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HomeNewsInternationalIWD X : Girls need the grit, stamina, and tenacity to fight...

IWD X : Girls need the grit, stamina, and tenacity to fight their way to the top and retain the position: Vasudha Sondhi, Managing Director, OMPL Group

It is in fact ironical that in a fast-changing tech and modern world, some things like how women are brought up & attitude towards women change so slowly, says Vasudha Sondhi, Managing Director, OMPL Group.

How important is IWD for you and why?

IWD is an important day and will be important for some years to come. Inspite of having a 54% women work force in our industry we have a low double digit % in top positions. And not just the travel and hospitality industry, over all the number of women in the workforce has dropped drastically during COVID. Celebrating these occasions will serve to inspire millions of women who live without hope of doing anything for themselves.

Do you really think that women, in a fast-changing technology and modern age, needs empowerment? How did you develop confidence in yourself?

Yes, yes and yes. Women still continue to be the work horses when it comes to looking after the family, tending to cattle, working in the fields and it is the same story not just in India but all over the world. Let us not look at the few women in urban India to base our assumptions on. There are great stories of Axis Bank hiring housewives for their HR vacancies etc. It is in fact ironical that in a fast-changing tech and modern world, some things like how women are brought up & attitude towards women change so slowly.

I am lucky to have had parents and especially my mother who was a highly modern woman. She came from an extremely conservative Tamil Brahmin family but was herself a topper all through school and college. She wanted to be a lawyer who could not happen, but she was very sure that her daughters (3 of us) had a really good education and had careers before we thought of marriage. We never thought of ourselves as any less or more than our brother or male cousins.

We would not be allowed to sit and do nothing, we had to play sports, learn music, participate in household chores, had to read a book every week and would have discussions on that book every Sunday and we were never over protected and that really made us confident and strong. In retrospect when I think of how I could do so much in my life without ever feeling tired, it was because I had the stamina built over my young years. I recall a speech by Ms. Kiran Bedi where she spoke about how we need to encourage our girls to take up sports and have a high level of physical fitness to have stamina to go out and achieve our dreams.

While women constitute 54% of the work force in global travel, tourism and hospitality industry. This percentage is abysmally low at the top level?

Indeed, and this continues to haunt us. Women get married, drop out or are the primary care givers to old parents or parents in law. Inspite of being very bright and have the capability to be higher salary earner women are forced by circumstances to live with a lot of guilt if they think about themselves. A big attitudinal change must happen at home, at school and within society at large. Girls need the grit, stamina, and tenacity to fight their way to the top and retain that position. This is lacking currently except with a few who have managed to get there.

What sort of challenges do you face at workplace as well as balancing work-family life?

it has been a challenge to manage the family and work and especially when I have had to travel a lot. But I have a very caring and supportive family and that allowed me to spread my wings and fly high. Actually, there is no work-family balance. You have to choose one or the other and you do end up sacrificing a lot to achieve your career dreams.

One school of thought suggest that women themselves are one of the hindrances in the growth of the women. What is your take on this?

This is true in majority of the cases. Women are conditioned by family and society to think of themselves as mothers, daughters, wives, care givers, etc etc and if they think about themselves, they are riddled with guilt, and this goes on. My take is that we need to put this notion on its head and have a paradigm shift in our thinking. Education all over India for girls should be made compulsory and free till secondary school. Loans should be more easily available for girls or better still let us reserve seats for girls in higher educational institutions instead of reserving for SC/ST. In case of maternity leave, 6 months is good but if looked at from another point of view, it will decrease employability of women especially in our industry where we have smaller organisations and they cannot afford to give 6 months paid leave. If such leave is mandatory, it should be allowed to be staggered over 3 years and/or shared with the male parent.

What are your suggestions to younger generation?

Ans6- Have a goal in life, study hard, develop skills and hobbies that help shape your personality, enjoy but not at the cost of your life goals. Read, read and read. Readers make leaders. Continue even during your work life to learn new skills to be relevant.

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