The new century was full of promise but we are already in 2020 and are still
grappling with issues related to gender equality, equal pay and sexual
harassment at the workplace. While the situation is better than what it used to
be five or six decades back but according to a McKinsey Report, gender-based
progress has slowed down in recent times. Sadly, gender-based discrimination at
the workplace, pay gap and sexual harassment still continues despite the rising
awareness about these issues. Here are some other highlights from the report
that have brought to light the condition of working women around the world.
In
an encouraging trait, the number of educated and employed women is on the rise
but that does not mean their involvement in the family and household
responsibilities is reducing. My generation was slowly starting to be more
involved around the home then our fathers were. We were encouraged by the fact
that our sons were becoming more involved in and around the home. However,
although working women are spending more and more time in their office, they
are also devoting more time to childcare or getting household chores done than
their husbands or the other men in the family. It looks like our sons and our
grandsons are not moving to be equal partners as we hoped they would.
While
working women shoulder more household responsibilities than men, they have no
access to any special workplace policies and are entitled to the same number of
medical leave, sick leave and flexible working hours as their male colleagues
except maternity leaves. At work, it seems the paternalistic attitude that was
with us in the 19th and 20th century are coming back with
a vengeance, which is sad. There was a recent development in India where women
employees were demanding menstrual leaves. However, the world was divided into
two camps, one was against the idea of granting women special menstrual leaves
and others were supporting the cause. Their demands didn't see the light of the
day.
More
then half of working women (almost 54 percent) take leave from work after
becoming a parent for the first time because women take more responsibilities
of childcare than men. They are also most likely to look for more flexible jobs
after childbirth and compromise on their salary. The number of working women
who take leaves or leave their jobs to take care of an ailing or elderly member
of a family is also more as compared to men. All these factors lead to
long-term financial consequences for women and they have a lesser amount of
savings as compared to men after retirement.
Also,
let's not forget that the MeToo movement, which brought to light many incidents
of workplace harassment against women, shook the whole world. From influential
politicians to filmmakers, journalists to businessmen, reports of how they
harassed women colleagues started pouring in from all corners. Such movements
like #MeToo made us face a harsh reality that no matter how educated and
highly-placed a woman might be in the organizational chart, she is not safe
from the sexual predators.
