(This post is for all those Indian women with whom I have had conversations on the issue for months. I couldn’t seethe any more. But the sexual harassment issue won’t just go away without persistent action. Will now be a good time?)
Indian women professionals – and may their tribe increase! – are in an interesting place. They are making strides in the workplace, with better education, better prospects and growing income and hence financial independence.
Yet they still are in the minority in the workplace as the WEF’s Corporate Gender Gap report shows. With just 23% women employees, India lags behind Japan (24%), Turkey (26%) and Austria (29%), while the USA (52%), Spain (48%), Canada (46%) and Finland (44%) are way ahead. Services sectors employ women in larger numbers, according to the report: financial services and insurance (60%), professional services (56%), media and entertainment (42%). Smaller numbers are employed in automotive (18%), mining (18%) and agriculture (21%) sectors although over 90% of women in India work in the unorganised sectors so I am not sure at least about the agriculture numbers.
As anecdotal evidence goes, white-collar sexual harassment is rampant in India. And growing. The continued minority status of women in the workplace is not the causal explanation, but it is an important factor to bear in mind.
Women have taken well to their hard-earned freedoms, but most men seem to be unable to deal with it. If at all, Indian men by and large remain “selectively modern”. This places a great burden on the professional woman. For she risks being seen as “easy” and “available” just because she dares leave her home to go to work.
The harassment seems to be everywhere, takes many forms, and occurs in any and every possible work situation. Among experiences I have been told are:
* Young women in a recruitment process finding themselves invited for an informal coffee meeting, where suggestions about going to a film together (seriously!) or for drinks (this is never as simple as it is in the UK, for instance) are made by the hiring manager;
* Young women being asked by married male bosses to accompany them on official trips where, freed from the norms of the office, the bosses make sexual advances and often maul or grope the women;
* Insubordination by male staff, many openly belligerent towards a woman manager; and then the woman manager’s disapproval leading to loud discussions about “that time of the month” and making of lewd signs and comments in her presence.
And these are just some blue-chip multinational firms operating in India!
My reaction to hearing these things was: why don’t you challenge or report this behaviour? That is a whole other kettle of fish. There are several reasons why women do not challenge or report such stuff.
First comes, the innate fear of being sacked, or worse, being blamed as the party that misled an innocent man, and the worst, being labelled as a whore, through no fault of her own. So lets understand this. The women is harassed but if she confronts the harasser/groper/ molester/ abuser, she may find her job is lost. The benefit of doubt is always given to the man. Let’s imagine, for discussion sake, that the man is out of the job, the woman still won’t be out of the woods. We Indians are a gossipy lot, and nobody likes to find that conversation suddenly stops when she enters a room.
Then in firms, there is lack of due process. Even when the process exists, management commitment is half-hearted or absent. In one such instance, that I heard of, I asked about the process. The woman told me that a process existed but it required her to prove that she was harassed. Exactly how she would do this was unclear and the HR manager was unable or unwilling to advise. Her manager was sympathetic but advised her against “making trouble” which is another way of creating a FUD in the woman’s mind. The whole thing reminded me of Penelope Trunk’s advice that in most cases, women must not report sexual harassment. Her argument only outlines the pathetic circumstances in which professional women work.
My natural curiosity is about why decent men, of whom India has plenty too, do not speak up. Conversations with the good men I know suggest a host of reasons.
They do not want to become a butt of jokes, or otherwise be aimlessly “linked” with the woman they are trying to defend. “Abey, teri behen lagti hai kya?” (Hindi tr. Is she your sister?) seems to be a standard taunt.
They risk falling out of the informal boys’ club that their workplace is. This is important because often they may not know who amongst the coterie is a lascivious bastard waiting for an opportunity. Sorry I do not know how else to describe men who think it is ok to harass or maul their female colleagues!
They do their bit silently. By removing female colleagues from situations where harassment may be imminent. By modifying circumstances within their power so that women are not in an awkward situation, This sort of stuff, while chivalrous and well-intentioned, is a Band-Aid (TM) solution when a bypass is required!
So, is India bound to be branded and remain a nation of frustrated male sexual harassers? A nation where sexual harassment and molestation will forever be euphemised as “eve-teasing”? A country where women, regardless of colour, age, marital status, whatever have no safety on the streets, nor any safety in their workplace?
How – in the absence of due process and in the presence of under-committed leadership in workplaces – can one report, expose, punish the harassers hiding behind their tailored suits and high-minded corporate titles?
When will it stop?
Questions, questions, questions. Do you have any answers? Whether you are a person who may have been sexually harassed; or a person who has watched silently and seethed while someone you know was sexually harassed or harassing; or indeed, a person who may have sexually harassed someone and have hopefully seen the error of his ways?
Isn’t it time we spoke up and did something real and meaningful to ensure that the shame that is visited by the society upon the woman is instead visited upon her harasser?
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