The SHEROES Report - Women at Work 2014

The SHEROES Report – Women at Work 2014 was released today. The report is an exercise to arrive at a status check in the context of urban educated women and their work-life choices. The SHEROES report maps the corresponding business and social backdrops, and traces challenges and opportunities, in the context of women at work.

A large part of this report is Voices and Personal Stories of women, business leaders, change makers and chroniclers with their view on Women at Work in India. A large part of the report is Voices and Personal Stories from women, business leaders, change makers and chroniclers with their view on Women at Work. These are 25 voices talking about their experiences; they share their stories about women at work. The roster consists of names like – Anu Singh Chaudhary, Anurag Shrivastav, Deep Kalra, Deepa Soman, Geeta Kannan, Gitanjali Chatruvedi, Meeta Sengupta, Namita Bhandare, Osama Manzar, Prashant Bhaskar, Rajwant Sandhu, Rakshita Diwedi, Ritu Baruah, Riitu Chugh, Sangeeta Mall, Sarita Poviah, Sonia Golani, Sirshti Kush, Sucheta Tiwari, Surabhi Dewra and Teja Lele.

The SHEROES Report, throws light on some disturbing workplace facts. India ranks among the bottom 20 countries in a list of 131 in female labour force participation,  India ranked 113 on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Gender Gap Index (out of 135 countries), measuring economic, health care, education and political issues. Almost 48 percent women in India drop out of the workforce before they reach the middle of their careers. The Asia regional average is 29%.

The report has conversations about the work-life choices women make at different stages of career. It is valuable to any stakeholder in business or public policy, as a tool to arrive at the trend-building landscape and business alignment related to women at work. 

This report is a first ever exercise at this scale that focuses on urban middle class women, many of whom has undergone the cycles of the education system, the social traditions, the gender stereotypes and have remained the imperceptible middle. The conversation span of this report has been put together with inputs and insights from over 50,000 women across 60 cities in India.

Through this report, SHEROES hopes to share the learnings and the facts about choices and potential that lies before businesses in India and the women of India. The report will be valuable to any stakeholder in business or public policy, as a tool to arrive at the trend-building landscape and business alignment related to women at work.

You can read the voices from the Horizon here. To order a copy of the report mail srishti@sheroes.in your contact details.