chapter -1 introductionshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/72550/4...inclusive growth thus...
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CHAPTER -1
INTRODUCTION
1
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The global expansion of software industry, well-known as Information and
Technology (IT) and Information Technology enabled Services (ITES) sector has opened
up new vistas for women. The industry is considered to provide a good avenue for the
employment of women. As per United Nations council for trade and development report
(2002) demonstrated, software and ITES has widened job prospects for women.
Women’s representation in the IT sector’s workforce in the country is significant. The
career opportunities and prospects in Information technology comes as an enviable
choice for women.
Information Technology sector in India, has several distinguishing features – high
degree of integration into the global economy; distinctive and apparently employee-
friendly human resource policies; and claims to be women-friendly and is a more
attractive option for female graduate engineers (WSIS, 2005: 1).As a result, participation
of women in IT industries is rapidly growing which is clearly indicated with more
number of women employees opting for jobs in IT-BPO sector – as compared to other
sectors of the economy. However, it has been found that some gender inequalities and
discontentment are present among the women employees added with the gender-based
social constraints.
Gender Inclusivity, Diversity and Equality these days have become the
buzzwords in the corporate world and civil society. The increased business requirement,
and diversity of skills and competencies have paved way for the increased orientation for
the same. Hence, there is a need to have a mixed gender group which has become a
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business imperative. Furthermore, there is increased awareness that women are equally
talented and competent in performing the jobs professionally. (Kaul et.al. 2009). In order
to build economic growth and social fabric these issues have a direct synergy with
growing in prominence on the global arena (NASSCOM-Mercer, 2009:5). Even with
more and more women graduates entering into the workforce it is noticed that the
Information Technology still is a male-dominated industry, and as a result of masculine
culture developed over the years tends to exclude or marginalize women (WSIS, 2005:
1). A growth that is not inclusive and supportive for women can result in real or
perceived inequities. Inclusive growth thus seeks to broaden the flow of benefits of
globalization towards the currently excluded sections. However, for achieving inclusive
growth, it is essential that opportunities can be created for women with good governance
and accountability (AIMA, 2011: 3).
The role of private sector contributing with unique initiatives, especially the IT
and ITES industries seems promising. Companies are realizing the importance of women
employees. Women employees are considered important to fill the shortage of talent, for
cost advantage, for brand building, for better understanding of customer requirements
and to realize higher profit margins. But according to NASSCOM-Price water coopers
(2010) report, there are large differences among companies while adopting inclusivity
measures and these gender inclusivity initiatives have yielded better retention only in
very few instances. Understanding women’s participation in IT and ITES industries is
important for understanding how women are participating, than just how many are
participating.
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The growing role in India’s economy and the focus fold with which IT industry is
driving around is in part an acknowledgement of the fact that they are accommodating
more women in the workforce. The Indian IT industry has set benchmarks and been the
initiator of pioneering work culture for women employees, more than any other
industries in India, It has also launched several initiatives which are tailored to women in
their workplaces (Dube et al. 2012: 158).Yet the working conditions, Family and societal
obligations present many hindrances to women when compared to men.
With this background, this study evaluates the status of Gender Inclusivity,
Equality, and Diversity in the IT companies in Bangalore city which is known as the
‘Silicon Valley’ of India and one that contributes nearly 33 percent of Indian IT exports
(Sharma, 2006) and majority of the Indian software companies are head-quartered in
Bangalore.
A Global Perspective of Information Technology Sector:
The concept of outsourcing started way back in the 1700s when manufacturers
started shifting the manufacture of goods to countries with cheaper labour during the
Industrial Revolution. As land, sea, and later, air routes developed between the 15th and
21st centuries, more nations started to outsource trade to other nations, eventually leading
to outsourcing to India and other nations (Outsource2india).Within IT outsourcing,
global sourcing grew by 10.4 percent in 2010 (NASSCOM, 2011: 4).
Women hold nearly 25 percent of computer- and information technology-related
jobs in the United States, according to the National Center for Women & Information
Technology as women move up the corporate ladder and the number of women at the top
positions shrinks to about 20 percent. The figures get worse for minority women. It is
the Asian women who are leading making it four percent of the technology workforce,
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followed by African American women come in at 3 percent and Hispanic women bring
up the rear at 1percent.
While there isn't a dearth for women working for technology companies in
human resources, sales and marketing, seeing a woman in top executive roles seems a
rarity. “Technology has taken on this stereotype of being a domain of pale males, so to
speak. Something that white men are good at, and they're the best, and everyone else is
inferior,” Slade said. Juanita Sessions, assistant vice president of information technology
at Dallas-based AT&T Inc opines that finding enough qualified women to boost IT ranks
is hard at the top managerial positions.
In the process of empowering female employment, AT&T sometimes hires
women who show a propensity for technology, Sessions said, and then trains and moulds
them into IT pros. “Many will have a design background, a communications background
or engineering background that can be used to transform them into IT professionals.”
Nick Longo, director at San Antonio's Geekdom, a tech co-working space, said that
inspite of many efforts for decades to elevate, empower women the results have not been
very promising. He added that even though there's an abundance of technical jobs to be
filled, not many women are applying for the jobs.“People are always saying we need
more women in technology,” he said. “I want more women in tech, too. It doesn't matter.
Women aren't lining up around the block for jobs.”
Origin and Growth of IT Sector in India:
The origin of the Indian IT industry can be traced to the late 1980s, but the
growth was experienced only during the early 1990’s due to liberalization and
improvements in the telecom infrastructure. First, the outsourcing of the jobs was
witnessed by some of the leading airline industries whose footsteps were followed by the
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information Technology sector. The emergence of liberalization and globalization in
1990s paved the way to growth of Indian IT industry as it enjoys natural comparative
advantage of large section of it employees who are English speaking, educated, but
cheap labour force added with the Indian Government’s policy incentives, such as
establishment up of several Software Technology Parks (STPs), tax holidays for profit-
making IT industry etc. (Bhattacharyya & Nath, 2011: 6). Over the years, the industry
has built robust processes to offer world class IT software and technology-related
services (Outsource2india).
India has become the most preferred choice for many technology giants since the
onset of globalization in the yearly 1990s, successive governments have pursued
programmes of economic reforms committed to liberalization and privatization.
Developments in telephony, fibre optics and satellite communications made internet-
based communication and transfer of data possible, paving the path for outsourcing to
India. In addition to the central government’s and state governments are also competing
with each other to create more friendly environments in order to attract the information
technology organisations to set up development units in their states.
