a tightrope walk the challenges of balancing personal & professional lives ms. leena leon...

A Tightrope WalkThe Challenges of Balancing Personal & Professional Lives

Ms. LEENA LEONLecturer, St. Teresa’s College, CochinEmail: leena@lnl.net

Acknowledgements

SHAKTI (Women’s Wing of Vijnana Bharathi) The Survey Participants Madhurima Bhatia (Sr. Manager, Synovate

India) Sankara Pillai (Pathfinders, India)

Today women have entered and are successful in almost all professions and the number of such women are increasing every year.

Gender discrimination and lesser pay for women are something in the past (except for the unorganized sector).

Women are treated as equals in most professions. Men are quite used to have women as their superiors, colleagues and subordinates.

Introduction

Introduction At home, women are still expected to perform

as caring daughters, obedient wives, good mothers, and loyal workers.

As the society and family demands more from women, women had to work harder often performing multiple roles simultaneously. This multi-tasking act, if not done properly can lead to stress, strain, and eventual burnout.

To survive in this competitive and demanding world, women have to find the right balance between her work life and personal life.

Current Scenario The number of working women in India is

increasing at a very rapid rate —a 10% growth between 1993 and 2003. (Source: Source: P:SNAP, A study by Pathfinders)

The number of women holding important and influential positions is also increasing.

14.9% of the Indian women earn more money than their husbands (Source: Synovate Study of 375 working women in 7 cities, 2006)

25% of women in US and Europe earn more than their spouses. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 2006)

Current Scenario 49.5% women have no guilt about not being

with their children all the time and 72.1% of women preferred to work if given a choice.*

72.6% of the women would not postpone motherhood because of their career.*

Women worked primarily for self satisfaction and money (65.2%)*

Source: Synovate Study of 375 working women in 7 cities, 2006

Working women found professional recognition, success, respect and status more important than money.

Work-Life Balance Work-life balance is a self-defined, self-

determined state of well being that a person can reach, or can set as a goal, that allows her to manage effectively multiple responsibilities.

Those who have balance are satisfied and healthy physically, emotionally, and socially,and have a sense of control over their life.

When you do not have balance you feel constantly tired, feeling like you are running uphill all the time and getting nowhere, and you feel like you have no choices or control.

Work-Life Balance

The more out of balance and out of control your life is, the longer hours you work. The more intense your work experience, the greater the likelihood is that you pay a physical and emotional price.

When you don’t have work-life balance, you have a greater likelihood of having relationships that are either unhealthy or unstable, and that are more prone to breaking apart.

Work-Life Balance Initiatives Simply put, work-life balance initiatives are

any benefits, policies, or programs that help create a better balance between the demands of the job and the healthy management (and enjoyment) of life outside work.

These initiatives can and should happen at four levels: Society Organization Family Personal

Work-Life Balance Initiatives

Technology can help women becoming more productive. Some of the productivity improvement tools and technologies are: Telecommuting Flexitime On-line Shopping Internet Banking

Concierge and Hospitality Services can help women by doing the jobs for her (like cooking, cleaning, washing, bill payments, etc.)

Participants: Professionals between 25 – 55 years

Methodology: Survey using a semi-structured questionnaire.

Interviews: Face-to-face (personal) and over Phone

Locations: Cochin, Trivandrum, Chennai, Bangalore

Sample size: 100

Survey Methodology

Profession-wise Distribution

Accountant9%

Doctors16%

Business10%

Engineering8%Software & IT

Management6%

Scientist9%

Teaching 13%

Not employed6%

Accountant Doctors Business Engineering Software & IT

Management Scientist Teaching Not employed

Profession-wise Distribution of the Survey Participants

DESCRIPTION AVERAGE MAX MIN

Age 38 54 26

Experience 11.3 32 0

Husband’s Age 42.5 58 29

Age Difference 3.6 10 0

Years Married 13.1 29 1

Age at Marriage 25.7 38 19

No. of Children 1.6 3 0

No. of members in the family 3.8 7 1

Survey Participants’ Details

All Cochin TVM Chennai

Bangalore

Yes 60.50 80 64 58 40

No 39.50 20 36 42 60

Do you own property in your name?

Bangalore

Account in your name 91.25 89 84 95 97

Joint account with your husband 8.75 11 16 5 3

Do you have a bank account?

Bangalore

Yes 84 86 74 82 94

No 16 14 6 18 6

Do you drive?

