Not many women stand up for their due in office

Chennai: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has surely been caught on the wrong foot for his comments on asking women not to request for a raise which was evident from an apology that followed later.
But the backlash of his ‘inappropriate’ advice has set the social media ablaze.  

Though such a statement coming from a senior industry person has raised questions, many HR managers admit to women techies being meek when it comes to asking for their due.

“This trend is not just in India but across the globe,” says a senior HR manager of a leading tech company. “Research studies have shown that women are not good with negotiation and they don’t really demand what they want,” adds the senior person who is also involved in a lot of gender diversity programmes.

Lending credence to the fact, the latest Monster salary index IT sector report 2014 also revealed that the gender pay gap in the IT industry is as high as 29 per cent.  While a male IT worker receives gross salary of Rs 359.25 per hour, women IT staff receive Rs 254.04 per hour.

Though there is little disparity at the entry-level when both a man and woman enter the job, the inequality in salary structures gets magnified as they grow up the ladder.

“This disparity possibly emerges from the fact that men get promoted to supervisory position more often than women,” says Mr. Sanjay Modi, MD of Monster India. However, most HR personnel blame it all on the women themselves for their own plight.

“There is a need to sell yourself in this competitive world and you should not be afraid to ask,” says Ms Sangeeta Reddy, senior VP of IT industry body NASSCOM.

“Women have to first overcome their internal battles of being able to take a no for an answer confidently and should be proud to talk about their work publicly,” she advises.

Though the Gen-Y girls are much more vociferous while senior women executives cultivate confidence over the years, it is only women who have put 6-8 years of work who  are also entering a new job, seem to less assertive, says Ms Reddy.