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227 Spring Break Trip: India

Caroline Seaman May 13, 2004

The Roles of Women in Indian Society

During the Spring Break Trip to India, we visited the offices of The Times of India and had a chance to speak with senior editorial staff from the Times newspaper as well as with staff from Femina magazine, the leading womens publication in the country. Throughout the trip I was impressed by the large number of women in senior positions at the companies we visited. I was also amazed at the diversity of personalities, backgrounds, and accomplishments of these women. However, given the large proportion of women in the workforce, I was surprised at how few women were enrolled in MBA programs. I spoke at length with several female students in the IMBA program at IIT Bangalore who were planning to start a womens business club. Women make up only approximately 10% of the students at the IIT Bangalore campus, which is a similar proportion to other MBA programs in India. As president of the womens business club at Sloan, I spent a lot of energy trying to figure out why so few women attend American business schools and how to increase the number of applicants. In talking with the students, I found that women in India face many of the same decisions that American women face when deciding whether to go to business school.

For women who are married, the decision to go to business school must be made as a joint decision. If only one person of a married couple can go to school, it often ends up being the man because men have statistically higher earnings and wont have to interrupt their careers if they decide to have children. Also, fewer women are willing to move to a

new city to attend school, especially if they have strong family ties in one place or if their husband would have to switch jobs. Women in the US face these decisions, too, and many choose not to attend business school. In India, many women get married at a younger age than women in the US and also have stronger family ties in particular locations. In 1992-93, the latest year for which estimates are available, the average age of marriage for women was 20 years1. By contrast the average marriage age in the US is 25 (1998), up from 20.8 in 19702. These differences in demographics probably play a role in the low attendance of women in business school, but do not explain why there are so many women in the workforce in India.

Because of the large diversity of cultural and ethnic backgrounds in India, people are used to working with others who have very different beliefs, upbringings, and values. This tolerance and open-mindedness is no doubt a contributing factor to the success of women in business in India.

In speaking with the editors of Femina magazine, I got the impression that the mangazine has played an important role in empowering women in India by incorporating topics on work and career as well as some of the more stereotypical subjects covered by womens magazines such as beauty, fashion, relationships, and entertainment. Recent editorials have focused on the issue of work life balance and the difficult decision of whether to quit working to raise a family.

1 2

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/SAsia/suchana/1299/h029.html http://www.census.gov/prod/2000pubs/cenbr001.pdf

Television advertisements for the magazine show an Indian bride in traditional dress with hennaed handson closer inspection the henna on her hands depict scenes from the Kama Sutra. Another ad shows a traditional Indian bride and groom in the bedroom on their wedding night. At first the bride looks shy and scared, but after a moment, she makes the first move toward the groom. These new interpretations on conservative traditions are somewhat shocking, especially given the extreme conservatism of the broadcast media and Bollywood in not even allowing kissing on the screen. Although these ads do not depict physical contact, they are extremely suggestive, and are very nontraditional in their portrayal of womens roles. However, the message is clear: women are capable of taking charge of their lives and are they should not be afraid to do things that in the past only men were allowed to do.

Work opportunities for women in India certainly seem to be on the rise, and although women still face difficult decisions about whether to stay home and raise a family or go to work, or how much to compromise their goals for their husbands, the freedom to choose is becoming increasingly socially acceptable. Indias tradition of diversity perhaps makes this an easier evolution than in the US even. From its very visible and prominent position in the media, Femina has contributed to the idea of womens advancement in the workplace and in decision-making in social arrangements such as marriage. The future looks bright for women in India.