It is time women realise the need for fundamental transformations in the corporate environment to redefine their role in the power and knowledge economy.

March 8, 2011 marked the centenary of the very first International Women’s Day. So it has been a 100 years since women decided to do something about getting their share of power and glory in the world. They have had their share of success in taking on men on their turf, and succeeding, whether it was commanding a space shuttle or climbing Mt. Everest. Today you can see a sprinkling of women, at least a token presence, in all spheres; corporate board rooms, Parliaments, court rooms, manufacturing plants, why even in front line defence. We box, we wrestle, we do weights, we climb mountains, we swim, we row; what is it that we can’t do?


But all this has happened at a steep price. At the cost of us giving up a lot of who we are as women to adapt ourselves to the men’s world. If a man is willing to work 24x7, I will also do the same, we said. If he is willing to travel 5 days a week so will I, we said. We took the plunge to prove ourselves against odds that were stacked against us. We took mother/mother-in-law’s help to care for our kids. We steeled our hearts and missed out on our kids growing up because we did not want to take a break and lose out in the corporate race. I remember my early days as a front line sales executive in Wipro. My job required me to travel to Chandigarh in the height of terrorism, and to places like Jabalpur that hardly had a good train connection those days. My flight from Bangalore to Delhi used to land at 10.30-11pm at night and it was a nightmare just trying to figure the safest way to get home without getting into trouble. But I took all of these as par for the course, and stuck it out. No giving up, for it would mean that you were accepting their stereotype.

But somewhere along the line, I realised that this was going to be a never-ending struggle. I needed to hang around the office because my boss liked to start meetings at 7pm - so what if I had a one-year old baby at home? I needed to clock in at 8.30am because, as a manager, I was expected to set an example for others - so what if I had worked late into the night the previous day? I peered into the future and I could see endless hours at offices, airports and hotels, for that is often the first testament to sincerity and commitment in a man’s world. That is when I decided that enough is enough. It became clear to me that if I was serious about building a long term sustainable career for myself without losing everything that I valued and cherished in life, I needed to get out and set my own rules. And thus started my lifelong journey as my own boss. Yes, I have worked 24x7; yes, I have hardly taken vacations. But guess what? I have been able to come home for my children when they got back from school. I could work from home on days when they were sick, or during their vacations. So it’s worked out for me, and I’m glad that I had the courage to step out of the rat race and build my own business, at my pace and on my own terms. But most women of my generation have really not been that lucky. They have had to make a Hobson’s choice – give up a promising career or give up the joys of parenting altogether. The successful ones have had to do even more than the men, so nobody could point a finger at them and say they have limitations.

The factories and offices of yesterday thrived on bussing people to a central space, and then leveraging them to work the capital-intensive infrastructure to the hilt. The factory had the machines, the office had the super computer and the call center had the telephone system. This type of organisation required and demanded a regimented workforce that would turn up at a fixed hour and work a fixed 10-12 hours. This was perfectly fine with men as they were expected by the society to get out of the house and use their time to earn a living, unfettered by the need for taking care of home or children. When women started moving into the workforce in big numbers, the rules remained the same. Yes, over a period of time, they won a few concessions such as a childcare facility at the work place, maternity leave, etc., but the overall organization structure did not change much. It was designed by men for men, and any woman who wanted to play in that field had to become a “super woman” – somebody who would run as hard as the men, and still turn up for children’s PTA meetings. It’s no wonder that even in the western world where feminist movements are over a 160 years old, women are still struggling to reach the top. And even where they have reached the top, there is more discussion around their hairstyle than their professional achievements, a la Carly Fiorina!

But today’s world is so wonderfully different. The importance of physical space is disappearing as organizations become more virtual and distributed. Virtual travel, like video conferencing, is becoming more convenient, far cheaper and perhaps more secure and reliable than physical travel. Moving information to where you are has become cheaper and instantaneous. The iPad and the iPhone are becoming our “offices”. Amazon and iTunes are our new marketplaces. Google, Facebook and Twitter are the new communication media. What a far cry from the corporate world of the industrial era where critical mass and efficiency was achieved by creating large scale plants and townships!

Surely, the time has come for us women to leverage the fundamental transformation of the work place that’s happening in front of us. Today, information highways bring data at high speed to where you are and knowledge is power. What does it mean for women today and tomorrow? Can we redraw the corporate world to suit who we are? Can we create mixed work spaces? Can we take offices to where we want to be - in the kitchen or with the kids doing homework? Can we build skills and talent that would get employers to work with us at our terms? A super chip-designer or the ace analyst should be now able to define her work hours instead of getting driven by some archaic punch card machine. Today’s women have options that allow them to pursue a career and be financially independent, without having to compromise. That is the freedom that the knowledge world has given us. Capital has become secondary to ideas and innovation. The corporate organisation as we know is at an inflection point. And that is our opportunity. We can, and should, push our agenda of creating a work environment that allows us to live and work the way we like and not force us to choose.

Women – let us stop trying to wear pants. Happy Women’s day!