Problems faced by working women in India?

Answer 1

Female as made by nature

Male ego displaces her down in our society, she is weaker, she has been stereotyped as a weak, submissive person of society who also is supposed to maintain her dignity & modesty in our Indian society. Her non-cooperative husband can always overpower and abuse her.

Add to her woes her monthly cycle, pregnancy, nursing, child care- which all must be taken care by a woman which nature has made her.

Unequality in work

Most of places she is considered less productive than male counterparts so she gets less renumeration for the same work. Some time male bosses/counterparts look down upon their working women colleagues in the same fashion how their sisters and mothers have been treated in their homes.

She is often discouraged to take up jobs at remote locations, work at odd hours work among males etc. Her womenhood complements it - she has reduced time available due to weaker body, women-related issues and maternity/child care related issues.

Leave Issues at work

Due to women related issues, maternity, nursing, child care, guest reception etc she need many more leaves than male counterparts which she can't avoid. Management/offices even ask women employees to resign and take maternity leave otherwise they will need to pay for her "free work".

Home Responsibility

No matter what a husband boasts of, most likely the working women has an added responsibility to manage household, cooking, managing guests, managing children ultimately leading to more pressure on her.

Physical & Sexual Abuse at Home

It isn't much uncommon to find women being harassed physically and sexually by their husbands. Most of husbands want their wives to keep them in high regard - keeping conventional Indian tradition and culture.

Women Issues

Woman's monthly period and related issue is very important issue which is deliberately ignored in our "conservative" Indian society since even talking about it could be a taboo subject. This is not even taken care in any legislations, but ultimately working women suffer due to this - but nobody want to listen this nor can one talk about this issue in the office or raise with the management. There are many women who suffer pain of varying degrees. Some can't even work. But who is listening in India?

Different Emotional Needs

It'd suffice to say "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" as described by John Gray. Women have altogether different emotions & feelings as compared to men who are relatively emotionless or feel less emotion as gifted by nature.

Women need their husbands to understand their problems and feelings as a woman. Men need to be taught that their partners, co-worker, subordinate women have different emotions needs which needs to be taken care of. This will help understand women in our society, helping them improve their working life.

Managing In laws

It's all wife's responsibility to manage and "obey" in laws which adds to her responsibility

Sexual Harassment in Office

Imagine a woman whose father is ill and her boss/employer is threatening her to fire her if she does not "give-in" to his wishes and whims. This is harassment of extreme type. She can't do much. Lax laws, lengthy court procedure, no compensation etc further encourage this.

Passing comments, touching, forcing etc isn't uncommon. Working women stands alone in this, hardly anybody to help -- no government help is forthcoming, she need to maintain her modesty after all.

Conclusion

In short we need revamp in all round corners with respect to working women's lives. We need to help each other, join together in chorus to raise our issues, put them in a proposal to government for new legislations angled at improving working women's lives.

A couple of visibly clear steps the government can take to improving working women's lives are:

• Double the EPFO interest in case women employees
• Give higher interest in all bank deposits to women
• Give 30-50% discount in all Rail/bus/plane fares to women
• Legislate strict laws against sexual harassment in offices
• Setup special courts for handling complaints of working women against their employers
• Legislate leeway for special leaves needed by working women
• • Legislate laws to curb inequality