Women can win over subconscious discrimination: SBI Chairman

SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said women have to make their way up in an organisation by working hard and affirmed that if there is any discrimination in the corporate sector, it can be at a subconscious level.

"Yes there can be discrimination at the sub-conscious level. But to end that we need to do a whole lot of work. We need to do affirmative action taking up the challenges," Bhattacharya said in a discussion 'The war within - being a woman' at the Kolkata Literature Festival of the 40th International Kolkata Book Fair here on Friday.

Bhattacharya, when asked about the battle women face at work and in society, said, "For me there can't be differentiating between home and office as work is everywhere. Eat and work, eat and go, enjoy your work."

At the same time, however, support system is very crucial which, she is "lucky to have got".

Talking about the issue of mindset, the senior banking executive said, at the start of her career when she had wanted a posting in Kharagpur since her husband worked in IIT Kharagpur, there was a frantic SOS from the branch manager that it was not a fit place for a woman accountant saying "please don't depute a woman as accountant in my branch".

"But I persisted with my demand... And I was posted there. Later on when I was leaving that branch years after, the people of that area would not let me go. It was one of the best periods of my career. Even till this date whenever I visit Kharagpur, I am showered with love and respect by the people there," she said.

"When I went there, the branch's internal rating was low and it topped as I left," she said.

State Bank of India