Banking on equality women, work and employment in the banking sector in india

Based on interviews and surveys of bank employees in India’s National Capital Region, this book looks at what lies behind the media rhetoric and provides a systematic analysis of pattern

Banking on Equality

It may well be surprising to say that the world should look to India as a model

of gender equality India’s banking sector proves the exception, with several women reaching the highest positions in India’s top banks, including the country’s largest bank

Based on interviews and surveys of bank employees in India’s National Capital Region, this book looks at what lies behind the media rhetoric and provides

a systematic analysis of patterns of, and responses to, gender inequality in the banking sector in India The book uncovers how gender discrimination still persists in the banking sector, albeit in covert forms Through a comparison

of nationalized, Indian private and foreign banks, the book demonstrates how the impact of laws, local cultural norms and gendered workplace practices are mediated through different organizational forms in these different types of banks

to create varied experiences of gender inequality

The book is one of the first books to provide a thorough, in-depth analysis

of women’s employment in the Indian banking sector, currently an researched area

Supriti Bezbaruah is an independent researcher based in Singapore She has

a PhD in Geography from Queen Mary, University of London; a BA (Hons) degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford; and an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Eco-nomics and Political Science (LSE) She has previously worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in India, the Institute of Develop-ment Studies (IDS) in the United Kingdom and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore Her research interests are centred on gender and development issues, with a particular focus on South Asia

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141 Banking on Equality

Women, work and employment in the banking sector in India

Supriti Bezbaruah

Banking on Equality

Women, work and employment

in the banking sector in India

Supriti Bezbaruah

First published 2015

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

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an informa business

© 2015 Supriti Bezbaruah

The right of Supriti Bezbaruah to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,

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To Ila and Ava

This page intentionally left blank

List of figures xvi

4 Encouraging equality or denying discrimination?

Gendered patterns of work and employment in

the banking sector in India 51

5 The importance of being respectable: the

impact of local cultural norms on patterns

of gender equality 83

6 Explaining gender inequalities in the Indian

banking sector: the role of institutional factors 108

7 Challenging or coping? Women’s responses to

gender inequalities in the Indian banking sector 123

3.1 Female LFPR (percent ages 15 and older), 2012,

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),

BRIC and MINT economies 33 3.2 Trends in female LFPRs, 1993–1994 to 2011–2012 34 3.3 Trends in women’s employment in fi nancing, insurance,

real estate and business services in the organized sector,

1991–2010 38 3.4 Major phases in the evolution of commercial banking in India 42 3.5 Structure of scheduled commercial banks in India 45 4.1 Representation of women employees in banks by staff

category, 2013 52 4.2 Changes in the share of female employees in the banking

sector, by staff category, all India, 1996–2013 53 4.3 Gender distribution of employees by status in a

nationalized bank, 2008 55 4.4 Gender distribution of employees by status in a

foreign bank, 2009 55 4.5 Daily working hours reported by women employees,

by bank category 67 4.6 Incidence of sexual harassment reported by women

employees, by type 79 5.1 Association of banking with respectability 88 5.2 Percentage of women employees prioritizing family over career 93

Figures

3.1 LFPR and WFPR (per 1,000), all ages, 2011–2012 34 3.2 (a) Percentage of women as a share of total employees

by bank type, all India, 1996 39 3.2 (b) Percentage of women as a share of total employees

by bank type, all India, 2013 40

7.1 Reasons provided for not using laws, in order of importance 130 7.2 Classifi cation of women’s responses to gender inequalities

in work and employment in the banking sector in India 146

Tables

This book is the result of research conducted for my PhD from Queen Mary, University of London First of all, therefore, a special thanks goes to my PhD supervisor, Dr Cathy McIlwaine, for her tremendous encouragement, support and patience throughout the PhD She went out of her way to help me through difficult personal circumstances, without which I would not have been able

to complete my PhD After the PhD, without Cathy’s guidance through the process of submitting a book proposal, this book would not have been writ-ten Many thanks also go to my second supervisor, Dr Al James, for patiently reading numerous drafts of my thesis and providing clear, insightful comments

I am most grateful to my thesis examiners, Professor Diane Perrons and Dr Glyn Williams, for their incisive comments on my thesis Their suggestion that

I should publish my findings gave me the inspiration to write this book

In India, I am thankful to all the participants in this research study Although they must remain anonymous, I thank them for generously sparing time in their busy lives to share their thoughts and insights and disclosing personal and sensi-tive information I have thoroughly enjoyed my interactions with them and have learnt a lot from them I am also very grateful to all the people, both working

in banks and in general, who helped me with gaining access to my research participants Without their help, the research would have been impossible

I acknowledge the support of the following organizations for allowing me access to their documents and library facilities: the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); the Council for Social Development; the Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS); the Indian Banks Association (IBA); the National Commission for Women (NCW); the National University of Singapore (NUS); Queen Mary, University of London; and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi The Asia Research Institute (ARI) deserves

a special mention for accepting me as a visiting affiliate, providing me with the necessary research environment when I was writing my thesis Also, I thank the members of the Department of Geography at the NUS for opening their doors

to me and making me feel like a part of their research community

I would like to especially acknowledge Dr Tracey Skelton, Dr Lee Poh Onn and Dr Lata Narayanaswamy for their friendship and support My discussions about gender equality over numerous dinners with Tracey helped shape many

