Beyond Critical:Women and Work Environment

Over the past decades, there has been a positive environment for girl’s education around the globe. Encouraging and supportive parents and pragmatic approaches of governments, immensely assist in revamping the overall viewpoint towards a girl child.

Despite these affirmative changes in the society, unfavourable condition at workplaces remains a challenging issue for people and policymakers. Sadly, news of marriage and childbirth is often recognised by the peer and colleagues as a gloomy story. Usually, first thing comes to the mind of a co-worker is :“who is going to do that extra shift, in her absence ?”. Which can further ignite the controversy  and lead to gossip to the extent that :“why, woman need to come to work, when they want so many breaks from work?”

Indeed, this pessimistic attitude is destroying the image of a woman at a workplace . No matter how hard she works, a woman is perhaps an object of scrutiny.

But, there is an optimistic side of these stories. Our generation is perhaps the first one to noticing all these shifts in the modern world. Additionally, witnessing the potential of women at workplace and managing the home. Unlike, traditional beliefs, that is, where women are thought of as not accomplishing anything worthwhile on her own.

As a woman myself, I firmly believe, there is a solution to this current crisis, where marriage, childbirth and career intersect at the same time in a women’s life. All we need to come up with logical solutions at community and policy levels. Instead of being a critical and an abusive worker, it is better to be a pioneer to create a positive work environment.

While talking to my grandma, I noticed that even before the era of modernisation, women were working in paddy fields and helping in building a healthy community. These women were promoted to accomplish their task and allowed to keep their voice even in farmland. Unlike now, wherein a confined office space, in the name of hierarchical levels, junior staff are often being a victim of rude tone or harsh body language. In today’s era, such insensitive attitude at a workplace is not limited to women but also faced by men as well. The need of the hour is to think beyond this hierarchical system and incorporation of empathy at work.