Women in Workplace

 Among the many experiences I remember an occasion on a Women's Day celebration, we had a panel discussion on Medical Professional mothers, spouses and caregivers. While some of the readers of this blog may recollect this, I will only through this blog make some general observations and reiterate why is the Indian woman still a lonely creature. 

The recent and yearly ritual of Women's day to my mind have failed to fulfill the purpose of celebration and in fact hampers the intention of emancipation of women. A token day of celebration and then back to normal is tokenism to salve the male conscience. 

Let us get some realities clear: 

• Marriage is the largest internal migration parameter in India 46% migrate after marriage but of these 97% are women.
• Migration related to employment opportunities is only 24% compared to 46% in the case of marriage but in this case 85% are male and only 15% are female. 
• The onus for adjusting and adapting to new culture lifestyle and environment is on the female. 
• While it is difficult to quantify the possibility of women being forced to change their religion, it is higher than the male counterpart, even though caste and monetary benefits can also be factors which cause conversions to happen. 
• The percentage of women in workplace was 24% in 1947 rose to 33% in 1972 and plummeted to 23% in 2017 which was paradoxical as there was increased economic growth resulting in lower total fertility rates and greater enrolment in higher education. Today in 2022-23 it is close to 37% and rising.
• Contrary to expectation this increase is more in the rural areas of India. 
  
  
  

Now coming to Medical careers it is quite true that the number of female doctors has increased substantially in India in the last 50 years and even broken the barriers in terms of taking up surgical branches including Orthopedics which has been a male bastion. Yet even in these situation the likely departments are Pediatric Orthopedics rather than traditional trauma or joint replacement surgery. Even in other branches, the traditional dominance of males remain compared to females. I can give many examples where a top ranking student was compelled by in laws to take up pathology to complement her diploma holder radiologists business. Traditional marriages in certain orthodox communities have ended in divorces simply because the non medical husband could not adjust or help promote the career of his wife, even though they did not have kids. A famous and popular Cardiac Surgeon had no qualms in telling his wife an Anesthesiologist to stay at home and bring up their children.

While there is no doubt in my mind that life is about creating a balance between the duties and demands of career and family, the assumption that the woman has to take a back seat all the time is objectionable. The evaluation of this demand and implicit cooperation of both partners should be the desirable compromise. In this respect contrary to the commonly held view, I feel the safety net of a Joint family can play a significant role in helping young couples to pursue their careers with minimal disruptions. I also feel good day care centers at work place should encourage women to become more career oriented. The Covid pandemic showed us how a work from home model, increased productivity by reducing travel time and enabling mothers to oversee their children's early growth should be offered more often especially in desk functional jobs. 

It is not an all too pessimistic doomsday scenario as exemplified by the example of the ISRO Mission to Mars there were enthusiastic saree clad women scientists who had certainly broken the glass ceiling. The number was significant and it was not a token presence unlike the medical field and most of them held senior positions. Over a 100 female scientists were involved and many articles featuring them explained that at ISRO they faced no gender discrimination and the progressive matriarchal culture ensured that there was great family support for them. Yet, the fact remains that in any field of endeavour women need to put in double or even more than double the effort to succeed than men. 

In my work space too I have always admired the female colleagues for their work ethics. My former IT Head and quality manager came from a small town a Jain conservative family and lived alone in Mumbai in hospital quarters with a Muslim girl RMO. Her hard work, ability to adjust and gain acceptance was exemplary and even as she had her struggles in communication she made her mark and as they say she literally punched way above her weight. During the Covid pandemic, she was stuck up in Indore but literally worked through her room mate and managed to do all compliances from her home. To head and achieve NABH status in Masina Hospital was an achievement in itself and it was indeed unfortunate that her gender and inability to project herself marred her progress. The other example was of my Biomedical Officer who was a raw talent, untried, untested but a willing worker who learnt on the job guided by our Medical Director, she showed rare commitment in emergencies and worked diligently to establish in house repair of equipment saving cost and downtime, ensuring great advantages to the hospital. She travelled from very far locations by local train and worked till almost full term a few years back and repeated this performance a second time over. During maternity leave she coordinated very well with juniors and ensured her absence was not felt. I salute her dedication and sense of responsibility to work and family. The third example is of a poorly paid resource, research assistant appointed with the limited role of coordinating and administering the Institutional Ethics Committee, but since this work was less, she put up her hand to do more work and took up whatever responsibility she was given. She became librarian, custodian of documents, creator of quality reports, coordinator for website and social media content and generally assisted most of the managers. She also became an unofficial translators of Marathi documents. A small built pocket sized girl, courageous empathetic she became woman friday to many of us. Her profile as event manager on Instagram made many of us become her fans. I have many female resident Medica doctors, smarter than the males and motivated and driven to success. 

The other aspect relates to the absence of males in nursing where males are not present. In this instance too there is a form of virtue signalling and the notion that caregiving is a natural skill related to the biological function of motherhood and therefore not suitable for the males is propagated. I believe that we are guilty of treating nurses as second class unimportant members of the healthcare fraternity based on the same gender bias. It is time we get out of this mindset and take inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi the greatest nurse and caregiver. The story of how he nursed an ostracized poet and scholar Parchure Shastri for nearly three years elevates the job of care giving to sublime heights. https://www.peepultree.world/livehistoryindia/story/eras/leprosy-gandhi-parchure-shastri?srsltid=AfmBOoqHj3Li3imxgMdbmlrH3oMY_91haDi4T63FyoLjpRaJPHoL7eKj

A book entitled Desperately Seeking Sharukh Khan: India's lonely young women and the search for intimacy and independence. This book is written by Shrayana Bhattacharya, a female economist (gender suffix to economist says it all) talks about this story though the lens of many women across class, caste and religious divides who face rejection and lack of freedom. The representation of SRK as a caring respectful hero makes women fantasize and seek such a figure in real life is illustrated in this book. The contribution of homemakers to the economic growth story is never quantified or measured and needs to be acknowledged. 

The journey to gender equality and emancipation has always been a long and arduous one but the story of India's first female doctor Lady Doctors By Kavita Rao give a perspective about the struggle and while things are better today we need to acknowledge the heroism of these pioneering women who have made it easier for their successors to achieve their goals. 

I also would like to refer to the condition called "Imposter Syndrome" where the conditioning of being considered mediocre or less worthy than males has internalized Self doubt to the extent that ladies always underplay ther talents and consider themselves lesser than men. The opposite holds true for men who overplay themselves and have no self doubt and no hesitation in bluffing their way to progress. 

Conclusion: Let us celebrate women by giving them due respect and making celebration of Women's day redundant. In a world which disunited across all socio-economic, religious and geographical barriers there is only patriarchy which unites most of the world. Barring a few tribals even in educated societies matriarchy doesn't exist. So on balance we still have a long way to go but there are certainly bright spots on the horizon and I hope I can contribute. As an individual I will always bow and respect every person based on pure merit and not on gender.  

Vispi Jokhi