Women and Tech—Bridging the gap in gender disparity

Credits for the beautiful artwork goes to our in-house designer, Geetika Shukla!

“At the end of the day, you are the only one that is limiting your ability to dream, or to actually execute on your dreams. Don’t let yourself get in the way of that.”
― Falon Fatemi

We at Setu are big on diversity and inclusion. Of course, we’re acutely aware of the fact that there is a disparity between genders in the fintech industry and it is an area we are focused on changing.

Here at Setu, we are working towards this every day, and can proudly say that the women in our tech teams are in leadership roles. Garima Gunjan heads our Automation team and Wincy Thomas is the director of Product. Not only are these two women leading, inspiring, and driving their teams with absolute gusto but are also early Setuzens and have had colourful professional experiences in their past.

As we close the gap in the gender disparity, you’ll see that we have women in leadership roles outside of the ambit of technology as well — Ruby Jane Antony heads our People Ops team and has been until recently, a one-woman army handling everything from culture, recruitment to Setuzen onboarding and learning and development (phew). We also have Rajatha B M who heads Customer Experience and is the lifeline of all our customers! Given that we’re an early-age start-up, her role is extremely crucial in ensuring our customers have a great onboarding experience. Not only are these women exceptional at what they do, but are also wonderful mentors and make themselves available to anybody who might need a helping hand!

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Having set context for the rest of this article, I’d like to go over the thoughtful initiatives Setu has put together for our women —

• Setu Women — This is an internal community that meets fortnightly. From discussing professional problems like career trajectory and networking to hosting AMAs (Ask Me Anything) with the likes of Trupthi Shetty who heads marketing and growth at CRED and Shuvi Shrivastava from Lightspeed, we also have fun workshops where we create cute monsters and catch up on our favourite online tool gather.town. This is a safe space where one can benefit from a form of collective strength and empathy through periodic listening circles, workshops, and activities. This enables learning from different perspectives and getting to know familiar struggles — which can be both comforting and empowering. (From our monster-making workshop!)

• Wellness and a generous leave policy — We take both mental and physical wellness seriously here at Setu! We’ve partnered with Kaha Mind who is a mental wellness organisation — they host fortnightly workshops and 1:1 therapy sessions. We also have a generous leave policy that lets you take time out to rest and renew! We are aware that pregnancy, caring for an infant, or an adopted child may cause a problem in relation to focusing on work. Therefore, to support new parents, we have a parental leave policy that covers new parents to both birthed and adopted children, regardless of gender or sexual identity. Apart from this, we have quarterly disconnects and an annual shutdown to let Setuzens rejuvenate amidst all the grind!

• Learning and development — An inclusive workforce is an emotionally intelligent one. We urge Setuzens to sign up for workshops, conferences, and resources to refine their skills such as empathy and communication. We even host weekly learning sessions where we invite popular fintech industry experts to shed light on hot and buzzing topics. This is supported by giving Setuzens all the resources they need to do the best work of their lives!

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While we’re all for diversity and inclusion, here at Setu we believe that our team is genuinely filled with some of the smartest folks in India — where we all put Setu’s vision of financial inclusion above our day-to-day work. We even have focused periods of referral programs with double the bonus for women/ LGBTQIA+ converts!

We work hard to make sure our team is diverse and varied. Our hiring process also encompasses this in spirit and practice. We interview and hire purely on merit, skill, and competence—everything else is irrelevant.

Well, having said all of that — we extend a very warm invitation to you all. We’re hiring across the board, so do check out our careers page and apply away!