Stupid Little Girl

Working in India as a woman is bad- really bad. It has open condescension, open hostility and open sexual exploitation.

"Stupid little girl"- is what my friend, who is a MD of a company got hear from the IT guys. According to them, she was just a stupid little girl who didn't know how to run a business and thus should pay them a bribe/pay an incredibly high and incorrectly applied fine. Too bad for them, it is just that statement which is landing them in trouble.

But fighting back openly is fine when you don't want to do business with the other company. What does one do if it is the client who does this? When you are asked "where is your husband/father"? When you go to a client who has 1500 employees and you only meet one woman in your 4 day stay? When a reseller taking you out for dinner isn't able to tell his wife that you are a woman? When a client calls you over to his hotel room for a meeting and calls you gorgeous?

This is from the women business owners' perspective- of which there aren't many. This open hostility is comparatively non existent for MNC employees- but the salary discrepancy is still appalling.

I am not a feminist and never wanted to be one. Same is true for a lot of my other women friends. But if that is what it takes to maintain our lifestyle, then that is what has to be done.