'When child is in Class X-XII': Ex-SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya explains 3 situations when women quit their jobs

Arundhati Bhattacharya, the former chairman of the State Bank of India, said that though the women's labour force participation has gone up over the years, there are three main stages at which they tend to leave the job and prioritise their personal life over their professional commitments.

"The leaky pipeline is something we have been talking about quite some time now. We have done a survey to examine the times when we see the maximum attrition. We found out that there were three periods when the maximum number of women fell off. One of course is the childbearing years, when the child is really small. The reason is there is not enough ecosystem that supports the women. The second period in India is when the child is in the class X-XII. That's when things become really competitive. The mother is expected to be the one who supports the child and chauffers the child around to various coaching classes, wakes them up at the right time. Actually, they feel very guilty for not being there for the child in case he or she doesn't make it. And they give up."

At the panel discussion titled ‘The ‘IT’ Women’ during BT’s 20th edition of the Most Powerful Women in Business event, Bhattacharya further said: "The third period is when either the parent or parent-in-law falls sick. That happens because elderly care in India is not available or is very costly. And sometimes these elderly people are the people who helped you stay in the career by supporting you or bringing up your children, they feel very guilty about leaving them at home with caretakers. They feel guilty and give up on their jobs. That's why when in SBI, I introduced a two-year sabbatical for both child and elderly care."

She added that the women workers in SBI had immensely benefitted from the incentive. "We have saved something around 673 careers through this rule."

Earlier this year, a survey, conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), stated that the highest attrition was seen in the 20-30 age group at 15 per cent, followed by the 30-40 age group which saw 13 per cent attrition. The lowest attrition was in the 50-60 age group at 3 per cent.

In the tech sector, female attrition has doubled compared to male attrition in recent times as more companies began requiring employees to return to the office.

Data from InCruiter, a provider of exit interview services, stated that female employee attrition has reached as high as 30-40 per cent in recent months, compared to the industry average of around 15 per cent.

Women in mid-career roles (aged 30-40 years) leave the most due to the extra burden of childcare and domestic responsibilities, it added.
Since many of them are still looking for flexible work options, staffing services firm TeamLease Digital reported a 1.0-1.5 percentage point decline in the share of women in the technology workforce.

Data suggest that most women are switching to jobs closer to home or even taking on gig/freelancing jobs that offer more flexibility.

TeamLease Digital data further revealed that attrition among women in the tech industry was 8 per cent in 2021, far below the overall figure of 20 per cent.

At the BT event, Bhattacharya said she was surprised to discover biases within herself during training to address the issue. “After all, we are products of the society. When women feel they are not valued, (when they see) people who are obviously less capable than them are getting ahead, they have a tendency of dropping out due to sheer frustration,” she said. 

Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP & MD, SAP Labs India and Vice Chairperson, NASSCOM, said technology can help in solving a lot of these biases. “We are a product company that takes its products to 180 countries. Our consumers are extremely diverse. So, it is super important to have that diversity in the organisation to make sure it is reflected in the product, in our thinking and the respect we have for our consumers.” 

She added that diversity, including gender diversity, in the top leadership and board positions is no more a question of how it should be done, but how quickly can it be done.  

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