By Aruna C. Newton
One of the biggest hits the global workforce took during the pandemic years was the great number of women who dropped out of traditional employment due to the huge stress emanating from blurring boundaries of multiple responsibilities. Working mothers, in addition, faced with the lack of childcare support due to care facilities and schools being shut down during the pandemic, were left burdened with care duties. Having to work out of cramped home-offices (often shared with other family members’ home-offices) from residences not equipped to support such demands added to the many frustrations. The feeling of being burnt-out trying to balance responsibilities between work and home was often overwhelming. So exhausted – both mentally and physically – during the period, several of them started to reevaluate the choices they had made thus far in the pursuit of upward mobility, meaningful jobs and well-paying, well-charted career paths. Frustrated with the constant battle for equitable treatment at the workplace and fulfilling employment, so many left, never to return to work as they’d known it.
It is a long-established fact that women have, for decades, often found themselves handed something of a raw deal. Whether unequal pay, slower growth trajectories, subtle, and not-so-subtle expressions of gender-based hostilities and superiority in the workplace, the constant fight to survive and thrive are very real. The impact of microaggressions in the workplace, these supposed minor slights – like being talked over in meetings, being mansplained, benevolent sexism, tokenism – have macro impact. And cumulatively – it all took its toll in post-pandemic times.
There has never been a better time for companies to encourage and support their female employees to return to work and nurture fruitful careers. This requires a thoughtful approach that entails addressing the various personal and professional milestones along with the challenges that women navigate while pursuing a career. Strong return to work initiatives ensure that women are adequately supported to return to work when they are ready to after their parental or career breaks. They are supported with skilling, mentoring, and live project experiences to enhance their readiness to resume their careers with confidence. Other progressive practices like offering sabbaticals and flexible working options enable them to navigate their personal commitments while continuing to build their careers.
From our experience of harnessing this opportunity, we believe, a thoughtful and empathetic approach to creating the inclusive cultures where women can thrive in a positively reinforced process of learning, evolving, and growing include:
- Acknowledging potential.Women benefit from programs that build career intentionality and affirms their potential. Reinforcing this consistently pays rich dividends.
- Validating identity.Help them realize their career aspirations in paths of their choice and pace. They trust employers that truly listen and respect their choices and tend to stay longer with them.
- Supporting their growth.Express confidence in their leadership, acknowledge the headwinds they face, provide advocacy and coaching. In many ways, sometimes because of unconscious gender bias, women don’t get the same opportunities they need to grow and aren’t given the respect they deserve. Offer micro and macro validations to counter this.
- Nurturing role models. Women will benefit from enablers to shape themselves into role models of accomplishment that other women can emulate and follow. Their progress is often faster on journeys where they can follow, draw inspiration from, and relate to other successful women.
(The author is Vice President, Head – Diversity and Inclusion, ESG Governance & Reporting, Infosys, and the views expressed in this article are her own)
