Ting Tong.
“I’m so sorry, it’s the delivery boy, I’ll be back in a minute”. Embarrassed, she excused herself and rushed towards the door.
“Madam OTP”
“Ya one second, oh I left my phone inside! Bhaiya can you please hand over the courier, I’ll share the OTP later on call ? I am in the middle of a meeting ?”
“Sorry Madam, need OTP first. Company policy.”
She rushes back inside, fetches her phone and hunts for the OTP msg tripping and breaking her little toe nail on her way outside.
She hastily joins the meeting back.
“Apologies, you know work from home comes with its own set of responsibilities. Umm So where was I? Ya, I was talking about our USP….
Ting Tong, Ting Tong, Ting Tong.
Her face turns red, she tries to ignore the doorbell and continues. Her phone starts ringing. It is her husband. Generally she avoids taking calls during a meeting, but he had called twice already. The third time she excuses herself and picks up. Him on the other side, “Hey the ironing lady is waiting outside. Could you please hand over my white shirt, blue shirt, gray trousers, the beige suit….”
“Hey I’m in the middle of an important meeting and your ironing lady won’t stop ringing the bell ! I can’t go around looking for your stuff right now, they are waiting for me”
“Okay listen, at least hand over my white shirt and gray trousers to her, I need them tomorrow it’s really important.”
“Ok.”
She rushes to find his white shirt and gray trousers while they wait on the other side of zoom, discussing whether they should go ahead with her or with the man they had met in his office earlier, the Man in the White Ironed Shirt.
Read Next Story Here https://blog.swateemiittal.com/gender-inequality-in-marriage/
The world believes things have changed and we have become a ‘progressive, just and fair’ world. Indeed there are some positive changes. But gender inequality at work remains to exist. The first step we can take towards transforming that is by transferring the ‘ownership’ of time.
Giving back the ‘ownership’ of a women’s time to her, without judgments, making her feel guilty, wronging her, understanding that she needs her own time and space too.
The amount of invisible labour that a woman does at home, and is expected to keep on doing for the rest of her life is frustrating.
This invisible labour slows them down in the longer run of their ambitions outside home. This deep rooted gender inequality at work needs to be addressed.
This is tougher for women who are working from home, face a tougher challenge. Since they cannot set any physical boundaries to guard their work time, they are always expected to be available for any home chores.
I am not advocating that a woman should stop doing work at home or stop taking care of her family. But we need to understand this. She is also working, even if it is work from home, it is equally valuable. It is time to act together like a team. As a couple, do not let others dictate your roles to you, You CHOOSE.
It’s time to end gender stereotypes at home to uproot the gender discrimination at workplace. And this can only happen when we reflect and transform our societal expectations for females.