This document discusses challenges faced by women and empowering women for a better tomorrow. It identifies key challenges such as gender suppression, emotional guilt, self-negligence, weak networks, forcible quitting, and untapped potential. A SWOT analysis is conducted to examine weaknesses and threats. Solutions are proposed to overcome weaknesses including self-care, strong women's networks, communication, and realizing one's potential. Solutions are also suggested for society to overcome threats such as promoting gender equality, reducing social stigma, and supporting work-life balance. The document emphasizes that empowerment begins with gaining confidence and decision making skills at home and having supportive networks and organizations to help women reach their full potential.

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Empowering women for a Better Tomorrow
Authors: Shallu Soni, Mymoon Shabana, Lavanya Raghuraman
Table of Contents
1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. 2
2 Introduction....................................................................................................................................... 2
3 Challenges Faced: ............................................................................................................................. 2
Analysis of the challenges:.................................................................................................................. 3
4 SWOT Technique ............................................................................................................................. 4
4.1 Overcoming Weaknesses - What you can do?........................................................................... 6
4.1.1 Self-Negligence: Challenge ................................................................................................ 6
4.1.2 Weak Network: Challenge.................................................................................................. 6
Solution: Women Women Web(3W’s)............................................................................................. 6
4.1.3 Emotional Guilt: Challenge ................................................................................................ 7
Communication and Right Attitude: Solution .................................................................................. 7
4.1.4 Untapped Potential: Challenge............................................................................................ 7
Solution: Realize your potential........................................................................................................ 7
4.1.5 Forcible Quitting – Challenge............................................................................................. 8
Solution: Work life balance .............................................................................................................. 8
4.2 Overcoming Threats –What Society can do?............................................................................. 8
4.2.1 Gender Suppression and Social Stigma: Challenge............................................................ 9
Solution: Gender Suppression and Social Stigma............................................................................. 9
4.2.2 Emotional Guilt and Forcible Quitting: Challenge........................................................... 10
Solution: Emotional Guilt and Forcible Quitting............................................................................ 10
4.2.3 Untapped potential: Challenge.......................................................................................... 10
Solution: Untapped Potential .......................................................................................................... 10
5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Few Highlights to Conclude ............................................................................................................... 11
6 References....................................................................................................................................... 12

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1 Abstract
Are women empowered in today’s world? The answer is Yes! But, the real question is, “Do all women feel
empowered?” Unfortunately, No. The challenges that curtail women empowerment vary from gender
suppression to untapped potential. There are numerous success factors captured from personal experiences
that have empowered woman’s career by overcoming these challenges.
• The root of empowerment begins at home by gaining confidence and decision making as part of woman’s
growing nature. Focus should be on opportunities to improve rather than looking for perfection in tasks
taken.
• Strong Women Networking helps in uplifting each other and smoothing the rough patches. This group will
be a place for women, by women and of women.
• As career women, there is a constant need to overcome challenges and make a mark at different levels of
an organization. Support from organizations opens doors for empowering women to reach heights. This is
a win-win situation for both since women leaders have recorded better ROI to the organization.
• A woman faces lots of challenges from the point she leaves home for work until she retires for the day. Care
for self by following woman’s passions helps in keeping recharged for the different roles that she plays in a
day.
• Wearing the Right Attitude helps to accept the choices made to take up career along with the responsibility
of raising the family.
All the above factors considered at family and organizations levels can enhance the true multitasking potential of
a woman and make her feel empowered.
2 Introduction
Gone are the days, when women used to stay confined to the four walls of the house and limited
themselves to being a homemaker. Women have started to hit all the facets of work like men. Yet, women face
hurdles in the different roles that she plays in her daily chores. So, how does one overcome the challenges in
order to become empowered women? This paper brings out the different challenges, its analysis and how to
address them to bring about a better tomorrow for Gen Y women.
3 Challenges Faced:
The major challenges that curtail women empowerment are Gender suppression, Emotional Guilt, Self-
negligence, Weak network, Forcible Quitting and Untapped potential. All these challenges when properly
handled can bring out the real potential of a woman. In this section, we analyze the deep-rooted challenges that
women face from the standpoint of two stakeholders, the Self and the Society. By self, we mean the woman
who faces challenges and by society we mean the family and the organization that are integral entities for
empowering woman.

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Analysis of the challenges:
Factors hindering Women
Empowerment
Self is responsible (A) Society is responsible(B)
Gender suppression No Yes
Emotional guilt Yes Yes
Self-negligence Yes No
Weak network Yes No
Forcible Quitting Yes Yes
Untapped potential Yes Yes
Social Stigma No Yes
Communication Yes No
Table 1: Responsibility Matrix
Table 1 depicts the two entities that affect Women empowerment.
“Self is responsible” column denotes the list of challenges that are under the purview of the woman to overcome.
“Society is responsible” column denotes those challenges that women face based on the external factors such
as family and the Organization.