Indian companies are offering varied types of services being outsourced. The
medical transcription was one of the first services outsourced and outsourcing of
business processes like data processing and customer support began towards the end of
the 1990s. Now data processing has become an integral part of the export-oriented IT
software and services environment. It initially began as an activity confined to
multinational companies, but today it has developed into a broad based business platform
backed by leading Indian IT software and services organizations. The major segments of
the industry in India are IT services, BPO and Engineering services, Research &
Development Products. Much of the attention was drawn from service offerings in
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Banking, financial, insurance, hi-tech telecom, manufacturing and retail. The following
are the major segments in the IT services sector.
Table 1.1: Major Segments in IT Services Exports
IT Services – Exports Contribution(%)
Project Oriented 58%
IT Consulting 3%
Systems Integration 3%
Custom Application Development 49%
Network Consulting and Integration 1%
Software Testing 2%
Outsourcing 33%
Application Management 12%
IS Outsourcing 6%
Others 15%
Support and Training 9%
Software Development and Support 7%
Hardware Development and Support 1%
IT education and training 1%
Total 100%
Source: NASSSCOM & IMACS Analysis. In: NSDC Report: 9)
In the 1980s, greater concentration of the information technology industries was
in Mumbai (Heeks, 1996). As the number of industry grew it spread to other states and
cities. Texas Instruments set up its development centre in 1985 and since then Bangalore
has been the home base of many multinational companies. By 1990, the states of
Maharashtra (Mumbai), Karnataka (Bangalore), Tamil Nadu (Chennai) and Delhi were
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the ones with large share of exports and states of Uttar Pradesh (NOIDA), Andhra
Pradesh (Hyderabad) and West Bengal (Kolkata) also had software exports (Arora &
Bagde, 2010:10).
Majority of the information technology companies are based in Bangalore,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and
Bhubaneswar in India. Among these cities, Bangalore is considered to be the leading
information technology hub of India with Chennai being the second largest exporter of
IT and ITES of India and is the BPO hub of India. Hyderabad is also a major IT hub with
many multinational corporation companies. Mumbai, the financial capital of India has
also presence of IT companies. Delhi, the national capital has clusters of software
development at Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. Likewise, Pune, Kolkata,
Thiruvananthapuram and Bhubaneswar also house major IT companies.
Due to infrastructure limitations and scarcity of land, the geographical spread is
gradually expanding to Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Kochi, Madurai, Mangalore,
and Mysore. It is estimated that over 80 percent of IT units in India are SMEs and they
constitute only 30 percent of the entire IT exports from India (ASA & Associates: 5).
The availability of resourceful untapped talent at cheaper costs is attracting many global
IT-BPO companies in India which are getting attracted towards hinterlands. For instance
Wipro Technologies had launched its first rural BPO centre at Manjakkudi village in
Tamil Nadu in August 2011. In October 2011, Infosys had linked an agreement with the
Government of Andhra Pradesh to open rural BPO centres in 22 districts. Rural Shores
is another firm that had opened a BPO centre in Bagepalli district of Karnataka and
serves over 20 clients including HDFC, Infosys, Wipro Technologies and Genpact (ASA
& Associates: 7).
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India has become an important player in the global software outsourcing
business. There are a large number of multinational IT enterprises operating in India in
sectors such as integrated chip design, system software, communication software, R&D
centres, technology support sector, captive support sector, BPO section etc. IT industry
has now captivated about 51 percent of the world market (NASSCOM, 2009). Indian IT
software and services firms offer wide range of software product/packages; a wide
spectrum of IT services including system management and maintenance, consultancy
services, system integration, chip design, E-Governance, E-Commerce, IT enabled
services covering banking/financial/insurance sector. The IT enabled services also
include CAD/CAM Multimedia, animation work, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
assignments, Call centre related assignments, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)/
Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO), medical transcription services, e-publishing data
conversion or digitization, type-setting, copy editing, content and design, graphics etc.
(ASA & Associates: 2).
The work ambience of any IT company is equal to that in any American or
European office; they have much higher salaries than those with equivalent qualifications
working in other sectors and they are offered a variety of facilities and incentives, from
employee stock options to in-house gyms and crèches. High attrition rates have promoted
IT companies to institute what they regard as employee-friendly policies (WSIS, 2005:
5).
There are just a handful of large players, including Infosys, Wipro, TCS, with
workforces of 15,000 and more, a number of medium size companies employing 500-
1000 and a large number of small companies with employee base of less than 100
employees. The state has the right type of ambience. It has integrated fully with the
global economy, technology and liberalisation, truly making Karnataka the 21st century
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state of this country" and Bangalore is a major centre of global software outsourcing and
other IT-related services in India, with at least 600 software exporting and other IT-
related firms (WSIS, 2005: 2).
The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has stated that
“investment in ICT has the largest multiplier effect rippling through the economy”
(MCIT, 2003: 3). The growth of the Indian software industry was witnessed during early
1992 and the Indian software exports in 1990-91 was about $128 million and it raised to
$485 millions by 1994-95. By 2003-04, the software exports increased to $12.2 billions
and continue to grow at about 30 percent per year (Arora & Bagde, 2010:4).During the
year 2002-03 the Indian ITES Industry witnessed a growth rate in excess of 50 percent.
Focus on Building a Gender Diverse Workforce:
Many Talented women have been an active agents in the IT workforce over the
past decade. Currently the number of women working in Indian IT industry is 800,000
which it accounts for over 30 percent of the existing hires and this figure is only
expected to rise in the future.
In the recent past, there have been several instances, where the safety of women
across India has been compromised. Media too, has been focusing attention on the need
for safeguarding women and upholding their right to work at ‘anytime during the day’.
Taking cognizance of this requirement, NASSCOM has been rolling out initiatives to
help member organisations ensure the safety of their women employees.
More recently, as a part of its women-focused strategies, NASSCOM declared
February 2013 as the ‘Women Safety Month’ in the NCR region. Under the aegis of the
initiative, NASSCOM and its members hosted many events and activities aimed at to
educate, engage and empower women employees. During this time, member
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organisations also spotlighted the various measures, support systems and best practices
that they had implemented to enhance awareness about the safety of their women
workers.
In its endeavour to encourage and to build technology applications for women’s
safety. NASSCOM has initiated several corporate contests like the App Fame contest,
where corporates, developers and students were provided with an opportunity to show
case their hidden talents and abilities. Additionally, NASSCOM released a compendium
of recommended best practices in several IT and BPM organisations in India. The
document focuses on issues such as security arrangements at the office premises, safe
commuting(involving travel to work from home and back), emergency response systems,
measures for safe hiring, awareness building, addressing medical emergencies,
advisories for women and the prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace.
