to India from around the world discuss the policies of the countries that have helped bridge the gender gap. Finland’s Ambassador to India, Ritva Koukku-Ronde, spoke about strategies that have helped provide equal opportunities for all in her country: In Finland education is free for everybody. Parental leaves are almost a year long. We have 47 per cent female politicians in the Finnish Parliament. Also, 11 out of 19 ministers are women.
Continuing in this vein, Katrin Kivi, Ambassador of Estonia to India, noted that, “It is absolutely necessary to start education and awareness very early on. It’s important to tell girls and boys that they have equal rights.” The highlight of the session was an interesting remark by Daniela Sezonov Tane, Ambassador of Romania to India, “Sometimes women have more courage to innovate, men are sometimes more cautious. We are doing more things during the same time than most men.”
The day ended with an insightful conversation with Lady Kishwar Desai on the preservation of the cultural and historical identity of the country through various initiatives.