Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Supporting a woman's career is not just about diversity programs at work. It has to start with men doing their bit at home.
Supporting a woman’s career is not just about diversity programs at work. It has to start with men doing their bit at home.
Household chores are assumed to be a woman’s duty. This is a universal fact, irrespective of the region or the culture.
In the 21st century, where we women are free to pursue our careers, we manage household as well as office work. This double burden is often cited as a barrier to women’s progress.
Research has shown that women work longer hours than men – an average of 30 minutes a day longer in developed countries and 50 minutes in developing countries. They devote 1 to 3 hours more per day to housework than men, 2 to 10 times the amount of time per day to care for children and dependent family members and 1 to 4 hours less per day to market activities.
Working mothers often feel anxious about neglecting their children or dependent family members, getting others in turn concerned over our work performance. This anxiety and stress is the mental labour that we have to deal with.
Fulfilling the career ambitions and dreams can be much easier if a woman has an understanding and cooperative spouse/partner. Sheryl Sandberg, the Facebook COO, in her TED Talk says, “Make your partner a real partner”.
We working women need our respective partners to help us with the household work and childcare rather than doing it all by ourselves. What’s more – it’s not just upon us to ask. True male allies will step up to do their fair share of work at home.
We must decide on the distribution of our time and energy. Like when and how we want to devote more energy to the children and when to the pursuit of our dreams. Having a real partner would lessen the burden and reduce our anxiety. It would make us happy, confident and more efficient at work and household management.
I believe that a woman’s choice of partner greatly impacts her career and life. You deserve as much care, support and freedom as you afford to your partner. Balancing the household chores would help both of us to understand each other’s troubles and appreciate the abilities and strengths that you have.
It would truly empower you and also add harmony to your married life. Moreover, it would create a marriage where both partners are equal in the true sense of the word.
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Image of a 1950s US housewife via Pixabay
An engineer by profession but a writer at heart, I try to seek happiness through my writing. I am an avid reader, a blogger, and I like to write about books and my reflections on read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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