This is Part 4 of a multi-part series. Click through for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Four years ago, this was the last normal week of our lives, I read somewhere.
The pandemic brought us many banes. But it is also credited to have brought us many boons.
Togetherness, clean air, gratitude, a time to reflect. Perhaps, it was a story that worked well, goading us to live through the pandemic, slivers of hope permeating our daily banalities, lights in the dark annals of CoViD.
But, what happened to women and work?
The pandemic normalised work from home. For adults and children alike. For men and women alike. Suddenly, everyone was buying tables and chairs and setting up corners with strategically placed books behind them and… the works.
It enabled more women to continue holding paying jobs much after the pandemic, as full-time remote jobs and hybrid work became the norm.
But, it also gave a new twist to the word “superwoman” without significant returns, if one refuses to count overwork as a return.
Let me explain.
The home angle
Women working in remote paying jobs also have other onsite jobs. As primary caregivers, supervisors of their helpers’ work, backups when other primary workers for the home don’t turn up etc etc.
Which means, women working from home don’t have the “luxury” of the ones working from office (yeah, can you believe that).
For, the ones who go to office can choose when to channel their energies where, without someone breathing down their neck every other minute for a decision or an override, if nothing else, on day-to-day home issues.
In fact, the biggest relief I had when office started was commute time, which turned out to be my only me-time in peace, even if it was just bill-pay time.
The office angle
People working in remote paying jobs are out of sight for most part. Tough as that is to digest, that’s still true in this 24th year of the 21st century, particularly in India.
Jobs can be remote, careers cannot, as the untold saying goes.
To build a career, one needs to be present, as much physically as mentally, bonding with teams, attending meetings in person, turning up at client locations. The works.
As more people started returning to the pre-pandemic “normal”, at-office work culture that is, more men returned than women.
Once it got evidenced that women could have everything (ha ha), either they chose to or got gently nudged into the path of having everything.
Why not do remote jobs? Why not just keep an eye on this, that, and that also, while working? Why not manage the pick-up and drop during day time and work in the night? Job also, life also. Efficiency also, cost effective also.
The net return
Net net, we are at a point where our women are even more super-powered than before, multi-tasking goddesses who earn and spend, careen while holding careers, no, jobs.
It isn’t a bad outcome, honestly. It has enabled and continues to enable so many more women to hold paying jobs within the constraints of their home lives.
But, it does answer my original question in a weird and unsatisfactory way.
Where are the educated women? In jobs, in many cases. But not necessarily in ones that will take them to senior management, not necessarily in career paths that are sustainable and relevant for the future.
And that, perhaps, isn’t a great outcome for overall gender parity at the workplace.
P. S. Views strictly personal. None of the events mentioned in this post refer to the organisation that I am currently associated with.
"Jobs can be remote, careers cannot."
This hit closer home than I'd care to admit.
Interesting post. I wonder if as remote work becomes more common, the need for traditional ‘face time’ will become less important for career progression?