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This analysis is represented as a Venn diagram in Figure.1
Figure1: Venn Analysis
From Figure 1, we can find that most of the factors affecting women empowerment fall within the boundary of
Self. Although, a few factors are mutual, the focal point of overcoming the challenges lies with self-initiation.
In a nut-shell, it can be said that Empowerment cannot be given, it has to be taken.
By focusing on addressing the challenges around self, one can surely bring about the required change in the
way society treats a woman. This will minimize the social challenges imparted on women by the society.
4 SWOT Technique
To overcome the factors that an individual needs to improve, we have applied the SWOT Technique. The Self-
challenges are linked to Weaknesses and the Society-based challenges are linked to the external Threats.
Objective: To become empowered women by overcoming the major challenges.
For applying this technique, we will address the following questions
How can we minimize our Weaknesses, so that we are better positioned to make them our strengths?
How should society help in reducing the Threats to women empowerment, so that there are better
opportunities for Women empowerment?

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Figure 2- Women Empowerment SWOT Technique
S W
O T
1. Emotional Guilt
2. Self-Negligence
3. Communicaiton
4. Attitude
1.
1. Financial Independence
2. Organizational Growth
3. Career Scale-up
4. Mentoring
1. Gender Suppression
2. Family Pressure
3. Social Stigma
4. Forced Quitting
1. Well Organized
2. Emotional Intelligence
3. Decision Making
4. Ambitious
I
N
T
E
R
N
A
L
E
X
T
E
R
N
A
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4.1 Overcoming Weaknesses - What Self can do?
4.1.1 Self-Negligence: Challenge
A woman faces lots of challenges from the point she leaves home for work until she retires for
the day. It is inevitable that Women play many roles in day with no time for self-care. In course of time,
this has an impact on the health that causes a ripple effect on all her responsibilities.
Solution: Care for Self
Make time for yourself. This is very important to keep the stress levels at bay. Poor health can
destroy the peace of the family as well as one’s career. Indulge in activities that you like to do. Have a
routine exercise regime. Care for self by following woman’s passions helps in keeping recharged for the
different roles that she plays in a day.
Author's experience:
Post maternity, obesity was controlling my life. I used to feel exhausted with the different roles I
had to play after joining work back. Being a sports person throughout my life, obesity was killing my spirit
and had an impact on career as well as my family. I got to know of an initiative by the company to have
an in-house fitness program. This initiative from my organization and little push of my own helped me to
rejuvenate myself. 30 Minutes a day of exercise changed my life to the most. Within a span of six
months, I can confidently say I feel a major change in my energy levels and I am more efficient in taking
care for my family and my work. In addition to it, this gave me an opportunity to train myself and be a
part of World 10 K organized at Bangalore. I successfully completed the 10K run and it gave me
enormous visibility thereby being an inspiration to many women associates in the organization.
4.1.2 Weak Network: Challenge
Another major setback is the area of networking. Women tend to focus on their job and their
family. The world is viewed very narrow and therefore the opportunities get narrower. This would hinder
professional growth for an ambitious woman.
Solution: Women-Women Web (3W’s)
Strong Women Networking helps in uplifting each other and smoothing the rough patches. This group
will be a place for women, by women and of women. Such groups in organization or elsewhere have
helped women in getting through the transition period from maternity to work, counseling, mentoring and
sharing insights by inspiring women leaders. In longer run, as successful career women, we need to act
as a medium / catalyst to educate and enhance the fellow women associates of our organization.
Author's experience:
Diversity and Women Network forum at our Organization has various activities. We meet up once in
month with a "Woman- Centric" theme to collaborate and inspire each other apart from engaging in
various activities to become a better individual. Some of the activities are:
Be Inspired – Various sessions are conducted by eminent women leaders across the
organization that inspires me and gives me confidence to handle the different challenges that I
come across.

