Women Workforce, the Change Enablers: Atul Sharma

Equal opportunity is a core element of Monsanto's culture and 20 percent of our India leadership team, represented by women, stands testimony to this fact. We strive to ensure that there is adequate gender representation in the leadership team, sales team, research and development and corporate affairs. We are consciously working towards changing the mindset that agriculture is a male dominant industry by encouraging more women employees to join the frontline force.

We address the gender diversity aspect at three levels - the "Massive Global Support" ensures a global business mandate to encourage women leaders to reach out to other women members to educate women on how they can grow and evolve their career. Members of the executive team spend time to encourage women leaders to travel and reach out to the growing network of women employees at Monsanto. At the second level, the "Performance Management System"; enables fairness in terms of time and effort invested on development of all employees. And lastly, the "Connect with Farmers" initiative encourages people to be present in the market and connect with farmers on a continuous basis which empowers women to contribute directly to the business agenda.

Atul Sharma is the Director-HR, Monsanto India