Meet authors putting the spotlight on women at the workplace in India

There is a lot of new writing on our bookshelves on women at the workplace. Some are deriving conclusions through real life examples while others are exploring issues using fiction. Either ways, there is a lot of meaningful work and research being put together.

Yashodhara Lal explores the issues of Boss Lady with wit in her novel When Love Finds You. It deals with organisation rigidity in dealing with women and the structures that can invisibly discriminate against women. It also explores relationships and the dynamics a woman undergoes in office especially when she is a go-getter and also in love.

Sudha Menon's book She Devil focuses on why it's okay for women to be who they are and what they want to be. She interviews icons like Mary Kom, director Farah Khan, banker Manisha Girotra, actor Lilette Dubey and image management diva Rohini Iyer. Her book is funny, real, and thought-provoking, with anecdotes from the lives of these women.

Sonia Golani has done some early research on women in business through her books. Corporate Divas: Stories of 18 Indian women business leaders was published in the year 2011. She reflects on female icons on their ability to take on pressure and ambition. Naina Lal Kidwai, Zia Mody, Tanya Dubash, Chanda Kochhar, Shikha Sharma, Vinita Bali, Sminu Jindal, Preetha Reddy, Manisha Girotra and others are included in this book.

Sonu Bhasin is writing her book on Families and Businesses. Where she deals with unique challenges that are particular to family run businesses. Bhasin has over 27 years of experience working in various Leadership positions in organizations like Tata group, ING Vysya Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank etc and with that experienced lens her take on women at the workplace (in the family context) promises to make an interesting read.

Poonam Barua who runs the WILL forum has done indepth work around women and preparing them for boards. Her book The Leadership Proxy is a journey of women in corporate India and what determines their presence or the lack of it in companies. Published in 2015, she believes in inclusive growth and argues the need for businesses to embrace gender fairness at the workplace.

Aparna Jain published Own It in 2016 with an aim to put the spotlight on sexual harassment and other workplace challenges for women.

Rashmi Bansal talks about why entrepreneurship by women is still considered as a taboo in some sections of the Indian Society. And so in her book Follow Every Rainbow she presents stories of 25 women who fought their way through difficulties and achieved their dreams. Their challenges can make for some early lessons for those wanting to take the leap.

Gunjan Jain with She Walks She Leads wants her readers to lead by example. Through anecdotal stories she establishes the simplicity of how some women were instrumental in launching businesses. Sudha Murty gave her savings to her husband, Narayan Murthy, to help start Infosys,  Naina Lal Kidwai was the first Indian to graduate from Harvard Business School, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started Biocon with a seed capital of Rs 10,000.