By Kausalya Saptharishi

Women’s empowerment on a global scale continues to be at the top of the agenda for the international community at large. But, in spite of the important milestones achieved in the areas of gender equality and inclusive economic growth, a lot remains to be done by governments and other key policy makers to improve the lot of women around the world.

This was the general theme of discussion at a panel titled “Transforming the Global Economy by Empowering Women” that was held on Day Two of the 2018 edition of the One Globe Forum at New Delhi. The panel, comprised of influential thought leaders from government, business and civil society, made a strong case for promoting women’s empowerment through leadership, as it felt too many women are still locked out of our economies.

Panelist Sutapa Sanyal, Former Director General of Police, UP Police Mahila Samman Prakoshth, kicked off the discussion by highlighting the importance of investing in women’s economic empowerment.  She said,“Only the economies which work with and for women are the ones which can achieve sustainable economic growth. All studies, whether it’s ILO or World Bank or McKinsey Report or individual NGOs’ reports—they all suggest that if there is gender parity at the workplace, you can up the GDP by so many percentage points; $28 trillion can be unlocked.”

She emphasized that women are being short-changed everywhere—whether at home or when they try to re-enter the workforce—and barriers that impede their progress must be removed.

Fellow panelist Baroness Sandip Verma, Member of the House of Lords, UK,concurred with Ms. Sanyal’s views and said that if women achieve their full economic potential, $28 trillion can be unlocked by 2025, which is 26 % of the global GDP. She noted, “If you leave out 50 % of the population, you leave out 50 % of the potential.”

Coming down hard on the wide gender gaps that exist everywhere, she argued that the 2008 global financial crisis could have been prevented had there been more women in the boardroom, as the fairer sex tends to look at the larger picture without a sense of entitlement. She said, “Lehman Brothers, had it been Lehman Sisters, may not have created the mess that the poorest of the poor are now having to pick up the pieces on.”

Baroness Verma also stressed on the importance of quality educational opportunities to unleash everybody’s potential and said that it’s critical to ensure that the workplace is a safe haven for women and not a breeding ground for harassment of any type. Concluding her points, she said that the status quo must be challenged in order to achieve sustainable gender parity.

Co-panelist Ronit Avni, CEO, LocalizED, listed four broad domains that require deeper reforms in favour of women’s empowerment: strengthening the legal framework, eliminating critical structural barriers, creating a visible cultural shift, and changing traditional ideology. She noted, “Each of these is a part of a delicate ecosystem that either can help us get us to a point where we are living equally or can pull us back. These are precious gains we are making every day and they can be undone.”

Addressing the hotbed issue of gender disparity in the field of entrepreneurship, technology and advancing the knowledge economy, Ms. Avni brought to light a disheartening statistic. She said, “Less than 6% of all venture capital funds and all investment funds are going to women-run and women-owned businesses.”

Moderator Dr. Priya Virmani, Political & Economic Analyst, and Social Entrepreneur,

argued, “We have enough engineers and intellectuals, but do we have people who can bring on board more compassion, more empathy? Architects of compassion, builders of empathy—that’s where I think women will also play a very predominant role in redressing the very testosterone-oriented world that we have currently created.”

She maintained that equitable gender parity can be achieved only when men are also empowered and view themselves as stakeholders in the cause of women’s progress.

Ms. Sanyal averred that proactive governance, a robust law enforcement system, and a gender-sensitized judiciary are vital to ensuring the security and safety of women.

The seasoned IPS officer shared that even for her, it’s not easy to go to a police station to register a complaint as such places are not entirely women-friendly. In this context,

she cited the example of the online portal she had designed to enable female victims to register their complaints from anywhere in Uttar Pradesh. It was the police personnel who used to visit the homes of these women instead of the other way around, resulting in tangible positive changes on the ground.

Ms. Sanyal also touched upon the under-representation of women in leadership roles in both the Indian bureaucracy and corporate sector and called for increased diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Dr. Virmani underscored the macho culture that’s widely prevalent across police stations in India and believed Ms. Sanyal’s online portal initiative for women offered an innovative solution to lobby the government to create a sense of accountability and awareness to bring about positive change. She additionally noted, “This is why it would be really meaningful for forums like this to be more than the narrative and also be about delivery.”

Baroness Verma agreed with her fellow panelists and pointed out that the onus lies with the politicians who make the policies that help institutions to correct themselves. She said, “It also means that politicians have a huge responsibility on how they express their opinion on gender and it really is about proper representation.”

She explained that in order to challenge patriarchal norms, a deep-rooted change is required by including women in positions of authority. She said, “If you are not a stakeholder, you don’t really care about what’s going on around you. So, you need to be at that top table.”

Building on what the Baroness had to say, Ms. Avni cited examples where even in the developed world like the United States, mindsets need to be changed at the top echelons of government and business if one hoped to see more gender parity across the board. She argued, “You might have tax breaks if you take a client out for dinner; you can expense it. But if you want to go out to a work-related dinner and you have to pay for a babysitter, you can’t expense that.” She added that even at The World Economic Forum at Davos, there are no breastfeeding rooms for mothers.

Ms. Avni observed that if there was a 50-50 balance of women and men in government, more positive structural changes could be expected, paving the way for a more equitable work landscape.

Summing up, Ms. Avni raised the issue of mass shootings in the US to hone in on safety concerns for women and the society at large. She said, “One of the consistent tendencies that is associated between the mass shooters is misogyny…we need to tackle it from an economic standpoint—especially as women become greater consumers and are entering the workforce in numbers.”

At the conclusion of the session, Baroness Verma candidly admitted to the audience that working mothers can’t have it all. She said, “Stop trying to be perfect…why do you need to be the Miss. Perfect or the Mrs. Perfect? I stopped cooking years ago…ultimately, why do we have to try and satisfy everybody else at the cost of not satisfying ourselves at all?”