Is really the HR Domain Women’s Dominated?
As per the the reports by Namely HR Career, 71% of HR professionals are female. Beside the high female applicants for the positions. The reports say that this is due to a push for gender diversity from top management in the organisations that eventually works in favour of women HR professionals. As the result, more female employees are being recruited to fill the gender diversity gap.
HIGHLIGHTS
- HR domain is women dominated, If you haven’t observed this, start noticing now!
- As per the the reports by Namely HR Career, 71% of HR professionals are female.
- A People Manager’s reports on the subject, based on the leaders viewpoints.
- The footprints has been seen to be grown in the late 19th century.
- In a profession like HR, people are required to understand the how’s of work .
Is really the HR Domain Women’s Dominated Now, Well! what is your take on this?
It is not surprising us to know that the HR domain is becoming a girl’s club now. Even most of your organisations HR professional would be women. If you havn’t observed this, start noticing now. You would be probably agree with us! That, there are even memes surfacing in social media like, most HR’s are women because they are naturally good at rejecting people nicely, Jokes apart, studies also revealed that the HR domain is women dominated in IT, Finance and Services sectors.
As per the the reports by Namely HR Career, 71% of HR professionals are female. Beside the high female applicants for the positions. The reports say that this is due to a push for gender diversity from top management in the organisations that eventually works in favour of women HR professionals. As the result, more female employees are being recruited to fill the gender diversity gap.
Another general reason behind rising the female’s representation in HR is that women are better in soft skills with a higher emotional intelligence compared to the male couterparts in HR.
In this context, People Manager research on the domain covering media reports, who reached out to the age of leaders to understand their viewpoints on these statistics and drive the possible reason for the same. We have covered those views and opinion in the article and with this also explores is it a need of time to focus on gender diversity in the HR Domain?
Women Domination in HR is Historical | Hiring ratio of women campare to men in the human resources domain has been historically higher. Kanchan Banerjee and the resources officer Vedant Fashions (ET Reported) |
Kanchan expresses, “The footprints has been seen to be grown in the late 19th century in the Welfare workers Association (WWE) where female worker’s prime duty was to take care of other workers. Later, they started with recruiting other candidates as a part of no prime duty and went on. Today we are a part of its evolution.”
It is a more about the Softer Intrinsic Qualities.
| In a profession like HR, people are required to understand the how’s of work to do and perform better, which explore the softer side of an organisation in creating a wholesome workplace. Thus, people identified as softer instritc qualities are considered to outperform well in the domain.
Preeta Saxena, Human Resources Director, Teachmint (ET- Reported) |
Preeta says, the paradox is that we are witnessing these numbers when women are perceived to have higher emotional intelligence. Women are considered better with expression, communication and building relations, which happens to be the very competencies required to make anyone successful in HR Function!
Preeta further added that the essense of HR lies in the ability to make decisions about intangibles like personality and human potential which diffrentiate men to men and very with womens. The HR domain will continue to be dominated by people who strikes a balance between nurturing and subsituting skills as required for business and combine empathy with technical knowledge to facilitate their business goals.
Emotional Quotient is a reinforced myth
| There are multiple reason for womens representation HR Domain. This is due to the existing myth that women are better than men in term of Emotional Quotient.
Gauri Das, Vice President and head of Human Resources, India Factoring & Financial Solutions (ET-Reported)
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Gauri pointed out that though the researches reveals that both men and women are good at Emotional Quotient, but this is due to several underlying aspects. For instace, traits like self-confidence, assertiveness and the aggressiveness are seen prodominately higher in men, while women seem to be better in showing empathy, social responsibility and the interpersonal skills.
Gauri further, opines that this is mainly because of the differences in the way of bringing up men and women. Even society keeps encouraging this, and the movies, as well as the ads, tends to reflect this notion. This plays a major role in reinforcing this existing stereotype diversity. “Women in the HR domain is more than Diversity targets and for a wider talent pool,” Gauri said.
Gauri confirmed that a contributing reason this is diversity target. “While many wan’t to be willing to accept this one, it is a fact. HR has to prove that a diversity works and if they don’t have women in their own team they are not leading by example,” she adds.
