Naina Lal Kidwai is no stranger to hard work, gender discrimination and success. The Chairman of HSBC India, she was also the first woman President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Dotted with accolades, her own journey is inspirational, and so, when she puts it together with 29 other similar stories, what emerges is a powerful narrative. “30 Women in Power: Their Voices, Their Stories” (Rupa), edited by Kidwai, brings together the inimitable voices of Indian women who have been pioneers and led large organizations—in banking, law, the media, advertising, government services, health care, consulting, the fast-moving consumer goods sector and the not-for-profit space. Told in their own voice and filled with personal anecdotes and experiences, the book speaks of both indomitable hope and fiery pride.
Excerpts from an interview:
In your introductory chapter, you talk about the need to provide a more positive Indian narrative...
My whole reason for putting this book together was that I saw how while we have some wonderful women who are CEOs in this country, nobody knows who they are. I ran this test by a number of people in the world of business and they could not answer the questions of who heads this company or who is this person. That led me to believe that the story of our women’s successes and the way they run organisations needed to be told.
Two weeks after the Nirbhaya incident, I was appointed president of FICCI and everywhere I went, the first question I was asked was about the status of women in India. People wondered if I was an anomaly. And I would tell them that I am not. There are so many wonderful women, who are CEOs here, in our country.
The book is more about that fact that if the world believes that our women are raped and mistreated, all of which is shameful and true, let us also tell the world our good stories. Let us also celebrate our successes, even while we rightly hang our shame.
But the negative narrative is important too, wouldn't you say?
The negative narrative is critical, because it’s a rallying call for us. I am really proud to belong to a country which, after the Nirbhaya incident, took the bull by the horns and countless young girls and boys were out on the streets of Delhi, really demonstrating their support. What should not stop is the telling of the story, but we also have to see what we are doing about it. That is important. As a result of events in India we got a sexual harassment clause that came up in a Vishakha commission and got translated into work place security.
There are 30 names in the book, but the list of accomplished is long. How did you narrow down the list and arrive at the final names?
To some extent it was driven by those I knew well and could therefore persuade and nudge into writing. Don’t forget that each story is written in the woman’s own voice. So, it had to be women who were comfortable writing about themselves and since I was not going to let them off the hook in terms of some of the questions I wanted answered, it also had to be women who were comfortable answering those questions. I wanted all of them to answer those questions in some way so that I could cull some learnings out of them and identify common threads.
You have highlighted these common threads in your introduction too.
Yes, and I highlighted the key points in every chapter so as to make it an easy read for someone who doesn't want to go through every essay. That was a bit of a fight with the publisher because they said that this makes the book slightly text book-ish.
So, the culling was in terms of who I knew, who had the ability to write, and who was prepared to write. Not everyone was; many in the book needed to be goaded to do it. Seeing that it was for a cause, it was also exactly the ones who were less known who needed to write.
I was driven also by the desire to pick a mix. I have tried to pick people from different sectors. I widened the field to include government, which was a bit unusual but I wanted women who run large organisations. There are many key women in the world of entertainment, fashion, sports, but those are individual performances. I was looking more for women as leaders and organisers of large companies.
And when the stories came back to you, did you notice common, and uncommon threads with your own journey; points that struck you?
Each story was different, since people had had different family experiences and many grew up with very different backgrounds. But the traits which I culled were common. And that was quite striking.
I was struck by some things. I was struck by how unafraid some of the women were to say that they were ambitious. That was quite interesting. I wouldn’t have thought ambition rode so deep.
I was also struck by the influence of fathers. The influence of mothers and teachers I’d have thought, but the influence of fathers in our times when most women didn’t work is interesting. The common trait was women seeing their father as a mentor and guide, which tells me that we should have fathers spending more time at home with their kids, particularly if they have daughters, because they can encourage and drive in a way that maybe the mothers can’t.
Similarly, I noticed the presence of supportive husbands in every one of their stories. That was a given, but it was nice to hear that there were 30 equally wonderful husbands.
While this book is about women who have reached the top of the ladder, you also deal with women employees at junior and mid level positions in the companies and organisations of the sectors you address in your book. How would you say things are for them today?
I think it is a bit easier. At least for a start the wash-rooms are on the same floor. You don’t have to climb up two floors, which was monstrous when you are expecting. We do in many companies, unfortunately not in all, have policies like flexi hours, six months maternity leave and more. In HSBC today a woman can take off a year quite easily, with six months privilege leave, accumulated leave, etc. Day care centres are becoming much more the norm in offices. These are advantages, but issue of work life balance remains. I would like to believe that young people who marry today marry men who will support them and their work. But I think women still have to have the drive and know that they want to make it work.
Women still see themselves as caregivers in the family and we are not talking about a situation they want that taken away. We just need to make it easier and ensure that the sharing at home with the husband happens.
We are still at a place where it’s impossible to separate the gender of a person from their successes…
The ideal should be that we celebrate success, across gender, but we are still in a situation where someone like myself who for years was against quotas now feels that having a quota for a corporate women on board is required, because you have a pathetic 4% women on corporate boards. We are now in 2015, and we have one of the worst percentages in the world. So you have to give it a push. And lo and behold, everybody kicked and screamed but now people have women on board. I think one is not the answer, but these women will show everybody how capable they are because they are. And they will deliver. At FICCI we have set up a program where we are bringing in mid level women and training them to be corporate board ready. These sorts of initiatives will help.
I don't care if its your wife or daughter if you are a family run company, but if that wife or daughter as a result of this are getting exposure and tomorrow they get a chance to run the company because you begin to trust them, well that’s terrific.
What do you hope for the book and the message it carries?
I have given readers 30 wonderful stories, to pick what they want from. Not everybody will relate to everyone, but they will find at least one person they can relate to.
But the book is not just for women. I hope there are lessons there for husbands, for fathers, companies that hire women. It’s a very wide swath of people who should pick it up. I have tried to make it really easy too, so you can pick up the essence. The men may pick it up a little reluctantly though. I don’t know how unashamedly a man would read this book. I’m going to be looking to see how many men are reading it.
