COVID-19, Work-from-home and Women

As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the work-from-home has a new acceptance now. There were organizations that did not believe in work-from-home being productive. There were bosses who said, “I don’t know you enough to trust that you will ‘work’ from home.” And women like me who had kids at home could not work. At some other places, ‘work’ from home was considered as something you get if you have personal connections with the boss. At others, work-from-home was rewarded with a decreased salary.

Ironically, a previous study by Michèle Tertilt, of Mannheim University in Germany had found more men had jobs that were telecommutable than women – at 28% for men versus 22% for women.

And women triumphed everywhere and every time. Women helped other women in form of house-helps taking care of the kids, mothers-in-law, and mothers moving in to fill the gap and keep an eye on the kids.

COVID 19 has come as a blessing in disguise. It was nature’s way to show everyone that women run the show, working at home and working from home. The show is run as smoothly as ever. And along with this, there is the saree challenge, the food challenge, the b/w challenge, the picture with sibling challenge, and the last trip challenge. These challenges are not to show off but to ensure that all is well.

And the men have started helping. They must. Especially in the Indian scenario where women relied on paid-helps to run a smooth household while the men could not pitch in as much with their demanding professional life.

Now, women at all positions and professions are still giving their 100% at home and an additional 100% at work. The food is being cooked, house cleaned, utensils washed, meetings conducted, reports generated, kids fed, elders and teams taken care of equally well, sales targets achieved, revenue generated, and kids educated.

Women always believed it was possible.