a remote site,” explained an Indian focus group participant. “I'm not mobile in terms of working at different locations, and I know that's one of the things that has stopped me from getting promoted.”
DAILY DANGERS AND SAFETY CONCERNS
The first time Samara Braga was robbed, she was eight months pregnant and sitting in her car, parked in front of her office building in downtown São Paulo, Brazil. “A guy with a gun broke the window, shouting, ‘If you don't give me your watch, I'll kill you and your baby!’ It happened right in front of the bank building in broad daylight, with everyone watching.”
The second time, she was also in her car, on her way to work, and had stopped for a red light. A man bashed in the window and grabbed her bag. “You never expect this to happen at 11 o'clock on a rainy Monday morning.”
The third time, she was attacked as she walked out of the bank building at the end of the day. After she complained to the company president, a system of bodyguards for women was established. “Every one of us who had to leave the office after 7 p.m. had the right to a bodyguard to take you to the bus, train, or parking lot. The president was a clever guy. He knew the women were the ones working long hours because they were dedicated, so he said, ‘I have to make you feel comfortable. I'll give you all bodyguards.’ After that, I felt safe.”
The combination of workplace pushes covered so far—extreme jobs, bias and stereotyping, and travel limitations—are akin to those we have analyzed for women in the developed world, although they affect BRIC and UAE women in different forms and to a different degree. Our latest research, however, reveals a push factor entirely unique to emerging markets: personal safety.
Safety concerns in connection with work-related travel are a harsh reality that professional women in emerging markets grapple with daily. One-third or more of women feel unsafe while commuting to and from work, a number that rises to more than 50 percent in countries with vast economic disparities such as India and Brazil.
In India, where mass culture remains tradition bound and male dominated, the rising tide of independent-minded and financially self-sufficient women threatens deeply rooted social conventions, with unfortunately predictable repercussions: between 2003 and 2007, rape cases in India rose more than 30 percent, and kidnapping or abduction cases rose more than 50 percent.9 Most Indian professional women avoid public transportation and its gauntlet of verbal taunting, physical harassment, and other indignities. Many companies, especially IT firms, provide commuter vans to and from their campuses from train stations and other central points. Not surprisingly, telecommuting options, when offered, have a big uptake.
In Russia, hardest hit among the BRIC economies by the global financial downturn, crime is escalating, exacerbated by the fragility of a social safety net already shredded from the dissolution of the Soviet system. “Moscow is a very dangerous city,” says Karine Kocharyan. “There are a lot of people in need, and they're ready to do anything. That's part of the everyday environment in such megacities.”
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, similarly, are notorious for the high incidence of crime, and almost every Brazilian woman in our study has had firsthand experience with these daily dangers. One focus group participant had her cell phone stolen at gunpoint when she stopped her car at a traffic light; another, while traveling in a car with a friend from a wealthy family who was a kidnapping target, was followed and fired at on a major highway. White-collar professionals need to exercise constant vigilance, one woman explained, noting that if you wear a nice watch, use a BlackBerry or cell phone, or carry a laptop, “you're making yourself a target.” Another matter-of-factly described the difference between crime in a small city versus a metropolis. “In a small city, they break your window and steal your radio. In São Paulo, they put a gun to your head and say, ‘Let's go to the ATM.’”
These safety concerns strongly influence preferences about where to work, what position to take, and what type of career to pursue. And because women are mothers and caregivers, as well as vulnerable to a broader range of crimes, safety considerations factor in their work-life decisions to a far greater degree than do men. “I could make more money and have a more comfortable life in São Paulo,” said Carolina, a Brazilian national and midlevel manager at a global financial services company, now based in corporate headquarters in the United States. “I would have a comfortable life and have great professional opportunities, but, frankly, the violence is too much.”
THE LESSONS FOR GLOBAL COMPANIES
The overwhelming obstacles educated BRIC and UAE women face at home and at work—let alone getting to work—are demoralizing, frustrating, and, ultimately, deeply alienating. Compounded by the fact that promotions are often seen as based on an ability to fit in rather than an ability to produce results, many talented women feel stymied in their climb up the career ladder and even unwelcome in the workplace.
This sense is reinforced by the absence of senior female role models, mentors, and sponsors, as well as a lack of access to leadership training. Time and again, the women in our study mentioned how hungry they are for more support from their employers and how much they would benefit from programs that would help them break out of their shells. Because this is the first generation of women to move into management roles in force, the networks of successful senior women, now common in the United States and becoming more so in Western Europe, are still in early phases in emerging economies.
What Do Women Want?
A Grope-Free, Leerless Commute
The millions of women who have poured into the workforce in emerging markets over the past decade have encountered every obstacle that tradition-bound, male-dominated cultures could throw at them, but few are more infuriating and demeaning than what they endure on their daily commute. Taunting, catcalls, pinching, groping, and other forms of harassment are so common and so persistent, our research found, that one-third or more of women in Russia, China, and the United Arab Emirates feel unsafe using public transportation to get to and from work. In India and Brazil, the number skyrockets to more than 50 percent. According to a study conducted by USAID in India, commuting concerns were a primary reason for women to consider quitting their jobs.10
As a result, an increasing number of cities in BRIC and the UAE are instituting an innovative alternative: single-sex transportation.
One option receiving a great deal of publicity is women-only cars on subways and commuter trains. “Ladies' Specials”—entire trains reserved exclusively for female passengers—were introduced in 2009 in India's four largest cities (New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Calcutta) to provide safe commutes during the morning and evening rush. Thanks to plenty of clean, padded seats and electric fans, compared with the conventional dirty, dark cars crowded with men, the service has been a hit from the start and added six more lines in 2010.11
Women-only cars also exist on the Rio de Janeiro subway, whose all-female cars circulate all day and not only during rush hours. Similarly, Dubai's metro offers a section reserved for women and children, in addition to its standard “silver” class and first-class “gold” sections.12
Single-sex buses are an increasingly popular option, especially in smaller cities. Whereas Mexico City made the news in 2007 for its inauguration of the Athena Program—pink-signed buses that board women only—Goiania, a city of 1.2 million people in central Brazil, had rolled out women-only buses a year earlier. “The beautiful women of Goiania are constantly being sexually harassed on our overcrowded buses by men who seem unable to control themselves,” explained councilman Mauricio Beraldo, the bill's sponsor. “This is why I decided to introduce a bill calling for the introduction of buses that will carry only women.”13
Finally, filling the gaps in public transportation are fleets of taxis driven by women for women. Moscow's Pink Taxi service was created in 2006 in response to an increase in taxi rape cases. Not only does the company guarantee a safe ride, but also all of the drivers of the fuchsia-colored fleet have gone to university and are encouraged to offer advice, share gossip, and make their passengers happy. “I don't know where to start,” said Olga