The Hindu Business Line : Coffers in safe hands

Looking after finances is second nature to women. With more private players entering the banking and insurance sectors, more and more women are taking up finance-related jobs.

You could call them the money-minded women. Yes, the ones who take up a financial career. For long they have been noticed behind clerks' counters and cashiers' windows in banks. And then when a Ranjana Kumar became the first woman Chairperson and Managing Director of Indian Bank, they sent ripples in the sector and society.

These number-crunchers have come of age! Working in a bank or looking after the finances of a company comes easily to many women. With more private players entering the banking and insurance sector and more and more women taking up jobs, it is only natural that these financial wizards go up the ladder and get noticed.

Like the two sides of a coin, there are two sides to this profession:

Credit

This is the rosy side of the career. There seems to be no glass ceiling as far as these women are concerned. They go only one way — up, up, up... Take the case of S. Sujatha, who now is Product Head, Forex, India Cements Capital & Finance Ltd. She entered the State Bank of Mysore as a probationary officer and had to learn from basics. She rose up the ranks to reach scale-III in the 19 years of service in the bank.

Indira Bhat, who took voluntary retirement as Senior Manager of Syndicate Bank after putting in 33 years of service, started out as a lawyer. She switched to the bank and started on a princely Rs 100 per month. When she completed her MBA, in the first batch from Madras University, her career got a `big push'.

T. Rema, who is a Sales Team Manager with a private insurance company, had always wanted to become a journalist. But since she was a sportswoman, she gave up the idea and took to marketing. Then she `evolved' into her present job. As a telemarketing executive, she felt that she would like to reach out to the customers; when she became a career consultant she thought she would like to enter man-management; when she entered a software firm she understood the importance of `financial strategy' and when she saw that insurance companies were coming in, she thought this was the time to take up a financial career as `financial planning matters a lot'. Sri Vidya Balaji, Assistant Manager, ABN Amro Ltd, completed her BA (Corporate Secretaryship) and straightaway plunged into work at Tube Investments of India Limited as trainee and went on to become an Assistant Manager there.

She had a short stint in Centurion Bank when her "job profile changed from the corporate to the bank desk, but the switchover was smooth". She has made a quick jump to ABN Amro now.

All this talk of quota and reservation made S Aparna's mother decide that she should take up a professional career and not look for a teaching or government job. As she had done only B. Sc. maths, she had to go back to schoolbooks to understand what debit and credit was when she took up C.A. But after a couple of jobs, Aparna enjoys her work as Assistant Manager, Credit, Vehicle Finance, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company.

Debit

The punishing schedule, pressure of work, acceptance in a male-dominated profession, and the beating that family and social life take are the dark side of this career. Being the only woman team leader among 38 of them in a sunrise industry, Rema says, "There is no Saturday, no Sunday, no weekend." She gets home late everyday, but rises to shine after an hour of working out every morning. This keeps here refreshed and tension-free.

Sujatha's bank job was transferable and she had a son's education to think of. Thankfully, her husband could stay put in Chennai. Since she did not want her son's education to be affected, her parents took care of him. She used to travel often to spend some time with her family. Indira Bhat worked in the Coimbatore branch of Syndicate Bank when the serial blasts took place there. She continued to keep the bank open even after the blasts though the explosives-laden car was a few furlongs from the bank.

And there is always the question of acceptance by male colleagues, especially if they are in a subordinate position. Also, there is always that little bit of extra pressure to prove your worth because you are a woman, they concede.

Balanced life

Then again, maybe it is not such a bad life after all. The common thread that runs in the experience of these women is that there was a high-level of `acceptance' among their male colleagues and immense support from their families. Sujatha says a big reason for her sticking to a transferable job was the bank's set-up and understanding colleagues.

"Your approach is very important. You respect people and it is simply reciprocated," she reasons. "You play your role, know your work and never hesitate to take on the load of work." That is the secret of success, according to Sujatha.

"I coped and enjoyed coping," she says.

In Rema's case, she finds a bias in favour of her as an insurance team leader. "Men have been used to women insurance agents. But when I approach them as a team leader, they look up to me. And women, even as housewives, are known to be good financial managers. So the customers readily take up my suggestions." Women can be successful managers and it is easy for them to be accepted "as a colleague and not just a woman", she adds. "You have to understand that handling subordinates is a customised activity," she says with a winning smile.

Indira Bhat had headed Syndicate Bank's all-woman branches in R S Puram, Coimbatore, and T. Nagar, Chennai. In spite of all the pressure of handling so much of money, she says there was no "untoward incident" when she was manager because there was this `safety-consciousness' among the women. Her motto was, "We have to win our place by performance." And she has had no problem even with loan recovery because she was a `people-oriented boss' and established a personal rapport with her customers.

Indira Bhat says it was her husband, who `educated' her (MBA) and stood by her like a rock. Since he is service-oriented, he runs the Sri Jyothi Brahma Mission at a Chennai suburb. She took voluntary retirement "so that I could serve society along with my husband when I have the energy to do it. I would not be able to do this after my retirement."

Sri Vidya is used to `going where no woman has gone before'. She chuckles that she was the only woman when she began her career as a trainee in Tube Investments and still continues to be the lone woman in her department in ABN Amro. "Maybe it is because of the limited number of people we were able to strike a personal rapport" and "acceptability has never been a problem". "What is important is that you recognise them and their value," she says of her male colleagues. "But my family is more important than my career. Wherever I have worked, I have always made sure that if my son had an open day in school I must be able to break off early," she concludes.

Aparna finds this works in her work spot also. Being the only girl in the credit department of Cholamandalam, she has no problem interacting with her male colleagues who work in the market, and convincing them of her strategy. "It all depends on how you interact with them. And the fact that I had always studied in a co-ed helped me handle myself with dignity."

Final tally

"I want work to my satisfaction and continue as long as I can do my job well," says Sujatha.

"I want to achieve something that is remarkable," says Aparna.

"In the long run, I want to be a role model in the insurance business," says Rema.

"I will put forth my best. I want to be wherever my work takes me in five years," says Sri Vidya.

See how it all adds up!

(Some names have been changed on request.)

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