Using 'Amplification' to assert and get professional credit

Let me start this blog with something frivolous and intuitive. I took a Facebook quiz on a friend's timeline, which gave a pompous result. This was immediately followed by another article, which connected the dots for an idea close to my heart and faced by women in regular office environments and largely in positions of power.

While I certainly find it amusing running for the US president; I've sat in meetings of national prominence and talked down by men - only to realise later how men use this strategy to dominate women. Not did men just deny women's contribution in meetings, they claimed their ideas as their own. It is rightly said that great ideas are either cut at the nip or never make it to the top! In many of my meetings at NIPFP, men took more than 60% of average time, were curt and openly discourteous to women, making many women leave the team within 2-3 months. I survived for 11 months! When an original idea is severely bantered, it is a compliment; but when its called a 'lipstick' presentation, its a sexist bully!

In a team where women are in small numbers, amplification strategy could bear positive results. Women could make their voices heard and break the glass ceiling. In Obama's team, women would make a point, which would then be repeated by another woman - giving her the credit. Men took notice and recognised the contribution of women. In the ideal world, good ideas are picked up from board rooms without even getting acknowledged, hence this strategy may nudge something fruitful for women's significance.

For example, today at IIT Delhi after one my presentations, a part-time student aggressively started asking me about sources I've used from my presentation as he also wanted to work on the idea. I'm not sure, what happened to the concept of partnering and collaborating! Such incidents constantly remind me of how India continues to remain a largely patriarchal society, where for some reason men are either raised with low morals as they 'perhaps' lack the image of working women. Hilary Clinton's victory would make her the first woman president in 200 years of the world's greatest democracy. For India to reach somewhere close, more cooperation would be required both from women and men in positions of power.

   

In my first experience to a Youth Parliament at Constitutional Club of India in July, 2016; I scored well for my preparedness as a Minister of Finance. In a country of 1.25 billion people, knowledge of application-based finance in a woman is rare. However, as we broaden our application of policies to grass-root issues, I think strategies like amplification would become essential for women to hold hands to succeed.