The modern-day workplace may have the appearance of a being a hassle-free environment for women, but every working woman of the world knows it’s all a ruse. The truth is, workplace gender politics are as much a part of the office as work is.
Times of India reported that yesterday at the Women In the World Summit in association with the New York Times, PepsiCo’s India-born CEO Indra Nooyi spoke and her powerful words about women in the workplace are ones to live by.
One of the most powerful and influential business women in the world, Nooyi said she hates being addressed as ‘honey’ or ‘sweetie’ and that women need to start being respected as individuals.
“We still have to have equal treatment. I hate being called sweetie or honey at times which I still am called. All that has got to go. We have got to be treated as executives or people rather than honey, sweetie, babe. That has to change.” she said.
She talked about how women have “clawed our way into the revolution in this workplace” and that we’re still fighting for parity in pay. But, she laments, women don’t support other women in the workplace as they should and worse still, they don’t take feedback from other women positively. She urged that we figure out how we can help each other and stop competing in a professional setting.
“I think we have to change our whole approach to supporting each other taking advice from each other, seeking it out,”… “The sisterhood has to become way stronger than it is today,” Nooyi remarked.
Nooyi emphasised that while there is progress in helping women in the workplace, it still needs to be integrated with her personal roles of a daughter, wife, mother and daughter-in-law.
Thank you, Indra. God knows someone needed to say it. Someone that the world takes seriously. I sure hope your words do something to change the professional world’s treatment of women.