There is no field to name where women have not made a mark for themselves. Be it farming or space, finance or technology, more and more women are joining the workforce. While we are on the right track, there is no denying that there still exists a gender gap across various industries and sectors. Around the world, finding a job is much tougher for women than it is for men. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data for 2017-18, there has been a fall of seven percent in work participation rates (WPR) among rural women, declining from 24.8% to 17.5%. The current global labor force participation rate for women is close to 49%. For men, it’s 75%. That’s a difference of 26 percentage points, with some regions facing a gap of more than 50 percent. Since female participation in the workforce is a critical growth factor, participation rates indicate a country's potential for faster growth.
Women continue to face several obstacles when it comes to entering the job market and face a disproportionate number of problems pertaining to access to employment, job preference, working conditions, job stability, pay equity, and other issues like discrimination and balancing the competing burdens of work and family responsibilities.
To counter the challenges faced by women professionals, the market has witnessed a rise in terms of recruitment platforms designed specifically for women. These platforms help women professionals find the perfect job that suits their skill set while also helping organizations to onboard skilled employees. Here are some of the major recruitment platforms that are paving the way for more women to enter the workforce.
JobsForHer
JobsForHer is a connecting platform to accelerate women’s careers in India by enabling them to start, restart and rise in their careers. The firm’s vision is to enable women to achieve their full potential. In JobsForHer was founded in 2015 by NehaBagaria and a team of 5 other women returnees, working out of Social, Church Street, a resto-bar in Bangalore. That team has now grown to over 60 members, with 80 percent women returnees, with a culture of high ownership, deep accountability, and inclusive support to one another. Whether one has taken a career break, or currently working, or wants to start your career afresh, JobsForHer can accelerate one's career journey. It is associated with 7000+ companies with active job opportunities that include CITRIX, Aditya Birla Capital, Nike, Western Digital, Salesforce, and many more.
Cambly
Cambly is a video chat service that provides on-demand access to English tutors. Cambly is a two-sided platform that allows people who want to learn English to connect directly with native language tutors through a conversational video chat. Cambly was created in 2012 by Sameer Sharidd and Kevin Law in San Francisco, California. The firm acts as a valuable outlet for women seeking to re-enter the workforce. This is particularly true for women who haven't had the chance to practice their English skills since leaving the workforce. After its launch in India, Cambly has seen an increase in interest from working professionals, with the IT sector accounting for a large portion of its subscribers.
Sheroes
Sheroes is a social networking application for women. Via its app and website, it hopes to form a coalition of working women committed to increasing the cause of women in the workplace. It provides entrants and returnees to the job market with encouragement and mentorship, as well as curates corporate jobs, temporary assignments, and flexible and work-from-home opportunities.
Founded in 2013 by SaireeChahal, Sheroesalso supports a larger community of Indian women by offering a supportive space for them to discuss their health, relationships, and aspirations, as well as share their personal stories and achievements. Sheroes provides companies with a wide range of products and workshops. Initially, Sheroes had almost one million women and 20K companies signed up in just two years. Currently, it has over 16 million women on its network and about 10K women are working via it as remote workers.
Her Second Innings
Her Second Innings is a job-search site for women looking to re-enter the workforce. ManjulaDharmalingam established the platform in 2014, which organizes work opportunities, holds development workshops, and conducts e-coaching sessions for women in a variety of fields. The network frequently collaborates with several large corporations across a variety of sectors, offering advice on diversity recruiting policies and advocating for female reentrants.
Her Second Innings, based in Bengaluru and with a presence in Mumbai, aims to assist women from all walks of life. As a consequence, it provides work-at-home benefits, temporary and permanent job assignments, and a diverse selection of consulting projects and activities. Her Second Innings has over 8,000participants and has assisted over 200 women in obtaining full-time employment.
Avtar I-Win
Avtar was set up in Chennai in 2005 by Dr. Sandarya Rajesh. It is now renamed Avtar Women. The organization believes that due to various challenges women face, equality often does not work in the gender space incorporates. They are India's largest creators of career re-entries for women. Today, they have a 3.5 lakh- strong network of women professionals across India.
They also have started a program called WINSKILLS and WINSGHT.
WINSKILL is a skill development program that is built-in research from innumerable success stories of women professionals. Winsight is a career and life counseling service from qualified experts.
All members at the Avtar Women network share, learn, and build connections helping them reach the fullest of their potential.
