‘Systemic issues' prevent women's participation in tech, telecom jobs: Industry executives

Time of India

04-06-2025

NEW DELHI: Societal and other hurdles have been a major hurdle to the participation of women in the telecom and technology sector workforces, but the trend has started reversing, particularly in the post-COVID-19 period, according to industry executives.
They said that avenues have opened for women in the post-Coronavirus period, allowing them to address their home responsibilities while leading a corporate career, courtesy of work-from-home (WFH) and hybrid working arrangements.
'Youngsters graduating from college see women in leadership roles in technology roles, so that becomes not just motivation but also inspiration for them,' Satkeerthi M, chief technology officer (CTO) at Airtel Business, said during a panel discussion at the World Telecom Day 2025 virtual event organised by ETTelecom.
She added that in the prior generations, women's representation in leadership roles was low, but that is now changing.
'Today, it gives the youngsters the ability to think they can also grow to that (leadership roles),' Satkeerthi said, adding that family, friends, and siblings have now also become supportive of women's growth.
'One aspect of COVID-19…is that it gave a good balance to a lot of people to try and look at work and home at the same time. This gave women the opportunity to be a lot more flexible,' she said.
Aruna Pidikiti, executive vice president (technology) at
Vodafone Idea
(Vi), noted that three to four 'systemic issues', including the dominance of men in decision-making activities, opaque promotion policies, lack of accessibility to mentorship from the top management, and self-confidence-related issues, act as barriers for women who aspire to advance to senior roles in corporates.
'If organisations work systematically on three to four factors, such as educating everyone on the gender parity and creating structural programs as well, especially for the women leaders, and then having an inclusive mentorship or sponsorship, definitely there would be an opportunity,' Pidikiti said.
Jeanette Whyte, head of public policy,
GSMA
APAC, said the telecom industry association has a 'Women for Tech' initiative which aims to empower and support women in the technology industry. 'This year, the topic is creating digital trust and empowering women with Inclusive AI. I think we have got this far, and supporting each other is immensely important,' she said.
Citing Globe Telecom, which has 52% women in executive roles, Whyte said that Indian companies can consider setting internal workforce diversity goals and tracking progress regularly. 'I think that companies in India can look at this to try to encourage having measurable targets,' she added.
The GSMA executive further suggested that recruiters can also utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to detect biases in hiring and promotion decisions, to ensure that the company's workforce progresses through the ranks equitably.
'In conclusion, there are systematic issues that need to be resolved, but the focus of our conversations was on how women can help themselves, (such as) by advocating for themselves. Some of the key takeaways are also that you shouldn't be shy away from learning. Let your ability outshine everything else, and be persistent. Have the conviction, confidence and be assertive,' said Sonica Bajaj, partner,
KPMG in India
, who moderated this panel discussion.