This presentation talks about Empowering Women, how professional performance helps empowerment and how to advance in a career. This was developed for a seminar held at NITTTR, India for women and men from 15 countries. This also helps teacher and policy makers.

1. Women Empowerment: Professional Performance, Development & Growth Sandhya Pentareddy, Executive Director, VIT University February 10, 2011 NITTTR, India

3. Agenda Self Development Career Growth Work-life balance Challenges and Solutions – 45 min Resources and References

4. What is empowerment? Who empowers women?

6. Who Empowers Women? A Woman herself Women helping each other Family Communities providing support Conducive Policies Older women playing role models

9. Growth in Five Dimensions 1 Social Standing 2 Education 3 Career & Impact 4 Political Participation 5 Decision Making and Control over Life

10. India Based on my observations: Social Standing Then (80s): Respected but considered inferior in capabilities. “A woman’s place is at home” was the general belief. Many women started challenging this. Now: Due to rapid strides in education & career, more and more people are treating women as equals. Still a huge difference in moral standards and freedom . Identity still associated with Men in life, for the large part. More family orientation and less “ individuality ” for women even now. Education Then (80s): less awareness in economically challenged classes. Middle and Upper classes: Bachelor’s level education common. Women started getting into higher and specialized education – esp. Engineering and Medicine. Now: still less awareness in economically challenged classes. Improvement in vocational training and enrollment. Middle and Upper classes: Large enrollment in specialized education. Getting into other fields also (Sales, Marketing etc.).

11. India Career Then (80s): Economically backward: house-hold work, cleaning jobs, construction labor. Middle and Upper classes: Teaching, Nursing, Medicine, a few in Engineering. Now: Economically backward and less educated: petrol bunks, auto-cabs, bus-conductors, small businesses, retail, hotels & restaurants. Refreshingly far greater opportunities attributable to economic growth. Educated: A large presence in Engineering, IT, Medicine and diversifying across many fields – customer facing, business administration and leadership roles. In leadership roles, women are having to work harder to get noticed, compared to men. Glass ceiling – exists but is getting thinner and higher. Political Participation Then (80s): We have had notable women in politics right from freedom-fighting days. But fewer at grassroots level in Independent India Now: More and more women are seeking political careers (still far less than Men). Reservations by Govt. Greater levels of participation in community programs. Decision Making in Life & Control over Life Then (80s): Mostly deferred to Men. Now: Women contributing a lot but in many regions / economic classes, still deferring to Men. A vast portion is still not having / playing an equal role in overall control over life.

12. USA Social Standing Then (90s): In control concerning freedom, moral standards and social standing. High level of “individualism” but has a culture that still identified them with their husbands. Not as competitive as men. Now: Progressive. Making more impact. High awareness in personal development. More competitive than in 90s in many diverse fields. Still identified with their husbands despite high individualism. Based on my observations: Education Then (90s): Women’s enrollment in higher education crossed over that of men. Ratio: 7:6. Enrollment in science & technology is less compared to men. Now: Women enrollment in higher education is growing. 2007 ratio W:M:: 10:7. 1995 W : 2007W :: 7:10.

13. USA Then (90s): Mostly into customer facing jobs, teaching and health-care. Less in technical. Income disparity. Now: Seeing more women (than before) in technical jobs (lot of immigrants). Seeing more women at top of the pyramid compared to the past but still far less compared to Men. More competitive than before. Income disparity still exists. Glass ceiling – still exists but easier to break. Women are having to work harder to get noticed in leadership roles. Some big corporations are encouraging women. Career Political Participation Has obviously grown. Seen a woman president contender in primaries for the first time. More women governors. Decision Making in Life & Control over Life Recent years: House-hold decisions mostly by women. Also contributing to financial and other important decision making. Men are still implicitly recognized (but not explicitly) as ‘heads of the household’ but women are taking more and more control.

16. Opportunity Unmet/ Underserved Need Employment opportunities Education opportunities Entrepreneurship Opportunity Skilled Employment Opportunity Prime Employment Opportunity

17. Professional Performance & Women’s Empowerment Performance Impact Career Growth Empowerment Economic Freedom

26. Professional Performance What can you do as an Organization?

34. Professional Performance Gap in India Challenges and Solutions

35. How do we continue to share our progress? Email group Face book

36. My contact information www.facebook.com/vit.sandhya