Women Leaders forced to be Rambo at Work?

In ten years of being a journalist, this is the one question that has puzzled me. With over a hundred interviews with intellectual, powerful and ambitious corporate women at all levels, I have observed ‘she’ has always meant business. In this last decade, when the growth rates marched up, many of India’s top women leaders touch the nadir of their career. Even though I am not big on power lists, I think they were looked upon as a legitimate antidote to the billionaire boys on magazine front covers. But having achieved all that success, the question crestfallen is if women have had to given up some womanhood to be on top of their game. Have female folk had to forget being ‘women’ and turned men in charge to lead? Is the idea of leadership in India essentially a masculine notion?

This isn’t another gender debate but a reflection on how even workplaces promoting women are inherently expecting them to be rambo.

Without a doubt. And those are not my words. Anjali Singhal (name changed on requested) quit her high paying suited-booted HR job with a $20 bn business house just six months ago. She hasn’t been happier, says ‘feels like a woman’ again. And that has nothing to do with beauty parlours or kitty parties. Nudge her and she shares growing in a male dominated management set up make you ‘a bit of a man.’

Recommended Reading

Women leadership is changing the world : Here's how

Eight Indian Women Who Were Told Their Dreams Were Too Big, While Growing Up

“If you bring any emotional intelligence to the corporate table you will be looked at as weak. But if a man is using sentiment to get work done, speak to employees, he will be hailed and rewarded for putting his emotional quotient to use.”

Are women CEO’s pushed to project their image as the idea of a ‘king’? Is purush about potential while prakriti is the reflection of woman? The glass ceiling may be gone but has the prejudice towards a successful women groundbreaker? Does she must, by default be testosterone wrapped in a sari?

Tata Sons veteran R Gopalakrisnan has some experience of such workplace dilemmas that manager have. The Indian mind is rooted to believe what has been seen for years which is men lead more often than women and two, the challenge that it’s not enough to intellectually accept the idea of women leaders but culturally own it and ensure pragmatic execution of such notions in society.

Having just finished his third book on management and leadership ‘What a CEO wants from you,’ Gopalakrishnan blames both men and women for allowing stereotypes. “Both men and women have the difficulties in culturally accepting the idea of women being on top. There are as though codes written in the minds of both.” As a society we may believe in the idea of a woman trailblazer but do we really culturally own it? Do we propagate it?

Even women seem to be in doubt. Radhika Bhangu (name changed) is an investment banker and admits she feels the need to be among the boys, be like them, talk their language and even play their sport to stay ‘in the game.’

It makes me wonder if our behaviour and attitude is strongly influenced by our perceptions of expectations from us. “There is a pressure to be like your male colleagues, clearly, and of course few succumb to it.”

Anne Cummings made this the subject of her study. A former Wharton management professor, she notes  that men and women can do the same thing, but if they both act assertive, women are rated less effective because we expect men to do that.

Gopalakrishnan doesn’t buy that theory. What’s at play here is a self-inflicted restraint he explains. “There is a men's khap mentality but let’s be clear there's also a women's khap mentality even among the very well educated.”

So do women leaders find it easier to leave behind their soft woman traits back home before entering the boardroom? Should they? “Ranjana Kumar who worked with the Tata Group had no testosterone showing. She is a perfectly good example. What little I see of Chanda Kochchar {former CEO of ICICI Bank} and she appears to be fine,” says Gopalakrishnan, warning against generalisations.

Tirthankar Das of Quantum Research whose department is led by a woman concedes it’s a matter of traditional corporate versus progressive corporate. Nature of the organisation is important. "If your leadership style is more feminine and you are in a masculine culture, you have role incongruity, and you may not be that effective because people will perceive you as not fitting," notes Cummings.

“Women are fantastic leaders but they are in the image of ‘king’,” insists Tirthankar Das. This isn’t a question mark on whether women can or cannot lead but the Indian construct in which they rise is one where “the idea of ‘kingness’ of leadership is very much accentuated in the corporate system."

Does that explain why young leaders like Nisa Godrej or even Roshni Nadar want to step into the father's shoes? Do they value the position also because they will be taking up a man’s role?

As much as progressive organisations would like to believe that there are no gender biases, within the realms of everyday work, it does creep in.  “The presence of women in leadership roles is also attributed to their sexuality,” Singhal who left her organization upset with the structures and lack of growth opportunities.

“If you did a study the human resources functions in any organisation, at the junior levels, you will find that women outnumber men. However, in leadership roles in the same function, the reverse is true,” she says.

We need to be more convinced that having women on the team is no longer the ‘nice thing to do’ and it isn’t even about being gender sensitive. Women are just as sharp and intellectual employee asset to any organisation. What we need today are gender invariant workspaces. Women too need to explore and create a new idea of a woman leader who doesn’t have to be a ‘man in charge’. It should be alright to be compassionate, vulnerable. Leadership needs to get away from the tribal notion of patriarchy.

There is new respect but there remains a huge challenge for gender. Yes there is a broader acceptance but when it comes to taking orders, delegation, issues remain stressed. What we also need is a change in the conversation code of women leaders.

&list=PL7q0plMPm0wvyd-gLBLB56QvkvSCphFhT&index=3