Managers who promote women to continue their career by offering them flexibility to work from home or flexi-timing must be rewarded, says Mr Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, brand-comm, while speaking on the topic ‘Level Playing Field or Different Paths’. Mr Sridhar was addressing the Madras Management Women Manager’s Convention 2011.

Organisations usually reward only the managers who are ‘go-getters’ but companies must recognise and promote managers who manage such issues keeping the long-term perspective, he said.

Mr Ramanujam said that it was imperative for a woman to find a spouse who is supportive of her career. “Do not underestimate the power of the spouse in a women’s career development,” he said.

Talking about whether women and men were equal, Dr Sandhya Shekhar, CEO, IIT Madras Research Park, said statistics show that there is an improvement in women working at the entry level to 37 per cent in 2008 from 30 per cent in 2006. However, it dramatically fell to 2.25 per cent, implying that very few women make it to the top. “This is a serious issue,” she said.

According to another statistics, women across the world constitute two-third of its work hours and only earn one-tenth of the world income and just own one-hundredth of world property.

While the above statistics may be grim it is also seen that women control 80 per cent of the household spending, including retail purchases and groceries. If you thought men decided on what car to buy, think again, close to 85 per cent of all automobiles purchased was influenced by women.

Dr Sandhya Shekhar said that it is not whether women and men are equal but it is about equivalence, the harmonising and synergy between the two genders.