From being the perfect cook to the sacrificial lamb and the superwoman, romanticized images of women prevent their participation in the workforce.
A few months ago, a seemingly innocuous tweet drew sharp criticism, predominantly from women. It read, “I would never want my mother to have a job because I would miss her perfect round rotis for lunch.”
A section of Twitterati was visibly enraged and protested the regressive mindset, adding that women had other things to aspire for apart from being the perfect mother. As expected, that debate raged for days till something else took over.
The above banter isn’t new and is certainly not the last on the topic. It will remerge, get discussed in long threads, and die down. While it is among the many recurrent discussions that garner attention, it points out social conditioning. And the lingering discomfort for most of us is that it is one of the reasons why women quit the workforce.
Here are a few other images and tags women carry that prevent their workforce participation. A good part of it suggests a societal change because these are images of women romanticized for a long time now.
She always sacrifices
She should eat last and skip her ‘me time’ and take care of the house. Women are expected to give up their needs, aspirations, ambitions, and dreams. Unsurprisingly, she is expected to give up her career, if something else on the home front is important. The idea of suffering in silence and making unending sacrifices have been perpetuated by Indian movies in several regional languages. In these movies, even taking up a job is not an aspiration but a compulsion for her.
The superwoman
There is this classic image that captures the above. A woman poised to run her race to the career but has to overcome the hurdles of domestic duties while she begins the race. Expectations from the ‘ideal woman’ never end. Building a career amid this seems like the last in the scheme of things. Getting all of them right and measuring that through tangible outputs, pursuing a career can be too much to ask for.
In charge of 3Cs but not her career
Circling back to perfect rotis, a woman is a cook in demand. Fixing all three meals every day, they own the responsibility of ensuring that everyone’s fed and taken care of. Avtar’s Viewport 2021 study titled ‘Chore Division & Dynamics at Indian homes: An exploratory research during COVID times’ has shown that more men have begun to contribute to household chores during the pandemic. However, at least 85% of women on a career break and with full-time employed partners are burdened with chores —including cooking and cleaning.
Caregiver by default
Not just Indian women but the world over, women are the primary caregivers. Studies have shown that the 20th century has seen women have learned to nurture and care from a young age. It is possibly the one role handed down through generations. Another study shows that the disproportionate burden of caregiving impacts wages, retirement, promotions, and their ability to remain employed. Research has also shown that women adjust their careers around caregiving needs more than men.
With few of these tags and images being challenged, companies are formulating policies to address the factors that dictate the dichotomy – work being for men and home for women. With more joining the list, we can hope to see a growing population of women no longer ambivalent about their careers.
