How Indian Inc Forces Women To Quit Their Jobs Post Motherhood

On November 14th last year, I became a mother. I transitioned from being a woman to a mom and would eventually transition from being a working woman to a working mom. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined having to consider quitting my job post this change. Never. That discussion wasn't even on the table. In fact, I worked up to the very day my water broke. That's my level of commitment. But today, after almost 10 months of motherhood and 4 months of being a working mom post maternity leave, I'm depressed, annoyed and forced to look at other options. I'm being forced to contemplate quitting my job post motherhood. The systemic barriers are killing my ambitions one policy at a time.

I hold an Engineering Degree and have a work experience of about 9 years. 9 years of working and surviving in this environment where even today equality is just a policy and not reality. But, I was and still am ready to give it my all. I'm a sincere employee, finish my work on time, work fast and work well as well. In fact, I'm better than an average employee. I have even over-compensated by working twice as hard post maternity leave. Though I know I probably shouldn't have but still I did for we women with families, rather mothers returning to work are looked upon as weak team members. And I didn't want that impression for myself. But today, I have no project as it happens in our industry. But even that isn't an issue for I'll eventually get one. The issue is the current policies and mindset in the Industry doesn't help women with families have careers. And I have a problem with that.

I'm struggling and I've already started looking for a change. I cannot give more years and hours to a company which doesn't care about my well-being.

Companies do not understand the constraints we work under. They don't provide an environment conducive for diversity in terms of gender distribution at the workplace. And hence is it really surprising that more and more women drop out post motherhood?

Our biology is such that children need mothers more than their fathers especially in the first few years. Take my example, I leave my daughter at the crèche next to the office and have to go and feed her at least once during the day. And I do that during my lunch time, sometimes even skipping lunch to not affect the time I put in at work. I don't spend time idling with colleagues and friends either. In fact, I do not even take breaks. So, when after doing all this, I'm told that my not being able to take a project which requires me to travel 4 to 5 hours daily from one end of the city to the other will harm my standing at work, I feel cheated. I wonder if any man or the manager asking me to do this ever had to face such situations or ever had to balance career and work. It isn’t easy.

According to a survey conducted last year by the Social Development Foundation of Assocham among new mothers from 10 cities, about 25% had to quit their jobs. I'd like to see a similar statistic for men before I'm told this is just an excuse women make. 

I call this killing ambitions. We are being forced out of the workforce. We are being forced to look for options outside and when there is none, we are being forced to turn into a statistic. Worldwide, 43% of women end up giving up their careers post motherhood and not all of these women do it out of choice. I personally feel the situation is worse in India, especially speaking from my experience in the India IT Industry. This is an industry which excels in squeezing every ounce of ambition out of women.

We don't have policies to aid us women manage both work and our life as mothers. Though there are talks about having more female leaders at the top management levels, these companies don't do enough to retain us in the middle management. Lack of work from home policies or flexible working hours hinder our progress. Our concerns fall on deaf ears. What I don't understand is why these companies can’t do the math. Isn't it in their favor to retain good employees? They anyways pay us less than our male counterparts so even that is beneficial for them. All this hullabaloo about increasing the male to female ratio is just tall talk, is it?

This is how the Indian Inc Forces women to quit their jobs post motherhood

Lack of flexible working hours.

Lack of work from home policies.

Managers and HRs not sensitized about helping working mothers.

Working late is awarded and not working well in less time.

No crèche at the workplace. This might change in the near future, though.

Promotions and good appraisals become hard to come by.

Leaving work early or taking leaves for your sick child is used as an excuse to not reward women at work.

Mandatory 9 to 10 hours of office time even though it's not needed daily.

The companies don't care enough.

No sick leaves, at least where I work.

With the nuclear family set up which is more prevalent these days, these companies need to do more. But somehow, they don't seem bothered.

Here are some statistics with respect to India for you.

Women make up only 24% of the workforce at Entry to Manager level.

This number falls down to 14% at the level of Executive Officers.

Women hold only 7.7% of board seats.

54% of companies on the Bombay Stock exchange have no women board directors.

Source

There is a huge leadership gap. The problem is half of the population is being, for lack of a better word, ignored. A few policies need to be changed and implemented to see the shift, just a few actually. But there seems to be a lack of will. While more and more women try to lean in and sit at the table, we are being forced to leave the table. In fact, we are being forced to walk out of the door.

While words like Automation, Resource Optimization, Artificial Intelligence, Cost Saving etc sound very good coming from Industry Leaders, it avails to nothing when simple day to day problems are not solved. This myopic vision of growth is archaic and condemnable. How far can a company or an industry grow or survive when good workers keep dropping off or rather where good employees are being forced to leave? Think about it.

I don't know what is going to happen to me. But I do know this, I will not go down without a fight or till I reach the breaking point. Today, I feel like I'm standing on a ledge and my company is forcing me to jump into an abyss. Only time will tell if I make that jump or if I find a solution. Whatever happens, I promise to keep you posted.

Do you have a similar experience? What's your take on this issue?

This article was originally published on Random Thoughts- Naba