The Partial COVID-19! The Curious Case of Working Mothers And Their Consequent Future

The matter of the fact lies in the following questions for the workplaces with female employees: Will the Work from Home when lifted from offices still be exempted for these women aka the working mothers?

(Representative Image/ Getty)

Juggling between more balls than ever before? Don’t worry it is the case in the present troubled times, for majority of the women throughout the world; the world which apparently is made by the women, but not for them or of them. COVID-19 evidently has played a deterrent role in pushing back the working women far more down. The extent of the havoc is far wider in its scope when it comes to the working mothers, especially that of toddlers. Although the answers to “Whys” and “Hows” to corroborate this statement could be turned into a 250-page book, let us try and understand the matter at the least on the surface level. It is a fact that COVID-19 and the consequent lock-down have quadrupled a woman’s work- working or not- well, let us say salaried or not. But, when it comes to the working mothers of the town, the situation is way more pathetic. They are the ones who have had a glorified past of being qualified and financially independent. However, they somehow had to sail through all strong with the initial hitches due to marriage and subsequent pregnancies. Now, in the times when these women say working mothers were working towards consolidating themselves to shape their plausible glorified future, COVID-19 happened to push them way back than ever before. COVID-19 didn’t only bring the extended closure of the day-care and play schools; it also brought in a forever persisting apprehension of sending and exposing the children again to the outside world. This outside world encompasses the nannies too who, due to COVID-19 had to be sent on an indefinite leave. P.S: because, not everyone could have afforded or for that matter preferred to have a 24*7 nanny. The questions become more pertinent at the behest of the policies of even the so called “gender sensitive” companies. These companies too do not leave a stone unturned to not let their female workforce feel honoured and obliged. These obligations, interestingly, start with the appointment letter, to granting marriage leave, to allowing the maternity break, to letting the women come back from the maternity break, to giving them promotions and increment after the maternity or career break, and the obligations never cease to exist. The matter of the fact lies in the following questions for the workplaces with female employees: Will the Work from Home when lifted from offices still be exempted for these women aka the working mothers? Would they be allowed to have the system in place for a bit more extended period? In the absence of their husbands, who would be forced to attend their offices physically, when she would be tossing between child care, household chores and office works, would the offices be generous enough to adjust their virtual calls/meetings? The tick box to these questions which oscillates between Yes or No is quite decisive for the working mothers’ workforce. If the answers stand No then unfortunately, COVID-19 which is already rising the unemployment rate exponentially worldwide, the pie of women majorly mothers being unemployed would swell up the numbers quite substantially. To specify until April 2020, 27 million youth in age group of 20-30 years lost jobs in April: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The ILO (International Labour Organization) research for that matter suggests many factors that influence a woman’s decision and inability to find/continue work. The situation outlined here could well become one of the prominent factors for the persisting gender gap in the unemployment rate that would continue to enlarge and womenfolk would continue to face additional barriers as compared to men when it comes to working. It is time to talk about the self-dependent (aka atma-nirbhar) women especially when the PM of the country has hailed it loud and clear. Essentially, this group comprises home tutors or home chefs or the business entrepreneurs. These self-dependent women preferred being this way for reasons other than passion, was to also have the flexibility of taking care of their children/family, while being “engaged” along with being considerably profitable. In the current situation as narrated, would the women, the business entrepreneurs to be specific, be able to go out for running the show, hold pertinent meetings for business development, and do strategic works to keep the cog of the wheels oiled. Neither the home tutors could have children from outside for coaching; nor could the chefs have delivery guys coming in and out of their places- because all these possess inherent threat to the women’s children and family, at large. In totality, being self-dependent aka atma-nirbhar , in the times of COVID-19 seems way more tougher than said or done, as with guts, planning, strategy and resilience, one also needs encouraging and favouring eco-system to keep the work running. For those in creative fields and working from home at the moment- would working mothers in such vocations be able to continue being efficient and productive? Absolutely not, in that case they would either be shed off or be asked to produce maximum, with the respect of closing their chapter. All these varied, myriads yet symmetrical factors would not just prevent working mothers from moving forward, but these have a strong potential of taking the working women back, so  much so that coming out to traverse the way again would take a lot more time than ever envisaged. To add a little more spice to the burn of these working mothers are the disoriented children at home doing online classes during the period. Majority of these children, unfortunately, have no one else, other than their mothers as their attentive classmates. While some might think that the mothers are gaining new insights into their children’s schooling during the lockdown—but it is definitely making life trickier for educators and the mothers alike. A statistical estimate from the UNESCO states that more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries find themselves outside the classroom, compromising learning outcomes and the academic calendar. The decline from over 35% to 25% between 2004 and 2011 in the women workforce is already not just alarming, but, a clear indication that the going forward in next ten years, either women would fight for not getting pregnant, or they would prefer sons over daughters because they would definitely not want another woman to face the same apathy. The vicious circle of women/working mothers and their work-life balance needs a serious re-jig. It must be seen, fathomed and regulated well in order to create a virtuous circle of their lives. Otherwise, even the pie comprising this group of working women in the list of depressed, disgruntled and anxiety stricken species would soon be one of the highest. (Ms. Sumana Khan is a marketing communications and branding professional with ten years of rich experience in the field of Corporate Communications/ Consultancy/ Advisory and Journalism. ) Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.