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A percentage of the employee's salary given as spouse salary can be an important initiative that acknowledges and honours homemakers, and empowers them.
A percentage of the employee’s salary given as spouse salary can be an important initiative that acknowledges and honours homemakers, and empowers them.
A few months ago, a newspaper article caught my eye. A company based in Sharjah, UAE, had started the initiative of ‘spouse salary’.
According to the newspaper, an amount equal to 25% per cent of the employee’s salary would be credited directly to the stay at home spouse as ‘spouse salary’ if the employee is with the company at least for 3 years after the marriage.
It was a trailblazing and unique idea, which generated a lot of interest. But like all other news of today’s world, this too was forgotten until a few days ago when a friend posted another news article.
A Sharjah based homemaker had purchased her dream car, a Tesla. What was even more interesting was the fact that she was one of the beneficiaries of the spouse salary.
In the interview with the media, the woman mentioned that the spouse salary had made her “feel empowered.”
Reading her story brought a smile to my face. In these days of strife and darkness, the story was like a ray of sunshine. It showed how a simple scheme of spouse salary can help in female empowerment.
For women to be empowered, they first need to be independent. Independent to make their own decisions, independent to manage their finances, and independent to carry out their responsibilities.
A homemaker juggles many roles. She is a cook, a cleaner, an organizer, a therapist all rolled into one. We applaud them for their dedication and self-sacrificing nature, for their superior multi-tasking skills. However, since no quantifiable value can be put to the work homemakers do in a day, their work is usually trivialised when contrasted with a regular, salary paying job.
With no income in the traditional sense coming in, homemakers become dependent on their spouse for finances. This, in turn, takes away their independence in making financial decisions. It might be due to the patriarchal nature of our society, or because of the hesitancy of the homemaker herself.
Financial dependence might also lead to loss of self-worth in the homemaker, especially if she had been a career woman at some point in time. In extreme cases, a woman might become trapped in a bad marriage as they might be hesitant in breaking free due to lack of finances. Financial dependence leads to a gradual erosion of self-confidence. This can lead to the woman withdrawing completely from decision making in the family.
Spouse salary is an important initiative as it acknowledges and honours the role played by homemakers. By getting a spouse salary, the homemaker becomes financially independent, which makes her feel empowered. This, in turn, will lead to the homemaker feeling more valued and gaining confidence in herself. Being financially independent will give them more choice and say in the decisions of the family.
Image source: a still from the short film Ghar ki Murgi
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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