Gender pay gap in the Indian IT sector

IT industry is the flagship of Indian industrial development and a global provider. It has also been regarded as the empowerer of the “new Indian woman”. There exists a popular image where well-educated young women and men work side by side at IT companies, doing equal work for equal (and high) monetary rewards. However, the survey of the recruitment company Monster, together with two European wage survey institutions, in the summer of 2014 indicated a gender pay gap of 29% in the Indian IT industry. Even with some reservations as to the full reliability of the figures, the monetary rewards of the industry do not seem to be equally distributed among women and men. The representatives of the Indian IT industry commented on the report mainly by referring to women’s role in the Indian family. However, the interviews of the Offswing project among male and female computer professionals and managers in Bangalore and Cochin show that the picture is more complicated. The family roles of the Indian women are an important reason, but they are mediated in a number of different ways by the managers, the women themselves and their colleagues, to result in the gender pay gap. In addition, it is not only the family roles, but also behavioural norms and more general gender and power relations which widen the gender salary gap, even in a multinational company in this modern industry.Offswin