The glass ceiling - thinking clearly

Hello there - so today was one of the evenings when I had very low expectations of how it would be and it turned out to be surprisingly fun. We had kathi rolls for dinner and then went to a Scottish pub where they were celebrating Tartan day and had a really cool band with bagpipes n all playing. We were the only Indians among a lot of drunk scotts (many of then in kilts) and it was really good fun. We then ended up in a coffee shop in Times Square (long story!) and the conversation turned to glass ceiling, whether women should be paid less for maternity leave. This post is mainly to clarify issues in my head and understand how I feel about them.

Issue 1: The first time I felt I was being treated differently because I was a girl was in management school where there was almost a pre-conceived notion that girls there were mainly to fill the "quota" rather than their ability. Some guys were told by seniors not to take girls in their group as "girls don't work". These subtle notions used to (and still do) irritate the hell out of me. It is also sad that such judgements were made by educated adults about to enter and be leaders in corporate India.

This issue is interesting as I also met some great, intelligent people at the b-school who went on to become close friends and I can never imagine them being so small-minded or sexist. Maybe these were thoughts of only a handful and I generalized then as I was so mad when I heard these comments for the first time.

Issue 2: When I was interviewing with my current boss, he knew that I was going to get married and that was one of the reasons I wanted to move to New York. I heard from one of my colleagues later that he thought that I may slack off after I get married or may want to have kids and then may not work etc etc.

Obviously when I first heard it, it again surprised me that people think like this in the 21st century (yeah, I do live in my own ideal world). But then I guess first, he gave me the job and second, he has been a great boss and I have never felt any glass ceiling (maybe I am too junior to feel this anyway).

Issue 3: maternity leave - my rationalist friends put forward the argument that women should not expect the usual compensation and promotion when they are absent from work for 3 months in a particular year for maternity leave as someone else is doing their work and therefore, from an employers perspective it is totally justified to divide the proceeds according to the work done so to say.

I have issue with this thinking on many levels. I believe thinking about this issue in pure economic terms is simplifying the issue a lot and here is why -

• Talent retention: Assuming the women has been a good worker before she decided to have a baby, it is in company's interest to retain her. Measuring her purely on the basis of the contribution she made in that particular year when she had to take maternity leave and somehow reflecting this in either lower pay or delay in her promotion is discouraging her. This also assumes that she will not be contributing enough in the following year when she is back and reflects a very short term view from the employers perspective. This is ultimately not sustainable as some other firm will recognize that talent in this competitive world we live in today. I don't think those 3 months or that particular year should be the basis for judging her competence or contribution at all - remember in economics, value is always sum of future cash flows.
• I feel firms/companies/employers don't exist in an island by themselves. They are a part of the society and as a result they have some social responsibility. If somehow nature has decided it is a women who is supposed to procreate and is responsible for adding additional members to the society, then it is the company's social responsibility to help this. By creating disincentives, you are creating too much disparity between women who choose to have a baby and those who don't and this is not sustainable from a society's perspective. My friends argued that women can choose not to have a baby if they are ambitious. My point is that this shouldn't be a choice. If a man takes a months leave to look after a sick wife, could you argue that he shouldn't have married because some or the other kind of responsibility always comes with marriage??
• This is really a continuation of the previous point, but why else do employers organize family picnics, or sponsor a family holiday etc. Or even at a basic level, provide health care, in some cases housing. Because they realize that happy employees are necessary for the success of the company and firms cannot run cut and dry like machines purely on economic principles. Family responsibility is a very real part of life and though child rearing is fully the responsibility of the parents, the employers have some contribution too. Why do you have emergency daycare at work otherwise??

Issue 4: Glass ceiling - now this was interesting as most of my guy friends refused to acknowledge it exists!

I discussed this with my mother and since she is a senior manager in Railways, she has seen workplace for women change over the last 20 years. Her first response was "how do they know?"! Get me one working women to say it doesn't exists. However, this is again not a black and white issue -

• It doesn't exist everywhere obviously and it is changing. My mother told me women weren't considered for DRM (Divisional Railway Manager) earlier and that has changed completely now. It may not exist in Pepsi who has a woman CEO but it may exist elsewhere.
• I think we all talk from our immediate perspectives - at my level in my firm I feel it is absolute meritocracy and I have never felt I was being denied anything because of my gender. However, I have been to meetings where senior women complain about how my firm has the least % of women managing directors on wall street.
• The selection bias may not exist in research where I work but it may exist in trading as there are barely any women there.
• I think in most of these discussions, my point was not that glass ceiling exists everywhere but I think it is important for us to acknowledge that is does exist even if we haven't seen it in our immediate surroundings . We can hope it is now shrinking and be aware of any sub-conscious biases/stereotypes we may have. A classic example of this sub-conscious bias is when sales people call research and a women answers the phone, they assume it is an assistant!!!