Bend it like women

Bend it like women


When it comes to striking a work-life balance, women are rewriting the rules


WOMEN today are glorying in marriage, motherhood and career, but on their terms. It’s no longer a choice between the three, and a growing number are creating a middle ground for themselves, sometimes with a lot of help from the companies.
The first change that one sees is in the unapologetic tones in which these women talk about their stage in life. There is a certain empowerment that’s firmly in place, for instance, when actresses Kajol or Juhi Chawla talk about how children are their priority and any work they take up is judged within those parameters.
Such women would rather attend a meeting or two and be back in time to teach their child the alphabet and be there to wake them up from their afternoon nap. Weekends, family holidays, parent-teacher meetings, the child’s first step, the agony of the first tooth come with the territory when women exercise flexi-timings or workfrom-home options.
Like Cheryl Dutta, former Air Force pilot and actress Lara Dutta’s sister. She decided to take a sabbatical from work when her second daughter was six years old and chose to venture into something completely different — fashion designing. “I had worked for a decade and wasn’t used to sitting at home. I moved to Mumbai and started by exhibiting the works of another designer. I then decided to design a few pieces myself and approached a store in the city, which in a few months even held a small showing for my collection. Soon, there was a second store and a third store and now my designs sell in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad as well and I’m planning to tap Dubai and South Africa too,” she says. With meetings taking her out of home two to three days a week, she has ample time to spend at home. She’s also learning all the time about her new career, she says. And now that her younger daughter is four years old, she plans to get back to her first love, flying. “I’ve given my exams for flying commercial helicopters and will
probably go for a six-week flying schedule which offers three weeks off at the end.”
Bending the rules was never so much fun. In fact, this led to Soundarya Rajesh, a former Citibank employee, starting her placement firm for interim women managers five years ago. “There were few options when I gave up my career for marriage and motherhood. I decided to become a teacher and though I enjoyed it, I realised there was a void faced by both corporates and working women.” Today, her Chennai-based company Avatar Creators has placed over 500 such women all over India, drawing salaries ranging from Rs 10,000 to over a lakh in various sectors. “Women are also best suited to the service industry and retail since customer service and relationship management come naturally to them,” says Rajesh.
Companies are also acknowledging the available pool of talent. For instance, IBM, Bangalore, conducted a pilot project where they wanted to bring women who had taken a career break back into the workforce. Says Prathima V Shetty, Diversity Lead, IBM India/South Asia, “IBM is committed to creating a supportive flexible environment allowing employees more flexibility over how, where and when their work gets done. We’ve introduced flexible work options, which include individualised work schedules, leave of absence, part time reduced work schedules and work–at–home.”
At Microsoft, too, the global culture of achieving worklife balance has seeped into its India offices as well. Says Joji Gill, HR director, Microsoft India, “We have had cases of extended maternity leave and working out of home as well, which helps make life easier for working mothers.” As Shetty says, “Work/life balance is a win-win for customers, the company and employees — both men and women. It has a positive impact on employee morale, productivity and retention.”
So, the writing on the wall’s clear — women don’t have to choose between motherhood and a career, they just have to learn to bend the rules!