I remember a conversation with my friend many years ago, about what our children are doing. She was excited about the new development regarding her elder one. “It’s a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “This particular subject area is quite in demand, and I heard with experience in this organisation, your life is set — there is good exposure, lots of options to grow fast and earn well.” After a few years, I met her again. This time about her second child, she said, “It’s a wonderful opportunity. It is going to pay reasonably well, timings are pretty predictable and quite stable too.”
No marks for guessing the gender of her children in the context of both the remarks. The first was for her son, embarking on his career, whereas the second instance was about her daughter. This to me, is an example of the difference between a career and a job. As per the dictionary, a job is a paid position of regular employment whereas a career is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.
As a society, we have gone far in equal education opportunities for our boys and girls. Universal Primary Education was one of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. As per the report dated 2015 of India’s participation in this goal, the indicators of female primary education enrolment or literacy are reasonably good.
However, when it comes to higher studies and employment, are we there yet? If you believe this question is misplaced, think of this. Have you ever heard of a guy’s employment being discussed in the context of it being a job, with minimum opportunities for progress? Is that the same for women? When it comes to women, isn’t there a preference for an option that allows them to do everything in the house and also be employed? And sometimes these play a role not just in employment, even in choosing options for higher studies. This would translate to options that look better w.r.t commute or about being transferable, predictable timings (aligned to not yet born children’s school timings).
You may have heard variants of these in your own interactions with people. Some of us may disagree, stating examples of exceptions, of girls opting for career options that defy this kind of gendered role expectations. Haven’t you heard of enough and more examples of women whose academic qualifications serve as a medal of honour for her and her family and nothing more? What happens to these medals once they enter marriage or motherhood? Sooner than later, the expectation to run the family and to be the primary caregiver takes over and women opt for jobs rather than careers. I came across a recent survey on Women @ Work: A global outlook, by Deloitte, wherein they reported that 26% of approximate 500 Indian women interviewed were considering leaving the workforce, leave aside talk of
job or career!
As a society, we have not progressed in terms of figuring out child care options or better solutions for running the home or to stop having stereotypes around women being career-minded. And this is something that needs to be examined by each of us as individuals as well as by organisations, media, research groups, writers, by practically every group that can create an influence in society. Till such time, each woman has to be aware of choices around job or career and have agency in that choice, for her own sake.
(The author is the host of a podcast that examines challenges faced by today’s Indian woman & proposes actionable strategies set in the Indian context.)