Someone asked Ruth Bader Ginsburg how many of the nine judges on the US Supreme Court should be female? When would there be enough women on the bench? And she had a very simple answer, "When there are nine."
She didn’t get nine but today they have three. Three out of the nine Supreme Court justices in the US are women. That is 33%. And let’s take a look at our country. A country that has had a female prime minister and a president but today only 2 of the 30 Supreme Court justices of India are women. A meagre 6.5 %.
So I went on the Supreme Court website and decided to find out for myself, the number of female Supreme Court judges that have been appointed in India, since 1950.
Drum roll, please
.
.
.
5
Yes, I really wished the number exceeded the number of fingers on my hand.
But only 5 out of 215 judges appointed over the years were female.
If you add the 2 serving on the bench now, the total comes up to 7.
7 out of 245 in 70 years.
That is only a sad 2.8 %.
Mathematics is not my strong suit but simple math can sometimes reveal the most jarring truths in our society. You can take any field. Politics, Media, Finance, Technology or Education. And you will find numbers just like these. People who say that we are lacking women leadership are lying. We have a serious alarming deficit in women at the top.
In the c-suite, ( c-suite executives include chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), and chief information officer (CIO) women still find it hard to find representation. The handful of names (You know them by now) who have found their way to the top are constantly fed to women as motivational bait.
But what about those who got to the top?
A question that every woman faces when she makes an excuse due to health or personal issues. The system didn’t put them up there. They got there despite every hurdle that was thrown at them. And that is really something to think about.
Leaders are not born in a day, neither are they recruited out of blue. Leaders are groomed from the day they start their careers. At entry-level, male and female recruits are almost at par. But as they progress in their career, the ratio falls. At the top level, female representation is almost nil. The reasons can range from childcare, rigid work timings, health issues, payment disparity and what not.
Men and even some women see maternity benefits and female employee privileges as handouts but truthfully the entire Indian working setup is built around menfolk. From the way chairs are designed to the temperature of the workplace and shift timings, it is all still predominantly favouring a man.
So speaking about gender quality means that you address that women and men have unique needs and issues. Admitting that is the first step towards achieving true gender equality.
It’s time middle and top management stops being a predominantly boys club where the handful of women are just an exception.
Like Ruth Bader Ginsburg would say,
"Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception"
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a champion for gender equality and women’s rights. The second women to sit at the US Supreme Court. Even as she fought the battle with cancer, she never refrained from asking the tough questions, smashing the patriarchy and setting the benchmark for feminist icons. And I don’t know what would be a better tribute than reflecting on her thoughts and carrying them forward to the future. Rest in Power Ruth!
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