Women expanding presence in IT sector.

Women are making a strong presence in the IT, ITES and BPO sectors. Statistics reveal that women are equally competing with their male counterparts and have become a major growth catalyst for the companies. Apart from this companies are supporting women in managing their work and meeting their family and social demands.

i-Flex Solutions has about 24 per cent of women employed across various departments. The company had 441 women employees in 2005, which is now up by 678.

"The workplace in i-Flex provides gender diversity and having women employees closes the gap between the workplace and marketplace," says Mr Sanjoy Bannerji, general manager, corporate human resources, i-Flex Solutions.

He added that "there are some male stereotypes about certain kinds of job being more suited for men and these myths are now being broken. In some of the service-oriented jobs, women tend to relate better emotionally with customers. Besides they tend to be more loyal to organisations," he added.

The biggest reason why more women are entering this sector is because of the women-employee friendly policies like flexibility to allow break in service and extra maternity leave on need-basis and policies that show zero tolerance on any sexual abuse. Companies have also launched various initiatives like maternity benefits, insurance coverage that includes cover for their parents or in-laws, Baby’s Day Out — a special facility allowing women to bring their children to the office.

According to Mr Puneet Jetli, vice-president and head, people function, MindTree Consulting, "In 2004-05, Mindtree had about 18 per cent of the workforce comprising of women. In the last 2-3 years, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of women on a planned basis. "Over the next two years, we want 25 per cent of our staff to be women," he said.

Likewise in Perot Systems, the company has developed the leadership talent among women employees. According to Ms Sheela Singh, head of HR in Perot Systems there are 23.03 per cent of women who are working in their organisation and woman participation is very high at all levels.