South Asian Buisnesswomen Make US Strides

By Kiran Bharthapudi in New York

Meeta Vyas was the only Indian woman in the compnay when she began her career in 1984 as a portfolio manager in an investment firm in New York City.  She was also the first Indian woman to lead a Nasdaq-listed company - a one-off in corporate America in her time.

Now the presence of South Asian women in business leadership roles is no longer a rarity in the US, at least not in New York.  The South Asian Women's Leadership Forum is a non-profit making organisation working to promote South Asian women professionals.  It is indicative of the growth of South Asian professionals in the American business world. 

'Breaking the stereotypes'

"The forum serves as a primary business and networking platform for South Asian women for job search, career advice and mentoring," says Simi Ahuja, a first generation South Asian American and the founder of the forum.

It started as a network for a dozen working women in 2002 in Midtown Manhattan and now has a membershiop of more than 1,800 South Asian women prefessional working for major financial, accounting, law, pharmaceutical and media corporations in the US.

"Members of the organization raise awareness and visibility in the market place and mainstream media, breaking the stereotypes of what roles South Asian women occupy in business,"  say Ms. Ahuja.

But breaking stereotypes has not always been easy for many South Asian women.

"When I started in 1990, there were hardly any Pakistani women in the New York corporate world and women irrespective of ethnicity were not as aggressively promoted as men,"  said Fawzia Naqwi, who works for a global financial services company in New York.

Ms. Naqwi left Pakistan, her country of birth, at age 15, when "illiteracy was higher and opportunities were fewer."

"Corporate America looks for the right skills, what you bring to the table.  The good news is that with many being highly educated, hardworking, and skilled, South Asian women are on take-off," she says.

Anita Gupta, a communications officer in a leading US company, says South Asian women have to work out the US business ethic.  "If South Asian women professionals can understand the way business is conducted in corporate America, deliver outstanding results and believe in themselves, then opportunities are innumerable," she says.

Courtesy of BBC News

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