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements xix

aspects of this book Poh Onn patiently read through several drafts of my thesis and helped me prepare for my viva, while Lata was my sounding board throughout, never failing to be a source of encouragement and advice, not to mention useful research articles I am also grateful for the advice provided by Menusha, Kanchan and Kamal

The University of London Central Research Fund provided assistance for this study by financing part of the costs of the fieldwork, for which I am very grateful

At Routledge, I would like to thank Barry Clarke and Yongling Lam for believing in my proposal and giving me the opportunity to write this book Like the women in this book, I too relied on a combination of domestic help and support from family to complete this book Thanks to Daisy, Doris, Yalin, Clara and Masropah, for taking over the cleaning, cooking and babysitting so

I could concentrate on my research and writing

I wish to thank my family and friends for their support and encouragement Thank you to Pitu da, for all your help and for putting up with my endless queries Juri and Ashok provided a base for me to stay while in Delhi Going back to listen to my nephew Shiv’s endless chatter provided a welcome respite from the rigours of fieldwork Thanks to Nagitha, for being the uncle helping out when I was alone with Ila in London, and to Sara for cupcakes and support

to help me get past those difficult early months after Ava was born

I also want to acknowledge my friends who have had to listen to my endless stressing and cheered me along every step of the way: Albane, Andrea, Eugenie, Priya, Lia, Jessica, Uroosa, Sonal, Jake and Lisa Thanks to my mother’s group – Mirjana, Sue – Ann, Georgia, Angela, Cecila, Nicola and Leisha for providing much needed adult company and conversation In London, I want to thank Andrew, Chui-Lyn, Mamon, Vivek and Melissa for opening up their homes for

me to stay Fabian, Fuchu, Tumpi, Abhi, and Melanie were my extended family

in London, from airport pick-ups to doing the groceries; thank you especially for being there during that difficult time of Ila’s illness

Thank you to Shannen Oh for your quiet and efficient support, without which writing this book would have been much harder Thanks also to Vanessa for helping with all the tabulations and formatting, and Angie for sorting out print-outs and photocopies whenever I needed them

A special thanks to my parents, Madan and Anuradha Bezbaruah, for always being there for me My father, through his constant support for my education and career, is an example to us all that men can be feminists too (even though

he may not realize he is) He has been part of this book every step of the way

My mother stayed up nights – first, to look after both my babies, and then, to read my drafts – so that I could focus on the book without any worries My journey to the PhD and this book would never have started if she hadn’t been there to teach me the first steps of reading and writing

I am also fortunate to have wonderful in-laws, Gamini and Sepalika rasinghe They have welcomed me into their lives and helped in every way possible, from babysitting, making photocopies, and driving me to libraries, to cooking meals in order that I could finish this book on time

Kuma-xx Acknowledgements

To my husband, Chanaka, without whom none of this would have happened Thank you for pushing me to write this book in the first place and for not letting me give up when things got tough As you know, in many ways, you have been an example for this book

Finally, to my daughters, Ila and Ava Without them, this book would have been written in much shorter time, and with far less stress, but would not have been so meaningful I hope by the time they grow up, gender equality at work will no longer be a topic that will be relevant

Abbreviations

AIBEA All India Bank Employees Association

AIBOA All India Bank Officers’ Association

AIBOC All India Bank Officers’ Confederation

AITUC All India Trade Union Congress

BMS Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh

BPO Business Process Outsourcing

BRIC Brazil, Russia, India and China

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CII Confederation of Indian Industry

CITU Centre of Indian Trade Unions

EEOC Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

FIR First Information Report

FTSE Financial Times Stock Exchange

GDP Gross Domestic Product

HDFC Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited

HMS Hind Mazdoor Sabha

HSBC Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited IBA Indian Banks Association

ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

ICP International Comparison Program

ICT Information and Communications Technology

IDFC Infrastructure Development Finance Company

ILO International Labour Organization

INTUC Indian National Trade Union Congress

ISCO International Standard Classification of Occupations

ISIC International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic

Activities

LFPR Labour Force Participation Rate

MBA Master of Business Administration

NCR National Capital Region

NCW National Commission for Women

NSS National Sample Survey

PPP Purchasing Power Parity

RBI Reserve Bank of India

SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation UFBU United Forum of Bank Unions

UPS Usual Principal Status

UPSS Usual Principal and Subsidiary Status

VRS Voluntary Retirement Scheme

WFPR Workforce Participation Rate

WPR Worker Population Ratio

In New York and London, women remain scarce among top bankers despite decades of struggle to climb the corporate ladder But in India’s relatively young

fi nancial industry, women not only are some of the top deal makers, they are often running the show

(Timmons, 2010: 11)

In some ways, 2013 was a grim year for women in India as a spate of gang rapes and sexual assaults tarnished the country’s reputation But in one area it actually extended its position as an improbable world leader for gender equality: bank- ing The country has enjoyed a remarkable success in becoming, by some measures, the best place in the world to be a senior female banker

(Crabtree, 2014) few women still break through the glass ceiling in India The women profes- sionals who have succeeded are still the exceptions For every one of them, there are many who were pushed out, pushed down or voluntarily gave up because they could not be super women

(Sharma, 2013) India’s profusion of senior female bankers disguises a much less rosy picture in lower levels of management Roughly half of the annual intake of trainee bankers

at institutions like SBI are women, but only a tiny fraction make it to the executive suite Some in the industry worry that the shattering of India’s banking glass ceil- ing is more a trick of the light than a permanent breakthrough

(Crabtree, 2014)

