I almost requested a round of applause for our premier Sheikh Hasina. I thought we were going to get a lady chief justice -- a first for Bangladesh. My lawyer friends, on the other hand, told me that it was going to a non-Muslim gentleman. I was betting, knowing Sheikh Hasina, that it was going to be the appellate division judge. My friends won, but I didn’t mind. The chosen one is also an individual of integrity and firm conviction.
If I sound like I am giving credit to the present government, especially our PM, it would be for its commitment to appointing an increased number of women to senior positions and encouraging further IT-driven solutions, though it does not void any of the debate surrounding them.
I remember carefully listening to the speech she delivered on International Women’s Day during her last regime. She said, if voted to power one more time, she would appoint more women to senior government positions.
A review of the last 43 years of Bangladesh’s progress since the Liberation War shows that more and more women are taking up jobs, and are making significant contributions towards achieving their respective organisations’ goals. No nation, I repeat, no nation, can move forward without recognising half of its population, or making the best use of its available resources.
This applies more in achieving corporate goals. The crisis-prone North America has shown us that female CEO-led organisations were doing better than others during its periods of crisis. History also shows that nations which create more space for their minority communities are more respected for upholding democratic values.
However, if we do a deep dive review, we can’t really boast of having too many successful female CEOs or heads of departments in Bangladeshi enterprises, public or private. What is even more worrisome is that there are no strong pipelines of female leaders either. I hope my colleagues don’t take this the wrong way, but, in most cases, many women are just being used to fill up quotas, or are part of some courtesy “form-filling” exercise.
Our prime minister made a statement, saying: “You must first deserve, and only then can you desire, so that it does not look like you are trying to earn pity from the system.” It’s possible that she wanted our womenfolk to try and continuously improve their skills by themselves, and adjust themselves with the ever-changing demands of the workplace.
Yes, today we are seeing women secretaries in the ministries, young ladies joining the Bangladesh armed forces, and many others joining the boards of state-owned banks or other financial institutions, with some even climbing up to senior positions in the central bank. While we should be sponsoring more women to reach even higher levels, we cannot claim that we are getting the right “people” for the right jobs.
I am sure that our premier wants more ladies in senior positions, but she didn’t want her friend, who was educated in Bengali literature, to fly a MIG-29 fighter aircraft, unless she has the core competence or the required training to do so. We obviously feel very happy when we get to see women filling up senior government positions. At the same time, we have reasons to be saddened when we see ladies being appointed only in cultural or children’s affairs, or social welfare ministries.
For more than 25 years, I have worked with many women, both colleagues and bosses, at home and abroad -- many of them extremely qualified, or, for want of a better term, “world class.” They always went the extra mile for client solution-building and achieving organisational goals. But I can’t honestly claim that the deserving ones got what they deserved at the end of the day.
Yes, our women are either deprived of their due share, or are being neglected and not recognised at home. We also sadly notice how women are not being given their due recognition even in the workplace, most of which loudly promotes puffed-up promises of social justice or performance culture.
Time has come for our women, especially the educated ones, to be given what they deserve, without trying to earn pity or unnecessary care from their male or female sponsors. They have come a long way. We have seen many female students occupying top positions in public exams, but they were not given a chance to sustain this success later on.
We want our decision-makers to go deeper in finding out the real reasons, and make sure we harness and promote talented women for their core competence and their ability to deliver, rather than considering senior positions for ladies on political closeness or simply to pamper them, disconnected from the ultimate vision of the too-big-to-fail organisation that is our government.
We want more qualified ladies engaged in creating a better future for all of us. I’ll let you know, there are many waiting in the transit lounge and even more coming down the pipeline. We just need to have the desire and drive to find them out.
