Subhadeep Dutta
UG Student,
Department of Commerce, University of
Calcutta
Abstract
The emergence of Information Technology (IT) sector in
mid 1990’s has unveiled a potential employment opportunity for women in this
organized sector congenially befitting their job environment and offering, in
principle, least gender discrimination. Economic
growth and technological advancement in India
Women are the new paradigms of today’s culture
beginning from home to working sector. Women work in three criteria. Women are
taking active participation in management, local governance and political
fields. Women trend in working sector has changed with globalization. Women are
involved in SNA activities. A survey has also been conducted about the nature
of women work behaviour. A significant part of women are unpaid because they
are socially un-recognized. Women work is rendered invisible because of social
perceptions. Women are the resource of our country in every field. Women have
shifted traditional assumptions about their roles and capabilities. Women have
basic rights about decision making. There are facts and figures about women
participating in different roles. In this era women have made comprehensive
steps in educational attainment and workforce participation. Women
participation in work is one of the proxy indicators of women in overall status
in society and gender empowerment. Women are managing complex interfaces
between domestic and work culture. This is the very power of women in this 21st
century.
This
paper attempts to analyze the issues of problems, opportunities, challenges and constraints the women employees face in
the Information Technology (IT) sector in India.
Keywords:
Women, Information Technology (IT), Gender discrimination, Personal life,
Professional life, Work life balance, Employer
challenges, SNA Activities.
1. Introduction of
the Study
Information
Technology (IT) has not been very long since the terms ‘women’ and ‘careers’ came to the associated in the Indian
context. Globalization has made
deep inroads in the Indian scene in post – 1990’s. It sets off, market
liberalization and emergence of Information Technology (IT) sector. Development
of Information Technology (ICT), in recent decades, facilitated by the high –
speed data communication links, contributed to improved communicative networks
bridging the temporal and spatial boundaries and correspondingly, widened the
scope of opportunities for people seeking paid work. The onset of Liberalization
and Globalization in 1990s paved the way for growth of Information Technology
(IT) industry in India
Figure:
1
Women’s empowerment is not
a new word in today’s gender literature. Women are becoming more and more self
dependent by accessing to all opportunities which women were denied in the
past. Women have possessed the power to utilize power in every field. The role
of women is rooted into eternity. A woman goes under many transitions. It takes
time for women to unfold her into self established person. There are two types
of struggling women in the community. One who has highly established and the
other is a struggling society to confine her-self into proper designation. Gone
are the days when men overruled women in each sphere and gone are the days when
women were denied of freedom and opportunities. At present time, women are
setting up enterprises and taking up income generated activities maintaining
family. The role of Indian women has ranged from that of a deity from pure to
vulgar from being supreme to downtrodden and also innumerable manifestations of
virtue or vice. Indian women have undergone drastic change. Now-a-days this
change is due to increase in globalization, impact of technology, impact of
media and other cultures, impact of social, economic and political cross
currents of the world, and unforeseen and unanticipated events across the
world. The social cultural context of women growing up remained the same for
thousands of years, political ideology and governance of a nation emerged from
the 1940’s in India, industrialization took roots and mass education for both
women and men. Women has to play multiple roles sometimes role of wife or
mother or role of parents or daughter and simultaneously in the social setting
to play different roles in community and doing this she has to submerge her own
self role and real identity. This is the century of telecom, Information
Technology (IT) and financial institutions. Women expertise in all the
industries is beginning to emerge and women are emerging as a force to reckon
it. The transition will be where women will create new paradigms. (Parikh,
2005)
Although
gender empowerment has been a buzzword in development circles, the concept
remains ambiguous. Gender concerns and discourses survive within the
development bureaucracies dominated by men. It is easier for them to ring –
fence gender issues as a problem of poverty and to argue against ‘feminization of poverty’ than to admit the gender disadvantage
which crosses the boundaries of class and ethnicity. Since the beginning of
planned development, women have been viewed as a deprived section requiring
welfare measures. Most studies and reports on women have only remained as a
source of data, which rather endorses the passivity of the state. It studies
the impact of technology on various social parameters of village economy. It
examines the link between technology and occupational pattern of women, the
level of female education and identifies the factors that influence women
employment. Education and technology should ensure liberation and freedom of
thought for all human beings. It should break gradually the shackles of
tradition that binds women in the man-made gaol. The gender issue should be
de-linked both from myopic economics and insensitive politics.
In India mostly
it is women who have to do household as cook, clean the house, do the dishes, wash
clothes, care of children and men do not share on most of the household works.
Men do that work that is to be dealt outside the house. Now a day there is
increasing need for getting some income for the family then women have to work
harder. Women workers have to handle Persecution's
at their work place, sometimes just over look things to ensure that their job
is not jeopardized in anyway. Many Indian families are still living as joint
families along with the parents and in-laws. This adds to their stress further
because they have to please all the family members of her husband. Listen to
their complaints that they make against her and turn deaf ears towards them and
so on. Overall, majority of women in India look towards or live in the hope
that things will change.
Women workers in India are
faced with lot more challenges than their counterparts in the other countries.