Hardly a day goes by without a story in the news about women leaders in the banking sector in India Images of these successful, confident Indian women, a far cry from the usual stereotypical image of Indian women as poor, oppressed victims of male subordination, first sparked my interest in the banking sector

in India I began my research into the experiences of women working in the Indian banking sector to properly understand the reality behind the various, and at times contradictory, reports on what the experiences of these women are

Introduction

1

2 Introduction

In the broader context, what made my research more compelling was its global backdrop The growth of women’s employment, especially in services, has been a worldwide phenomenon: in 2008, women accounted for 40 percent

of all employed people worldwide, of whom almost half (46.9 percent) were employed in services (ILO, 2010: 3–5) 1 The increase in women’s employment is tied to structural shifts in the world economy away from manufacturing towards services and knowledge-based production, as well as the emergence of the new economy 2 underpinned by advances in information and communications tech-nologies (ICTs) (Castells, 1996; Coyle, 1997; Perrons, 2004) Scholars argue that women have benefited from the accompanying expansion of employment opportunities in the services sector, including financial services such as bank-ing, as supposedly feminine attributes such as teamwork, caring, serving and

communication are increasingly valued (Bradley et al , 2000; McDowell, 1997; Reich, 2001) The Economist (2009) in a news article chronicling the rise of

women’s employment in the last 50 years stated, ‘When brute strength tered more than brains, men had an inherent advantage Now that brainpower has triumphed the two sexes are more evenly matched.’

Despite the consequent narrowing of the gender gap in labour force tion rates (LFPRs), studies find that the ‘gender revolution’ remains incomplete (Perrons, 2009: 2) Wage disparities between men and women persist – in the European Union, in 2007, women still earned an average of 15 percent less than men for every hour worked (ILO, 2009: 17) In the United States (US), even after the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed, in 2010, women earned on average, 77 cents for every dollar earned by men That this pay gap has remained largely stagnant for this century, narrowing by less than half a cent every year,

participa-is a matter of concern (National Committee on Pay Equity, 2014) Women’s employment worldwide may have increased, but they remain over-represented

in part-time and informal sector work (McDowell, 1997; Perrons et al , 2006),

as seen in the United Kingdom (UK) where 40 percent of women work time (Perrons, 2009: 3)

As more and more women obtain higher educational qualifications, they have entered previously male-dominated professional occupations, such as banking, law and medicine, in unprecedented numbers (McDowell, 1999; Perrons, 2009)

In the UK, for example, females now comprise just over half of the workforce in the financial services sector (Ogden, McTavish and McKean, 2006: 40) Despite attaining educational levels similar to men, progress towards equal representation

at the senior most positions has been slow A study published in 2001 found that women’s share of positions at the top worldwide was between 2 and 3 percent (Wirth, 2001: 25) Almost a decade later, there has been little change – the World Economic Forum’s Corporate Gender Gap Report in 2010 found

from their survey of more than 600 companies that the number of women chief executive officers (CEOs) was slightly less than 5 percent (WEF, 2010: 5)

In 1994, at the current levels of vertical segregation, it was estimated that ‘it will be 475 years before women reach equality in the executive suite’ (Izraeli and Adler, 1994: 7) More recently, a report from the World Economic Forum

Introduction 3

(WEF, 2014) suggests that it will be another 81 years before gender parity is achieved in the workplace

Women in the Indian banking sector may not have to wait that long When

I started my research for this book in 2008, there were already a number of women heading banks in India, from Chanda Kochhar at ICICI Bank and Shikha Sharma at Axis Bank to Naina Lal Kidwai at Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC, India), to name a few Since then, several more women, especially from the country’s nationalized banks, have joined this growing band of top female bankers When the State Bank of India, India’s largest bank, appointed Arundhati Bhattacharya as the bank’s first female head

in its more than 200-year history in 2013, no less than eight women were at the helm of India’s top banks, which control almost 50 percent of the country’s assets (Box 1.1) (Chakrabarti, 2013; Parmar, 2014) This is in stark contrast to advanced industrialized countries like the US or the UK, where there are no overall female bosses of any major banks (Chakrabarti, 2013; Timmons, 2010)

In terms of breaking through the glass ceiling, Indian women are clearly far ahead of their Western counterparts, begging the question: what makes the financial sector in India so conducive to women? Why is India so different from other countries? Are the accounts of gender inequality mentioned previously not relevant to the Indian banking sector?

Box 1.1 Some prominent females in the fi nancial sector in

India, past and present

• Usha Ananthasubramanian, Chairperson and Managing Director, Bharatiya Mahila Bank

• Vedika Bhandarkar, Managing Director, Credit Suisse, India

• Archana Bhargava, former Chairperson and Managing Director, United Bank of India

• Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, State Bank of India, fi rst woman

to be Chairperson of State Bank of India, India’s largest bank

• Madhabi Puri Buch, former CEO, ICICI Securities

• Homai A Daruwalla, former Managing Director, Central Bank of India

• Manisha Girotra, former Country Head, UBS, and Country Head, Moelis & Company

• Shyamala Gopinath, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India

• Lalita D Gupte, Chairperson, ICICI Venture, and former Joint Managing Director, ICICI Bank

• Vijayalakshmi R Iyer, Chairperson and Managing Director, Bank of India

• Renu Sud Karnad, Managing Director, Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC)

