Roundtable Discussion on Advancing Women's Leadership in the Economy

By: WE Staff | Saturday, 23 July 2022

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Disparity 2022 Report, South Asia has the largest gender gap in terms of economic participation and opportunity. In recent years, women's participation in the labour force has decreased in India as well. The Jharkhand government and the U.S. Consulate General in Kolkata have previously worked together to empower women and girls in the state. In order to continue advocating for women's access to active participation in the workforce and legislative changes, one of the initiatives intends to create a regional support system for women in the workforce in eastern and north-eastern India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Longtime partner of the U.S. Consulate, non-profit Contact Base, with offices in Nimdih in Jharkhand and Kolkata, organised a roundtable meet on July 21 in Ranchi to facilitate stakeholder discussion about creating a network to address the underrepresentation of women in business leadership positions and expand career options for girls and young women.

The Round Table Meeting was presided over by Adrian Pratt, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate General Kolkata. He said, "U.S. Mission in India has been leading concerted efforts to address women’s economic participation and empowerment through diverse programming platforms. Here in eastern India, our various partnerships have proved that gender responsive budgeting, gender diversity in the workplace, and equal participation in decision making leads to greater consistency between economic goals and social commitments."  Incubators and participants in the entrepreneurial eco system, employable skill development, funders, investors from organisations like ICRW, iLeadHR, Center for Change (C3), Breakthrough, Jharkhand Angels, BIT Mesra, XISS, Gokha.

Women need places where they can work and form networks, according to Mehr Kaur from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, who is examining the topic of declining female labour force participation. 

Ashish Kulkarni from the FICCI AVGC forum discussed new opportunities for women in the animation, gaming, music, and art industries, among other fields, and came to the conclusion that all parties needed to collaborate for the establishment of favourable conditions for women's leadership across all industries.

Women-led start-ups in eastern and northern India now have easy access to mentors thanks to the launch of a mentoring network platform (www.women4economy.net). Access to mentors who specialise in a particular industry, help testing prototypes, knowledge of funding sources, etc. are just a few of the advantages.