[Women in STEM] Pallavi Singla, Marketing Head, ImaginXP

Pallavi is a growing young leader in the edtech space. She has scaled 3+ edTech companies to date. With her edTech venture, she has helped digitise education institutions and touched 1.5lac+ students’ lives through her technology and marketing solutions. She believes that tech is the enabler while it has to be embedded with the best in class curriculum and coaches. Her startup success caught an eyeball from ImaginXP founders. The company acquired her venture and absorbed her in the process.

At ImaginXP, she is now fulfilling her dream of upgrading the Indian education system. More importantly, she helps guide students to choose the right career path. In the continuing series of Women In STEM, Pallavi answers some of the pressing questions that will help guide women in STEM roles. Excerpts of the QnA.

Has the inclusion of Women in STEM changed over the years? How can the change be snowballed?

Around 43% of STEM graduates are women, but only 14% share STEM jobs. There are women in STEM, but less visible. This is due to a lack of infrastructure and a higher stereotypical gender disparity in workplaces. Also, there has been high attrition for women in their mid-career levels due to domestic responsibilities and end up choosing careers giving flexibility in working hours, resulting in a paucity of women role models and leaders in STEM. Around 82% of professional women believe that access to female leaders can help them grow their careers. There have been policies in place, but the situation is still the same. There is a stark difference between reality and what is on the paper. The policies are in place to provide better infrastructure and better wages at the workplace.

To impact the cause effectively, there have to be strong policies in place for flexible work models, maternity leaves, work from home policies etc. Also, these policies should be in place for men to encourage them to equally share domestic responsibilities. This can create a more supportive and cordial culture for women. This way we can have more women leaders and can decrease the exodus of women in STEM.

In the new normal, how are the roles of women in Tech changing? What are the new challenges for women in tech?

New Normal has changed the stigma of face-time and it's more output driven. Women are exploring new avenues irrespective of geographies or social limitations. But at the same time, new normal lead everyone to the dimensions of exploring hybrid skills, not only sticking to their own domains. There are changing roles in tech having a mix of profiles such as mixing UI with UX, Solutions architects with Programmers, Brand marketing with digital marketing etc. This surely calls for creating an open learning environment within organisations.

While managing their own responsibilities, Women in Tech now have to open up to extend their roles to be more diversified in nature. There is no doubt, they can excel at it while they have been doing great jobs in their current profiles.

The impact of women in technology is undeniable; What do you think should be the ways to keep women engaged and appreciated in the workforce?

Women employees face more stress daily as they juggle between home and office responsibilities. Flexible working hours and other leave policies will surely help in overcoming stress. They also deserve to be appreciated, awarded and provided with equal opportunities of leading projects. A study says that women when given leadership opportunities, feel more committed towards organisations.

In senior roles, how many women are on the top at ImaginXP? What is the company doing to bring equality in genders in senior leadership roles?

ImaginXP’s core strength lies in the creativity and innovation cultivating through the blend of design, business and technology acumen. The company trusts in individual capabilities over gender, and believe that women participation in tech should be a norm, not an exception. One of ImaginXP’s founders is women, who herself set up equality standards and an employee-friendly environment. She also has appointed women as head for HR, Business, Design and Marketing teams.

At ImaginXP, there are 46% women in senior leadership roles. Overall, the company accounts for 48% of women in the entire workforce. HR policies are employee friendly to offer choices in 4 days a month work from home, flexibility to work as consultants remotely whenever required, POSH policy, Maternity leaves etc. The company takes time to time feedback from employees to improve the policies and even have flexibility in handling situations case to case basis.

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