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I saw this tweet by UN women, and RTing it was a no brainer. It was an interesting observation, particularly since there are growing voices about sexism among software related professionals. A few months back, at some Indian coders gathering (I forget) someone had made a comment about women mistaking the room for the kitchen. Yesterday, Mother Jones carried a superb article along similar lines. So this was already a subject on my mind.
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Share“#Womensrights group protests @Facebook’s all-male board http://owl.li/ayX0O
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And I quoted interesting snippets from the article for those who don’t go and read links. Statistics get people to wake up, usually.
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Share“58% Facebook users are women, responsible for most of Facebook’s revenue and activity there currently is not a single woman on their board.
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Share“Facebook is planning on going public with an “all-white, all-male board” || Worldwide users, all colors, genders…
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And the replies started coming in. Many liked, retweeted, agreed, but about half were notably hostile to the issue being raised at all. Quoting some here for the sheer diversity in racial or sexual chauvinism on display. The post sure touched a lot of raw nerves for reasons unknown.
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Share“@Vidyut 100% of Huggies users are toddlers, ‘responsible’ for ALL their revenues. By your logic, they shuldn’t have ANY adults on the board
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Share“.@PraveenDabre Which toddler have you seen making diaper purchases? And this doesn’t even touch treating women as ignorant yet….
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Share“@Vidyut Uff! Baal ki khaal! Okay, scratch that. Majority of Cadbury’s products bought by kids. Should they have kids on their board?
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Share“@Vidyut what man, do have nothing else to OUTRAGE on? Why don’t women and blacks get together and start a http://faceblack.com?
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Share““Indian way of looking at Things – Now Dalits would want reservation too…;)” ~ Comment on Facebook on “no women on board” Facebook update.
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Share“@Vidyut next issue major shareholder is ‘all-white, all-male”.. ohh, and jewish
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Share“@Vidyut just becoz u can drink lotss of beer doesn’t mean you can run a brewery well…
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Share“@PraveenDabre @Vidyut that my point… using it doesn’t mean owing it..
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Share“@Vidyut Makes you wonder who’s in charge of companies like Tampax.
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Share“Will be good to find out 😀 Anyone game? RT @KTRantingRedhed: @Vidyut Makes you wonder who’s in charge of companies like Tampax.
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…which got me wondering what the composition of boards of companies selling feminine hygiene products be. It was an interesting thought with a lot of potential to show how power plays out in our country’s system seeing as how it is fair and best in the world when it comes to acknowledging the contribution of women (as per Nirupama Rao). So, I thought I’d take a look.
P&G India board of directors has one woman, a foreigner. They sell Whisper Sanitary Napkins and Tampax – to address the tweet that started it.Kimberley-Clarke board of directors has two women. The entire board seems foreigners at a quick glance. They don’t have an India specific presence looks like. They sell Kotex Sanitary Napkins.Johnson and Johnson India limited leaders speak page for India has profiles of three men only. Can’t make out if these are all. However their international board of directors has three women.
Hmmm…
It seems that women are under represented in the corridors of power, and it makes men jittery if this is brought up. All in all, a good subject to snoop. 🙂
Women on the board
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This is a problem across most of the world, but I must say I am in two minds about it. I don’t believe in “affirmative action”, giving women roles simply because they are women. I do believe in the right person getting the job, but if the criteria of choosing the right person has inherent bias that excludes women then getting to the root of the problem can be very challenging.
One thing seen in the West is that many women either don’t progress high in corporates, or self-select out of that world into other ventures because the environment doesn’t suit them or their life choices. This is a very big issue about culture and corporate structure for which I have no answers, just lots more questions.
I am not surprised at Facebook’s board structure. In the computer science department of IIT Bombay, our batch of 60 had 2 girls. Our junior batch of 65 had ZERO girls. The sex ratios in computer science and electrical departments in Ivy league US universities are similar (if not as pathetic as IITs)
Most of these companies hire people (at least in the beginning phases) through personal contacts and friends from college where again, the number of women in computer science is pathetic. The culture here is usually all male and (sometimes) boorish which puts off a lot of girls and it is a cycle that starts right at college admissions.
If people are interested in having more women on board in software companies, then the first thing that needs to be done is to encourage more girls to take up computer science in college. That would naturally sensitize people right from their college days.
why we women have an attitude that “i have got vagina, i will held all men responsible for every problem i have, because i am the only perfect one”.
As in the manhole 50% of shit is of ours – the females – too, but never ever in my whole life i have ever seen any women cleaning the street manhole. This is a serious issue let me blog and tweet about it because if 50 % of the shit is ours lying in the manholes , then women including vidyut should be appointed to clean it.
And why to call it manhole at first- this is sexist- it should have been called WOMANHOLE , it would have been better
Coming back to main issue Vidyut, there are lots of problems being felt by women, vidyut; and this is definitely not even remotely an issue. And almost in all of the post you have the same theme , “ALL men are bunch of hoots, suppressing women and are responsible for EVERY single problem of women”. Take courage and try to take responsibility of faults/lack of initiatives wherever its ours. Nobody has stopped you or anybody to launch facewomen.com really.