Executives, officers, and VIPs -- do women fit into these categories? Yes, of course ….what a stupid question…. you may say!! (you may add a few expletives if you belong to the fairer sex!). Well, I thought that too…At a recent visit to an organization (possibly one of the largest entity in India), when I took a bio-break during one of those never-ending meetings, I was perplexed to find four doors in the washroom lobby – Executives, Officers, VIPs, Ladies.
The company certainly has women officers (there were a couple in the meeting I was attending), and I guess there must be a few senior leaders as well (going by the law of averages). So why this “washroom dilemma” I thought. I really wanted to dig deeper into this, but I guess it would have been an inappropriate conversation to have – especially for a vendor vying for business. Later, unable to get that washroom dilemma out of mind, I thought of four possible explanations…
1. The company has common washrooms….. well that is highly unlikely, especially in a government organization which needs to be more aware of such potentially “dangerous” invite-the-union/women-activists-ire policies
2. There are “class” hierarchies in men, while the balance population is much beyond such (truly) meaningless hierarchy…. again, highly unlikely in an Indian organization
3. There are very few women executives….. certainly not true, cause my rolodex has business cards of several women executives at the company
4. Most of the senior leadership is men, so who cares anyways! If there is a senior lady visitor, they may open the VIP washroom (which remains locked – I realized it when in that moment of unrealistic self-admiration, I straight went for that door).
The fourth explanation is most likely true, and also the most intriguing (and disturbing). I am not sure here whether the organization is totally oblivious of the fact that women officers can reach the top; or they are just sensitive to the real estate optimization (since men clearly outnumber women in that organization); or perhaps, the company is making a statement – we not only consider women folk as equals, we also appreciate that they do not have any class barriers! I don’t know. But would love to see how Brinda Karat and community of women activists would react to this dilemma.
