Year after year so many women have chosen to give up their careers or took a break from them, considering the many challenges that come with balancing work, home, children, and caregiving. Some chose this happily, out of their own free will (a truly empowered choice) while some were forced into it.
The debate of whether the sacrifice is being wrongly glorified or forced upon women or whether these choices are truly made out of free will is on fire today as seen on social media sites, such as LinkedIn even. There have also been so many discussions on the payscales of women who chose to WFH in the few companies that did allow full-time WFH options. This has been the other monster women have battled, that led to hugely varying pay scales for those who opted to WFH.
While these might continue to be debated upon, based on each person’s perception of a certain situation, understanding, or rather a misunderstanding of the specific person’s life, – there has been another byproduct arising out of this pandemic that has completely thrown the mode of business out of gear! Businesses that were erstwhile 100% work at office only with zero flexibility and those who believed work wouldn’t get done while working from home, today have the entire workforce working from home for more than a year! What’s even better is that most of these organizations have found that employee productivity is higher than or at least equal to what it used to be while working from the office. This has brought about an enormous mind-shift in a corporate working culture where finally today, work from home has become an accepted and respected way of working!
Phew! Did we really require a pandemic to bring this to light? Thanks to this, more women are now able to get back to work while getting equal pay like everyone else working from home. Leaving aside the suffering that the pandemic has caused the world over for a moment, it has brought this silver lining – This is probably an amazing time the world over for anyone who has some bit of skills, the ability to learn quickly, and has a few hours to spare – as for once the gig economy is on an all-time high. A great opportunity for women to get back in the door while retaining flexibility and equal pay as well as recognition at work!
So many women have risen to the occasion and launched businesses of their own and risen to fame just during the last year of the pandemic. This is a truly inspiring moment in life for all of us, a beautiful story of how adversity can cause us to come together. Of how mindsets can shift in a moment when faced with certain realities. Of how the fear of something could also sometimes prove to be that push for many of us to take that leap of faith towards our dreams. It’s time for financial freedom. It’s time for courage & support. It’s time for love and gratitude and every moment lived better!