Late in 2004, China Daily headlined a news item, “Men want career, women want men”. The article was about a survey conducted in Nanjing, the capital of east China’s Jiangsu province. Its main conclusion: “Emphasis on job selection for Chinese male college students is on career prospects while women say they want to centre their plans on places where satisfactory husbands will be easy to find.”

It takes all sorts. In December 2005 came another report from China titled “Teen girls eye executive jobs”. This too is the result of a survey, conducted by Japan’s Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living. It polled women in Shanghai and Tokyo about their plans for the future. The Japanese choice: child-care workers, teachers, doctors, flight attendants, and housewives. In sharp contrast, the Chinese women said their top five choices were teacher, president or CEO, designer, mass-communications-related jobs, and senior managers.

The newspaper reported Wu Zunmin, a professor in East China Normal University’s education department, explaining that the differences were because of the cultural traditions in the two nations. “Japanese girls were traditionally educated to be good wives who could serve their husbands. Years of rapid economic development have taught Chinese girls that they can aim high, and have a well-paid job by running a large company.”

Mumbai-based HR consultant Shashi Rao. says that while not much research has been done in India, there is a lot of information available abroad. For instance, the company Aurora Gender Capital Management has a software called Gendex that provides gender-management tools. For the record, the winners on the Gendex are HSBC, Accenture, ASDA Group, BT, IBM, Ernst & Young, British American Tobacco, BDO Stoy Hayward, Deutsche Bank, and Halifax Bank of Scotland.

The US-based National Association for Female Executives has a rating of its own. The topdogs here are Avon Products, Hewlett-Packard, Liz Claiborne, Scholastic, PepsiCo, IBM, Prudential Financial, Xerox, Wellpoint, and Colgate-Palmolive.

In India, the top companies for women would probably be in the new BPO sector, where the men:women ratio is 31:69. Traditional IT services are still skewed 65:35 in favour of men, according to Nasscom figures. Other favourites are the media, advertising and banking.

According to a survey in India by Grey Global Group, there have been huge changes in the country. A decade ago, most women didn’t look beyond the housewife role. If they were lucky to have the education, some became doctors or teachers. Today, nobody wants to be a full-time housewife. What are the professions that appeal? Leading the pack is journalism, with 45 per cent of young, single females citing that as their ideal. This was followed by managers (39 per cent), designers (38 per cent), and teachers (20 per cent).

“Even as new professions are opening up, women want to be more professional,” says Rao. “A survey of earlier batches from IIM Ahmedabad shows that many of the women have given up their jobs to become housewives or small-scale entrepreneurs. Today, they are all very sure they will continue working. That’s what they want.” And urban society is changing fast to allow them the luxury of choice.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Some out-of-the-box career choices

Gym instructor: Is fitness your forte? Have you envisaged a career as an instructor? Not only will you able to work out every day, but you will be helping others

Counsellor: Counsellors are in demand now. If you have an understanding attitude, you could do well in this field.

Tourist guide for foreigners: If you are an “India lover” and revel in her glorious heritage, this career could be right up your street.

Source: Sitagita.com