Fig:1.1 Percentage of women in IT Industries.
Source: NASSCOM.
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Table 1.2: Career Profile of women in Indian IT Industry
Source: Primary Data.
Fig:1.2 Women in Senior Management and Setting Stage for Growth.
Table 1.3: Percentage of Women in Global IT Industry.
SL No. Country Percentage
1 China 51
2 Baltics 40
3 ASEAN 32
4 Russia 31
5 Turkey 30
6 South Africa 28
7 New Zealand 28
8 Europe 25
Source: Grand Thornton’s International Business Report, 2013.
SL NO Career Level Definition
1 Entry Level
(0-5) yrs
Graduates with no supervisory role This career stream ranges
from entry level through to technical or subject matter experts
in the IT space.
2 Middle Level
(5-10) yrs.
Supervisory level ranging from team leader level to general
manager and may provide mentoring and coaching to less-
experienced staff.
3 Senior Level
(10-15) yrs
Heads of programmes, divisions and functions.
4 Top Level
>15 yrs
Refers to executive team, senior vice presidents and vice
presidents.
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Table 1.4: Definition of Career Levels:
SL NO Career Level Definition
1 Entry Level Fresh Graduates with no supervisory role assigned to them.
This career stream ranges from entry level through to
technical or subject matter experts in the IT space.
2 Middle Level Supervisory Level ranging from Team Leader Level to
General manager and may provide mentoring and coaching to
less-experienced staff.
3 Senior Level Programme Heads, Division Heads and Functions Head.
4 Top Level Refers to Executive Team, Senior Vice Presidents and
Presidents
Source: Nasscom
India experiencing least participation of working women among the BRIC Nations:
India is a home base for nearly 400 million people and during the years to come
the number is expected to rise doubly. The proportion of India’s total female population
that is economically active among the lowest in the world, but urban areas the situation is
alarming though.
The data from the 2011 census revealed that only half as many women living in
urban India work as their rural counterparts. The women’s participation in the workforce
some countries and states—including Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is still worse when
compared to our country and all the more alarming when it comes to countries like
Somalia, Bahrain and Malaysia who are fairing far from the above mentioned nations.
Among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) which are comparable
emerging economies, India has the lowest female participation rate, with only 29 percent
of women over the age of 15 working. As the chart below shows, even among the MINT
countries—Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia and Turkey—only Turkey has the same
participation rate as India.
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“In India, there is a U-shaped relationship between education and participation of
women in the workforce,” Verick said. “Illiterates participate more out of necessity.
Women with a middle-level education Only better educated women have been ‘pulled’
into the labour force in response to better paid opportunities.”
Fig:1.3: Women’s workforce participation rate 2009-2013
Fig:1.4: Worker’s sex ratio in some Indian states
The NASSCOM (2002) annual report indicated that there were 2,810 IT
companies in India and it calculated IT service/software exports to be US$7,647 billion.
During the year 2010-11, export of ITES and BPO registered a growth of 10.38 percent
over the year 2009-10. In value terms, export of ITES and BPO was Rs.75,500 crore up
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from Rs.68,400 crore during the year 2009-10 (ASA & Associates: 5). The Information
Technology sector witnessed record breaking turnover of $60 billion in 2009 with
exports accounting for about $47 billion which contributed to over 70 percent of industry
revenues. The industry has grown at a CAGR of close to 30 percent between 2004 and
2009.
Figure 1.5: Turnover of the IT and ITES Industry from 2004-09 in US$ billion.
Source: NASSCOM, 2014.
Figure 1.6:IT BPO Sector in India.
Source: NASSCOM, 2014.
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INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
The Indian IT industry has been one of the fastest developing sector with its
growth rate at 22.7 percent during the year 2010 with aggregate revenues accrued for
33.5 billion amounting to fifty seven percent of total exports. The BPO sector displayed
a growth of fourteen percent to reach $14.1 billion in FY2011 (NASSCOM, 2011: 5).
The estimated revenues as reflective by NASSCOM reveals that India’s IT and
ITES exports rose to $75.8 billion in 2012-13 fiscal from $68.7 billion in 2011-12 fiscal.
As per government data, IT and ITES exports have risen by 23.4 percent at about Rs.4.11
lakh crore in the current fiscal from Rs.3.32 lakh crore in the 2011-12 fiscal which turned
out to be the major milestone in the industry.
Key Highlights during FY 2012 as reported by NASSCOM.
• “Milestone year for Indian IT-BPO industry-aggregate revenues cross the
USD 100 billion mark, exports at USD 69 billion.
• Within the global sourcing industry, India was able to increase its market share
from 51percent in 2009 to 58 percent in 2011, highlighting India’s continued
competitiveness and the effectiveness of India-based providers delivering
transformational benefits.
• Export revenues (including Hardware) estimated to reach USD 69.1 billion in
FY 2012 growing by over 16percent. Domestic revenues (including hardware)
at about USD 31.7 billion, growing by over nine percent.
• Software services revenues (excluding Hardware), comprising nearly 87
percent of the total industry revenues, expected to post USD 87.6 billion in FY
2012; estimated growth of about 14.9 percent over FY 2011.
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• Within software and services exports, IT services accounts for 58 percent BPO
is nearly 23 percent and ER&D and software products account for 19percent..
• As a proportion of national GDP, the sector revenues have grown from 1.2
percent in FY 1998 to 7.5 percent in FY 2012.
• The industry’s share of total Indian exports increased from less than 4 percent
in FY 1998 to about 25 percent in FY 2012.”
Indian IT and BPO Industry’s Contribution to GDP.
By 2001, IT sector had been contributing more than 3 percent to GDP and more
than 5.8 percent to service sector GDP. The growth of BPO sector in India during 2003
was $2.8 billion, in 2004 $3.9 billion and in 2005 $5.7 billion. In 2007-08, this
contribution has increased to 5.58 percent of GDP and 9.91 percent of service sector
GDP (Basu et al. 2013: 345).