Besides, of so many efforts from past years, female section of society is
deprived in compared to male section. They are not given first priority in
social and economic decisions in her own family. According to United Nations
Development Programmer (UNDP) report, women are involved
in doing 67 per cent work of world still they are socially and economically
deprived. They are receiving only 10 per cent of the universal income and have
1 per cent part in global assets. This discrimination also persists in their
work place in un-organized sector. In informal sector, women workers don’t get same
wages for same nature of work for same hours done by men. They are exploited at
workplace. They are some acts i.e. The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act,
2008, Domestic Workers Welfare and Social Security Act, 2010 etc... But, due to
their improper implementation, women workers are forced to work and live in
miserable conditions in unorganized sector.
2. Objectives of the
Study
The
objectives of my research are to address some of the issues relating to women
in the age of information technology in India
(i)
To study the
health status of working women and media’s role in women health in India.
(ii)
To study the
trend of women participation in working sectors as labourers in Indian states.
(iii)
To clear main
problems of working women.
(iv)
To identify the
factors preventing women employees from aspiring for higher post and challenges
and problems faced by women workers.
(v)
To identify the key socio-economic pointers contributing to
women’s status, safety and security.
3. Information Technology (IT)
Information Technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing,
storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical
information by a micro-electronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications. Information
Technology (IT) is the industry, which through the use of computers and other
supporting, equipment helps in the spread of knowledge. Information Technology
(IT) for some time was synonyms to computers. But with the rapid and
advancement in various information delivery systems such as radio, television,
telephone, newspapers, fax and of course computers and computer networks,
information technology refers to the entire gamut of media and devices used to
transmit and process information for use by various target groups in the
society. Information Technology (IT) has therefore, been rights termed at
information and communication revolution.
4. Literature Review of the Study
The literature review shows
that more focus is on married working women than on unmarried working women
(Karl, 2009). It is also seen that focus is more on organized sector rather
than unorganized sector of working women (Shalz, 2011). Eggins (1997) advocates
for more facilities to women in the work-place suggesting that, “…
it is an important part of developmental strategy as well as an act of social
justice.” The World Bank (1991)
estimates that Indian Women make up one-third of the labor force. Singhal
(1995) is of the opinion that, “Participation of women in workforce is
essential for economic development and population planning.”
Somjee (1989) has some very
strong critical comments. She has said that, “In the history of women’s
studies, which is not very long, a variety of approaches have been adopted in
order to understand women’s problems and find solutions to them. such
approaches range from how women are perceived in various cultures and
historical settings, given their biological functions and what nature
‘intended’ them to do, to their decline in power and status vis-à-vis men in
the complex social evolution, to a widely shared emphasis on the need to make
women equal through the economic on the need to make women equal through the
economic and legal route which treats them as individuals rather than those
having the sole responsibility for looking after the family.”
Mitra (1997) analyses the
causes and comes to some important conclusions, “Relationship between women
and professions could be perceived as one of women in full-fledged professions,
medicine, law, academics, etc and another in the semi-professions-like nursing,
teaching, clerks etc.”
Okolo (1989) studied that
another obstacle is the lack of role models of executive women due to their scarce
presence in top managerial positions. Likewise, this study found out that there
18 is no gender difference in organizational hierarchies when a woman has
already gained access to them. “The lack of impact in women can occur
because executive and managerial women have developed survival features
becoming immune to the effects of men’s hierarchies. A hierarchy composed by
men solely may have an effect upon the election of a managerial board, and then
its further influence is not very strong.”
Ronald J. Burke, Mustafa
Koyuncu and Lisa Fiksenbaum (2010) examined the relationship of the perceived
presence of organizational practices designed to support women’s career
advancement and their work attitudes and satisfaction and their psychological
well being. Data were collected from 286 women in managerial and professional
jobs working in a large Turkish bank, a 72 percent response rate. Five
organizational experiences were considered, “Negative attitudes towards
women, equal treatment, support, career barriers and male standards. Women
reporting more supportive organizational experiences and practices were more
engaged in their work, more job and career satisfied, and indicated greater
levels of psychological well being.”
Wentling (2003) showed that
the twin roles of women cause tension and conflict due to her social structure
which is still more dominant. In her study on working women in Delhi, she has
shown that “Traditional authoritarian set up of Hindu social structure continues to
be the same basically and hence women face problem of role conflict change in
attitudes of men and women according to the situation can help to overcome
their problem.”
Sophia J. Ali (2011) “Investigated
the challenges facing women in career development. She found that most of the
women employees were dissatisfied with career development programmers and women
were discriminated against in career development opportunities. The study
recommended that organizations should strive to ensure that career development
programmers were set to enhance career development amongst women employees. Top
management should also be committed to the career development of women, and
organizations should also introduce affirmative action to urgently address
career development of women.”
Figure: 2
5. Background of the
Study
Before
the economic liberalization policy of the congress Government (1991) in India,
the scenario in organization were completely different from that which exists
now in terms of stability of workforce as opportunities were very few at that
time comparatively. In the early 50’s and 60’s more Government Organizations or
Semi-government Organizations and very few private players existed. People
preferred working in government or semi–government organizations, as it
provided job security and quality of work life. People who entered the job
market remained with one employer for a very long time, some times for the
duration of their working life. If they change jobs it was usually a major
career and life decision and some who made many and frequent job changes was looked
at as an incompetent person not able to survive anywhere, struggling to make
both ends meet. In the 70’s and later, external mobility increased dramatically
posing a great threat to the organizations. The personnel or HR managers of the
organizations found themselves with a new phenomenon to consider, the employee
turnover. Moreover, voluntary turnover has now increased drastically, as the
Indian market is opened to foreign players as well. Besides this, the
government is also encouraging entrepreneurship, so there are many domestic
players also entering the Indian market. The situation has resulted in stiff
competition for competent workforce. Poaching and job-hopping has become the
order of the day. As the organization began to feel the impact of the rise of
voluntary employee turnover, employee retention strategies emerged.
