A Job Well Done: Busting the working woman myth

WORKING A WAY OUT: The survey findings expose many myths and reveal a new face of the working women in India.

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Suhasini Haidar

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This is not to say that they undervalue household work. It is just that they would like to be equal in whatever that is valued by the society. If they could they would like the household work to be valued in money.

Two-thirds women cutting across all sections agreed with the proposition that a share of household income should be paid to women for their household work.

Such an overwhelming support indicates a fundamental shift in orientation. For most women, especially those from the poorer background, earning money is obviously the most important if not the sole reason to work.

But for women from the upper class, which goes under the euphemism of ‘middle class’, who are into white-collar occupations, job satisfaction and social respect is also emerging as a big factor.

Even if respect is not the primary motive for everyone, one thing is clear: gone are the days when working women were looked down upon.

Working women in general and those in white-collar jobs in particular feel they get more respect in family because they work.

A majority of working women said that they would still work, even if they had all the money required for leading a comfortable life. The figure was much higher among the highly educated professionals, thus indicating a big shift in orientation to work.

Clearly, then, cultural resistance is not the main reason that keeps women’s participation in labour force much lower than men. We have to look for reasons elsewhere.

First of all women do not have equal opportunity in the field of education as well as employment.

They lag behind in education and face various forms of overt and covert biases in the labour market. Besides, they face various other obstacles when they do get to work:

-- One out of three working women said they were not paid equal wages for the same work as done by men in their work place. This violation of the law was obviously much higher in the unorganized sector.

-- One out of seven women said they did not get the position they deserved in their organization

-- One out of five working women under the age of 45 complained of verbal or physical harassment at their work place.

-- Women of course prefer to work under women rather than under men, but for a majority of women this did not matter.

-- Childcare was a major difficulty for most working women. A majority of wage earning women employed in manual labour did not have any child care support and had to take the children to work or leave them on their own. For office going women, their family was the biggest support. One out of eight office goers could afford a paid child care.