The Indian IT-BPO industry’s growth rate is expected to be 10 percent of India’s
GDP and total revenues accrued from services sector to be 14 percent. The government
in the National Policy on Information Technology (NPIT) 2012 envisages to increase IT
Industry revenues, through exports as well as the domestic market from $100 billion to
$300 billion by 2020 (TOI, 08 March 2013). The domestic market contributes to over
$12.5 billion in revenues (21 percent and with the inclusion of the hardware sector it
would be $ 24 Billion. (NASSCOM& IMACS Analysis. In: NSDC Report: 6)
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Figure 1.7: Indian IT-BPO Industry’s Contribution t o GDP
Source: (NASSCOM- Vedashree Report: 5)
We believe that with the current scenario the Indian IT and ITES industry would
record about $220 billion in exports and $60 billion domestically by 2022, aggregating it
to about $260 billion growing at a CAGR of 12.8 percent.
Figure1.8: Forecasted Size of Indian IT and ITES Industry by 2022.
Source: NASSCOM 2020 Perspective and IMACS Analysis (In: NSDC Report: 31)
Clearly, let’s believe that the India has one of a strong potential to become a
global leader and the IT-BPO industry is expected to emerge as a strategic growth driver
by 2020 resulting in pushing the country’s annual GDP and exports, employment,
regional growth, fiscal burden and innovation in the future (NASSCOM, 2010).
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Table 1.5: TOP and MAJOR PLAYERS IN INDAIN IT SECTO R.
2012 -13
No Company Name No Company Name
1 Tata Consultancy Services Ltd 11 Genpact India Pvt Ltd
2 Infosys Ltd 12 MindTree Ltd
3 Wipro Ltd 13 Robert BOSCH Engineering and
Business Solutions Ltd
4 HCL Technologies Ltd 14 KPIT Technologies Ltd
5 Tech Mahindra Ltd 15 Polaris Financial Technology Ltd
6 I Gate 16 Hexaware Technologies Ltd
7 Mphasis Ltd 17 Infotech Enterprise Ltd
8 L&T Infotech Ltd 18 NIIT Technologies Ltd
9 Syntel Ltd 19 Zensar Technologies Ltd
10 CSC, India 20 CGI Information Systems & MGT
consultants Pvt Ltd.
2011 -12
Sl. No Company Name Sl. No Company Name
1 Tata Consultancy Services Ltd 11 Polaris Software Lab Ltd
2 Infosys Ltd 12 MindTree Ltd
3 Wipro Ltd 13 Zensar Technologies Ltd
4 HCL Technologies Ltd 14 Infotech Enterprises Ltd
5 Mahindra IT & Business Services 15 Hexaware Technologies Ltd
6 MphasiS Ltd 16 KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd
7 iGate 17 Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab
Pvt Ltd
8 Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd 18 NIIT Technologies Ltd
9 Syntel Ltd 19 3i Infotech Ltd
10 CSC, India 20 Infinite Computer Solutions (India) Ltd
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2010 -11
Sl. No Company Name Sl. No Company Name
1 Tata Consultancy Services Ltd 11 Syntel Ltd
2 Infosys Ltd 12 Polaris Software Lab Ltd
3 Wipro Ltd 13 MindTree Ltd
4 HCL Technologies Ltd 14 3i Infotech Ltd
5 Mahindra Satyam1 15 NIIT Technologies Ltd.
6 Tech Mahindra Ltd1 16 Infotech Enterprises Ltd
7 MphasiS Ltd 17 Honeywell Technology Solutions
Lab Pvt Ltd.
8 Patni Computer Systems Ltd.2 18 Hexaware Technologies Ltd
9 Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd 19 Zensar Technologies Ltd
10 CSC, India 20 IGATE Corporation2
2009 -10
Sl. No Company Name Sl. No Company Name
1 Tata Consultancy Services Ltd 11 HSBC Software Development Pvt.
Ltd
2 Infosys Technologies Ltd 12 Polaris Software Lab Ltd.
3 Wipro Ltd 13 Mindtree Limited
4 HCL Technologies Ltd 14 3i Infotech Ltd.
5 Tech Mahindra Ltd. 15 Mascon Global Ltd.
6 Mphasis an EDS company 16 Honeywell Technology Solutions
Lab Pvt Ltd
7 Patni Computer Systems Ltd 17 PInfotech Enterprises Ltd.
8 Aricent Technolgies (Holdings) Ltd. 18 Hexaware Technologies Ltd
9 CSC India Pvt. Limited 19 Sonata Software Ltd
10 Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd 20 Zensar Technologies Ltd.
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2008-2009
Sl. No Company Name Sl.No Company Name
1 Tata Consultancy Services Ltd 11 Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd
2 Infosys Technologies Ltd 12 Prithvi Information Solutions Ltd
3 Wipro Ltd. 13 Polaris Software Lab Ltd.
4 HCL Technologies Ltd 14 Mindtree Limited
5 Tech Mahindra Ltd. 15 Mascon Global Ltd.
6 Patni Computer Systems Ltd 16 3i Infotech Ltd.
7 Mphasis an EDS company 17 HSBC Software Development (I)
Pvt. Ltd.
8 Oracle Financial Services Software
Ltd.
18 Hexaware Technologies Ltd
9 Aricent Technologies(Holdings) Ltd. 19 Mastek Ltd
10 CSC India Pvt. Limited 20 Sonata Software Ltd.
Source: NASSCOM, 2014.
Women Workforce in Indian IT Sector:
It is only in the last decade that the entry of women IT professionals entered this
rapidly growing software services sector. The credit of providing direct employment of
about 2.23 million professionals is attributed to the Indian IT- BPO industry turning out
to be the largest private sector employer.(Bhattacharyya & Ghosh, 2012: 45). Kelkar and
Nathan (2002: 433) have noted the positive economic effects of the growing service
industry on both genders in India, stating that “the spread of IT-enabled services has
been immensely beneficial to both women and men”.
The growth of IT sector has generated large employment opportunities for a
major section of unemployed educated youths with several work alternatives available to
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women. (Bhattacharyya & Nath, 2011: 6). The IT and ITES sector of India has been a
catalyst for gender inclusivity and is continuing to include more women into its
workforce than any other industry (Krishnaveni & Deepa, 2009: 11).
The trend witnessed over last decade has been the mutual competence among
many large industry giants fighting it out to have a larger pool of talented women in their
workforce. The emergence of globalization and the subsequent growth in information
Technology saw greater career opportunities being generated for women. The growth of
IT sector has created tremendous employment opportunities for a large section of
educated women. It is observed that the percentage of female employees in the IT sector
in India has increased over the years. Many literatures on women’s increasing
employment in the IT sector and in call centres suggest that women have been an integral
element of the expansion of the new economy (Basi, 2009; Mattingly, 2005; Patel,
2010).
