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Bionote: Dr. Nilam Kaushik is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). Nilam was named among the world’s Best 40 under 40 MBA Professors in 2023 by Poets and Quants. She is the first ever Professor from an Indian business school to make it to this list. Nilam earned her PhD degree from the UCL School of Management in the UK and has a Bachelors in Communications Engineering from Carleton University and a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada. Prior to pursuing her doctoral studies Nilam also worked at BlackBerry as a software developer and has a patent to her credit from her work there. Nilam’s research lies in innovation and entrepreneurship. Nilam is an exhibited Madhubani artist and has contributed her work to art galleries to raise funds for charitable causes. She is also an aspiring poet (Shayara) and has recited many poems at forums such as the Harvard Annual India poetry reading.
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This interview by Sourabhi Dutta Roy is featured in the book,
“ANONYMOUS WAS A WOMAN”:
an anthology of poems, short stories and interviews available worldwide via Amazon.
Here is the India link.
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TMYS: You have been among the world's best 40 under 40 MBA Professors by Poets and Quants in 2023. To reach here you must have gone through a significant journey. Request you to tell us the incident/s from your growing up years which shaped your understanding of identity as a woman and the stereotypes that come with it? Tell Me Your Story!
NK:
I grew up in diplomatic enclaves in 6 countries as my father was an Indian diplomat. From a very young age I got the opportunity to meet notable women from different spheres of life. I sensed quite early that it was difficult for women to enter the workforce as I found women to be a minority in most professions around the world. I was particularly impressed by women’s “multipotentialites”. I was one of the very few women who went through an Engineering program at my university in Canada and later on, the only woman in my team of more than 20 engineers in the workplace. To me, being a woman is about defying stereotypes through strength and confidence. It’s about realising one’s potential and not accepting the assumptions that others would have about women’s capabilities. At the same time, to me, being a woman is also about looking out for and uplifting the others around me.
TMYS: Have you ever felt conflicted in your beliefs on gender equality and what the world preached about multiple identity or were they more co-dependent from the very beginning?
NK:
Of course, there are differences between one’s own beliefs and the ideals that society at large espouses. In popular discourse, women are treated as champions for wearing many hats and managing family, caregiving, and providing financial support. While it sounds great to put women on a pedestal in a predominantly patriarchal society, I feel this narrative is used to set unrealistic expectations and to justify the disproportionate share of work (both the hidden and visible work) that falls on women. As women join the workforce, they bear the burden of paid work and a large share of unpaid domestic labour, which research shows, comes at the cost of health and mental wellbeing.
I feel one cannot just reduce a woman’s identity to the roles she plays in her life. These identities intersect in complex and interesting ways and some may take centre/back stage depending on one’s stage of life and priorities. I became a mother recently and for about a year, my primary identity has been that I am a mother first. While society may like to see us as just wives or mothers, it is up to us to remind ourselves and give ourselves credit for the individual we are beyond our ascribed roles. I am aware of my responsibility as a primary caregiver and mother and as I transitioned back to work, I’ve had to remind myself not to feel guilty (though I still do) for having and enjoying my other role. One has to strike a balance and that is something which comes with time.
TMYS: Studies on women entrepreneurship have recently received new impetus from identity theory. Given your interest in entrepreneurship, how would you say the space of entrepreneurs give credibility to women and claim legitimacy in a masculinized context?
NK:
We have a long way to go before society views women as credible entrepreneurs due to the perceived incongruity between being a female and the image of an entrepreneur. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem – the more women entrepreneurs we see around us, the more likely we are to address our biases. Research shows that women raise less money than their male counterparts. However, this also extends to areas such as femtech (with predominantly female founders) where male founders raise more money.
TMYS: According to you, how does women’s inclusion in the work-force add value to the management theories? There are many factors like soft power, women’s temperament, diversity, target markets and more – which factor is of utmost importance to you?
NK:
Recent research suggests that the “collective intelligence” (the ability to perform a variety of tasks) of a group increases as the proportion of women in the group increases. A more gender balanced group is likely to have better group process as negative stereotypes are less likely to prevail and both males and females get equal opportunities to participate due to women’s egalitarian and democratic style. Gender balanced R&D teams can also benefit from different thinking styles and perspectives. I feel that women can offer a lot to the workforce through the multiplicity of perspectives they bring on board. In devising new products and services, women can offer insights that can better serve both male and female customers as women can feel the “pain points” and have greater empathy which is necessary for the design thinking process. There is growing interest in academia around the relationship between gender diversity in top management teams/boards and firm innovation and performance, compliance with environmental, ethical and social standards etc. There are some special issues in top journals that invite research papers on the topic of gender and organisations.
TMYS: As an independent thinker and professor, how do you take gender concerns into account during your lectures, course design and implementation? It would be wonderful if you can tell us real life instances when you may have led with examples to usher a behavioural change among your students/colleagues.
NK:
We follow a case-based pedagogy in the business school and the protagonists in all my cases are male CEOs. For most of us, a CEO conjures up the image of a bold, agentic male leader consistent with the stereotype “think manager, think male”. This reinforces the idea that business leaders are males. I do role plays in my MBA class and have encouraged my female students to take on the role of the CEO or a manager and think through a business decision. More often than not, I find my female students to be as competent as men in this exercise and I’ve always found that they bring a unique perspective that males may not have thought through. Though a very tiny step, this allows my students to question prevailing stereotypes that portray women as lacking qualities for being effective leaders or managers.
TMYS: During your studies, what are some of the barriers that women entrepreneurs particularly face while starting up on their own? What kind of emotional skills do women entrepreneurs display while competing with their products and services?
NK:
Women entrepreneurs face several barriers such as limited financial support, implicit gender bias, lack of mentors and role models, limited access to professional social networks, the challenge of balancing work and family life and so on. In some programs where I have interacted with female entrepreneurs I’ve been impressed by their resilience and display of emotional intelligence. As women entrepreneurs face higher opportunity costs in starting up on their own, I have found that those who do pursue a path are very passionate about their ideas and identify themselves strongly as entrepreneurs.
TMYS: What does women’s anonymity mean to you? Is it the deliberate resistance to recognise women’s abilities in personal, professional or social space? Is it the emotional abuse they must withstand? Is it the power structures that try to neglect their achievements? Or is it something completely different?
NK:
Virginia Woolf’s famous statement “For most of history, anonymous was a woman” is still relevant in our day and age. To me women’s anonymity relates to the subjugation of women through institutionalised discrimination that prevents women from access to opportunities and undermines their role and contributions to society.
TMYS: Many women who were erstwhile homemakers, some coming from the lower strata of the society, are great social media influencers today. According to you, what role does social media play in releasing women from their anonymity?
NK:
Social media platforms such as Instagram are an equaliser in some ways as they have given erstwhile homemakers a way to construct and shape their digital identities and enable access and the ability to interact with large audiences. These days stay-at-home mothers can create content and have their voice heard from the comfort of their homes.
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This interview by Sourabhi Dutta Roy is featured in the book,
“ANONYMOUS WAS A WOMAN”:
an anthology of poems, short stories and interviews available worldwide via Amazon.
Here is the India link.
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