Women often don’t get ample exposure due to lack of a proper networking system which continues to be a big challenge, says Sanchita Banerjee, ED - Special Projects, Oil India.

Citing an example from her own career, she points out how she approached higher management for allowing women to go on the field jobs. “Compared to the times when I joined and found only three women, there has been remarkable progress as a lot many engineers, technicians and even geologists are working there, says Banerjee who was the first ever engineer in her organization.

“We made sure that a minimum 2-3% of women officers are going abroad as well as interacting with the different sections of their field. While it is difficult for every PSU to have a women functional director in top management due to a variety of factor but situation is changing. I am sure things will change in the next ten years,” added Banerjee.

Top women leaders from the chemical sector shared their candid views at the E-Conference on "Role of women in the growth of the Indian chemical industry", organized by the Indian Chemical News on April 19, 2021. The highly interactive virtual event was moderated by Pravin Prashant, Editor, Indian Chemical News.  

As per Vinati Saraf  Mutreja, MD & CEO, Vinati Organics, there is a bias against women across various levels and especially on shop floors. “The reason is that we work in shifts. The night shift is a major barrier and second is availability of women engineers. The rural Maharashtra has fewer numbers of such workforce. Comparatively in Europe, I have seen women working freely and no shift issue.

"Starting from top, the 20-30% of seats in company boards are held by women and at managerial positions it is 10-15%. In India it must be 3-5%. As you move upwards in terms of management positions, the numbers decrease. When I joined the company, 15 years back, we had women in many departments yet I was only director out of 8. On a positive note, we now have 4 women directors and their numbers have increased across managerial positions. These are small steps but go on to create a significant change in the longer run,” says Mutreja who says reservation can’t be an answer as it is the talent which matters for the companies.

Sharing her perspective on bridging the gender parity Priyamvada Bhumkar, Managing Director, Soujanya Color opines, “World Economic Forum report ranked the countries on gender gap in different aspects. India was ranked at 140 at 156 and has lowest three rankings in gender parity index on four parameters such as economics, education, health and survival, and political empowerment. The issue is not largely limited to the chemical industry but a social issue that is millennia old and needs to be addressed at a large scale. Due to challenges, many women have to get off radar. Organizations in certain cases have to be sensitive and treat women as equal with fair assessment. I would love to see more women in different roles especially R&D and technical side, supply chain, shop floor and sales jobs. Industrial automation has presented a huge opportunity and in the current hyper-connected world, one can work from anywhere.”

Emphasizing on the need for sensitization of top management, Bijal Mathkar, R&I Director, Solvay Research and Innovation Center India mentions how the support from managers could make women employees and their families confident to take up challenging tasks and even travel abroad. “Conscious biases and unconscious biases are there. We need to make the leadership aware about the demotivating effect of unintentional words. The on boarding training should have equal respect for all genders.  When we talk about the right people at the right time, managers must remember equity. Male leaders could also acknowledge and send across the right message. Culture is an important aspect that remains when compliance goes out of the window.”

Comparing IT sector with chemicals, Archana Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Haylide Chemicals says that if women in former could do shifts across various locations, latter could do as well. “When I became an entrepreneur in the 80s, it was a difficult scenario for women. Every time I went to sell my chemicals, I had to explain to the buyers why despite being a woman I chose to be in the chemical business. Later I implemented many real time lessons into my later professional life. I made sure that children of women workers in my factories could come after work or break to do homework. I ensured that women labourers are employed as permanent workers. It was an experiment but worked well. There is a thrust on setting up new manufacturing units and if eligible women want to set up such units, there must be incentives for them.”

As per Dr. Sangeeta Srivastava, Executive Director, Godavari Biorefineries, it is an established fact that there are not enough women in the chemical industry. Besides there is not enough data available. According to manufacturing data from October 2020, there are 20% women workforce in the sector, and only 3% in engineering. I expect similar trends in chemicals. However, things are changing now. The women chemical engineering students have changed from 2-3% to 20-25% in twenty years. Industry adaptability and equal opportunity to women are important and so is a conducive environment to women chemical scientists and engineers. In the 90s you would have not found the women for such a conversation yet it is heartening to see that it has changed. Now we have to break the glass ceiling.”

Gender parity was never a focus area when I joined my first job as an engineer in the chemical industry during 2000, says Geetali Thakur, Head – HSE, Deccan Fine Chemicals. She explains: “On the last day of my training, I was told by my seniors that I must change my job profile as I would get lost in the chemical industry. However, I continued to be persistent with what I wanted to do and here I am today. I would advise the women aspiring to work in the chemical industry to be passionate, clear in approach, compassionate, dedicated and loyal. More importantly, MNCs are coming up with quotas for women and I see a bright future for them. There are many avenues such as quality control, environmental engineering, sales etc. and not just hardcore chemicals.”