Working Women in the Era of New Normals

Incidentally, human beings are believed to be the most adaptive species. Despite being naturally resistant to change, humans are inherently engineered to constantly evolve and adapt to new environments and face new challenges. A section of sociologists and psychologists believe that women particularly are more nimble in terms of adapting to change.

Women anyway have a natural disposition towards multi-tasking. Therefore, when Work from Home (WFH), became the need of the hour, most women started discharging power-packed performances. However, these power-packed performances entailed a set of unique challenges some which were gender neutral and some which were specific to women.

I am a single woman in my 40s. Being a lawyer, I took advantage of the existence of virtual courts during the pandemic. Sitting at home in Guwahati, I began appearing in cases in the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court. Consequently, I saved thousands of rupees in terms of air travel and accommodation. While technology made WFH a reality, it undeniably kept us on the edge too. I understood that technology definitely has its constraints when I lost a case at the Delhi High Court once when my Wi-Fi conked off at the very moment when my case was called out. So, while the lawyer for the opposite party fluttered her eyelashes and lied on the face, I screamed and shouted trying to make my voice heard which had mysteriously got muted! Yes indeed virtual courtrooms have shrunk the mandated physical courtroom distance of 10 feet between a Judge and the advocates (the virtual distance is just few inches). However, technology glitches like the one I experienced have reiterated the fact that actually a lawyer in Guwahati is approximately 1900 kilometers away from the apex courts in Delhi.

A friend of mine once remarked, "For me the last two years was Work from Home and Work for Home"– a statement that resonates aptly with every woman. As this woman, narrated her experiences of striking a balance in terms of 'the work for office' and 'the work for home', I could almost envision her in the WhatsApp creative of Ma Durga (whereby the 10 hands of the Mother Goddess held a laptop, a mobile phone, a cooking pan, a broom stick, a dirty laundry pile, a dumbbell, two sons, a Dalmatian and her husband.

In the course of casual conversations, some women friends had mentioned that when one does not have to commute to office braving the worsening city traffic anymore work life is bound to get more productive. They also mentioned that office environments are prone to idle chatter and gossip too which can be quite draining and counter-productive. However, on a parallel vein they also opined that they missed dressing up for work, healthy interactions and discussions with colleagues and the overall team building spirit. They also remarked that they found it difficult to assess customers or clients in virtual calls, and longed for the much-needed break from home at times.

Often for a woman WFH meant making power-point presentations whilst assisting their children in online classes. For instance, a cousin of mine found herself literally relearning alphabets, numbers, rhymes and sentence constructions while doing her office work from home.

WFH is perhaps more arduous for women (compared with working from an office) as in a typical WFH setting the working hours stretch from 9 am to 9 pm (or maybe more) while the commitments to her family and household chores go on seamlessly and parallelly.

There are some high points of WFH too for women. The biggest perhaps is that working mothers got to spend quality in-person time with their children.

At the moment, it is difficult to ascertain whether 'Work from Home' will become a permanent norm. However, in my view if it persists our tribe (womenfolk) shall definitely devise innovative/creative techniques to leverage it for enhanced productivity and more fulfilling personal lives.

Pallavi Chumki Barua

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