“Who takes care of the baby while you are at work?” women are asked often. That is when they aren’t being asked, “Oh wow. You are taking a transfer out of India. Has your husband got a job there and so you moving along with him?”
Ambition at the workplace is a good thing, even a great thing. But, unfortunately, female ambition is mostly looked down upon.
Perhaps, it is a strange sight, to see at work, married women, pregnant women, women with children, women with ailing elders at home. Mayhaps, single women are single only because they spend too much time at work, are too aggressive, don’t have a life.
Once, many years ago, a senior partner asked me how much my husband earns. This was in the middle of my performance rating and bonus discussion. I doubt any working man has ever been asked about his wife’s salary.
‘Working man’ sounds so strange. Men work. It’s the default. ‘Working woman’, however, sounds right. Because, women’s mainstay is the home, and whoever in their right mind will call housework as work.
For the woman, working in an office is optional, an add-on, a good-to-have sometimes but it isn’t supposed to be the norm.
And that brings me, finally, to the topic of today’s post.
The dictionary describes ‘careerism’ as a devotion to a successful career, often at the expense of one’s personal life, ethics etc.
Let’s leave aside the ‘ethics’ bit for a minute because most of the research online focuses on ‘personal life’.
Strangely, or not so strangely, the internet doesn’t return any specific results for “male careerism”.
However, a ton of research hours, opinion pieces, and thought leadership articles have been devoted to “female careerism”. It’s apparently a disease, for a woman to be a careerist, to put herself out there for a job, a promotion, a dream of her own.
What about the kids, what about managing the home, what about taking care of the husband.
What about the female aspiration, the joy in having her own life, that is beyond a label tied to another person?
Did you judge a woman today for spending an extra hour at work or fighting hard for a performance rating? Do you think you were fair?
P. S. Views strictly personal. Post doesn’t refer to any organisation that I am currently associated with.