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Women Discussion circle – This group acts as a medium to educate and enhance the fellow
women associates of our organization. By being a part of this group, it helped me to share my
problems formally/informally and get guidance from my peers on both professional and personal
front. This forum has always been a great school of learning and sharing within my organization
4.1.3 Emotional Guilt: Challenge
Career women invariably travel the guilt trip that a career is built at the cost of their family.
Maintaining balance between work and family has always been difficult when moving up in the career
ladder. This leads to guilt, depression and stress. After marriage, women have to manage her husband,
in-laws, kids therefore she juggles in between her family and work. This makes woman keep brooding
over what they wished that had done.
Communication and Right Attitude: Solution
One should negotiate for her space, be it at home or society. It is important not to think of home
when at work and feel guilty that you want to build a career at the cost of family. When you are at work,
think of your career goals and focus on how to accomplish them. When you are at home, think of how to
best be a mother, a wife, a daughter in law and a daughter. Wear the Right Attitude to accept the
choices you have made to take up career along with the responsibility of raising the family. In some
circumstances, silence cannot be used as the right weapon. It will turn out to be dangerous if one
tolerates any kind of injustice because speaking out would mean going against the social stigma of how
a woman should be. One must keep in mind that Perfection cannot be achieved in all the tasks taken but
should look for ways to improve in the next opportunities that come their way.
Author's experience:
Being a mother of 2 kids under 5 years, I found it very difficult to manage my kids and work. I felt
that my kids were missing me and even ignoring my presence because the time I spent with them was
less. Being a working mother was the choice I made as I was ambitious as well as I wanted to financially
support my family. I decided not to feel guilty and tried to focus on what could improve my work-life
balance. During one of the women network meetings, I was inspired by a speech given by a very
eminent women leader. She mentioned “There won't be time where you can strike the balance between
work and family. Either of one would take priority based on the demand” This was a very important
message to my guilt trodden self. I then decided to properly communicate my situation to my manager
when a demand of family raised its head. Similarly, I was assertive about the need to work and
communicate the same to my family and kids. In this way, I was clear of my goals and never decided to
travel the road of guilt again.
4.1.4 Untapped Potential: Challenge
A woman is a true multitasking potential. Most of the times, this fact gets under
estimated by the individual due to the social stigma. This leads to the potential being untapped.
Solution: Realize your potential
”. A woman needs to know that she is capable of doing much more than she thinks she can.
“Everyone has inside of her a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you
can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is! – Anne Frank
This is where the right attitude comes into play. To realize your potential, one needs to wear the right

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attitude and with right attitude comes right communication. Women often face challenges of being the
thin group when it comes to important meetings and decision makings. If you have a point to make,
never decide to go with the crowd only because you fall under the minority group. Be open to ideas and
assess the reasons of disagreements, yet maintain a strong and professional level of discussion.
4.1.5 Forcible Quitting – Challenge
In most of the situations, it is found that women between the age of 30 and 40 quit due to family
pressures and the social stigma surrounding the lifestyle of women. For women, the problems are a lot
more serious and so they opt out.
Solution: Work life balance
Organizations have various policies for going on sabbaticals during maternity, to take care of an
ailing family member and so on. Women should be aware of all the work-life balance policies,
procedures, holidays offered in their organization. Many organizations today have implemented
intranets, virtual private networks and other knowledge management systems which can help employees
to work from home. Such policies are used by women associates to maintain a work-life balance.
Women should realize that they need to balance work and life based on the demands at work and home.
Organizations can only facilitate, but the initiative should be taken by us.
Table 2 shows the effectiveness of each solution to overcome the different challenges.
Table 2: How to minimize Weaknesses to overcome our Threats
Solutions
Challenges
Communication Attitude Care for self Women Network
Emotional guilt Medium High Medium Medium
Self-negligence N/a Medium High Medium
Weak network High High Medium High
Forcible Quitting High High High High
Untapped potential High High Medium Medium
4.2 Overcoming Threats –What Society can do?
Table 3 depicts the intensity of the different challenges that Women face from the perspective of family and
Organization

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Table 3: Society Responsibility Matrix
Challenges Family Organization
Gender suppression High High
Emotional guilt High Low
Social Stigma High High
Forcible Quitting High Low
Untapped potential Low High
4.2.1 Gender Suppression and Social Stigma: Challenge
It is evident that girls are brought up in a more conservative environment as compared to boys.
With regard to the girl child, parents tend to limit the child’s activities in this male-dominated world. They
are treated inferior to them, not because they are less qualified or incapable, but because of the reason
that they are women. It is true that Organizations have shown interest in opening the doors for women,
but the real picture remains that everything is only on paper and there is very less rigor in the actions
being taken towards the betterment of women employees. It is a sad state that Women are yet to be
seen more at the higher positions. This is a major road block to women empowerment.
Solution: Gender Suppression and Social Stigma
Family: The root of empowerment begins from family. A girl should be taught to be independent
right from the time she learns to walk on her own.
Author’s experience:
I am an outgoing person due to the attitude of my parents towards my upbringing. Brought up in
a conservative environment, he would still have a lot of wisdom and courage to educate his children
equally. We being two elder sisters never were made to think that we are less than our brothers. We
went through Proper education, caring and all the opportunities were given to us. It is at this prime youth
that seeds of confidence are sown into an individual irrespective of the gender. That has helped me to
become a confident woman with clarity in every decision that I make.
Organization: As career women, there is a constant need to overcome challenges and make a
mark at different levels of an organization. Organizations should conduct workshops for
Managers/Leaders to emphasis the importance of diversity at the leadership level. These workshops
should help in changing the mindset of the Managers and Leaders not to assume that women are tailor-
made only for certain tasks. This is a major bottle neck to Women empowerment.
Following is a sample exercise that could be conducted in workshops for Managers/Leaders