The
Indian Information Technology (IT) professionals are the most sought after by Information
Technology (IT) companies all over the globe. In India the Information
Technology (IT) professionals are well paid and are offered world class
benefits. Therefore, job in Information Technology (IT) sector is a dream come
true for many young educated professionals in India and they strive towards
this goal. They also get an opportunity to live and work abroad in addition to
attractive pay package and benefits.
The
rise of Information Technology (IT) sector in India brought in drastic changes
in life style, sociality, family structure, self-identity and attitude of the
urban middle class in India. Information Technology (IT) professionals were
looked upon with respect as they enjoyed better social status and were envied
lot.
6. Trends in
Employment of Women
It is true that, compared
to many other countries, there has been relative stability of aggregate female
work participation rates in India, which have remained quite low over time. But,
there are wide variations and differing trends across states, rural and urban
areas, as well as changes in the pattern of work. For urban women, the increase
in regular work has dominantly been in services, including relatively low-paid
domestic service, along with some manufacturing. In manufacturing, there has
been some recent growth of petty home-based activities of women, typically with
very low remuneration, performing outsourced work as part of a larger
production chain. But, explicitly export-oriented employment, even in special zones
set up for the purpose, still accounts for only a tiny fraction of women’s paid
work in urban India. However, in rural India self-employment has come to
dominate women’s activities even in non-agricultural occupations, largely
because of the evident difficulty of finding paid work.
In
India, rapid changes in industrialization and economic development have taken
place after the liberalization program of the government of India during the
1991 and the trends in the employment situation in India and other developing
countries over the last two decades has suggested that not only the employment
rate has increased especially in the urban area and other organized sectors,
there has been important “Gender Structure Changes” in the labor force. There
have been changes in women workers in different industries (Jose, 1993). Information
Technology (IT) coupled with the economic development efforts have both thus
impacted the employment patterns, positions, performance and prospects of many
of the jobs and hence completely revolutionized the thinking and the way the
HRM is practiced in the industries.
Despite
the increased opportunities for women in IT industry, recent employment trends
indicate that the percentages of women in specific technical fields have
remained flat or declined. Factors that drove women away from high-tech
companies early in the decade included (Cummings, 2009) et al;
ü
An exclusionary
culture that did not support women’s advancement.
ü
Inflexible
work-place those were not conducive to work-life effectiveness.
ü
Isolation of
women because of a lack of role models networks and mentors.
ü
The failure of
companies in the high-tech sector to strategically and objectively identify and
develop talent.
Table 1: Women’s Employment in
the Organized Sector
Srl: No:
|
Division & Industry
|
Women Employees (in Thousands) as on 31-03-2001
|
||
Public Sector
|
Private Sector
|
Total
|
||
1.
|
Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry
and Fishing
|
48.30
|
464.40
|
512.80
|
2.
|
Mining and Quarrying
|
55.60
|
8.40
|
64.00
|
3.
|
Manufacturing
|
93.00
|
937.00
|
1030.00
|
4.
|
Electricity, Gas and Water
|
44.70
|
1.30
|
46.00
|
5.
|
Construction
|
63.20
|
4.00
|
67.30
|
6.
|
Wholesale, Retail Trade, Restaurants
and Hotels
|
17.40
|
29.40
|
46.80
|
7.
|
Transport, Storage and
Communications
|
174.90
|
8.10
|
182.90
|
8.
|
Financing, Insurance Real E-state
and Business Services
|
184.80
|
60.20
|
245.00
|
9.
|
Community, Social and Personal
Services
|
2177.20
|
577.30
|
2754.50
|
Total
|
2859.20
|
2090.10
|
4949.30
|
|
Source: India, Ministry of Labour,
Directorate General Employment and Training. (2003). Employment Review January
– March 2001. New Delhi. P. 24
The increase in the growth
of employment appears to be much higher for female workers compared to male
workers. Even where the proportion of working women as reflected in the female work
participation rate may be low, the absolute numbers have significantly
increased, given the rate of population growth over time. The increase in work
opportunities during the early years of the new millennium has been to the tune
of 9.3 million jobs per annum from 1999-2000 to 2004-05. This acceleration in
employment growth from 1.25 per cent per annum from 1993-94 to 1999-2000 to
2.62 per cent per annum in the period 1999-2000 to 2004-05 (GOI, 2008) has been
beneficial to women's participation as well. Of the 46 million job
opportunities created from 1999-2000 to 2004-05 compared to 24 million in the
earlier period, i.e. 1993-94 to 1999-2000, nearly 15 million women joined the
workforce. Urban areas almost doubled their number of women workers, while in
rural areas women workers increased from 9 to 12 million. Are these signs of a
gradual but definite wind of change with more women entering the labour market?