4 Introduction

• Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairperson, HSBC India

• Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank

• Ranjana Kumar, former Managing Director, Indian Bank, fi rst woman

to become the head of a nationalized bank in India

• Kalpana Morparia, CEO, J.P Morgan, India

• Kaku Nakhate, India Head, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

• Falguni S Nayar, former Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company

• Shubhalakshmi Panse, former Chairperson, Allahabad Bank

• Chitra Ramkrishna, Managing Director and CEO, National Stock Exchange of India

• Renuka Ramnath, former Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Venture

• Meera Sanyal, former CEO and Chairperson, Royal Bank of Scotland, India

• Aisha de Sequeira, Co-Country Head and Head of Investment ing, Morgan Stanley India

• Shikha Sharma, Managing Director and CEO, Axis Bank

• Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India

• K.J Udeshi, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India

• Tarjani Vakil, former Chairperson, Exim Bank, fi rst woman to head

a large bank in India

• Kavita Venugopal, India Head, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

Source: Data collected online from bank websites, various newspaper articles and personal communication with the Reserve Bank of India in August 2014

Note: This list is meant as an illustration of the prominence of women in the ing and fi nancial sector in India It is not an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all women in senior positions in the fi nancial sector

Providing answers to these questions proves difficult due to the dearth of research on women in the Indian banking sector While the gendered implica-tions of women’s employment in contemporary professional services have been extensively researched in developed countries, these issues have been relatively under-researched in developing countries (Mullings, 2005) This is partially

a reflection of the under-representation of the Global South in social science research in general (Vira and James, 2011; Williams, Meth and Willis, 2009; Yeung, 2007) In economic geography research, for instance:

it appears that more than two-thirds of the region-specific research lished in economic geography’s major journals relates most directly to the conditions, firms, industries, and economies where 18% (1.2) billion of the

a growing literature exploring women’s experiences of work and employment

in India’s new service economy (Basi, 2009; Kelkar, Shrestha and Veena, 2005; Mitter, 2004; Patel, 2010; Radhakrishnan, 2009, 2011), but these studies focus almost exclusively on employment in information technology (IT) and ICT services Beyond anecdotal reports in the media, there are very few systematic studies of women in the banking sector in India The observation made more than 15 years ago that ‘the prospects for women’s employment in other new, trade-related services such as finance and insurance is not known’ (Joekes, 1995: 41) holds true for India even today

The key rationale for this book stems from a desire to look further into this relatively neglected area The book aims to move beyond the celebratory media hype surrounding women’s employment in banking and provide a much-needed empirically informed analysis of gender inequalities in the banking sector in India To the best of my knowledge, there has been no similar extensive, quali-tative study of this kind in English The unique contribution of this book is in using an extensive evidence base combining both qualitative and quantitative data (questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews) to present a conceptual analysis of gender inequalities based on the perspectives of female employees

in the banking sector The main objective of this book is to explore the extent

to which gender equality has genuinely been achieved in the banking sector

in India Is the success of several women in reaching the highest echelons of banking indicative of a radical change in gender relations in corporate India? Or

is the picture less promising further down the occupational hierarchy?

News reports, from India and globally, suggest that the success of Indian women in the banking sector has been facilitated by a combination of factors Institutional contexts, or more specifically, a women-friendly work environment has been frequently cited as a key factor (David and Alexander, 2011; Dhall and Sharma, 2010; Timmons, 2010) The story of Chanda Kochhar of ICICI

is instructive – early on in her career, she was struggling to balance her work and family life, a point at which most women end up opting out of the career ladder Advising her not to quit, her boss, former CEO of ICICI, K.V Kamath, offered her a half-year break As David and Alexander (2011) recount, that made the difference Kochhar stayed on, and 13 years later, succeeded Kamath

as ICICI’s CEO

6 Introduction

When it comes to female employees, it appears from news reports that Indian banks are not weighed down by masculine stereotypes Unlike in Western coun-tries, women face few pressures to act like ‘one of the boys’ (Timmons, 2010) Merit, talent and hard work, rather than gender, are the crucial ingredients for success In working hard, however, women in India have the vital advantage

of the support of domestic help This enables them to effectively balance the demands of work and childcare, which so often derails the career progression

of women in developed countries (Chakrabarti, 2013; Layak, 2014; Timmons, 2010)

Against these views, other studies suggest that Indian women may face ticular cultural and social conditions that can impede their career advancement, such as moral codes that discourage women from working at night or make it uncomfortable for men and women to work together, or mobility constraints that make it harder for women to travel alone (Budhwar, Saini and Bhatnagar, 2005; Gupta, Koshal and Koshal, 2006; Patel, 2010) For example, a survey of the heads of human resources (HR) in 59 of India’s biggest employers identi-fied general norms and cultural practices (although these were not specified)

par-as among the main impediments to women’s progression to senior positions in employment (WEF, 2009: 21) How can these issues be reconciled with the success stories of Indian women in banks? This book aims to understand and unravel these seeming contradictions The book examines the influence of local social, cultural and institutional factors on women’s employment in banking and shows how these factors can create varying patterns of gender inequality even within an increasingly globalized world

Experiences of gender inequality, however, go beyond a simplistic division of global versus local What is particularly interesting about the banking sector is that while women’s employment in services such as IT is linked to globalization processes, women’s employment in banking pre-dates economic liberalization (and the associated influence of globalization) (Gothoskar, 1995) In the 1970s and 1980s, nationalized banks were a major source of white-collar employment

for women in India ( ibid ) After economic liberalization in 1991, foreign banks

and new Indian private banks provided new opportunities for women’s ment, and the banking sector continued to attract women (Srivastava, 1999)

employ-I wanted to understand the reasons for this continuity within change: why was banking considered a desirable occupation, both before and after liberalization?

