Pink Ladder – India’s first comprehensive career enhancement ecosystem for women professionals released the findings of its pan India female students survey-“My Future, My Voice”. This research was carried out among 200 college students across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune & Kolkata.  

The results of this research are concerning. While only a few female students feel a negative impact on placement opportunities available at college, the major impact is in long term reduction in career opportunities, lack of role models and support systems to nurture them in these challenging times, and the negative perception towards career-oriented women in the society is resulting in an alarming number of them abandoning or settling for less in their careers.

Some of the key findings include:

• Over 18.5 % respondents feel male and female students are not treated in a like manner when it comes to career opportunities during campus placements. However, while campus recruitment is pretty diverse in its hiring, the latter data on career progression and role models show an alarming drop.
• Over 27.5% respondents feel there are decreased career opportunities for women post pandemic
• Only 36% respondents foresee more women in leadership positions in the future exposing the clear gap in women in leadership roles across organizations.
• Over 87.5% respondents feel females are not depicted in leadership roles as frequently as men 
• 50% respondents do not see enough women leaders to emulate as role models
• Over 86.5% respondents feel males are not depicted in nurturing care-giving roles as frequently as women
• Over 38.5% respondents see a negative perception towards strong career oriented women stopping them from pursuing their career goals
• Over 38.5% respondents don’t see themselves having a long career stint and reaching their goals
• Family commitments, lack of support system for career progression are top 2 reasons for them not having a long career stint/reaching their goals. 

“The current pandemic has had a significant impact on women and there is an immediate need to nudge the leaders to relook at gender diversity under a new lens for an altered world. Efforts to mitigate these negative repercussions will be essential to accelerate the gender diversity charter and thereby minimize the long-term societal and economic consequences the pandemic has had on women. I hope insights from our report will help compliment the efforts of HR leaders in their organizations’ gender diversity charter,” Dr. Karthik Nagendra, Co-Founder, Pink Ladder.  

The report was released on this year’s women’s day. Speaking about the survey findings, Robyn Catagnus, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Applied Behavior Analysis.

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology & member of the International Alliance for Gender Studies said, “During this unusual time in history, families’ needs present another challenge for women with career advancement dreams. Students in competitive programs worry their family commitments are likely to hinder them from reaching their goals. Some of the survey findings are tragic, reflecting a sense of hopelessness about the future.”

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