This positive change is noted more forcefully in the urban context where
requisite educational inputs and modern thinking vis-à-vis women's work is
increasingly becoming noticeable. Rural agriculture is increasingly drawing
women's labour supplies, with over four-fifths of the women in rural areas
working in agriculture. This gains significance amidst the declining share of
male workers from 74 per cent in 1993-94 to 66 per cent in 2004-05. Thus, it
seems that women in rural areas are finding it harder to shift away from
agriculture. Involvement of women in agriculture is largely as cultivators or farmers
as well as agricultural laborers. However, there has been a slight decline in
the share of women as agricultural laborers, while their share among cultivators
has increased. In urban areas, women have achieved substantially higher growth
of employment in manufacturing and have been able to increase their share,
especially after 1999-2000 from 24 per cent to over 28 per cent in 2004-05.
Thus, in urban areas, the share of female workers in manufacturing has
increased substantially while that of male workers has not. Even in the services
sector, women have gained in terms of employment, especially in the domestic
and personal services category.
According
to the report of NASSCOM – survey of facilities at NTMIS, AICTE, Government of
India, NASSCOM, 70 per cent of software professionals in Information Technology
(IT) companies were men in India, whereas 21 per cent were women. However, the
ratio is likely to be 60:40 (male:female) by the year 2013. Women have thus come
to play a major role in the growth of Information Technology (IT).
Table 2: A Sample Indicative of
this Trend.
Name of the Organization
|
Total Employment
|
Women Employed
|
Ratio
|
WIPRO
|
12658
|
2530 (19.98%)
|
1:5
|
TCS
|
21800
|
5450 (25%)
|
1:4
|
INFOSYS
|
15356
|
2896 (18.86%)
|
1:5
|
HEWLENT-PACKARD
|
2245
|
320 (14.25%)
|
1:7
|
POLARIS
|
4800
|
1200 (25%)
|
1:4
|
L & T INFOTECH
|
2250
|
900 (40%)
|
1:2.5
|
HCL TECHNOLOGIES
|
5757
|
1150 (19.97%)
|
1:5
|
SUN MICROSYSTEMS
|
596
|
119 (19.96%)
|
1:5
|
ORACLE INDIA
|
2702
|
540 (19.98)
|
1:5
|
PHILIPS SOFTWARE
|
757
|
190 (25.09)
|
1:4
|
SIEMENS INFORMATION
|
1390
|
260 (18.70)
|
1:6
|
ROLTA INDIA
|
2346
|
123 (5.25)
|
1:19
|
The increase in the number
of women in the labor market signifies an important trend regarding women's
employment. This has been occurring alongside increases in labor force and
workforce, especially for urban women, although rural women workers predominate
in terms of participation rates and overall magnitude. The increasing share of
women's participation in the labor force and its significant contribution to
household income as well as gross domestic product (GDP) require some policy
attention be paid to the gender dimensions of employment. The eleventh Five
Year Plan document for the first time in the history of Indian planning
recognizes women not only as equal citizens but as 'agents of sustained
socio-economic growth and change'
(GOI, 2008, p. 5). A multi-pronged approach is emphasized to address issues
concerning women workers, such as provision of basic entitlements and
strengthening of institutional mechanisms.
India's economy has
undergone a substantial transformation since the country's independence in 1947.
Agriculture now accounts for only one-third of the gross domestic product
(GDP), down from 59 per cent in 1950, and a wide range of modern industries and
support services now exist. In spite of these changes, agriculture continues to
dominate employment, employing two-thirds of all workers. India faced economic
problems in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that were exacerbated by the
Persian Gulf Crisis. Starting in 1992, India began to implement trade
liberalization measures. The economy has grown-the gross domestic product (GDP)
growth rate ranged between 5 and 7 per cent annually over the period and considerable
progress has been made in loosening government regulations, particularly
restrictions on private businesses. Different sectors of economy have different
experiences about the impact of the reforms. In a country like India,
productive employment is central to poverty reduction strategy and to bring
about economic equality in the society. But the results of unfettered operation
of market forces are not always equitable, especially in India, where some
groups are likely to be subjected to disadvantage as a result of globalization.
Women constitute one such vulnerable group. Since globalization is introducing
technological inputs, women are being marginalized in economic activities, men
traditionally being offered new scopes of learning and training. Consequently,
female workers are joining the informal sector or casual labor force more than
ever before. For instance, while new rice technology has given rise to higher
use of female labor, the increased work load for women is in operations that
are unrecorded, and often unpaid, since these fall within the category of home
production activities. The weaker sections, especially the women, are denied
the physical care they deserve. There is, thus, hardly any ability for the
majority of Indian women to do valuable functioning; the ‘capability’ to choose from alternatives is
conspicuous by absence.
The
International Labor Organization’s (ILO) analysis of employment trends shows
that in spite of that, the progress in some areas, women generally continue to
earn lower incomes suffer higher unemployment and remain largely restricted to
low skilled part – time, informal and unstable jobs (IOL, 2001). The ILO’s
World Employment Report – 2001 ‘Life at work in the information economy’ suggests that the development of Information
Technology (IT) offers many new opportunities for women but unless these are
supported by deliberate policies to ensure participation, ownership, education,
Information Technology (IT) training as well as family-friendly policies in information
work place, the old gender bias will persist.
Most women in India work
and contribute to the economy in one form or another, much of their work is not
documented or accounted for in official statistics. Women plow fields and
harvest crops while working on farms, women weave and make handicrafts while
working in household industries, women sell food and gather wood while working
in the informal sector. Additionally, women are traditionally responsible for
the daily household chores (e.g., cooking, fetching water, and looking after
children). Although the cultural restrictions women face are changing, women
are still not as free as men to participate in the formal economy. In the past,
cultural restrictions were the primary impediments to female employment now
however; the shortage of jobs throughout the country contributes to low female
employment as well. The Indian census divides workers into two categories; ‘main’ and ‘marginal’ workers. Main workers include people
who worked for 6 months or more.
