From working at McDonald's to politics: At MPW 2022, Smriti Irani recollects how she fought her way up

Union Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday spoke about the power of women and the challenges they face and said one should not quantify the contribution of homemakers. Speaking at Business Today's 'Most Powerful Women in Business' event in Mumbai, she talked about her journey from her first job at McDonald's to her career in television and now in politics.

Irani, who had become a household name for her role in the television serial - Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi - before entering politics, stressed the need to teach negotiating skills to young women because that decides how higher up one can go in the corporate world. Talking about the pay gap between men and women in corporate, Irani recollected her own story when she was paid a lot less than what her male co-actors used to get in media.

"I have been a professional in the media business. When I entered the media business, I used to get roughly Rs 1,800 bucks a day as compared to the male actor who is in the project who was getting Rs 10,000 bucks. But by the time I finished my first-year contract, I knew they could afford to let the guy go, but not me," the minister said, adding that women need to have the audacity to sit and negotiate and be the toughest nail in their negotiation.

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Describing two-three challenges that women face today. She said apart from the boardroom, one of the issues that one needs to look at is - "what are the negotiating skills we teach to young women when they get into a corporate entity". "Because that again becomes a qualification whether a woman will rise in the corporate ladder or not," she said.

Irani also talked about the challenges and attacks she faces in politics. In 2019, she became the giant killer after defeating then-Congress chief Rahul Gandhi from his family bastion Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.

When asked whether she feels hurt when she is attacked by the leaders from the opposition, the minister responded negatively but suggested that the attack was happening because she had defeated a person who came from a very reputed political family.

"They (Congress leadership) are from a very reputed political legacy. That legacy has a burden and expectation. I come from a very humble family. When I was born, my parents did not have more than Rs 150. In my first job in 1998, when I was a finalist in Femina Miss India, McDonald's opened its first outlet in Mumbai's Bandra where I worked for Rs 1,500. To lose to such a woman, as they called me a chit of a girl, that must really smart that gentleman," she said in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi.

 
The BJP leader said that every woman faces this, and this is done to deviate women's attention and break their confidence. "The only difference is that every time I'm hit, I make sure they (Congress) lose another seat. In 2019, there were sexist remarks and the men who made those remarks were promoted. Then came the Vidhaan Sabha in Amethi. And out of five Vidhan Sabha seats, Congress lost its security deposits in four. Because wherever brother and sister (Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi) went, I made sure they lost the security deposit. Unfortunately, they did not go to the fifth seat," the minister added.