ABSTRACT
A crisis, as we witnessed during the 2020 pandemic, challenges society and individuals in unprecedented ways and initiates an urgent need for survival. As our work systems also become vulnerable, the impact of a crisis is perceived disproportionately by the different segments. Workplace inequity, exclusion, and discrimination against women emerge as the contagion effect of the synchronous economic downturn. It often includes calculated institutive action aimed at enduring the crunch as well as reviving the fragile organizations. In this chapter, we unravel the subtle ways of gender-based discrimination that has persisted even in modern workplaces with contemporary work values and has inadvertently become a means of leveraging the economic crisis. Inclusivity mandated by law has been partially successful in deflating the diversity resistance seen across sectors. A more accommodative response comprises learning from the critical situation, initiative taking, and proactive restructuring of skills and innovation in transforming crisis management from an emergency response to a sustainable process. Whether the post-pandemic rhetoric vis-à-vis the human resources strategies can evolve into a global and inclusive order rests on the authenticity of the equity measures, supportive leadership, and an inclusion fostering organizational climate. We further discuss resilience as an organizational competency that enables crisis anticipation, coping, and an effective adaptation, more so when supported by a diversity of reflection and collective sense making.