NSS Figure:
3 General education of women working
in IT in India 2011 (source: NSS 2011)
During the year, while
marginal workers include those who worked for a shorter period. Many of these workers
are agricultural laborers. Unpaid farm and family enterprise workers are
supposed to be included in either the main worker or marginal worker category,
as appropriate. Women account for a small proportion of the formal Indian labor
force, even though the number of female main workers has grown faster in recent
years than that of their male counterparts.
7. Health Status of Women
India
is one of the few countries in the world, where women and men have nearly the
same life expectancy at birth (kilbourne, 1990). Recently there is a great
decline in the sex ratio in India. The most extreme expressions of the
preference for sons are female infanticide and sex selective abortions. Apart
from that, women are prone to many life threatening diseases, but they get less
health care than men even as children. Poor health has repercussions not only
for women but also their families. Women in poor health are more likely to give
birth to low weight infants. They are also less likely to be able to provide
food and adequate care for their children.
Unwanted
pregnancies terminated by unsafe abortions also have negative consequences for
women’s health. The high levels of maternal mortality are especially
distressing, because the majority of these deaths could be prevented if women
had adequate knowledge about health services either proper prenatal care or
referral to appropriate health care facilities (Jejeebhoy and Rao 1995). In
fact the leading contributor to high maternal mortality ratios is lack of
access to health care (The world bank 1996). Studies have found that twenty percent
of all maternal deaths in India is caused by anemia (The world bank 1996).
Women
do not even have the knowledge about anemia a simple reason for death which can
easily be avoided if they get the knowledge. India has the highest incidence of
cervical cancer in the world which could be reduced by a simple papsmear test.
News reports say that female infanticide has reached the one crore mark in the
last decade in India. And everybody knows that hundreds of women are killed
every year on every front and every imaginable pretext. If this trend continues
there is possibility of women becoming an extinct species. Despite the alarming
growth of the epidemic AIDS, most women in India have little knowledge of AIDS.
The NFHS found that a large majority of Indian women had never heard of AIDS.
There were many misconceptions among those who had heard of the disease.
8.
Women Population
At the 2001 census, India
had a female population of 496million. India accounts 15 per cent of World’s women
characterized by vast regional differences and a variety of cultures. But,
social discrimination and economic deprivation on the basis of gender is common
to all, irrespective of religion, cast, community, and State.
Empowerment of women,
gender discrimination, and violence against women, which have become serious
subjects of sociological research in contemporary times, was hitherto
neglected. While contemporary social changes have exposed women to unprotected
socio-economic, cultural and political environment, there are no corresponding
protective social systems and institutions of social justice to safeguard their
interests. There are many who are skeptical about women’s ability to exercise
equal rights with men and about their capacity to play equal role with men. But
such apprehensions are ill-founded in the context of the broader opportunities
available for women following mechanization of industry and agriculture,
enabling women to compete with men successfully.
Innovations in science and
technology have removed the disparity between men and women attributed to
physical strength alone. Women are able to handle modern appliances which
require intelligence and training and not merely physical strength. Thus, India
has now several women working as pilots, driving locomotives, buses, tractors
and machinery in workshops. Sex as maternal factor in the area of legal rights
has practically disappeared. It is not therefore fair to relegate women as a
group to an inferior position in society. The Constitution does not regard sex
as a permitted classification and prohibits sex as a basis of differential
treatment in all areas of legal rights. Modernity has resulted in a growing
flexibility and changes in the gender roles of men and women. The earlier conception
that man was the provider of basic necessities for family and women the child
bearer and care taker of home, is no longer valid in the changing social
structure and economic compulsions.
However, any attempt to
assess the status and problem of women in a society should start from the
social framework. Social structure, cultural norms, and value systems are
crucial determinants of women’s role and their position in society. In respect
of the status there is a gap between the theoretical possibilities and their
actual realization.
9. Work Life Balance
In
an increasing competitive environment, it is difficult to separate home life
and work life. Employees to-day and more likely to express a strong desire have
a harmonious balance among future career, family life and leisure activities.
Women
working in the Information Technology (IT) sector, especially older women who
are married, have to constantly juggle between roles as home-makers, mothers,
wives and employees. The priorities imposed on women by society need not be
explicated. Few companies have specific HR policies to help women balance out
the contradictory pulls between the home and the work place. Consequently most
women techies have to give up a minimum of three years of their professional
life once they decide to have children. And three years is equivalent to a
life-time in the Information Technology (IT) industry, where obsolescence sets
in every three months.
Work
life balance can be represented as two spheres indicating two lives i.e.
Personal and Professional. Exhibit: 1, represents regular interaction between
two spheres. The semi-permeable spheres denote regular contact of these spheres
with external environment. As shown in exhibit: 2, when organizational life
sphere starts intruding into personal life sphere or vice-versa, imbalance gets
started.
