On "A Girl in a Busines School"

This post was actually supposed to be about a recent visit to Lord Venkateswara's temple. However an article I saw shared on Facebook caught my attention and hence this diversion. Shambhavi Singh from my alma mater, IIFT wrote an article on being a girl in a business school - fighting stereotypes - especially for the "lookers". So here are my pennies' worth.

I personally know of a case where a good-looking girl landed a great job. When this news broke out I was standing with two members of the placement committee who looked at each other and referred to the "top button effect". The general consensus was that the lady in question was not that intelligent, which is arguable.

First of all I liked the way the article was written. Now going into it, I do agree with Shambhavi that there are stereotypes formed about girls. However let me also talk about a few cases which I am aware of, having also spent some time in a b-school. Let me put in a disclaimer that I am all for women's empowerment and do not believe women are in any way inferior to men. However I do have a problem when women's empowerment comes in the way of equally deserving (note the emphasis) men.

Some of my best friends in b-school and even today (though at least one of them is not in touch, yes, if she's reading this article she knows who I am referring to!) are girls. Also inside and outside b-school I know girls/women who are good-looking and are also terrific at what they do. However let us not forget a few things. Stereotypes may be formed because of at least a few genuine cases and also, surveys keep telling us "lookers", male or female stand a better chance of doing well in life, as compared to their "more normal-looking" peers. No smoke, no fire - let me talk about a few cases where at least smoke was there.

1. The girl hanging out with a nerd - let me assure Shambhavi that these kind of thoughts are not restricted to the male percentage of the batch alone. There are cases where most of the batch agrees that the guy has fallen hook, line and sinker for the girl and she is using him (I do not deny it can happen the other way round also). Again let me say that the guy (or the girl in the reverse case) is equally to blame for not recognizing the situation. 

2. I know of another case where a girl and a guy on the placement committee were supposed to be an item. They mysteriously broke up after placement season and the girl landed a job.

3. A girl getting a job when her boyfriend was on the interview panel 

4. An experienced guy and a fresher girl went for the same interview. The guy's interview was ok, and in fact he was appreciated in front of the placement committee for being better than some of the others. However the summer job went to the girl. There was another lady from the girl's alma mater on the selection committee. But this can also be a matter of the girl being better (I am not sure, how) or simply a case of affection between old students of the same college irrespective of gender.

5. Companies, on and off campus specifically asking for female candidates, to get the gender balance right. People, unfortunately in India the sex ratio is in favour of guys, there are simply more guys in the labour pool!

So I do sympathize with Shambhavi on some points but I thought why not let these points also see the light of the day.