By comparing the experiences of women in three different types of banks in India – foreign, Indian private and public sector or nationalized banks – this book aims to explore whether, and how, patterns of gender inequality vary across different organizational structures

Furthermore, if gender discrimination does occur in the Indian banking tor, I wanted to understand how women respond to such discrimination Are women sufficiently empowered to be able to challenge gender inequalities in the workplace? The potential of women’s employment to ‘empower’ women has been long-debated and continues to be contested in academic studies The empirical evidence contributing to such debates has been disproportionately

sec-Introduction 7

centred on export-oriented manufacturing (Gates, 2002; Kabeer, 2000; Wright, 2006) and, more recently, women in IT and call centres (Ng and Mitter, 2005; Patel, 2010) The focus has also been more on empowerment in the domestic sphere rather than on how women are empowered as workers (Kabeer, 2008) Such an emphasis perhaps follows from the presumption that professional women already hold ‘considerable formal power’ (Martin and Meyerson, 1998: 338) While there is considerable concern about the vulnerability of women work-ers in the informal sector (UNIFEM, 2005), women in the formal sector are considered to enjoy the benefits of legal protection Given the contradictions evident in India, where women continue to face systematic social, political and economic inequality despite the multitude of government laws ensuring women’s rights, I question such assumptions linking legislation and ‘empowerment’, and assess how, in reality, women in the workplace challenge gender discrimination Taken together, this book aims to answer three main questions: First, how are women’s everyday experiences of work and employment in India’s banking sector gendered? What are the main forms of gender discrimination that are prevalent in this sector? Second, how and why do local cultural and institutional factors, including government laws, influence women’s experiences of work and employment? Third, how do women respond to discrimination in the Indian banking sector?

While trying to find answers to these questions, I have also analysed how the experiences of, and responses to, gender discrimination vary across the different types of banks, namely foreign banks, Indian private banks and nationalized banks There are a large number of government laws that arguably directly or indirectly affect the female labour market experiences of women in India

In examining the influence of government laws, I have narrowed the focus

to three specific areas: anti-discrimination (Equal Remuneration Act, 1976), maternity leave (Maternity Benefit Act, 1961) and sexual harassment (Protec-tion of Women against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Bill, 2010) 3 I have chosen these laws because among the legislative provisions that are designed

to safeguard women’s equal rights in India (Government of India, 2007: xv), these are the most relevant laws that address the issue of gender discrimination

in the workplace

Background to the research

The research for this book was conducted in the National Capital Region (NCR), 4 between November 2008 and August 2009, with further updates

in 2010 The NCR was chosen for several reasons First, since I wanted to undertake a comparison of nationalized, foreign and Indian private banks, I decided to focus only on urban areas as foreign banks have a limited presence

in rural and semi-urban areas (about 2.7 percent of total branches in 2009) (RBI, 2009: 4, table 4) Of the four major urban centres in India, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi, Delhi has the largest number of commercial bank branches, providing a large sample size for my research (RBI, 2009: 84–101,

largest Consumer Financial Centre’ ( ibid ) Furthermore, the banks in the NCR

encompass both large and small branches, as well as offices (such as regional headquarters), providing a large and varied sample size for my research Finally, being the legislative centre of the country, conducting the research study in Delhi provided better access to policy-makers and government organizations, such as the National Commission for Women

Within the NCR, the research draws on data collected from a questionnaire survey of 156 female employees, qualitative interviews with 62 female and 11 male bank employees, 1 HR personnel in a foreign bank, 5 government officers and

a representative of a business association, as well as a questionnaire survey of six banks During the course of my fieldwork, I spent many hours in different banks, waiting for interviewees or conducting surveys, and had the opportunity

to observe the everyday work and interactions of several women I made a note

of these observations, to supplement my research findings, and in this manner, used participant observation to analyse patterns of gender inequality and also to obtain information that may not necessarily have been provided by the inter-viewees For example, I observed that several banks had prominently displayed notices on sexual harassment, which was a useful indication of the implementation

of sexual harassment guidelines within banks Further details of the fieldwork, including information about the questionnaire survey and interview schedule, and selection of research participants, are provided in the Appendix

One notable aspect of the research process was that the selection of research participants was constrained by the difficulties of gaining access Such difficulties are an acknowledged feature of social science research:

regardless of the composition of our ‘ideal’ sample of research pants, the selectivity of the respondent sample that we achieve in practice ultimately rests on our ability to gain access, something that is especially problematic for younger academics, whose lack of reputation and title, make

partici-it harder to get a foot in the door

(James, 2006: 298) The first problem with gaining access relates to the location of the research participants within offices or bank branches Unlike research in more public spaces such as shopping areas, heavy security at offices or bank branches makes it less amenable to access It is difficult to just simply ‘walk into an office suite and expect to strike up a conversation or hang out and observe the scene’ (Thomas, 1995: 82, cited in Mullings, 1999: 339) In my own research, I found that banks and government offices had strict security procedures, and it is virtually

in and approach female employees Either a security guard or a receptionist asks about the purpose of your visit and then directs you to the relevant counter Another problem that I encountered was that even when I managed to gain access to the banks, I met with mixed results with the employees Women were generally reluctant to participate in my research One reason for this reluctance could be due to the fact that bank branches tend to be extremely busy with many customers So, most employees were unable to spare the time to talk to

me Due to long commuting distances in Delhi, employees, keen to get home quickly, were not eager to talk to me after office hours