Figure: 4
There
must be proper balance between these spheres. If there is lack of balance
between personal life and professional life there occur work family conflict
which hampers your personal life as well as your professional life also. Work family
conflict is negatively linked to several organizational out comes such as job
satisfaction, organizational commitment, job stress and turnover. Work-family
conflict can be considered a source of occupational stress. In many Information
Technology (IT) related jobs, employees are expected to work late, be on call
to solve technical problems and travel all of these factors can result in
conflicts between working and family life. Work-family conflict has been
defined as ‘a form of inter-role conflict that occurs when the demands of work
and family are mutually incompatible’. The two components of work-family
conflict, family matters that spill over into working life and work factors
that spill over into family life, can add to the psychological demands placed
upon workers and therefore affect their well being, stress and depression,
physical ailments and life satisfaction.
Figure:
5 Women Employed in Different Industries
10.
Problems Faced by Working Women
v
Occupational problems as Stress:
In women Occupational
stress is stress involving work. Work and family are the two most important
aspects in women’s lives. Balancing work and family roles has become a key personal
and family issue for many societies. There are many facets in working mother’s
lives that subject to stresses. They deal with home and family issues as well
as job stress on a daily basis.
Occupational or
work-related stress defined by World
Health Organization’s (WHO), “Is the response people may have when
presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their
knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope.”
v
Reasons of occupational Stress
Imbalance between work and
family leads to occupational stress. Imbalance between work and family life
arises due to a number of factors. Various factors are following;
(a) Mental Harassment:
It is an age old convention
that women are less capable and inefficient in working as compared to men. The
attitude which considers women unfit for certain jobs holds back women. In
spite of the constitutional provisions, gender bias creates obstacles in their
recruitment. In addition to this, the same attitude governs injustice of
unequal salaries for the same job. The true equality has not been achieved even
after 61 years of independence. Working in such conditions inevitably puts
strain on women to greater extent as compared to men, thus making them less
eager in their career.
(b) Sexual Harassment:
Today, almost all working
women are prone to sexual harassment irrespective of their status, personal
characteristics and the types of their employment. They face sexual harassment
on way on transports, at working places, educational institutions and
hospitals, at home and even in police stations when they go to file complaints.
It is shocking that the law protectors are violating and outraging modesty of
women. Most of the women tend to be concentrated in the poor service jobs whereas
men are in an immediate supervisory position, which gives them an opportunity
to exploit their subordinate women.
(c) Discrimination at Workplace:
However, Indian women still
face blatant discrimination at their workplaces. They are often deprived of
promotions and growth opportunities at work places but this doesn’t apply to
all working women. A majority of working women continue to be denied their
right to equal pay, under the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 and are underpaid in
comparison to their male colleagues. This is usually the case in factories and
labor-oriented industries.
(d) No Safety of Working Women
While Traveling:
Typically, the orthodox
mindset in the Indian society makes it difficult for a working woman to balance
her domestic environment with the professional life. In some families, it may
not be acceptable to work after six o’clock. Those families that do accept
these working hours may experience considerable anxiety every day about a
woman’s safety while traveling. So many issues affect a working woman because
she is closely protected or watched by her family and the society.
(e) Lack of Family Support:
Lack of proper family
support is another issue that working women suffers from. At times, the family
doesn’t support women to leave the household work and go to office. They also
resist for women working till late in office which also hampers the performance
of the women and this also affects their promotion.
(f) Insufficient Maternity
Leaves:
Insufficient maternity
leave is another major issue that is faced by a working mother. This not only
affects the performance of women employees at work, but is also detrimental to
their personal lives.
(g) Job Insecurity:
Unrealistic expectations,
especially in the time of corporate reorganizations, which sometimes puts unhealthy
and unreasonable un-reasonable pressures on the employee, can be a tremendous
source of stress and suffering. Increased workload extremely long work hours
and intense pressures to perform at peak levels all the time for the same pay,
can actually leave an employee physically and emotionally drained. Excessive
travel and too much time away from family also contribute to an employee’s
stressors.
(h) Workplace Adjustment:
Adjusting to the workplace
culture, whether in a new company or not, can be intensely stressful. Making
oneself adapt to the various aspects of workplace culture such as communication
patterns of the boss as well as the co-workers, can be lesson of life.
Maladjustments to workplace cultures may lead to subtle conflicts with
colleagues or even with superiors. In many cases office politics or gossips can
be major stress inducers.
(i) Other Reasons:
It include Personal
demographics like age, level of education, marital status, number of children, personal
income and number of jobs currently had where you work for pay and Work
situation characteristics like job tenure, size of employing organization,
hours worked per week.
11.
Scope of the Study
The study is exploratory in nature and seeks to identify the
problems and challenges faced by urban women in different professional sectors
like public sector enterprises, banks, schools and colleges, hospitals,
commercial organizations etc... Further the study also aims also at finding out
the organizational supports for women employees so that the women employees are
able to give their best to their organization and are able to reach their full
potential.
12. Methodology of the Study
The present study is
secondary in nature. I do not attempt has been made to include any statistical
data in this investigation. The data used for the study has been collected from
Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Research Articles or Papers, Journals, E-Journals
Reports, Books, and on-line data bases. For that, I have used different
websites.
13. Life Events in Career
Development
v Opposing
The
three most frequent personal or family life events that hinder career
development includes difficult balancing work and family, slowed down career
progression to have children and marriage difficulties.
(i)
The women faced
difficulties in balancing work and family as they have too many work and family
responsibilities and sometimes they did not have time to accomplish everything
effectively. To them, time management was the biggest challenge and trying to
do everything well and not feeling guilty if something did not get done.
(ii)
Women also feel
that their career slowed down in order to try and have children. They
deliberately turned down promotions so that they could reduce their travel
schedule reduce the stress at work and concentrate on trying to start family.
