India offers unexpected advantages for women in business

Sarayu Srinivasan

Women are acutely under-represented in near every segment of venture capital, private equity and finance in the U.S. The reasons are well documented and discussed - and cries to increase female representation, achieve gender parity and receive better intra-industry treatment are ongoing and mounting.

Men (hire, fund, promote themselves), other women and minorities (jealousy, competition, insecurity) and the system (no maths or science education, interest, encouragement) are oft cited for the lackluster numbers.

Interestingly, this triangle of blame holds no one and nothing else accountable.

So what does the situation look like overseas, in Europe or an emerging market, for example? Likely worse for women, right?

As an American venture capitalist, I spent the last several years investing (and living) in a BRIC market, India.

The universal reality is that globally women do have a long, long way to go to achieve equality in all corporate and business spheres (not just finance).

But during my tenure abroad I found unexpected and surprising Indian workplace realities not widely known or acknowledged.

I thought these might be interesting to share.

My mother emigrated to the U.S. from India as a Fulbright Scholar in the 1960s, and was an early woman in finance both in the U.S. and India.

I was able to gain some insight through her eyes into the dynamics of the financial workplace in both countries.

My first eye-opener came when I was negotiating my Indian salary. I was quickly advised since this was India there was no need to negotiate.

I’d be paid the same as the men. What? Not only was this true but my salary was on par with male colleagues who were experienced native investors hailing from top Indian schools and firms.

It was shocking because it highlighted a core inequality, the ultimate inequality that’s still a reality for American women: unequal pay for equal work.

We still make around seventy-five cents on the dollar of a male counterpart, for the same job, performance and credentials.

For me this alone throttled the belief of ourselves as gender progressive vis-a-vis other nations.

In India there were at least 10 major financial institutions with powerful women at the helm; still under-represented versus men, but formidable and highly visible. When they were discussed publicly or privately it was always in respectful, sometimes fearful tones.

In the varied business and social environments I inhabited I never once observed name calling, praise or degradation of physical characteristics or criticism of anything other than a business decision and this too with immense care and respect.

I never once heard a professional woman described as a bitch or even strong, an adjective whose meaning I find dubious.

Some Indian colleagues, upon their first U.S. business trip, confided shock about the derogatory names men and women used and personal comments made about female colleagues and bosses in the American workplace.

I became aware of an absence of focus on the physical. In my domestic American experience, looks, apparel and personality were always part of the dialogue when it came to professional women. This was nonexistent in India.

Once a visiting female American CEO of a woman’s organization noted the difficulty for attractive professionals, referencing a recent uproar in the U.S. over an article profiling an attractive female financier.

Our Indian colleagues squirmed so much that I had to explain to her that comments about physical appearance or personality weren’t common or acceptable in the workplace. It was irrelevant, and, frankly, could get one slapped.

Women were also routinely addressed as Madam; not Miss, Ms or Mrs based on age, looks or marital status.

After awhile it began to seem archaic that at home we still use, and indeed identify with, physically based salutations that objectify and discriminate; men are certainly not addressed by age or their wedding bands.

Over time I heard from other accomplished American women who worked in India, from the 1960s onwards, similar observations.

It was no surprise that globally professional, indeed all, women (financiers and otherwise) suffer great discrimination and have long ways to go to achieve equality.

But for me, my time abroad provided a surprising liberating juxtaposition and a small window into an alternate model of behaviour and being to consider.

(The writer is a venture capitalist, most recently with Intel Capital, the private equity arm of the Intel Corporation, where she focused on a range of stage agnostic technology investments in the U.S. and India. She has also held various operational roles at both technology startups and large corporations including PepsiCo and Satyam Computers. She is currently writing a book about India.)

(Forbes)