As a result, to maximize my access, I used multiple methods, combining access through personal contacts and networks with snowballing and walk-ins into bank branches and offices By doing so, I succeeded in conducting research with a range of women, in a variety of banks (six public sector banks, nine foreign banks and five Indian private banks) and settings (both offices and branches, large and small; city centre and suburban branches) (see Appendix)

Refl ections on positionality and the research process

During the course of my research for this book, I found that my background or positionality played a major role in gaining access to my research participants This issue forms a central component of feminist research, which rejects the

‘scientific’ method involving objectivity and the detachment of the researcher from the research process Instead, feminists call for more context-specific research, in which the ‘ beliefs and behaviors of the researcher are part of the empirical evidence for (or against) the claims advanced in the results of the research’ (Harding, 1987: 9) Therefore, in keeping with the spirit of feminist methodologies which defined my research, I outline my positionality below and how it influenced the research process

First and foremost, I found that my position as a first-generation diasporic Indian researcher conferred upon me the ambiguity of insider/outsider status Since I was born and raised in India, and my parents and sibling are still based

in India, I was usually identified as a non-resident Indian I believe that being identified as an Indian increased the willingness of research participants to be interviewed My ability to conduct bilingual conversations also helped The majority of the interviews were conducted in English, but several were in a combination of English and Hindi Even in the interviews conducted in Eng-lish, my ability to use or understand local, colloquial Hindi terms signalled my

‘insider’ status (Vira and James, 2011) and helped facilitate the interview process

10 Introduction

Being identified as Indian also meant, however, that I was expected to conform

to local social norms and expectations of behaviour of an Indian researcher For instance, among older interviewees, there was a tendency to impart opinions, rather than respond to my queries I was also aware of the importance of speech, behaviour and dress For instance, I was careful how I addressed older employees and how I greeted them (with a traditional ‘namaste’ rather than a handshake), and I always ensured I wore the traditional salwar-kameez to interviews

On the other hand, during the interview process itself, I made use of, and emphasized my ‘outsider’ status – my Western education and my residence in the UK and Singapore I used this ‘Westernized’ status to ask culturally sensi-tive questions, such as about sexual harassment My affiliation to well-respected Western educational institutions also increased my credibility among the par-ticipants Participants were curious to learn more about life abroad and some-times wanted specific information on education and job opportunities in these countries I shifted from being a ‘supplicant, requesting time and expertise with little to offer in return’ (McDowell, 1992: 213), to becoming a provider

of information, enabling me to gain some control over the interview process

At the same time, it is important to note that my positionality was not solely based on my diasporic status but the outcome of multiple axes of identity, such

as age, gender, class, caste and marital status To my surprise, I found the identity that perhaps had the most significant impact was my position as a mother of a young child The mutual experience of having a young child and struggling to combine children with work seemed to create an instant rapport with female employees in similar situations, and it may not be a coincidence that this group comprises a large proportion of my interviewees The realization that I had left my 3-year-old daughter behind to conduct my fieldwork certainly helped

to elicit more positive responses and a greater willingness to participate in the research, even among women without children

In the final analysis, however, I found that within these multiple, intersecting dimensions of positionality, the crucial element for successful research ultimately depends upon the individual dynamics between researcher and researched and less to broader identities of race, class or gender

employ-Introduction 11

on the macro-level dimensions of gender inequalities in employment but do not explain how labour market inequalities get reproduced in the workplace (McDowell, 1999) To understand this, one must turn to gendered organiza-tion theory, which argues that every aspect of an organization is suffused with gendered expectations that privilege men over women:

advantage and disadvantage, exploitation and control, action and tion, meaning and identity are patterned through and in terms of a distinc-tion between male and female, masculine and feminine Gender is not an addition to ongoing processes, conceived as gender neutral Rather, it is

emo-an integral part of those processes

(Acker, 1990: 146) Extending this analysis further, Acker (1990, 1992) effectively dismantles the notion of organizations as gender-neutral structures filled with abstract workers Instead, in reality, since a worker in an organization is someone who is expected

to work long hours, arrange their outside responsibilities around paid work and relocate and travel as requested, this ‘ideal worker’ turns out to be a man (Kelly

et al , 2010: 283; Williams, 2000) Studies from the banking sector in Western

industrialized countries confirm that women, who normally are ately burdened with domestic responsibilities, are usually unable to meet these expectations of an ‘ideal worker’ Theories of gender and organization, therefore, provide a useful lens through which to understand how gender inequalities are reinforced in the workplace For this reason, in this book, I draw upon these theories and use the concept of an ‘ideal worker’ to assess how this is relevant

disproportion-to women’s work experiences in the Indian banking secdisproportion-tor

Gendered organizational theory is invaluable for explaining gendered ence in the workplace, but it is based on the model of a traditional bureaucratic organization The new economy, however, has led to changes in organizational structure that do not always fit this model of a traditional bureaucracy (Acker,

differ-2006; Wickham et al , 2005; Williams, Muller and Kilanski, 2012) Any analysis

of gendered organizations, therefore, needs to be modified to recognize that the mechanisms through which gender inequalities are manifested can differ in different organizational contexts This is especially pertinent to my research as I compare three different types of banks, with varying organizational structures – nationalized banks, foreign banks and Indian private banks

