India
In India: 59 women MPs out of 552 i. e. 11%
Congress: 23 women MPs out of206 i. e. c. 11% (Led by a woman)
BJP: 13 women MPs out of 116 i. e. c. 11% (Led by a man)
Trinamool Congress: 4 women MPs out of 19 i. e. 21% (Led by a woman)
Bahujan Samaj Party: 4 women MPs out of 21 i. e. 19% (Led by a woman)
Cabinet (including attendees): 2 out of 33 (i. e. 6% female) female speaker, Meira Kumar, the daughter of a former deputy prime minister and a member of the Dalit caste, once known as an Untouchables. Her election is certainly indicative of greater acceptance of women’s leadership in India.
Media could play a very important role to limit and reduce the sexism deterring women to progress in the higher echelons of political power. For example, the UK House of Commons had a discourse characterized by a formal set of titles, modes of address and rules of debate, as well as a barracking, sexist and scatological ‘humour’, from many years of male domination, that women MPs found offensive, especially when it was used on them. Also, familiarity with speaking and debating techniques can help to curtail such sexist heckling. British women politicians have some success in using the media to draw attention to the sexism in the House of Commons by revealing these practices to women in the media. The result has been a series of press and broadcasting items about the childish and sexist behaviour of male MPs. The public, previously unaware ofthis, disapproved of their MPs’ behaviour.
Between 1992 and 1997 four Labour women MPs in the UK were shadow ministers for women. All four were appointed to important government positions (two at cabinet level) when Labour won the election in 1997. They proved reliable advocates of gender equality and were supporters of women’s concerns in their departments. Their numbers expanded in 2001. This indicates (a) that
such positions need not be a ghetto for women, but may instead be a means of advancement, and (b) that they can facilitate the mainstreaming of gender sensitivity across government.
After all, it is more difficult politically to come out against equality for women than it is to prevent equality issues from getting onto the agenda in the first place. An example in the UK is the Sex Discrimination Candidates Act of2002 which permits political parties to use affirmative action to increase the number of women MPs and candidates. The bill was passed with all-party support and almost no dissent because its opponents were silent, unwilling to oppose women’s representation in public. Also, research from the UK shows that the interventions of women MPs are more likely than those of men to refer to examples of how policies and decisions affect individuals and families, while male MPs invoke abstract concepts such as citizens or constituents *. Another important representation strategy is to expand definitions of representation to include all public decision-making bodies, and to campaign for women’s inclusion in the senior civil service and the judiciary. Such campaigns have been undertaken in Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, the UK and elsewhere. A difficult but necessary further step will be the extension of such demands to the private sector, as has happened in Finland.
CONCLUSION
It has been predicted that the UK economy will require an average of 141,000 new IT professionals every year for the next four years (Technology Counts IT & Telecoms Insights 2008, e-skills UK, and January 2008). Women’s contribution and participation is therefore vital in this sector. There is an economic argument for creating a more diverse workforce and the forthcoming Equality Bill makes an obligation for all public bodies to comply with the necessary Equality Impact assessments. We have seen, historically women’s participation and contribution to science were reliant on class, craft skills, family connections as well as community support. We would emphasise that these factors still play a major role in attracting women in both countries. The ICT sector is not an exception. Respect for diversity is does not make sense until and unless the disadvantaged groups have access to political and economic networks. (Swasti Mitter, 1995).
What would really make a difference would be to have more women in power, for example in the cabinet and in the civil service, who are in a position to influence the policy making directly in areas such as ICT and ‘Digital Britain’. The benefits of gender diversity on Company Boards have proved to be very effective. Research indicates that gender diverse Boards have a positive impact on the performance of the company. According to a research by McKinsey, organisational performance increased sharply once a threshold of at least 3 women on management committees, with an average membership of 10 people, was reached (McKinsey, 2007, 2008). It has been seen that companies with three or more women on their Boards had stronger than average profits (Catalyst, 2007). A diversity in the Board is linked to good governance credentials, including more attention to audit and risk oversight and control, and greater consideration for the needs of a variety of stakeholders (Conference Board of Canada, 2002). When there are 3 or more women in the Board, it is more likely to ensure effective communication between the company and its stakeholders and proves to be more accountable (Conference Board of Canada, 2002). And a gender-diverse Board provides stricter monitoring of their performance (Adams and Ferreira, 2008).
Britain has a much high GEM measure than India, but having a higher GEM, only tells a part ofthe story in terms of equating progress in gender relations. We would like to point out that specifically in the IT sector in India, there seems to be evidence ofa better working environment than the other sectors. Interesting, none ofthe respondents working in the IT sector gave any evidence of a gender pay gap, whereas this was different in the other sectors. In the UK, this was not the case. In terms of training and personal development, the respondents from UK mostly agreed that training schemes for both men and women in the sector was great. Employment practices in both the countries have similar trends — long working hours, de-valued part-time work, juggling with paid and un-paid work. Discrimination, harassment and bullying has been evident in previous researches (Adam et al 2006, 2007, Griffiths 2006, 2007, Takruri-Rizk et al 2006, etc), and some participants mentioned it from both the countries. Interestingly, equality diversity policies as well equal opportunities policies, has often been erroneously assumed and its operational approach has been linked to a mere ‘tick box’ system and often not even that. For instance, in India as per the Factories Act of 1948, any organisation employing more than thirty full-time employees are required by law to provide an in-house creche facility for its employees. Not surprisingly, none of the organisations we studied provided one. In spite of this, in light of the recent growth of intellectual capital in India and its ICT — led growth and economic development of the urban areas, India with a lower GEM score than the UK, shows a better picture in terms of gender segregation in ICT — in terms of numbers, well-being and satisfaction.