The IT industry offers several career options for Indian women such as software
developers, testing or quality engineers, project leaders, business analysts, business or
client relationship managers, IT infrastructure support personnel, and few women
occupying senior leadership positions also. This has motivated enough women to opt the
IT sector as a preferred choice and hence is the rising trend of number of women at the
entry level and the middle management level in the IT sector. This higher percentage of
women’s participation in the IT workforce can be attributed to competitive salaries,
international mobility and exposure, women friendly policies based on knowledge-
centric skills possession and physically less demanding work processes in comfortable
indoor work environment (Shanker, 2008).
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Figure 1.9: Profile of People Employed in IT Industry (Source: NSDC Report: 9)
The creation of jobs in the ITES sector has a multiplier effect on employment
generation. The ITES segment employed just 40,000 people in late 1990s. The industry
continues to be a net employment generator and added about 230,000 new jobs in FY
2012, thus providing direct employment to about 2.8 million and indirectly employing
8.9 million people (NASSCOM).
The most startling data comes from Nasscom which are validated by the fact that
37 percent of India’s IT-BPO workforce is comprised of women (NASSCOM, 2011).
There is a rising trend of technocrats continuously over years. The number of software
professionals increased from 6,800 in 1985 to 650,000 in 2003-04 (NASSCOM, 2004).
In 1993, only 10 percent of the workforce was women. In 1998, 18 percent of IT
workforce was women which were higher than the national average of 12 percent. and in
2003, the proportion increased to 21percent (Dube et al. 2012: 158).
Women in the IT-BPO sector, in India accounts for 35 percent and 50 percent of
the total workforce respectively (TOI, 25 Dec. 2012). The ratio of men to women
employees in IT industries was 1.25:1 during 2000-01 and this increased to 1.43:1 during
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2007-08 (Basu et al. 2013: 345). According to NASSCOM estimates the average male
to female ratio improved to 70:30 in 2010 from 76:24 in 2005 (Cited in Basu et al. 2013:
347). The number of women at the entry level positions of the IT and BPO sector grew
from 421,460 in 2006 to 670,984 in 2008 (NASSCOM, 2008).
NASSCOM survey reported that India enjoys the credit of good number of
working women in any single country in the world, which it fairly attributed to the
growth of IT-BPO industry. “Out of the 400 million workforce in India, around 30-35
percent are women, and only one-fifth of these women work in the urban areas. Number
of women working in the IT-BPO sector grew 60 percent in 2007-08, as per a survey
(Cited in The Economic Times, 13 May 2009).
In 2007-08, the number of women in its workforce was 28 percent as compared
to 24 percent in 2005-06, and 38 percent were women working at entry level in the
workforce as compared to 47 percent in 2007-08 (Dube et al. 2012: 158).
Women formed for about 31 percent in FY2009, accounting for 45 percent of
new intake. Out of this 26 percent of the female employees were bread earners, while 20
percent were at the managerial level or above. Totally, nearly 58 percent of the IT-BPO
workforce is from Tier 2/3 cities with 56 percent employees being the key bread earners.
Five million women are expected to join the IT-BPO workforce by 2020 and there will
be an increase of 45percent of women workforce as compared to in 2010 (NASSCOM,
2010).
The incidence of long term employment in Indian IT and ITES industry is
expected that the industry would approach to provide direct employment opportunities
for about 7.5 million persons by 2022. The incremental human resource requirement in
the IT and ITES sector is expected to be about 5.3 million persons till 2022 (NSDC
Report: 33&34).
25
Why the IT Industry?
The Indian IT sector has been the Limelight sector for good time now and the
industry has contributed greatly in boosting India's image from a slowly developing
economy to a global player in providing world class technology solutions. According to
the IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation) figures, the Indian IT industry is set to touch
$225 billion by 2020.
The IT Industry’s Decade in Review: The It Industry’s GDP is offset at 65
percent of India’s cumulative net oil imports. The Incremental Employment of both
urban employment (direct and indirect) is expected to an extent of 45 percent and over
30 percent women employees; and new entrants expected to join the workforce will be
45 percent. and Education trends to be 6-7x increase in tertiary education in top 7 states
that account for 90percent of industry exports, with an Established image that India
would be a global business destination by forging relationships with 75percent of the
Fortune 500 companies.( Source: NASSCOM)
The NASSCOM ‘Perspective 2020 traced the industry’s long term opportunities
and challenges and factors affecting the same. It has also planned to roll out specific and
collective measures that the industry, NASSCOM and the Government will need to
undertake over the next 12 years for the industry’s aspirations and dreams to turn into a
reality.
“The Indian IT industry has grown from USD 2 billion in export revenues in
1998 to USD 47 billion today, employing over two million people. Its impact on the
Indian economy and stakeholders, including customers and employees, remains
unparalleled. Today, the industry recognizes that the next decade will be fundamentally
different from the last one, owing to a radically restructured global economy; rapidly
evolving customer needs, services and business models; and rising stakeholder
26
aspirations. The NASSCOM ‘Perspective 2020’ defines the opportunities and the
challenges for the industry to drive sustained growth in the domestic and global markets.
IT Industry’s Impact on Indian Economy in 2020
The annual GDP rate is expected to be 6 percent and the annual exports is
expected at 28 percent and the IT sector is all set to provide direct and indirect
employment to 30 million employees and job creation in rural and non- metro areas also.
The infrastructure is aimed at building satellite townships around tier -1 cities (Source:
NASSCOM)
The Information Technology Industry to Transform Business and Transform
India:
The economic integration and workforce supply and demand dynamics have
portrayed opportunities for the Indian technology and business services industry to be
transformed. India will emerge as a most prominent hub for global innovation with a
focus on clinical research, mobile applications and energy efficiency/climate change
solutions. Through innovative business models, this sector will also redefine its customer
value proposition and capture growth from currently untapped markets. In addition,
harnessing ICT based solutions will help drive inclusive growth by uplifting 30 million
citizens each year.
Challenges Ahead: Some of the major challenges that are before the information
technology industries are Employability, Infrastructure enhancement, policies that are
employee friendly and stiff competition from low cost economies. Currently only 10-15
percent of the graduates are employable in our country and combating 26 percent of
employable engineering graduates is yet another major setback experienced by our IT
industries. The focus fold of infrastructure has been limited only to nine cities which are
27
contributing to almost 95 percent of exports in India and development of two and three
tire cities remains unaddressed in a planned fashion. India is experiencing lack of
supportive environment in terms of policy formulation which is resulting in huge
competition from the low cost countries like China, Philippines and eastern European
countries which are posing huge threat to India.