(iii)
Also marriage
difficulties create conflict between work and family for women. This marriage
difficulty sometime resulted because of working tremendous amount of hours,
having to relocate or not having time to socialize. Having to manage the
effects of marriage difficulties and the demanding requirements of work made it
extremely hard for women to continue to progress in their careers.
v
Helping
There
are some events in personal or family life that can help women in their career
development. The five most frequent personal or family life events are
supportive and encouraging parents, supportive and encouraging spouse, learning
the value of hard-work and good work ethics from parents, parenting and raising
children and supportive children. Having supportive and encouraging parents had
a positive impact on their career development. Having supportive family and
parents means having parents who assist them in developing good-work ethics by
involving her as a child to work on projects around the house, encouraged them
to do well in degree classes helped them address personal barriers that they
encountered in their lives, encouraged them to take advantage of opportunities
that were presented to them and encouraged them to take risks.
Having
a supportive and encouraging spouse also had a positive impact on their career
development. Parenting and raising children also had a positive impact on their
career development in Information Technology (IT) industry because being a
parent made them a more balanced person. In addition, the lessons they learned
from parenting in their personal life many times extended to professional life.
14. Major Challenges
The
six major challenges the women face is work or life balance, extremely
difficult or challenges job assignments, dealing with inter-personal or people
issues, dealing with company politics, gender discrimination and male dominance
in Information Technology (IT). Balancing work or life responsibilities has
been a major challenge in their careers. Women indicated that it was difficult
to achieve balance in work or life when having to put so many hours at work to
succeed in their positions.
Extremely
difficult and challenges job assignment is also a major challenge they
encountered in their career. Many times these professionals were given some
very though assignments were the people before them had failed. Some of the
women were assigned to assist in leading major corporate mergers or given
international assignments in countries that had cultures that did not view or
accept women as leaders. The women professionals many times encountered
difficulties in dealing and relating to people at different levels of the
organization, understanding how others feel, motivating employees toward
superior performance and establishing networks.
Dealing
with politics in the organization was a major challenge encountered in their
career. In many instances, the women professionals believed they had difficulty
conforming to company norms, fitting in, adapting to the organization’s
informal power structure, primarily because established political systems and
networks were composed of men and were therefore sometimes not available to
women.
Gender
discrimination was a major challenge in their careers. Because they were women,
they have advanced more slowly were not given promotions that they deserved had
to work harder to prove themselves were not taken seriously or were treated
with less respected and were banned from international job assignments.
In
addition, male dominance in Information Technology (IT) was a major challenge
in women careers. Female role models and mentors were difficult to find in the Information
Technology (IT) field because it is mostly male dominated. They felt that
having female role models to look up to and having the opportunity to talk and
share your experiences with a female mentor was important for building
self-confidence. These respondents were many times made to feel like outsiders
or were intimidated by male colleagues, which created challenges to their
career development.
15. Managing Work
Life Conflict
One
of the most common and potentially most effective ways for dealing with work
life conflict is to establish family and life friendly policies. These
practices include offering dependent care, implementing work flexibility
policies and providing strong supervisory support. For instance employees who
had flexible hours and discretion over when and where work was done were less
likely to experience negative spillover from work to home.
Dependent
child care is one of the most common ways organizations attempt to mitigate
work light conflict. Providing on-site child care offers great convenience to
employees as they are able to simply bring their young children to work with
them and pick them up at the end of the day without ever having to leave the
office.
Offering
dependent child care to Information Technology (IT) employees may be a
particularly useful mitigation strategy for reducing work-life conflict. As
discussed above, Information Technology (IT) workers frequently have changing
schedules that require them to work shifts late into the evening. By offering
on-site child care the employer can dictate the hours of operation for the day
care facility and may be able to provide care during hours that off-site
provides are unwilling or unable to staff. For instance, toward the end of
major upgrades or releases that may need to be staffed 24/7, the organization
may be able to make arrangements with their day care facilities to provide
staff during the evening or night time hours to watch children while Information
Technology (IT) workers push to complete the project.
Another
common way in which firms adopt family-friendly policies is by allowing
employees to engage in virtual work, meaning that employees are electronically
linked to the organization, yet physically located in the home. The argument in
favor of virtual work suggests that employees will feel less conflict and
stress because technology allows for more flexibility and autonomy in deciding
how and when work will be completed. Working ‘virtually’ allows employees with
young children to tend to their needs while still working full or part time. In
addition, virtual work reduces time based conflict by reducing the number of
hours an employee is asked to commute each week. Employees may enjoy
significant time savings in major metropolitan areas, allowing them to engage
in more non-core related activities. The success of virtual work has been a
source of debate in the academic literature. Numerous studies have indicated
that work life balance is improved with the addition of virtual work.
16.
Limitation of the Study
Due
to time constraint this research review study has been made on the basis of
previous data. This study may be up-dated and redesigned by considering the
latest available data. There is a lot of scope for further researches on this
issue by considering other factors which I have not considered in my present
study, it would have been more.
17. Recommendations
of the Study
The
following recommendations are presented by the researcher to increase the use
of technology facility by women;
ü Increase funding for family planning
ü Develop a culturally sensitive family planning
strategy and implement it
ü Reduce the incidence of early marriage
ü Conduct a communication campaign in favors of girls
ü Contributing to the educational and skills
development of women
ü Governments
should make it mandatory for companies to install Global Positioning System
(GPS) in vehicles carrying women, in all industries which engage women in night
shifts.
