says highpotential women begin their careers on an equal footing with men when it comes to designation pay and aspirations but in say 12 years they make approx rs 380000 less than men receive fewer developmental opportunities that might have led to advancement and bear more responsibility at home all of this contributes to the lack of female talent in critical positions in indias technology sectorask and you shall be last week awardwinning entrepreneur and author of heels of steel surviving and thriving in the corporate world vanessa vallely networked over drinks with a group of women cfos ceos and entrepreneurs at a mahalaxmi club celebrating the launch of wearethecitycom an online community to help women progress professionally vallely offered a possible reason for discrepancy in salaries i can imagine that i might have been paid less at certain jobs because as women we tend to just say thank you rather than negotiate for a higher pay said vallely who joined the technology industry at 16 following it up with 25 years in finance this hesitation says vu technologies 32yearold founder devita saraf makes several women lose out on higher salaries and promotions they are shyer when asking for a raise many seem to think they can be easily replaced that fewer women make it to the top position unless their daddies own the company is true of india just as it is of america most female talent that makes it to the inner coterie is usually in support positions hr or communications this gives them less of a chance to be next in line and considering most firms pick their top boss internally if insider female talent isnt going to be groomed theyll always have a meeker shot at being boss interestingly women are also more likely to be forced out of their roles than men screwvala explains a strong confident woman is still seen as a threat and boards in india are shockingly continue to be male bastions kris lakshmikanth founder head hunters india agrees in white collar jobs women only hold 75 to 85 of top positions which is very low and its about the same in the boardroom a researcher with delhi school of economics shantanu khanna puts it down to simple stereotyping women are almost always expected to drop out of the workforce to get married or raise children so discrimination could kick in early in their careers with employers hesitant to promote them but when they stick on and prove they are committed to their careers the discrimination slowly disappear thats when employers start investing in them says khanna who has examined wagediscrimination among 36000 employees across indian industries with the odds stacked up against women bosses they must be their own ambassadors that they tend to share the credit for success with their teammates works against them modesty is not a virtue of the workplace says saraf your employer is not going to hack into your computer to see how youve