For women’s rights in business at the 6th Gender Equality Summit

This year’s Gender Equality Summit of UN Global Compact Network India (UN GCNI) commits to the empowerment of women and girls through innovation, technology, and education. As a panel partner of UN Global Compact,Alliance for Integrity co-organized a plenary session on “Women in Business: Primary Challenges and Pragmatic Solutions” in New Delhi.

The speakers Dr. Shikha Nehru Sharma, Padmakali Banerjee, Ishu Shiva, Swapna Narayanan along with moderator Suhas Tuljapurkar discussed the key issues and challenges that woman in business face in India and proposed practical solutions which can help bridge the divide between men and women, urban and rural, rich and poor.

Concerns and challenges that were discussed in context of women in business comprised topics such as stereotypes, gender bias, corruption, health, educational and financial disadvantages in the business sector and society at large. While the panel agreed that the digital solutions – including artificial intelligence – have a huge role to play, the panelists highlighted the need for inclusion of women in the development of these digital solutions.

The panelists concluded emphasizing three key areas to work for inclusion of women in the workforce:

• education and awareness raising,
• building an environment of trust,
• and financial inclusion.

The role of improving mental and physical health of women was also highlighted for bridging the divide between Bharat and India. Collective action approaches like the Alliance for Integrity’s “Integrity Journey” for women entrepreneurs and platforms to discuss challenges and find solutions through peer-to-peer learning as “Integri-tea” were highlighted as best practices. These methodologies can be used to bridge the information and capacity or skills gaps for the women in business.