FIVE FOLD VISION:
1. Build a Pre-eminent Innovation Hub in India
• Increase the number of PhD holders to 200,000 by 2020
• Allocate 2% of national budget for research
2. Catalyzing growth beyond today’s market
• Industry to focus on new geographies, verticals and capabilities
• Build the domestic market
3. Trusted global destinations for professional services
• World class standard in governance and risk management
• Build urban infrastructure in 10-15 Tier II, III ci ties
4. Harnessing ICT for inclusive.
• Create National Information Infrastructure
• Blueprint for IT enabled solutions for public services efficacy
5. High caliber talent pool of over three million professionals
• Enhanced private participation in education
• Build specialized talent pool/global workforce
Source: NASSCOM
28
Industry giants faring in terms of the treatment of their women employees?
The research under study focussed upon some of the preliminary information
about the companies, the Top management, including their directors and senior
management drawn from the companies websites to examine the brief preliminary foray
into the industry and thus has revealed that although many of these companies have
started to contribute and promote gender equality in the workplace and women in senior
management positions seems a rarity.
The data collected on members of the top management and executive
management teams are listed below. The given data has been shared on the basis of the
latest data available on the websites of the companies and therefore appropriate to use as
a tool of comparative analysis, the information on the executive management teams can
be misleading, as each companies have different criteria set for themselves of what
constitutes a senior management team (for example, Tata Consultancy Services lists two
individuals, their CEO and CFO, as their executive management team, but Wipro Ltd.
lists 24 individuals from a variety of different departments).
Because of lack of complete clarity on what and who constitute as part of the
senior management and members of the board and based on their Annual Investor’s
Report has been relied over and above the information available on their websites.
29
Table 1.6: Women Board Members and Executive Team of Some of the Major IT
Companies.
Company Women’s Participation
TATA consultancy Services
Limited (as on 2012-13)
• No. of women on the Board: 1/14
• No. of women holding executive management
positions: 2/30
Infosys Limited • No. of women on the Board: 1/15
• No. of women holding executive management
positions: 1/14
WIPRO Limited • No. of women on Board: 0/12
• No. of women in executive management team: 2/23
HCL Tech Limited • No. of women on Board 1/9
• No. of women holding executive management
positions: 0/18
Tech Mahindra • No. of women on Board: 0/11
• No. of women holding executive management
positions: 1/17
Mahindra Satyam • No. of women on Board 1/16
• No. of women holding executive management
positions: 0/6
Source: http://infy.com/cVfEwp
The Pull Factor
The driving factors which have inspired women to participate in greater number
in the Indian information technology are for embracing a white-collar job with
comparatively high salary, easy international mobility, gender-neutral policy based on
knowledge-centric skills possession, flexible work routine and physically less demanding
work process in comfortable indoor work-environment (Upadhya, 2006; Shankar, 2008)
30
Contribution towards Women Empowerment.
IT sector has provided enhanced social mobility of women and participation rate
of women in IT industry and has posed several career opportunities for their
advancement. Studies point out that the financial power of women has enhanced their
bargaining power within their households (Kelker & Nathan, 2002).Enhancing women’s
capabilities will lead to achievements of enhancing status of women in society (Agarwal
et al. 2006).
The concept of ‘male breadwinner’ is slowly giving way to gender transformation
in the IT sector, leading towards an equal double-income family (Bhattacharyya & Nath,
2011: 8). IT industry has created adequate platform for women to break the traditional
barriers and women have started to experience economic independence in the family
while playing the roles of housewives and mothers (Bhattacharyya & Nath, 2011: 8).
Clark and Sekher (2007) have inferred that flexibilised labour market enhances women
employees’ financial independence, wider exposure and greater work experience to
stabilise their positions in the male dominated society.
Feminization (Stereotypes)
The Indian BPOs/ITES industries have created the needed ambience to hire more
women in the workforce, women occupying the senior management positions is still a
rarity in a consistently male dominated industry due to feminization of certain jobs
(Bhattacharyya & Nath, 2011: 9).Despite women are preferred during recruitment, yet
they suffer from delayed promotion for staying longer in each job (Bhattacharyya &
Nath, 2011: 10). Women get stuck at lower level of job-ladder leading to feminization of
certain service activities which restrict their career growth and as a result very few
women reach higher level of managerial jobs (Kelker et al. 2002).
31
Women have been actively employed in the ‘Information’, ‘Communication’, but
not in the ‘Technology”, due to inherent bias towards women resulting in feminization
(Morgan et al. 2004). Research results as revealed by the Centre for Talent Innovation
has found that 55 percent of Indian women employees encounter severe bias almost as a
routine in the workplace and as result they decide either to cut off themselves from the
work or hold themselves back to move to the next ladder of their career growth.(Hewlett,
2012).Dataquest’s Best Employer Survey 2012 research survey results revealed the
percentage of women employed in the IT industry in India has actually declined from 26
percent in 2010 to 22 percent in 2012 even though the number of jobs created in this
sector continues to increase annually (Cited in: Sharma 2012).
The Representation of women is maximum at the entry and junior level and
least at the top rung; There is a greater participation of women in the workforce with
China having employed women in maximum number as compared to India which has
been consistently performing low in terms of women’s representation and the average
representation of women at junior level surpasses the average national female labour
force; the average percentage drop from junior to middle level positions is 29.06 percent
with India (48.07 percent) having the most significant drop at this level (The Community
Business, 2011: 4). Women’s pay scale with eight years of experience becomes similar
to men in the same position having five years of experience (Bhattacharyya & Nath,
2011: 10).
The empowerment of women still seems an unsolved mystery for the large IT
companies in India. (NASSCOM, 2009: 8).The turnover rate of women employees also
is relatively higher as women tend to quit their jobs in the pursuit of their work life
balance. (Rajesh & Ekambaram, 2913: 86).Therefore, the question that as to what extent
women in IT industries enjoy inclusivity in the organizational milieu, where gender
32
neutral and equal opportunity policies are still not addressed in righteous manner.
Kelkar et al. (2002) opined that women’s access to IT sector employment does not bring
about the needed change in the social strata for women within the household due to the
fact that IT industry is still male dominated. Hence, in spite of having adequate measures
they are not within the reach of the most of the women employees.