Secondly, she says that there is a much more availability of women talent pool in HR compared to other functions. So, it is easier to hire women in HR than other functions to read your dirversity targets. Even in MBA Institutions, from where HR professionals are most hired, more women are preferring HR, as not everyone wants to do sales.
A Social Stigma, but Reflect Gender Diversity
| Social Stigma of men in traditionally- female dominated roles may be a factor why more men do not take up roles in HR.
Urvi Aradhya, CHRO, Mindspace Business Parks (ET- Reported) |
Aradhya expresses that as HR departments work in to further their Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) goals, it is essential that they self-reflect on their commitment to put gender diversity in their works. To create an effective work environment it is fundamental to review hiring policies and cultivate a workplace atmosphere that allow women to feel welcome in the HR field.
Urvi asserts that there is a need to break away from this historical notion and actively pursue female candidates for the roles. In order to achieve this, she suggests that the HR team must ensure that the jobs posting and recruitment materials across social media and professional job search portals are gender neutral and encourage a diverse range of applicants.
Ahead to this, the role and responsibility of the staff within the HR team must reflect the gender diversity of the organisation. By taking steps to ensure an inclusive and diverse workplace, as a people function can foster an environment for productivity and success, Aradhya points out.
On agreeing this point, Gauri Das, added that HR doman should be a diverse place with the presence of people from all genders. “If we make it dominated by one gender, we are creating a ground for by biased policies, as we may look at things from only one gender perspective,” she says.
Bring out of this a significant aspect to be pondered on, Preeta Saxena, Teachmint, points out that the woman’s representation is not getting reflected at the the senior HR roles. “If we closely scan the market reports on gender diversity in the HR domain, we will find that only 15% of the women make it to the top! And, if you refer to the data specific to the plant HR roles, we will find that the women representation, even in the Mid-Level roles is rare, ” she added.
Thus, the the Diversity and Inclusion strategy still need to be fixed across by board! Preets asserts.
Preeta further asserted that as HR Tranforms, the skillsets have also tranformed. “As despite the gender aspect we are seeing a greater push for relying on data for taking informed decisions, over and above empathy and business partnering,” she added.
More than this, Preeta Sexana, favours the view that organisation must look at building a stronger talent pipelines, focusing on building capabilities and curbing attrition at the intersection of personal and professional priorities to ensure that they made their diversity and inclusion requirement across the board.
Career choice is individualistic and possessing right skill sets matter
| Career choice is a really in the individualistic. “I am not sure whether a professional has to be marked saying that let’s get the males excited to join the profession. It has nothing to do with gender, if the HR profession doesn’t feature in a person’s top carrier considerations.”
Sudakshina Bhattacharya, CHRO, HDFC Ergo General Insurance. (ET-Reported) |
Sudakshina Bhattacharya, asserts that only if the skills that are demanded in HR resonate with the particular professional, he or she will be able to make a differences in it. Otherwise, it would be a deliberated attempt to hire people based on their gender.
Kanchan Benerejee, shares a similar opinions, that despite the gender inequality in HR, what should matter is weather the job is being performed well. While workplaces that have more inclusive benefit everyone, a company’s success is still crucial to continued employment.
Gender equality should be woven into the organisation culture to ensure that no employee is underpresented or undervalued. Regardless of gender, the best fit for the role should get the opportunity to get hired, Benerejee urges.
However, there is no MANTRA towards this, Benerjee asserts. She opinies that it is about the multiple practices put together which can lead to promote gender diversity in the HR domain. She also suggested that having Employees with a variety of gender identities on the hiring panel to make sure the final decision is fair and equal.
The industry Experts are divided on their opinion on whether HR department should reflect a gender diversity or not. Both sides have their valid reason to justify their opinions. Where the for-side pitches for the need of bringing up multiple gender perspectives into the people management team, and the against-side puts forward that ultimately the skill set matters the most, and moreover, the career choices are the individual preferences. Well! what is your take on this?
And at the end, it is also, to be noted that it is not as a result of any historical injustices that the HR domain lacks male representation. The trajectory of gender representation in HR was completely organic. There is no point in mixing this with women empowerment as in the letter’s case it is more about fighting the taboo and attaining gender equity which was denied away back. Where as the lack of male representation can be traced back to the differences in the perspectives than on any other social implications.
