I was an early adopter of blogging. Those days I used to write about anything new I came across. And in one March I came across International Women's Day (March 8). I always had a strong sense of fairness and having grownup with my two sisters, I always had a favorable opinion about women's rights. Hence I wrote a blog post about Women's Day. Those days, no one cared about it. So I wrote about it next year too and it felt like I was spreading awareness. 10 year's down the line, how do I feel now?
As they say, "we do not remember days, we remember moments". And what moments do I remember (with a pinch of salt)? I came across an opening which I felt was most suited for my profile. I sent CV to the HR and got a reply saying, "currently we are considering only female candidates; we shall open for men only if we do not get any females (and are tired waiting)". Okay. Then colleagues kept telling how HR would call them and ask them to pass a female candidate even if they wanted to fail them based on skill evaluation. There were weekend recruitment drives conducted "only for women candidates". Not sure if they gave them pink offer letters too. Internally, someone openly mentioned that we needed more female team members. Of course. Every team got a target of having female team members; the more the better. If a female employee resigned, the lead had to be looked with doubtful eyes. HR mentioned "we are equal opportunity employer" and "we want 60% of new recruits to be women" in the same breath. What the heck? That is not even a thin line between equality and favoritism! Baffled, I asked a question to HR "have you tried to see what % of females are in HR department and may be try to recruit more males to give them equal chance"? Of course they won't. "Equality" then becomes just a "gimmick".
Women need equal opportunity. Totally agreed. I am even supportive of opening sectors for them which are traditionally considered unsafe for them. Let them be in Army or Police - there are a lot of brutal women with a stronger heart and harder fists than a regular man has. In all fields, let them compete and if they measure up to the criteria then let them take the job. But then do not "lower the target" for them as that would be called "favoritism". And do not deny chances to competent male applicants as they might need the job as much as your female applicants would. Evaluate them on equal parameters and hire a candidate without caring if one is male or female or in between. That would be called true "equality".
What is happening today in the name of "equality" is plain "favoritism". I am not proud of it. No one should be proud of it.
Hence after all these years, the meaning of "International Women's Day" has changed for me. I no longer want to write a blog post about it (though I know I just did).
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Disclaimer: Views shared are personal and no reference should be read specifically with any of my employers.
6 comments:
Totally agree.. I think we need to understand the meaning of individuality. As an individual, I have my strengths and weaknesses which may be totally different for another woman. All of us need to be judged or 'selected for a post' based only on how good (or bad) we are at something. That's equality..
Women can’t be compared with men ... there can’t be equality they are indeed placed much higher than men by Vedas and shastras and by Lord himself.
No comparison even required based on men n women.. that's my point... If there is Shiva, there is Shakti.. if there is Purusha, there is Prakriti - complimenting each other.. but when it comes to a job or skill, there should be selection based on merit only..!!
Agree with you. More sectors should open up for Women and Men both, like Armed forces for Women and HR for Men.
Can't blame a company waiting for a woman candidate though, it's their choice. If you remember our campus interview days, there was an opposite bias. I had stopped going for core company interview after I was clearly told that I wouldn't be getting the much needed job for being a woman even though I was the best in the interview.
Whether women get more opportunities, favourtism or not, that is not the main problem. The most important requirement is that they must get respect and safety. With ever increasing crimes against women, they are not safe anywhere, neither in school, college, office, market place, streets and nor in their marital homes.
A women is an ocean of kindness, forgiveness, patience and perseverance, the qualities very difficult to have in men. Having gender equality should ideally balance the work environment in any organization. Unfortunately some women are using these opportunities in both social and professional space to their advantage. But ours is not a perfect world; lets hope both men and women bring out the best in their counterparts and make a healthy happy workplace.
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