Gender Inclusivity and Gender Diversity in organizations create a challenging
work environment was examined in light of the perceived opportunities for women
(Misra & Gupta, 2009: 13). In the backdrop of lack of gender inclusivity and sensitivity
in Indian society, organizations are still combating with several managerial challenges in
managing the gender diverse workforce. (Nag, 2009: 15).This study aims at gaining into
the concept and practices of gender inclusivity and diversity of IT industries in India
with a special reference to IT companies in Bangalore city.
Many research studies have focussed work group diversity but management
scholars have recently started shifting the focus folds on Gender Inclusivity and
Diversity A survey of what was available in the public domain revealed that there were
no comprehensive studies on women in the Indian IT sector . Hence the Inclusion
Literature is still under development with limited agreement on the conceptual
underpinnings on the construct. (Kurup et al. 2011: 224).
Glass Ceiling
Many Studies have drawn the attention and the existence of ‘glass ceiling’ in IT
industry as the women workforce is mostly concentrated at lower level of job hierarchy
(Bhattacharyya & Nath, 2011: 8). The gender-based stereotypes have resulted in
structure and culturally biases defined as glass ceiling (Abraham, 2008). Study by
Shanker (2008) in Bangalore echoed the same observation that women executives were
positioned mostly at the entry and Junior levels and less attention was paid to elevating
33
them to the middle and senior levels. Even though the proportion of women workforce
at entry level as well as middle level management has increased considerably, there is
inadequate representation of women at the senior level in the IT sector (Rajesh &
Ekambaram, 2013: 85).
Only 5 percent of the women have been able to move to the top echelons of the
corporate ladder with most of them concentrated at the junior levels. (Rajesh &
Ekambaram, 2013: 86).NASSCOM-Mercer Report (2009) showed that women
representation is only around 5 per cent (at the senior levels. About 48 per cent of
women employees in IT sector attrite every year. NASSCOM-PWC (2010) reported 37
per cent of the entry level employees in IT companies are women, whereas their
proportion at managerial level is only 11 per cent. Upadhya and Vasavi (2006:91) also
reflected the fact that women tend to be over-represented in the lower jobs and under-
represented in higher level jobs. The ILO study found significant “clustering” of women
professionals at the lower end of the job hierarchy (Rothboeck, et al. 2001: 67). Though
many IT companies promote gender equality in their organization, women’s level of
participation at the senior levels shows a grim picture.
1.2 . Statement of the Problem:
Currently women employees comprise of about one-third of the total IT sector
workforce in India. However, inspite of noteworthy contributions made by women
employees in the workforce many issues need the attention of the stake holders involved
in context of Gender Inclusion and Diversity. There exists the gender biased
stereotypical policies – such as the notion that women are adept at soft skills and hence
are good at routine, standard and repetitive functions; such a notion have an indirect
bearing on the recruitment and promotion of women employees (Rajesh and
Ekambaram, 2013: 86) and are not able to move to the next ladder of hierarchy after
34
certain level of career growth as they fail to bargain for proper perks, stock options, pay
scales etc. (Bhattacharyya & Ghosh, 2012: 46).Indian IT sector registered the highest
attrition rate of 23 per cent in first quarter of 2010-11 (ASA & Associates: 6).
1.3. Significance of the Study
The outcomes of this study have wider significance and implications for
organizations, Government, NGO’s and all other stake holders in several areas:
Women employees in IT companies in India are in transition with emancipator
powers in public sphere but not in private sphere. Women have in the past and are now
also finding it difficult to challenge the structural inequalities prevailing in the
workplace. The study looks into the women’s participation in the workplace their
professional advancement, organization’s effort to improve inclusivity and diversity and
the perceived barriers of gender Inclusivity and equality.
The findings of this study are relevant policymakers to enact suitable legislation
and public policies to allow and enable inclusivity and diversity. The study will give
some directions for the organizations to provide supportive structure and empower them
to provide opportunities to climb the organizational hierarchy. This study will identify
the obstacles to women for Entry, Retention and Career growth. In this backdrop, it is
relevant to find out the prevailing conditions of women workers in IT industry in the
light of contributions made by information technology industry’s path towards creating a
inclusive workforce.
1.4. Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the Indian IT/ITES women workforce in Bangalore, who
constitutes a new kind of global technical workforce known as “knowledge workers”, in
that they are highly educated and well paid. Participation of women in the corporate
35
world is an important aspect in creating a world class working environment, particularly
for a developing country like India. Level of women’s representation at the different
levels of organizational hierarchy, the opportunities that exist or denied for advancement
of women within the organization, how far the organizations are intended in promoting
initiatives that will ensure women’s inclusivity and the women’s perceived barriers,
within and outside the organization which hamper their professional advancement and
inclusivity will be brought out through this study.
The National Policy for the Empowerment of Women seeks “equal access to
participation and decision making of women in social, political and economic life of the
nation” (National Policy, 2001:1). The study attempts to examine how successfully has
the software sector in Bangalore has addressed gender inclusivity and diversity?
This study will expose the women’s level of participation in various
organizational hierarchies in the IT industries in Bangalore which would emphasize the
need for speedy correction in a developing country like India, which can arguably benefit
more from such situation. In this research study, the career trajectories of Indian women
professionals in the IT industry in Bangalore city are presented. The study traces the
gender inclusivity and diversity practices in the IT industry in Bangalore city in the
backdrop of Indian culture.
The findings of this study will help in identifying the measures needed to enable
and empower women employees to have a meaningful career. The study recommends
practices that will ensure that women’s potential is put to maximum use while granting
her the space to shoulder the responsibilities that various social roles she plays, alongside
a demanding work career.
36
1.5. Research Objectives:
This study pursued the following objectives:
1) To assess the level of representation of women in the IT industries in Bangalore
city.
2) To examine the level of career promotional opportunities offered to women
employees in the IT industries.
3) To evaluate the organizational initiatives implemented for the advancement of
women employees in the IT industries.
4) To examine the Barriers for career progression perceived by women employees
in the IT industries.
5) To compare the women employees’ Expected and Actual ‘Gender-Inclusive’
practices in the IT industries.
1.6. Hypotheses Development
India is the lowest with 5.4 per cent of the directorships being held by women
(Banerji et al. 2010). Upadhya and Vasavi (2006) found that the workforce was less
hetrogeneous than in commonly assumed in Bangalore IT workforce. Baron and Hannan
(2007) accounted for only 4 per cent of senior management positions in Silicon-Valley.
