Women As Potential Work Force

Women As Potential Workforce

When I read about the article, referring to the diminishing number of women who are employed, and several questions stuck my mind. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Working-women-Delhi-has-lowest-per-cent-in-top-cities/articleshow/20020157.cms

Due to substantial increase in awareness and realisation among the masses the more number of children started attending schools. More so the number of girl students seeking education has shown a marked improvement. Hence, we can find almost the same number of boys and girls in a class till high school level. But often in science stream girls outnumber boys. Some statistics also show that women are ahead in obtaining higher degrees than men in universities.

So why is there such a sharp difference between male and female when it comes to employment rates or in their contribution as potential work force?????? Employment doesn’t necessarily depict the economic independence alone. It is also a matter of sharing power, a say in policy making and also having a sizeable influence in shaping economy and thus contributing to the nation’s economy and its progress.

In my opinion it not a simple issue to be brushed under carpet. In India the places of highest education patronise meritorious students by offering the professional courses at affordable prices. Government bears the cost of maintaining the infrastructure and providing quality education. Thus a considerable amount of money is spent in educating the meritorious and deserving candidates. The issue is of grave importance as it is tax payer’s money.  When the abilities of highly qualified and skilled people are not fully utilised it a great loss to a developing economy like India. Till to the university levels, both men and women obtain similar education and there is no bias in the assessment of their skills too. So it is proven beyond doubt that both of them are equally eligible and qualified for a job.

It is important to know why women are lagging behind in when it comes to contributing as a reliable work force. I think the huge gap is due to institutional, societal gaps which ought to be bridged. Women seem to successfully manage to obtain good education but fail to have deep and grudging ambition to raise high in life. This in part is due to the existence of patriarchal society, which refuses to accept importance of women’s empowerment.  The expectations from a woman are still the same as it has been several centuries ago.  To add fuel to fire women seems to lack that steering attitude to push themselves far ahead.

The article further mentions about the lowest number of women workforce in the capital city, Delhi. These statistics has much more to convey as Delhi is notorious for being the most unsafe place among metros. Does this reinforce the fact that workplaces and public places are no longer safe for women?

To have a clear picture of the present situation I have made a table with the data report of census for the year 2011 and the NSSO data quoted in the The Times.

Metros	Literacy Rate (%)			Work Force (%)
	Men	Women	Overall	Men	Women
Delhi	91.03	80.93	86.34	53.1	10.6
Mumbai	90.04	86.03	88.48	60.6	18.8
Kolkata	89.08	84.98	87.14	59.9	17.9
Chennai	93.47	87.16	90.33	58.6	19.4
Bengaluru	91.82	84.8	88.48	61.8	24.3

The sharp difference in the percentages of men and women indicate the growing gender inequality. This has a direct consequence to the visibly lower number of females in offices and work places. This situation will have long-term repercussions in policy making. These numbers also indicate the societal perception towards women and their far reaching implications in functioning of a society altogether as a single unit.

Are these reflective of the societal attitude even?  May be the answer is yes. There is huge difference in the literacy rates of male and female in Delhi (almost 11%) as compared to other metros (5-7%) where the numbers are more are less comparable. Does this mean that society has a great role to play in empowering women?

Not only in the society, it is appalling to find existence of a greater parity in the remuneration paid to men and women. The numbers doesn’t exactly reflect the contribution of the literate people alone as workforce since great chunk of illiterates are together counted as workforce. So these values represent the present trend/ scenario. This also suggests the growing enthusiasm of the people to educate female child, and their   apathy in empowering them as well.

On similar lines, a study of the women and their current employment status in US has been excellently brought out in a form of book “Homeward Bound: Why women are embracing the new domesticity” by Emily Matcher. It speaks about the new trend wherein highly educated and sophisticated women are increasingly embracing domesticity. This inclination towards domestic activities is in sharp contrast to the ambitious and career oriented features of women in our earlier generation. Who were known to be very aggressive, ambitious and had an attitude of sky is the limit. They earned the distinction of being “super-moms” juggling different roles. Instead this book elucidates the sudden interest shown by the highly educated women in domestic and labour intensive work has set a new precedent. They are now actively engaging in creative pursuits and enthusiastically setting new business which they can manage from home. This orientation from being a super-mom to the old-fashioned and home acclimatised genre of women is redefining the dimensions of society. They have carved a new niche, where they are actively indulging in the activities which are closer to their heart.

 

 

There can be few conclusions that can be made from this new home bound movement-families in which women can afford to stay at home are no longer pushing themselves into the mad race of corporate professionalism. The corporate culture reverberates in the slogan of the survival of the fittest. Perhaps they are instead deriving lot of pleasure and happiness in certain activities which give them lot of satisfaction and happiness. But, this kind of living sure enough is going to deprive them of certain luxuries which can be availed by paying money. In other words they are ready to forgo their king-sized life style. Women have shifted gears and are no longer complaining about the comforts. They are instead finding some comfort and solace in flaunting their potentials by staying at home.

On economic front, this indicates that family is able to have a comfortable living from a single income. Does this indicate that the economic position of the family is the crucial factor which strongly influences women in making a career decision? This might be one reason in countries like US and to a varying extent in other developing countries too. But in a huge country like India which is diverse the reasons are varied. But by and large the societal set-up seems to have a demoralising effect resisting the emergence of women as promising workforce.

To sum up though this increasing fondness towards domesticity may not be new, the implications may be far-reaching. The effects range from changing the dynamics of society like their say and share in power, politics, finance etc..... But this doesn’t necessarily mean that women staying at home are not capable and competent (as some people are very quick to draw easy conclusions).

 

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