Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely my own and have no intent of getting in to any (never ending) argument of whether they are right or wrong.
People who know me from close quarters (which includes my wife and sister) tend to think of me as a staunch critic of women employment. My constant opposition to their personal situations when ever they were planning to get into employment could be the reason. Also usually people generalize the particular situation they see, putting behind the specific details. So wanted to put my thoughts together.
I am for it :
1. When the women doing the job is absolute essential to make both ends meet. With current inflation levels and the cost living, the bread earning is getting tougher for the head of the family when there are more mouths to feed and more requests to cater to. Women stepping forward to share the responsibility is a welcome move.
2. When a woman is specialist/skilled in a particular field and wants to build a career in that field and make a mark both to herself in particular and the society in general. We would not have heard of kalpana Chawla if she confined herself to house.
3. When a woman wants to take a less engaging job to make her spare time to productive use. Her job could mean self employment as well.
4. When there are dependent parents for the woman who needs to be looked after. Now-a-days, girls are being raised the same way as boys by parents, providing them with quality education. In such a case it is not unreasonable expectation that if the girls parents are in finacial doldrum, girl stepping up and contributing to them from her salary. (like the way boy does take care of his parents)
I am not so for it:
1. When a woman wants to take up "a job", just because all her other friends are doing a job. This I mark as peer pressure job or self inflicted pressure job.
2. When she wants to add to the 7/8 digit salary her husband is drawing, esp when she wants/needs to relocate to place away from family to earn that extra buck. This is just greed and there will be no end to this. There are many compromises one has to make on family side to earn that little extra buck like unattended children left to day cares, lack of time together for the couple themselves as both are tired at the end of every work day.
3. Financial freedom. Well I have a mixed stand here. I assume the couple united in holy matrimony are adequately close to have control/access to partners financial assets. I am not denying that practically the earning member might have a bigger say in financial decisions. But I would prefer to think that both converge and agree up on a particular decision. Personally my reaction is same if my wife gifts me a wrist watch using the money she saved from household budget or from the money she
earned by herself. Pleasure lies in the fact that she gifted it than thinking of "whose" money it is. :-)
There can be many more scenarios but I just wrote what came to my mind at the moment. To me understanding "why" is starting point and I do hold an orthodox view that if there is no need for a certain lady to hold a job (apart from peer pressure or self inflicted pressure), I would instead prefer that job to go to needy person which can help him/her support the family.
People who know me from close quarters (which includes my wife and sister) tend to think of me as a staunch critic of women employment. My constant opposition to their personal situations when ever they were planning to get into employment could be the reason. Also usually people generalize the particular situation they see, putting behind the specific details. So wanted to put my thoughts together.
I am for it :
1. When the women doing the job is absolute essential to make both ends meet. With current inflation levels and the cost living, the bread earning is getting tougher for the head of the family when there are more mouths to feed and more requests to cater to. Women stepping forward to share the responsibility is a welcome move.
2. When a woman is specialist/skilled in a particular field and wants to build a career in that field and make a mark both to herself in particular and the society in general. We would not have heard of kalpana Chawla if she confined herself to house.
3. When a woman wants to take a less engaging job to make her spare time to productive use. Her job could mean self employment as well.
4. When there are dependent parents for the woman who needs to be looked after. Now-a-days, girls are being raised the same way as boys by parents, providing them with quality education. In such a case it is not unreasonable expectation that if the girls parents are in finacial doldrum, girl stepping up and contributing to them from her salary. (like the way boy does take care of his parents)
I am not so for it:
1. When a woman wants to take up "a job", just because all her other friends are doing a job. This I mark as peer pressure job or self inflicted pressure job.
2. When she wants to add to the 7/8 digit salary her husband is drawing, esp when she wants/needs to relocate to place away from family to earn that extra buck. This is just greed and there will be no end to this. There are many compromises one has to make on family side to earn that little extra buck like unattended children left to day cares, lack of time together for the couple themselves as both are tired at the end of every work day.
3. Financial freedom. Well I have a mixed stand here. I assume the couple united in holy matrimony are adequately close to have control/access to partners financial assets. I am not denying that practically the earning member might have a bigger say in financial decisions. But I would prefer to think that both converge and agree up on a particular decision. Personally my reaction is same if my wife gifts me a wrist watch using the money she saved from household budget or from the money she
earned by herself. Pleasure lies in the fact that she gifted it than thinking of "whose" money it is. :-)
There can be many more scenarios but I just wrote what came to my mind at the moment. To me understanding "why" is starting point and I do hold an orthodox view that if there is no need for a certain lady to hold a job (apart from peer pressure or self inflicted pressure), I would instead prefer that job to go to needy person which can help him/her support the family.