ü Child care
facilities and child care leave for working women should be provided by every
organisation like government policies.
ü Organisations
should have an internal code to ensure security of women employees and take
measures to ensure that they discharge their job in a secure atmosphere.
In a patriarchal society like India
a particular boundary exists only for women and if they try to
cross that boundary then people
start maligning them like ‘eve-tising’. The general perception is that if, some women are doing things
differently, beyond people’s limited imagination and out of sync with
traditional thinking like - going out for jobs, wearing different type of
fashionable clothes, talking freely with male members etc… immediately they are
branded as loose women. India probably has still a long way to go to make our
work-places free from any prejudices, abuses and harassments. Even then we can
still try at solving some of the related issues and problems with some possible
solutions that have been mentioned above so that women become stronger and are able
to handle any adverse situations.
18. Concluding
Observations of the Study
Although gender empowerment
has been a buzzword in development circles, the concept is being used in so
many different ways that it remains ambiguous. Effective policy design requires
an accurate understanding of the gender issues within a broad social framework.
We need poverty independent gender analyses and policies in order to rescue
gender from poverty trap. Women’s income earning activity should not be temporary,
exploitative and reversible. Education and technology should ensure liberation
and freedom for all human beings. It should break gradually the shackles of tradition
that binds women in the man-made gaol. Technological development can be both a
threat and an ally to women in their various roles. Therefore we should
integrate gender into technology and development. More nuanced discussion of
the complex inter-relationships between gender and technology is needed.
Training program for successful technology transfer is necessary to derive the
benefits of existing market driven technological promotion. The new technology
should be used as a vehicle for gender equality in the backward societies
Now a day’s women workers
are improved and promote in their workplace and in technological work. Trade
Union should try to improve the conditions for woman’s workers in many parts
for example maternity leave is easily give to women and help the woman for
achieve higher post actually women’s nature is promotion to gain high quality
in every field but if the condition is not ready then the reduction of
promotion and optimization in work will be occur and etc...
Women workers are often
subject to sexual harassment then the Government should put strict rules for
these types of crimes , also public transport system sometimes danger for woman
and Government should put more Inspection. Traditionally people think that men
should only work and gain money and women should work as house hold but, the
financial demands on the Indian families are increasing that’s why women also
should company in gaining income for families. Therefore, a fundamental change
is required in attitudes of employees, family members and public.
The gender issue should be
delinked both from myopic economics and insensitive politics. There is no
substitute for a gender analysis, which transcends class divisions and material
definitions of deprivation. Therefore ‘adding women’ is not necessary, but an insight and rethinking development
concepts and practices as a whole through a gender lens is necessary. We have to
initiate debate on state non-action on gender issues. Despite several rules and
acts in place, all rights of women are being violated and they have been suffering
in silence. A vigorous multi-pronged and multi-professional effort is needed to
establish the woman as a human being in her own right. With the hosanna of modernization
it is imperative to dispel myths, superstitions and misconceptions about woman
and her duties and adopt a rational attitude towards the woman as a human
being.
Despite jamboree of techno
culture we need a meaningful social transformation, which gives the equal
independent human status to women. Economic citizenship is not sufficient for
transforming existing asymmetric gender relations. In all backward states like
Orissa, girls are educationally very successful but socially women are not. The
wife may be happy but the women not. The real progress should occur when the
women become the producers of their own welfare and bounty, not the recipients
of charity. The chance for a social transformation should begin and end with
the women kind in the ground because, nothing grows from the top. Effective
policy design requires accurate understanding of the gender issues within a
broad social framework. Women development is a social process to be evolved
from the society but not a technological product to be achieved by a triggered
policy.
19. Some Selected References
[1]
Clutterbuck, David (2003), “Managing the Work Life Balance”, UK: Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development, pp. 8 – 9.
[2] Murthy, G. K.
(2012).Women and Corporate Leadership- in Indian Perspectives.IRACSTInternational
Journal
of Research in Management & Technology.2 (4) PP 377-382.
[3] Bardhan, Kalpana (1979).
‘Work
as a Medium of Earning and Social Differentiation: Rural Women of West Bengal’, paper presented at ADC-ICRISAT
Conference Hyderabad, India.
[4] World Bank (1991).
Gender and Poverty in India: A World Bank Country Study, The World Bank,
Washington DC.
[5] Saskia Everts(1998)
Gender and Technology: Empowering Women, Engendering Development
Zed Books .London
[6] Kumari, Ranjana (1989).
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Delhi.
[7]
C. Chandler (1996), “Mentoring and Women in Academia: Reevaluating the
Traditional Model”, NWSA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3, Pp. 79–102.
[8] “Working
Moms get to Play”,
[Online]
Available:http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/1800682/report-working-moms-get-to-play.
[9] “The Barriers for Women in Career Advancement”, [Online]
Available:http://www.ukessays.com/essays/spanish/the-barriers-for-women-in-career-advancement.php.
[10] “Indian
Women Prefer More Flexibility at Workplace” 2013.
[Online]
Available:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry
and-economy/indian-women-prefer-more-flexibility-at-workplace-linkedin/article4474732.ece.
[11]
J. Wang (2009), “Networking in the Workplace: Implications
for Women's Career Development”,
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 122, Pp. 33–42.
[12]
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