8 months ago
Corporate India Needs Structural Change for Women
Ameera Shah, a leader in healthcare, talked about how corporate India is still designed for men.
She said women face challenges when they need time off for things like having babies, and companies don't always support them.
She shared her own experiences and suggested changes like making hybrid work mandatory and creating programs to help women return to work after taking time off.
She also talked about how new technologies like egg freezing can help women plan their careers and families better.
Shah believes that companies should value both the emotional and professional sides of life and that planning can help women balance both.
Corporate India operates on a model designed for men, lacking support for women's biological milestones.
Ameera Shah emphasized the need for conscious choices and planning to balance ambition and biology.
Modern reproductive technologies like egg freezing and IVF give women more control over their careers and family planning.
Perceptions of women in leadership often shift after motherhood, with decisions viewed through the lens of motherhood.
Businesses need to rethink structures, including mandatory hybrid work and formal re-entry programs, to retain women in leadership.
- Who
- Ameera Shah, Executive Chairperson at Metropolis Healthcare
- What
- Discussion on the need for structural changes in corporate India to support women's careers
- Where
- At the summit event
- When
- During Business Today’s Most Powerful Women 2025 summit
- Why
- To address the lack of institutional support for women navigating biological milestones and professional expectations
Key facts
- Speaker
- Ameera Shah, Executive Chairperson at Metropolis Healthcare
- Event
- Business Today’s Most Powerful Women 2025 summit
- Key Issue
- Lack of institutional support for women's biological milestones
- Proposed Solution
- Mandatory hybrid work and formal re-entry programs
- Reproductive Technologies
- Egg freezing and IVF as game-changing tools
- Perception Shift
- Motherhood affects professional perceptions of women
- Leadership Diversity
- Companies perform better with gender diversity
Quotes
Ameera Shah
Executive Chairperson at Metropolis Healthcare
“There is no ideal. I had my child at 40 and twins at 44, and it allowed me twenty years to build my business. But I planned for it. I created the backup. If we value the emotional and the professional sides of life, I believe you can have both, assuming there is no medical challenge. It is about balancing, prioritising and planning.”
businesstoday.in
“Before children, when I went for meetings with my male manager, people would often talk to him and not to me. After I became a mother, the same people who discussed macroeconomics with me now first ask about my kids. Nothing has changed for me, but their perception has.”
businesstoday.in
Sources
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