The Hindu Business Line : A young woman manager speaks

The big problem a woman faces is the possibility of shifting to her husband's home, which might be in another city and going through the hassle of starting all over again.

Graduating from a course in management with a sense of accomplishment and raring to go and set your mark in the corporate world. Dreaming up visions of being quoted in Forbes and Fortune and chalking out a plan, a career path so that these visions just do not remain castles in air. And you enter the corporate world, only to face the reality.

The harsh truth is that you are not just a management graduate, but also a woman. Suddenly your expectations seem unreal... your family expects you to get married and settle down as you are of marriageable age, with an education and job that /make you a lucrative bride. Your colleagues expect you to pull your share of the workload and not be treated with kid gloves. All these leave you with the same age-old battle between a career and the traditional role of a woman in Indian society. You sometimes feel defiant, sometimes frustrated and sometimes just helpless.

One such fresh management graduate, Bharathi Chandrashekaran, Business Analyst at Think soft Global Solutions says, "The IT industry is known for the long and odd hours it keeps, so the logical preference for an employee would be a man, I thought. But here I find women are being recruited more and more. The only criteria for selection are qualifications and willingness to work and not gender. The big problem a woman faces is the possibility of shifting to her husband's home, which might be in another city and having to go through to the hassle of starting all over again." But such a step would hamper career growth. So, why not have both — career and marriage?

Well, have you ever tried handling work and home, the cleaning, washing, cooking and to top it off meetings, presentations and targets at the workplace? It's pure murder. Sowmya Sundaram, Assistant Manager at Ucal Fuel Systems, says, "I leave home by 6.30 a.m. and return only by 8 - 8.30 p.m. By the time, I feel so drained that I can barely have dinner and lie down. Even the mood to listen to music is not there. Although professional gratification exists at the end of the day, I, sometimes, feel bad that I am not keeping myself updated on management and feel out of touch. How, in such a situation, can I even think of marriage? I would definitely not be able to manage." But people like Sowmya are prepared to sweat it out at the workplace for the sheer pleasure of achievement. Right now, though it is the toiling period and managing a home would mean an extra investment in time for which she is not ready.

Of course, there are many amongst us who admit that our aspirations are different from those of our male colleagues. Although at present, career may be of supreme importance, a few years down the line, after marriage, priorities are bound to change, and a compromise might have to be struck between the home and the workplace. So, what about all those inspiring quotes in Fortune and Forbes? Maybe in our next birth, when we are born as men. Or maybe set apart 40 years for achieving what one can in 10 years, one thought!

One met two young management graduates who recently got married. They've entered the corporate world and are doing the balancing act. Ekta Patnaik, Business Development Executive at Blue Shift Technologies in Chennai, claims that she keeps long hours too and sometimes she has to come into office on Sundays as well. Newly married and with a very understanding husband, who believes in sharing the routine house work, she says, "Life is full, yes, with no time for breathers, but not exactly unmanageable, especially if you have a life partner who is supportive in all your endeavours."

Manju Mathews, Senior Brand Manager at Madura Garments, has another tale to tell though. "Walking into the home at 9 - 9.30 p.m. after leaving home early, with your in-laws watching, is not exactly acceptable. And the question I have to frequently face is: why not settle for a less-paying job with shorter hours of work. How do I explain it's not so much about pay as proving and establishing myself? Already, I am letting go of good offers, which I would have accepted had I been single. My husband is very understanding, but there are more members in our family than he and I."

Many women managers try to cope with such pressures by seeking salvation at the workplace. But then you face subtle nuances, which tell you that the gender game is very much on here too. It is reflected in the kind of work women are given, with your seniors thinking that women are best at handling mundane routine tasks as they have an eye for detail. Manju Mathews couldn't believe her ears when she heard this from one of her male colleagues. But then she, like other young women managers, learn over a period of time to cope with such stereotyped images, keep on at their job, and ultimately prove their ability to do as well, if not better, than male managers.

But somewhere along the line, you can't help thinking that you were brought up to be good individuals, given a good education and the freedom to fly high and dream. And then societal norms and pressures, and prejudices, suddenly drag you back to the ground — to a society and a home, which has the woman as its cornerstone.

The challenge is to continue to dream, until one day...

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