“My husband is working from home and my kid is sitting on top of my head because I am available to take care of his demands and tantrums due to not enough work coming my way. I am a freelance media consultant but currently, with no professional commitments, I feel like I am back in the time when women were considered only as housewives and nothing else. I shudder every time I think that I am going to lose my worth as a working woman by the end of this pandemic. What if I don’t get back my financial independence?”
This pandemic has spiked cases of work layoff and job loss all around the world.
A study shows that working women have been hit the hardest accounting for nearly 60% of the early job cuts and an unsettling increase in disparity in incomes.
A lot of high-contact workplaces like beauty salons, stores and malls, dentist offices, etc. where women outnumber men had to close their doors at the onset of the corona scare. This pandemic is proving to be an additional layer to the already existing inequalities in the economic valuation of women and men, and it’s intensifying those inequalities.
Once into the family rigmarole, most women choose to move away from secure corporate jobs to either freelancing, consulting, or become entrepreneurs. They use their talent of writing, cooking, photography, interior designing, fashion designing etc. to fulfill their professional aspirations, earn money, and maintain the fragile sense of respect, within their own families, their projects bring them. And this is the most threatened space right now! With isolation norms, businesses not making money etc., the chances of getting any projects are really bleak.
Women are facing situations like job and work loss, increasing domestic workload, domestic violence and abuse as well as the possibility of lower work opportunities in the near future. According to a study, Gender Inequality is a term that has dived deep into the job market. Owing to economic uncertainty, informal and part-time jobs stand at the forefront of jobs that will most likely be the first to be suspended in India and almost 94% of the total women workers are engaged in the informal sector. Women also form a 60% to 80% of export manufacturing workforce in India and hence, till the revival of the economy, they are mostly going to be left jobless.
As a result of the upheaval women are experiencing self-deprecating thoughts that mess with their confidence and affect their sense of individuality. They are more than ever vulnerable to conditions like depression, anxiety, obsessive thoughts of a lower self-worth and self-esteem etc. “My husband was laid off from his work last month. I work as a beautician but in the current situations, I don’t have any clients or money coming in. My husband is depressed and has turned towards alcohol. He sometimes turns aggressive and hits me too. I don’t want to stay home, but I don’t have any other choice either.”
Women are experiencing an existential feeling of unsafety more than ever. They don’t have the comforts of their office cubicle, a colleague to confide domestic altercations into, and no sense of pride in the money they were earlier bringing home long. With this, women are experiencing a lack of purpose.
Hence, it is time we look after the working women in the house, communicate with them, share the workload and care for their mental health. For her own good,
- Even if you don’t have any work right now, maintain relationships with previous and future clients.
- Respect and take up any work that comes your way and makes sense to you.
- Take care of your workers and staff if you are an entrepreneur even without projects at hand.
- Update your CV, learn new skills and use your time productively to not feel hopeless.