Dr. Chitra Rajaram

For all the progress made by women around the world, it almost always appears to be three steps forward and four steps back.

Take the role of women in corporate leadership. At first glance, there appears to be more women in such roles these days. But is it only because these few women are so high-profile that it appears as if there are more women in leadership roles than there actually are?

Statistically, things could not be better for women. In places like Scandinavia and Britain, a third or more corporate managers are female. In Japan, 26 female parliamentarians were voted into office in 2005. More recently, Ms. Angela Merkel was appointed as Germany’s first female chancellor, the countries’ highest office. But what do these numbers really mean? After all, there are only 17 female executive directors in companies listed in the FTSE 100 index.

In fact, the latest research reported in Newsweek magazine noted that the representation of women in corporate leadership has stagnated in the last few years. After all the years of debate, women are still running on the spot. Study after study shows it is often the working woman’s other full-time job—as wife, mother, caregiver—that makes it most difficult for her to stay on the career ladder. But how long are we going to sit back and blame employers for these difficulties?

The way I see it, it is the responsibility of women who have made it in the corporate world to make it conducive for other women to succeed. They should take the lead in providing flexi-work hours, the infrastructures for infant care, childcare, even networking opportunities.

Recently I came across the case of Ms. Leslie Varon, a woman who felt pressured to work the same number of hours as her boss when she began her career. Like all young mothers, she found it very hard to cope.

She realized many of her colleagues felt the same way. So, they banded together and brought it up with the boss. The women explained that they wanted to bring work home so they could have supper with their families.

It took the boss a while, but he relented. And these women showed him their work was not affected. The boss slowly but surely began to believe that an employee’s value lies not in the number of hours spent at work, but in her work. Today, Ms. Varon is Xerox’s finance vice-president.

In Singapore there are women in key positions—Temasek Holdings, Hewlett-Packard and SMRT all have female CEOs. The 2001 General Election yielded more women in parliament than ever before. There are also two female Ministers of State.
The impact these women have had is obvious, with calls for more family-friendly practices and policies. But is this enough? Do we need to wait for the Government to make it better for women to remain in the workforce?

Seven years ago, I took up the post of editor at a local publication. As the only woman editor in the organization, I realized there were things I could do to make life better for all women in it. Simple adjustments such as coming to work a little earlier or later due to family commitments were easily arranged. These were not complicated requests and could be easily accommodated by any organization.

A case in point was a stressed mother of three who told me her children were demanding, she could not afford a maid and she needed the income.

I suggested that she work from home three days a week and come in twice a week. We fitted her with a personal computer at home. Her work was excellent and we were able to meet our deadlines.

Bosses should be encouraged to change the mindset that one has to be physically in the office to do great work. Women will be empowered and will excel if they are provided flexibility and responsibility at work. I can speak from experience for sure.
I was appointed MD of the Singapore office of GolinHarris only recently. We are a global organization. We have 30 offices around the world. In America, women hold 75 percent of the key leadership positions ranging from managing directors to directors. In the Asia Pacific offices, out of 17 senior positions, 10 are women. In the early days, people said public relations was a "softer industry" and that is why so many women rose up the career ladder; however, in recent times it is becoming more apparent that it is the work-life balance attitude of companies like ours that allow for women to succeed and take on corporate leadership positions.

For example, in our Singapore office, we have women who work a four-day working week; some have flexi-hours, and often we also accommodate their needs when their children are ill or they need some time off. Little things, really, that go a long way.

As women, we acknowledge the pioneering Angela Merkels of the world and talk about how far we have come, but let us not forget that we have a long way to go and there remains a lot of work to be done. And we women can make the difference for other women.

Dr. Chitra Rajaram is the managing director of GolinHarris in Singapore.