Why
Women At Work Choose To Be #SuperMoms? 4.8 percent want Long Maternity Leave
against 87 percent who want flexibility
In 2016, a
study conducted by McKinsey threw up interesting facts about how women view
their professional growth, amidst personal responsibilities. The study was
named ‘Women in the Workplace’.
As per the survey, only 40 percent women expressed
their interest in top executive roles, compared to 56
percent men. There is no denying that
both men and women worry about balancing work and home, . but women have an important role to play as
mothers as well. And the role of a mother is equally demanding. Basis the
experience they have at work, working mothers opt out of leadership
roles and at times from their career as well.
http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/women-matter/reinventing-the-workplace-for-greater-gender-diversity
The findings
from the study do not reveal anything new. It is a known fact that the PR industry has over 70 percent women
talent. Having said that, like McKinsey study points out, very few women manage
to reach the leadership positions.
As a woman leader and Managing Director at 2020MSL I
spearhead the #SuperMoms initiative at our parent company the MSL Group. The initiative
aims at driving a conversation on the challenges women in our industry face and
how companies and its leadership can come together to offer an enabling
environment for our women workforce, in order to help shape their careers.
As part of #SuperMoms initiative we ran a survey for
our women workforce across all our offices. The survey was aimed at
understanding the challenges that prevent women from making a career. 59% of
our workforce comprises of women.
Top
reasons why women get back to work post child-birth
More than 70 percent women found it
difficult to get back to work after maternity break
While financial independence and love for work are the top drivers that
prompt new mothers to get back to work; most of them acknowledge that it can
get challenging. Although family remains the core source of strength for women
to get back to work, a lot of them also acknowledge that support from their
boss was essential for them to get back to work guilt-free.
And what emerged
as very insightful was that most women opted for flexible work timings against
a 34.8 percent women who sought long
maternity leave.
The
new mandatory 6 months maternity leave provided by the government to women
working in the organized sector is a welcome step, but the truth is that the
journey of a mother doesn’t end at 6 months. It is a continuous process and the
child needs the mother in all stages of life in one capacity or the other. At
MSL, we understand that and offer an enabling environment for our women
workforce. Women are allowed flexibility with accountability.
Clearly Super Moms look out for
supportive bosses, active inspiring leaders and respectful colleagues in a
women-friendly organisation. And all of them together can help them navigate
their careers and move to a leadership position overtime.
Some of these findings clearly state
MSL will continue to prioritize
Non-Gender Discrimination – Equal pay and
growth opportunities
o Prioritization for women
safety
o Fairness and Transparency
o Respectful Male Colleagues
Also,celebrate our women colleagues, who nurture
business and work. Our recent celebration of Mothers Day involving a surprise
visit by their children at our offices across India was a small token of
celebration of the MSLSuperMoms
Clearly
the PR industry needs to make changes to become more gender inclusive, build
advocacy and mentorship for accountability at the leadership to increase the
skew of men vs. women in the PR industry. Mentorship involves helping young
mothers to navigate situations of pregnancy, child birth, teen tantrums and pre
college blues. We need to build enough success stories in the workplace for
aspiring women employees to look up as role models.
Also
for an industry that is poised to grow to 20 Billion by 2020,* the biggest
imperative for growth continues to be our ability to attract and retain the right talent. And an industry where women hold 85% of all PR
jobs, it is baffling to note that globally
merely 39% women occupy leadership roles.
*The annual Global Communications Report is
conducted by USC Annenberg’s Center for Public Relations, — in conjunction
with The Holmes Report, the Institute for Public
Relations, the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication
Management, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, the PR Council, the Worldcom PR Group and PRSA.