Throughout this book, I have taken heed of the calls of feminist scholars

to avoid universalizing discourses and acknowledge the multiple diversities and complexities of women’s lived experiences (Kabeer, 2008; Mohanty, 1991) I realize that an important limitation of theories of gender and organizations

is that they do not account for cross-cultural variations in patterns of gender inequality in the workplace In order to address this limitation, I combine an analysis of gendered organizations with a geographical approach that explores the influence of local, social and cultural factors In particular, I use the concept of respectable femininity (Radhakrishnan, 2009) to examine how Indian women’s

(Basi, 2009: 9)

It is even more important to consider the significance of cultural constraints when considering responses to discrimination and in examining how women can be empowered as workers In order to assess the impact of paid work on women’s empowerment, I deconstruct Kabeer’s (2008) framework of empower-ment into its constituent dimensions – resources, agency and achievements When used in conjunction with theories of the gendered organization, it highlights that women with sufficient economic resources can nonetheless be significantly disempowered within the workplace This analysis also reveals how cultural constraints on women’s behaviour can hinder their ability to challenge gender inequalities, as well as how women can become ‘empowered’ in the workplace

Structure of the book

The book is divided into eight chapters In the next chapter, I first provide

a brief outline of the main developments in women’s employment, with a particular focus on banking I move on to explain how the insights garnered from gender, work and organizational theories, in particular, the organizational practices embedded within the ‘ideal worker’ concept (Acker, 1990, 1992), can

be used as a tool for analyzing the covert ways in which women are ized in the workplace

The second part of the chapter explores the implications of women’s ment for ‘empowerment’ and develops a framework for understanding how women claim their rights in the workplace Juxtaposing gender, work and organi-zation theory with empowerment, I discuss why the framework of empowerment needs to be broken into its constituent elements, especially the resources that provide women with ‘voice’ The chapter then describes the different channels that can be potentially used by women to claim their rights in the workplace and argues that an analysis of women’s responses to gender inequality needs to move beyond collective action to incorporate more subtle ways of resistance,

employ-or ‘everyday resistance’

Based on available secondary data, Chapter 3 presents a synopsis of the recent trends in female employment in India The chapter identifies some of the main debates surrounding women’s employment in the organized sector in India, especially the puzzle of declining female labour force participation It reveals how the aggregate picture of static employment hides the emerging trend of increased opportunities within the tertiary sector, mainly in IT and financial

of work and employment in the Indian banking sector The chapter explores women’s perceptions of discrimination in relation to gender segregation, wage gaps, discrimination in promotions and recruitment and sexual harassment The chapter reveals that more than direct discrimination, gender discrimina-tion in the banking sector occurs mostly in more covert forms On the basis

of empirical evidence, I argue that the disadvantages created by the tional practices of long working hours, geographical mobility and networking prove to be more substantial obstacles to women’s career advancement The chapter also discusses how these patterns of inequality are different from those observed in the Global North However, by demonstrating that patterns of inequality varied between the different types of banks (public sector, foreign and Indian private), the chapter suggests that gendered patterns of inequality can be configured differently not only in different geographical locations but also in different organizational contexts

Following from this analysis, Chapter 5 examines how the obstacles to en’s career advancement are closely linked to cultural norms of respectability Elaborating on Radhakrishnan’s (2009) notion of respectable femininity, the chapter finds that the defining elements of respectable femininity can explain why banking is a popular occupational choice The norms of respectable femininity also influence observed patterns of occupational segregation In addition, the discussion on respectable femininity highlights how gender and class identities were simultaneously crucial for determining women’s lived experiences in the Indian banking sector In the process, this chapter underlines the complexities

wom-in the formation of gendered patterns of wom-inequalities wom-in the workplace and the intersection of gender with other axes of identity such as caste, class and race Whereas Chapter 5 examined the impact of local cultural norms on gender discrimination, in Chapter 6 , the focus shifts to institutional factors While legisla-tion is often advocated as a means of addressing gender inequality, this chapter probes into whether laws have been effective in reducing overt discrimination in the banking sector Through a comparison of nationalized, Indian private and foreign banks, the chapter finds that different organizational structures can influ-ence the extent of discrimination, as well as the implementation of legislation Chapter 7 describes how female employees in the Indian banking sector challenge gender-based inequalities in the workplace Building upon Kabeer’s (2008) conceptualization of empowerment, the chapter examines how women exercise ‘voice’ and its consequent impact on gender equality in the workplace

In Chapter 6 , the discussion centred on how legislation could reduce overt crimination in the workplace This chapter questions whether, and how, women use legislation to seek redress for gender discrimination The first part of the

dis-14 Introduction

chapter provides a brief summary of the empirical data on women’s responses to gender inequalities – from legal action and complaints to ignoring instances of discrimination The second part of the chapter seeks to understand the reasons for these responses and finds that the need to uphold the norms of respect-able femininity is a strong deterrent to resistance to gender inequalities in the workplace Therefore, legislation was also not sufficient for enabling women to challenge gender discrimination Women were also largely excluded from formal routes of organizing and resistance, such as trade unions Instead, women in the banking sector adopted various coping tactics, by relying on domestic help and extended kin to cope with the demands of masculinized workplaces