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Case study 1: Sample exercise for Managers/Leaders
4.2.2 Emotional Guilt and Forcible Quitting: Challenge
Families tend to think of women as child bearers and home makers. They think of working
women as a means of degradation to the family culture. This has created a lot of mental pressure within
the family as well as the individual which impacts the career of women.
Solution: Emotional Guilt and Forcible Quitting
Day-care tie-ups can help women rest assured of proper care to her kid(s) while she can devote
time to work. Company should have provisions for sabbaticals for maternity/ taking care of ailing parents
/in-laws. Flexibility in work timings/choice of working from home post maternity/during the need of the
hour will open doors for empowering women. This will be a motivation to aspiring women and will reduce
the pressures that a working women faces in her family.
4.2.3 Untapped potential: Challenge
The stigma surrounding women is the biggest threat for a women’s potential to go untapped.
Although Organizations have set up policies for women empowerment, the focus to enhance women
potential is lacking.
Solution: Untapped Potential
Support from Management is very essential to retain women employees in the organization. The
first step to guiding women is to help them with allowances that could prevent them from quitting. The

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next step is to train aspiring women associates on Leadership competencies As per recent report from
the Committee for Economic development, Women leaders participation in the board committee yield
better ROI and profits to the organizations. Support from organizations open doors for empowering
women to reach heights. This is a win-win situation for both. The importance of women empowerment
should be in the agenda for every financial year’s goals of the organization.
5 Conclusion
This paper has showcased the major challenges that working women face in corporate world.
Based on the analysis of these challenges through various methods, the conclusion is that Woman to
become empowered needs to focus on the factors that are under the control of self. The various
solutions brought about in this paper are proven experiences of the authors and when applied efficiently
would help Gen Y women to face the challenges in the right way and get empowered. This paper also
emphasizes on solutions that society can support with for women to get empowered.
Few Highlights to Conclude
Keep your spirits high.
Don’t get de-motivated easily. Maintain a thick skin
Value all your work and pat yourself. This will energize your subconscious mind
Say ‘No’ without guilt.
Spend a minimum of 2 hours in a week for your hobbies
Dedicate 100% to whatever you do

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6 References
[1] Regina Kunkle , "Women In IT: Follow Your Passion To A Successful Career"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2013/05/08/women-career-passion/
[2]Cynthia Stoddard, "Why We MUST Tell Young Women Math Is Cool"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2013/05/10/math-is-cool/
[3]Suzi Skinner, "Why success depends on a woman’s sense of leadership identity"
http://www.womensagenda.com.au/career-agenda/leaders/why-success-depends-on-a-womans-sense-of-
leadership-identity/
[4]Candida Brush,"Leaning In" is Not Enough: Women Entrepreneurs Need to "Leap In"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/babson/2013/04/13/leaning-in-is-not-enough-women-entrepreneurs-need-to-leap-in/
[5]Nellie Borrero,"Create a Culture Where Female Leaders Can Thrive"
http://talentmgt.com/articles/view/create-a-culture-where-female-leaders-can-thrive/1
[6]Ruth Paterson,"Women's empowerment in challenging environments"
http://www.pathwaysofempowerment.org/women_empowerment_in_challenging.pdf
[7]Katrina Hodges ,"Lessons Learned as a Working Mom"
https://www.braintreepayments.com/blog/brainshe-lessons-learned-as-a-working-mom#

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Author’s Profile
Lavanya Raghuraman works with Tata Consultancy Services and has over 7
years of Industry experience. She has completed her Post Graduation in Master
of computer Applications from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. She has
been involved in several key projects across Insurance and Retail Domains,
moving through positions such as Programmer, Project Lead and to the current
role of a PMO. She has considerable experience in Quality Assurance as well.
Apart from work, she is a trained classical singer and practices music. She is
involved with various Corporate Social responsibility activities within and
outside the organization.
Shallu Soni works with Tata Consultancy Services as a Business Analyst and has
over 8 years of Industry experience. She has completed her Post Graduation in
Master of Information Technology. She is certified as an Associate in General
Insurance. She is a mother of a cheerful 4 year old son . She has been a sports
person through out her life. Currently living with her passion for Tennis and
Running.
Mymoon Shabana works with Tata consultancy Services as a Project Lead and
has over 10 years of experience in IT Industry. She has done her Masters in
Computer Science and Business Administration. She has been involved in
various critical projects and is currently working in a large Strategic project. She
is certified as an Associate in General Insurance and also has a Green belt in Six
Sigma. She is mother of two; likes to read books and spend time with family