Women leadership? Help yourself!

A determined woman can make it big in life, regardless of available support structures, if she is true to herself and makes studied attempts to overcome formidable obstacles on her path to success.

This sums up the train of uplifting thoughts thrown up by accomplished women who also shared their insights at a scintillating event titled ‘Leadership Summit- Led by Women’ organised in Hyderabad on Friday to celebrate the evolving leadership of women in diverse roles in contemporary society.

The Centre for Management Studies, NALSAR University of Law, organised the event, duringwhich K Kavitha, Member of Parliament, was the chief guest and Sagarika Ghose, from CNN-IBN, was the guest of honour.

Presenting statistics culled from the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index, Sagarika Ghose said: “With regard to women’s education and leadership, India has long way to go as it ranks 104th amongst 144 countries, wherein other south Asian countries are much ahead of India.”

Speaking on facets of women empowerment in India, she pointed that only 25 percent of women occupy high-profile positions in the private sector, out of 42 percent women graduates in total. She stressed the need to increase the number of women leaders in parliament.

The political arena should spread its wings to encourage women and share its space for women to participate in policymaking. The government should make efforts to ensure passage of the Women Reservation Bill by parliament so that it can smoothen the way for women in the country to enter politics, she suggested.

Recounting her early days of working as a journalist, she shared: “I was undermined for being a woman and was given soft beats to cover. But, my stride to work for political beats, which are usually dominated by males, had brought in change in their conditioned thinking towards me.” Narrating a few snippets of challenges in her professional life, Karuna Gopal, Founder President of Foundation for Futuristic Cities, said, “Do not brand yourself, don’t market yourself, don’t position yourself; let the world brand, market and position you. As we are in 4th Industrial Revolution with extreme innovation, women should be versatile, and take charge of the golden hour.”

Recollecting certain instances in her years of experience, she elaborated on the term “golden hour”, saying women must be ready to grab the opportunity and get into deep research from the grassroots level before they can actualize it and that could be a key to success. Giving the keynote address, Kavita said that women empowerment is embedded in two different layers.

Firstly, the government should make policies favourable to women. Secondly, women themselves should develop the stamina to make a mark and indulge in carrying out programs for women empowerment across societies.

“The programs talking about women development and its related issues should not be confined to the month of March, ahead of International Women’s Day. In a significant stride, women-related programs following panel discussions should be done from time to time to bring about change in all respects and help eliminate society’s negative perception about women,” she underlined.

By Suhama Nagaraju