Bangalore

Yes 57.50 55 48 60 67

No 42.50 45 52 40 33

Do you own a car?

Bangalore

All 1 2 1 0 1

Between 75 & 100 6.75 8 6 4 9

Between 50 & 75 31.25 24 29 34 38

Between 25 & 50 35.25 29 40 32 40

Less than 25 25.75 37 24 30 12

What percentage of your income do you spend for yourself?

Bangalore

Yes 15.25 12 10 18 21

No 77.50 80 84 72 74

Don’t Know / Can’t Say 7.25 8 6 10 5

Do you earn more than your husband?

Bangalore

Work 82.50 78 82 85 85

Home 15.50 19 16 13 14

Don’t Know / Can’t Say 2 3 2 2 1

Would you prefer to work or stay at home?

Bangalore

Husband 82.50 81 80 85 84

Children 10.75 10 9 11 13

Mother 4.25 5 6 4 2

Mother-in-law 3 4 5 2 1

What is your main support system?

Bangalore

20-25 10.75 18 12 6 7

25-27 68.75 62 68 75 70

27-30 16.25 17 18 15 15

30-35 3.5 3 1 4 6

Above 35 0.75 0 1 0 2

What is the best age to get married?

Bangalore

20-25 4.5 5 6 3 4

25-27 73.25 75 76 70 72

27-30 19.25 18 16 21 22

30-35 2.62 2 1.5 5 2

Above 35 0.38 0 .5 1 0

What is the best age to have children?

Bangalore

Never 22.25 28 30 18 13

1-2 times 19.25 18 22 21 16

3-5 times 35 32 28 35 45

More than 5 times 23.5 22 20 26 26

How often do you exercise in a week?

Bangalore

Morning/Evening Walk 29 30 32 26 28

Indoor game like TT 11.25 12 8 14 11

Jogging 20.5 22 24 20 16

Workout at the Gym 12.75 8 6 10 27

Swimming 7 6 4 9 9

Yoga 16 18 23 16 7

Others 3.5 4 3 5 2

What is your preferred exercise?

Bangalore

Travel/Picnic 23 20 25 22 25

Beauty Parlor 7.5 6 7 9 8

Spending time with Family 42 45 40 43 40

Reading 7 8 6 6 8

TV 6.25 4 8 7 6

Music 6.5 7 8 4 7

Shopping 7.75 10 6 9 6

What is your favorite method of unwinding?

Bangalore

Self-esteem, self-satisfaction,

recognition, etc.17.25 17 10 22 20

Money 19.25 23 18 20 16

Both of the above 63.50 60 72 58 64

What is your primary motivation for working?

Bangalore

Mobile phone 100 100 100 100 100

Computer 90 85 87 92 96

Internet 90 85 87 92 96

E-mail 90 85 87 92 96

On-line Shopping 61.75 55 50 65 77

On-line Bill Payments 68 60 58 72 82

Internet Banking 65.5 46 55 78 83

Credit Cards 85.75 76 81 88 98

Debit/ATM Cards 88.75 84 86 89 96

Automatic Washing M/c 100 100 100 100 100

Microwave Oven 100 100 100 100 100

Other Gadgets 100 100 100 100 100

What kind of gadgets/technology you use for productivity improvement?

Bangalore

Domestic Help 100 100 100 100 100

Concierge/Hospitality Services 80.75 80 74 82 87

Daycare/Crèche 79.25 67 78 85 87

Laundry/Ironing Services 83.75 77 82 89 87

Gardeners 39.25 45 40 35 37

Home Delivery of Food 70.50 60 58 76 88

Eating Out 75.00 55 65 86 94

What other mechanisms you use to save time?

Conclusion Today’s working women balance their personal

and professional careers quite comfortably—thanks to supporting husbands, helping children, advancements in technology, and help from the service industry.

Many highly qualified professionals are not working because they are not allowed by the family/society or because they didn’t like the profession. To avoid this, women should be allowed to choose what they want to become and then given all assistance to achieve that goal.

Conclusion Almost all women stressed the importance of

bringing up their children in such an environment where gender differences ceased to exist and both boys and girls were treated equally and shared work equally so that they would find it easy to share the responsibilities.

Working women could balance their personal and professional lives with the help, support, and encouragement of their family, judicious use of technology and getting outside help to do the chores for which they do not have time or do not want to spend time.

Thank You for your time…

a tightrope walk the challenges of balancing personal & professional lives ms. leena leon...

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