The final chapter brings together the main empirical and conceptual findings of the book and reflects upon their implications for policy It reiterates that gender inequalities in the banking sector result from a complex interplay of gendered organizational practices, local cultural discourses on femininity and institutional factors, particularly government laws and organizational structures The chapter points to the complexities of achieving gender equality in contemporary financial services workplaces in the Global South and calls for an alternative approach

to policy making in the Global South – even if policies are formulated at the global level, they have to be tailored to local needs

2 While there are varying definitions of the new economy, the term ‘new economy’ has been used to describe the transition in the 1990s in countries of the Global North from an industrial and manufacturing-based economy towards services and knowledge-based production, driven by growth in ICTs (Coyle, 1997; Perrons, 2004) I use the term ‘Global North’ interchangeably with terms such as developed and advanced industrialized countries The term Global North originated in 1980 when former German chancellor Willy Brandt presented a report that divided the world into the rich North and the poor and marginalized South While recogniz-ing that North–South divisions between rich and poor countries are no longer (and, arguably, never were) valid today – for instance, the Global South includes some of the world’s fastest growing economies – my study uses this definition

as the North–South divide remains an important influence on how countries are studied and represented (Williams, Meth and Willis, 2009) The Global South

in my study refers to what are commonly described as the ‘developing’ regions

of Central and South America, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa (Murphy, 2008: 868; Williams, Meth and Willis, 2009) However, it is important to emphasize that while I use the terms ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’ in an instrumental way, I recognize the diversity of countries within the

(Pre-my research interviews, I therefore referred to the bill

4 The NCR of India comprises the National Capital Territory of Delhi, as well as some areas (primarily urban) of the surrounding states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Rajasthan (NCRPB, n.d.)

The mass entry of women to the workplace has led to a relatively unchallenged prediction that women and ‘women’s ways’ will be one of the major infl uences on work in the twenty-fi rst century women have made huge progress; numerically dominating areas of the labour market and entering and succeeding in previously male dominated occupations and professional groups

(Bolton and Muzio, 2008: 282)

The worldwide rise in women’s labour force participation has been one of the most significant economic and social changes in the last century (Bottero, 2000; Goldin, 2006; Semyonov, 1980) and has led to a concomitant growth

of research into this phenomenon (Bottero, 2000; Carnoy, 2000; Crompton and Sanderson, 1990; Moghadam, 2007; ILO, 2010, 2012; McDowell, 1997; Perrons, 2004; World Bank, 2012) A common theme running through much

of this research is that despite significant progress in reducing the gender gap

in labour force participation, gender discrimination remains an indisputable reality of the twenty-first-century workplace Following from this, explanations for these trends have largely focused on macro-level analyses of labour market inequalities, but recent work has increasingly directed attention to how gender inequalities are reproduced within organizations, at the level of the workplace (Anker, 1998; McDowell, 1999; Walby, 1988) Gendered organization theory highlights how the expectations centred around the ‘ideal worker’ marginal-ize women, particularly those with domestic responsibilities In this chapter, I outline some of the concepts that will shape my analysis of women’s experiences

of work and employment in the banking sector in India

The second part of this chapter focuses on the implications of the changing nature of work for women Analyzing the literature on women in paid employ-ment, McDowell (1997: 12) notes:

If these literatures are to be believed, if sheer numbers of women in the labour market are emphasised and the terms and conditions of many women’s employment are ignored, it might seem that women are entering

a new period of success and empowerment in the late twentieth century world of work

Gender at work

Theorizing gender inequality

in the workplace

2

Gender at work 17

This raises several questions: does the empirical evidence support this ment? If women are truly becoming empowered, how has this affected their ability to challenge gender discrimination? A review of the existing literature on empowerment reveals that not much attention has been given to the empow-erment of women in white-collar work, probably because, based on women’s access to economic resources, they are assumed to be empowered (Martin and Meyerson, 1998) Such assumptions are contradicted by the continued discrimination faced by women even in supposedly privileged white-collar pro-fessional work It is clearly necessary to explore the pathways through which these women can be sufficiently empowered to challenge gender discrimination Using Kabeer’s (2008) framework of empowerment, I identify some of the main channels through which women can claim their rights in the workplace, which in subsequent chapters will be used as the basis to explore how women respond to gender inequalities in the Indian banking sector

A woman’s world: changing patterns

of work and employment

Women have been steadily entering the workforce in increasing numbers since the middle of the twentieth century, particularly in the services sector and in developed economies Worldwide, 1.2 billion women were working in 2007, almost 200 million more than in 1997 (ILO, 2008: 1) By 2012, in advanced economies, women comprised about 85 percent of service sector employment (ILO, 2012: 24) These changes draw attention to how contemporary labour markets have been shaped by the inter-linked phenomenon of globalization and the new economy The irreversible shift in industrial structure towards services, with the associated use of technology and the spread of information and com-munications technologies (ICTs):

have often been heralded as a way of increasing opportunities for women because they do not require physical strength, can be operated from home and enable people to work flexible hours

(Perrons, 2004: 197)

It is argued that the expansion of women’s employment coincides with the move towards more so-called feminine styles of working in the new economy The move away from hierarchical management styles to working patterns that promote teamwork and collaboration supposedly provide women with a competi-tive advantage (Reich, 2001; Thompson and McHugh, 2002) Women’s rising participation in the new economy is also attributed to the growth of service jobs requiring emotional labour, in which worker’s appearance and behaviour become part of the service being offered, and organizations require employ-ers to display certain emotions towards customers First noted by sociologist Arlie Hochschild (1983: 7), who defines emotional labour as the ‘management

of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display,’ this places