Just last week, I was overjoyed as I read about the appointment of Virginia M. Rometty as the first ever woman CEO in the 100 year history of IBM. But my delight was short-lived and soon dampened by another important announcement.
The World Economic Forum’s sixth annual Global Gender Gap Report 2011 pointed out that while a large proportion of countries had made some progress in women’s health and education levels, there was a long way to go for women to achieve economic or political parity.

“A world where women make up less than 20 percent of the global decision-makers is a world that is missing a huge opportunity for growth and ignoring an untapped reservoir of potential,” said WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab. “Smaller gender gaps are directly correlated with increased economic competitiveness,” says Saadia Zahidi, Senior Director, Head of the World Economic Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme and co-author of the report released last week, and added: “With the world’s attention on job creation and economic growth, gender equality is the key to unlocking potential and stimulating economies.” The Forum emphasized the need for governments and the private sector to implement and enforce laws and policies that promote women’s economic and political roles.

But reports have been pointing out these gaps for decades now. Similar inferences had been drawn by Catalyst in its 2004 study The Bottom Line: Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity and McKinsey in its 2008 report Women Matter 2. As leaders, we have been nodding our heads wisely with each finding. And yet, nothing has changed – other than lauding a shining exception, such as that by IBM, every now and then.

So will nothing change? Of course it will. In fact, we are seeing positive signs of change.

In my last blog on EFCS 2.0, I had suggested that the Employee First movement would discover innovative solutions in response to the business imperative to leverage the wasted talent pool of women in business leadership. It is and this momentum is rising bottom up, from the grassroots to the leadership, to transform the workplace. We are witnessing a forceful movement to nurture the development and mentoring of women within the organization.

Women Council, Women Connect @ HCL, ‘Feminspiration’ are just a few among a variety of platforms that have evolved in this direction. They work together to connect, encourage and advance women through development programs, peer networking, gender diversity initiatives, influencing gender neutrality in work environment and policies. Gender matters are discussed through ‘BlogHer’ an internal social networking platform. Subject matter experts and women role models advise and inspire our employees on managing work life continuity issues, and Life coaches counsel them on dealing with inflexion points in their lives such as motherhood.

As employees take the lead in EFCS 2.0, they are quietly but definitely molding Management 2.0 to include women leaders as an intrinsic and substantive part, accepting the equal role of women in leadership naturally, without any forced or awkward force-fitting. In turn, these women shape EFCS 2.0 too, as they become core to business strategy and an integral part of leadership within the organization.

The growing ranks of women in leadership are influencing management thinking around the world. Virginia M. Rometty of IBM joins powerful predecessors, such as Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Ursula Burns of Xerox, Ellen J. Kullman of DuPont, Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, and Padmasree Warrior of Cisco, who challenge any remnants of doubt on the value that women bring to the leadership table.

In India too, doubting Thomases are being effectively hushed by women at the helm in a diverse range of sectors. In banking, for instance, Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC, Chanda Kochhar of ICICI along with Vishakha Mulye, Renuka Ramnath, Lalita Gupte, Kalpana Morparia, Manisha Girotra and Shikha Sharma, have made a deep imprint. In technology as well, we can feel the distinct presence of women leaders such as Neelam Dhawan of Microsoft India, Kalpana Margabandhu of IBM, and Nita Goyal of ngpay and the first woman to obtain a computer science degree from an IIT, Akila Krishnakumar of SunGard and Revathy Kasturi of LAQSH.

Within HCL itself, it is a sheer delight to see EFCS 2.0 steering the organization towards a more diverse and well represented leadership across genders. The transformers are not waiting for research findings or policy changes to show the right way forward. “Why do you need someone to tell you about it?” a young colleague asked me.”Isn’t it obvious? If women comprise about half the workforce, then that is the proportion they should maintain all the way. It has to map out the way it starts.”

The conviction is infectious, and the logic powerful in its simplicity. Is it then a surprise that a large majority of our women employees – more than 8 out of 10 – are returning to the organization post maternity to play out a second more powerful innings?