Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration Kolkata/Submissions/Deconstructing the Glass Ceiling

Submission no.

Title of the submission

Deconstructing the Glass Ceiling

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Author of the submission

Yashaswini Basu

E-mail address

Username

Country of origin

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

How often ahve we been told that the regularity of a 9 to 5 job is the ideal forte for the "Adarsh Bhartiya Nari", how often have we heard of merit being relinquished just in order to conform to the social order which lays down that the man of the house must have the greater earning if not the only, how often have we witnessed the bifurcation of vocations according to their respective gender suitability? Well, not very infrequently, right? Amidst the glorious proposition of "Make in India" and "India Shining" campaigns, a very crucial reality lies overlooked and ignored. This is the reality of the harrowing gender gap in our country's economic participation and political empowerment. Standing at a glaring 60% and 21% respectively according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2014, India features as one of the worst performing countries in the world.Despite the fact, that the female population accounts for almost half of the country's talent basis, repeated incidents of female infanticdes, domestic incarceration, illiteracy among girl children have substantially impaired the potential growth of the nation. This is primarily because the gender gap index has a strong correlation with a given country's national competiveness. Gender equality has been long regarded as the foremost prerequisite to usher a sustainable social and institutuional change.However, despite the overt strategies and issues enumerated in Government undertakings like the Twelth Plan et al, the reality of gender divide remians as scarring as ever. The Inequalities are most obvious in areas such as health and eductaion, economic development, participation in public life and policy-making, social empowerment. The factors which lead to this social scenario may be streamlined as violence against women, health discrimination and gender stereotyping. All these factors cumulatively contribute to a skewed sex ration of India's professional schema. Consequently, the employment ratio between males and females in India, currently stands at an abyssmal 30%. Employability in formal sectors, property rights, asset bases of women continue to face an emormous lag when it comes to their male counterparts. In corporate enterprises, skill development programmes have been so designed so as to prevent women from climbing up the hierarchy for the apex. To top such subtle ways of discrimination, there are hurdles like sexual harrasment at workplaces, the formidable "Old Boys' Network", job segregation that erect a glass ceiling which not only smothers the potential but also makes the professional sector a zone of antagonism for women. This paper proposes to look into those aspect of our work culture in the Indian context which engenders such modes of gender disparity. From Ann Morrison's take on the "Glass Ceiling" to the prevalent idea of "sticky floors", this paper shall cover a holistic trend in the professional scene that India provides for one half of its demography. From deification to defiance, the working women today go through myriad biases.The roles of women as farmers, care-givers, wage earners, entrepreneurs, professionals have been jeopardised by several issues, payment and bureaucracy being two prominent ones. This paper will try to track the encumberances that women need to surpass in order to hone emerging skills, contrary to the traditional skills and thus, rise through rungs of professional excellence in an emerging economy like that of India. It will try to assess India's role in envisioning steps which are directed to break this Glass Ceiling in keeping with the Millenium Development Goals. This paper shall draw from Blinder-Oaxaca 's(1976) wage decomposition to Machado-Mata-Melly's 2006 work to chart out a comparitive trends in the ebb and flow of the glass ceiling phenomenon. Finally this paper shall evaluate the rural-urban distinction prevalent in terms of the gender gap to finally conclude on the factors behind and cures therof.

Track

Language of Track

English

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

Will you attend Conference at Kolkata with own cost if your submission is not accepted?

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

1. Add your username here.