Moor (2000) studied the low participation rate of women in the IT workforce and the
association with job satisfaction and gender. Catalyst (1999) indicated only 3.3 per cent
of officer level positions were held by women. The following hypothesis was drawn
based on the above discussions.
37
Ho1: The Representation of women workforce in the IT companies in Bangalore
does not significantly vary.
Ha1: The Representation of women workforce in the IT companies in Bangalore
significantly varies.
Arflen et al. (2004) stated that gendered stereotypes limit the advancement of
women’s career. Walby and Olsen (2002) reiterated the prevalence of men’s superiority
over women and gender division of work promotion in IT industries. Brett and Stroh
(1999) confirmed the existence of salary gap by gender Wajcman (1998) referred to the
invisible barriers obstructing women’s promotion opportunities includes “glass ceiling”
Simard et al. (undated) found that the middle level of career mostly involves women
employees with considerable work experience but not still been able to move to senior
leadership positions. Based on the above evidences, the following hypothesis was
forwarded.
Ho1: The Promotional opportunities to women employees in the IT companies are
not significantly associated with their total years of working experience.
Ha2: The Promotional opportunities to women employees in the IT companies are
significantly associated with their total years of working experience.
Bhattacharyya and Ghosh (2013) identified some deficiencies such as provision
of off-peak transport facilities, crèche facility, parenting workshops and women’s forums
etc. According to Basu et al. (2013), opportunities for women are constrained by
informal institutions such as limited support system, biased laws and social attitude.
Their career prospects are perceived to be further limited by domestic responsibilities
(Rajesh & Ekambaram, 2013). Bhattacharyya and Nath (2011) argued that women so
far have found it extremely challenging to combat the structural inequalities and gender
38
relations at work. Castell’s (2000) argued about the prevailing educational and
occupational barriers facing female software engineers in India. Based on the above
discussions, the following three hypotheses (H3, H4 and H5) were posited, which relates
the perceived barriers to educational levels, career progression and age.
Ho3a: There is no statistically significant difference between the educational levels
of women employees of IT companies in their perceived (a) structural, (b)
managerial and (c) psychological barriers of career progression.
Ha3a: There is statistically significant difference between the educational levels of
women employees of IT companies in their perceived (a) structural, (b)
managerial and (c) psychological barriers of career progression.
Ho4a: There is no statistically significant difference between the perceived (a)
structural, (b) managerial and (c) psychological barriers towards career
progression between the women employees of the sample IT companies.
Ha4a: There is statistically significant difference between the perceived (a)
structural, (b) managerial and (c) psychological barriers towards career
progression between the women employees of the sample IT companies.
Ho5a: There is no significant difference in the perceived levels of (i) structural, (ii)
managerial and (iii) psychological barriers between the different age groups
of the IT sector women employees.
Ha5a: There is significant difference in the perceived levels of (i) structural, (ii)
managerial and (iii) psychological barriers between the different age groups
of the IT company women employees.
Agarwal (2009) emphasized the fact that if women have to perform their best
there needs to be adequate support mechanisms both on home and work front.
39
Tank and Khuperkar (2009) also recognized the presence of several roadblocks
women’s organizational promotion. Armstrong et al. (2007) analysed and found a
positive relationship between advancement and work-family conflict. To explore these
views, the following hypothesis was proposed.
Ho6: The perceived structural, managerial and psychological barriers do not
significantly impact the IT sector women employees’ organizational
promotions.
Ha6: The perceived structural, managerial and psychological barriers
significantly impact the IT sector women employees’ organizational
promotions.
Nag (2000) traced the rewards and challenges faced by a team of managers in an
organization. Kelker et al. (2002) pointed out lower payment for women. Agarwal
(2000) argued that policies should be undertaken towards gender equity in the IT
industry, such as flexi timings, work at home, provision of day-care centres and crèches
etc. With this discussion, the following two hypotheses were posited.
Ho7: Gender Inclusivity practices do not significantly differ between the IT
companies.
Ha7: Gender Inclusivisty practices does significantly differ between the IT
companies.
Ho8: Difference between the perceived expected and actual gender equality
initiatives is same among the IT companies.
Ha8: Difference between the expected and actual gender equality initiatives is not
the same among the IT companies.
40
1.7. Limitations of the Study
• The primary limitation of the study relates to the use of Non- probability
(Convenient) sampling design. This implies that the results emanating from the
research cannot be confidently extrapolated to the population of women
employees or software professionals.
• The study was confined to a limited number of respondents from the selected IT
companies in Bangalore City. Hence it may reflect the overall views of women in
IT Industries.
• The responses of the respondents are instantaneous and pertains to the time of the
interview and may not disclose the present facts. It is necessary to observe that
while research is quantitative it is only based on the responses of the survey and
interviewed women respondents in Bangalore City only.
• However a written confidential Non- Disclosure agreement had to be signed by
the researcher before administering the survey as most companies at first were
unwilling and even if permitted to participate were on the conditions that their
identity would not be revealed no matter what.
1.8. Chapter Scheme
Chapter 1: Introduction : In the first chapter the overall view of the global and Indian IT
sectors and its growth. Further, women workforce participation in the Indian IT industry,
problem statement of the research, the objectives pursued, the hypotheses tested, the
methodology used for this study, the method and selection criteria of sample
respondents, description of tools used to analyze the relationship between different
variables and the tests carried out to test the hypotheses and limitations of this study are
discussed.
41
Chapter 2: Review of Literature: In the second chapter a comprehensive review of
study-related literatures are presented grouping them under appropriate headings and
sub-headings.
Chapter 3: Gender Inclusivity, Diversity and Equality: In third chapter a detailed
discussion on the concept of gender inclusivity and diversity is discussed along with the
presentation of gender inclusivity and diversity measures taken by the government and
major IT companies.
Chapter 4: Research Methodology: In chapter four the Research methodology adapted
for the study is studied.
Chapter-5: Data Analysis and Interpretation: The analysis and interpretation are
presented in this chapter.
Chapter- 6: Summary of Research Findings: This chapter discusses the results of the
various tools applied to test the research hypotheses and includes statistical
interpretations of the test results.
Chapter 7: Suggestions and Conclusion: Major suggestions and conclusion, based on
the findings are presented in this chapter and also provides vital leads for future research.
Summary
In this chapter the growth of IT and ITES sector with reference to global and
Indian perspective; overview of women’s workforce in this sector; problem statement;
significance of the study, objectives of this study; hypotheses developed and were tested
and the chapter scheme of this research report are discussed.