PAPER – IV

PROBLEMS
OF
WORKING WOMEN

NAME - A.MUTHULAXMI

STD - TYBA SOCIOLOGY D/M

ROLL NO - 41

SUB - SOCIOLOGY

YEAR - 2010-2011

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 1

PROBLEMS
OF
WORKING WOMEN

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 2

INDEX

SR.NO TOPICS PAGE NO

1. INTRODUCTION ON
PROBLEMS OF WORKING
2. WOMEN
PROBLEMS OF WORKING
3. WOMEN IN DETAIL
4. LAWS ON WOMEN RIGHTS
CONSQUENCES ON WORKING
5. WOMEN
6. CASE STUDY
CONCLUSION ON THE
7. PROBLEMS OF WOMEN
WORKING
BIBLIOGRAPHY

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 3

 PREFACE

Understandings, appreciating and integrating family

and life issues and concerns at the work place are the buzzwords and a
trend today in organization with an objective of maximizing the
performance.
Women’s status has undergone profound changes.
As a result a significant change has been noticed in the attitude of me
and women towards women’s education and employment.
In this project, the problems of working woman
concerns have been reflected through the reviews of literature, case
studies, and psychosocial researches.

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 4

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I express my sincere and deep sense of gratitude to Mrs. Samya

Shinde, department of sociology, L.S. Raheja College, who has
encouraged, motivated and guided me with ideas through the project
and a special thanks to the Library of L.S. Raheja College which has
help a lot to make this project meaningful with various information.

Date – 17-01-2011 Student signature

_________________

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 5

 Chapter - 1

INTRODUCTION
ON
PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN

The Woman plays multiple roles as mother, housewife,

and wage earner- really a super human being. The Indian Constitution assures
and seeks to ensure equality for its entire citizen irrespective of sex. It also
propounds the concept that men and women are equal in the eyes of the law.
The Supreme Court has laid down the rule of equal pay for equal work. Despite
all these assurances from the highest quarters, women face problems all along
the line even if they happen to be working women.

While financial is necessary for every human being to

develop self – esteem and live with dignity, the way to it for woman is fraught
with ills, problems and even greater exploitation simply because they work.
Working women are subject to more exploitations problems and pressures than
their non-working sisters.

The working women in India, who also has to work

after the household work, spend up to 15 hours working everyday more on
Sundays and holidays, when the other members of the family are generally
more relaxed. A total of 88% of rural and 66% of urban housewives are
considered economically production though their work is invisible to most of
the population and most men consider such work in consequential.

It definitely is a tough life for women, especially for a

working woman there is of course a way out with better education, especially by
increasing the female literacy. However, the story is different elsewhere in the
country; today, especially in the backward states, not more than one third of the
girls between 5 to 14 yes of age attend school and a large portions of this group
forms the non-working girl category, not able to attend school because of
responsibilities at home. Again, this is not recognized as work.

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 Occupational hazards of the working woman, whether
in the city or in the villages, have grown with the times. Besides, the harassment
at the hands of the arrogant males who seduce, molest and even assault them,
women have no respite from the never ending chores, they have to perform- be
it at home, in the fields, or in the kitchen. The demands made on them by the
children, their husbands and for most women in joint families, from their in
laws are sufficient to make most people give up. It is probably the inner
strength and a resilience born of generations of silent fortitude that probably
seems them through the heavy demands made on their time and energy by an
unsympathetic, male-dominated society.

The modern working woman is brighter, smarter and

much sought after in many emerging areas at work. They are effective in
customer relations and with their patient and soft manners, are considered
valuable in the new call centers mushrooming all over the country. In the health
care industry too, Indian nurses are regarded highly the world over and as
leading hospitals in the country would agree, are in constant demand, especially
in the west, commanding a salary, comparable to highly skilled IT
professionals. Even in rural India, new ventures like micro credit have helped
create successful women entrepreneur providing yet again the wealth of talent
available among the simple women folk.

The status of Indian women has undergone

considerable change. Though Indian women are far more independent and
aware of their legal rights, such as right to work, equal treatment, property and
maintenance, a majority of women remain unaware of these rights. There are
other factors that affect their quality of life such as age of marriage, extent of
literacy, role in the family and so on. In many families, women do not have a
voice in anything while in several

families; the women may have a dominating role. The result is that the
empowerment of women in India is highly unbalanced and with huge gaps.
Those who are economically independent and literate live the kind of life that
other women tend to envy about. This disparity is also a cause for worry
because balanced development is not taking place.

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 Chapter – 2

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN

Some say sweetness is to a woman what sugar is to

fruit. Her business is to be happy, and then she must be a ray of sunlight in the
house to make others happy. This idea may sound Victorian and too old-
fashioned in today's society, but it still exists. There is a major gender division
concerning women in the workplace because many women were preferring the
idea of becoming full-time housewives (Anonymous 1). Women need to be
more than simply housewives and not be stuck to the praise of the "little
homemaker." A women's culture should be constructed with its own spirit
shouting out its worth in every movement. Women have the intelligence and
competence to reach full realization which is sometimes truncated by the
influence of the social prescription (Peel 23). In actuality, a job gives a women
judgment on how to spend her free time, and it gives her an affiliation of her
own. Working women not only bring a new foundation for new ways of
working, but it has been found that they raise more mature and independent
children and have more successful families. Therefore to be truly fulfilled,
women should work in something other than housework.

A job gives a woman a reason for saying no to the one

million tasks she does not want to do but usually is expected to do. When you
do not have job, it is assumed you have time to do volunteer work at the
children's school or chauffer the Boy Scout troop on a field trip or clean out the
church basement in preparation for the spring fair (Ray 1). But if you work
outside the

home, they leave you alone if you remind them you're just not available during
the day and too devoted to your family to rob them of your presence in the
evening or on weekends. Staying at home and being your own boss sounds
good, but it is also true that you are forever feeling guilty if you are not doing

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 8

something constructive. It becomes necessary to prove you are not a couch
potato, so you either assume all sorts of social and community obligations to...

• It is an open truth that working women have to face problems just by

virtue of their being women. Working women here are referred to those
who are in paid employment. Social attitude to the role of women lags
much behind the law. This attitude which considers women fit for
certain jobs and not others colors those who recruit employees. Thus
women find employment easily as nurses, doctors, teachers the caring
and nurturing sectors, secretaries or in assembling jobs-the routine
submissive sectors. But even if well qualified women engineers or
managers or geologists are available, preference will be given to a male
of equal qualification. A gender bias creates an obstacle at the
recruitment stage itself. When it comes to remuneration the law
proclaims equality but it is seldom put into practice. The inbuilt
conviction that women are capable of less work than men or less
efficient than men governs this injustice of unequal salaries and wages
for the same job.

• The age old belief of male superiority over women creates several
hurdles for women at their place of work. Women on the way up the
corporate ladder discover that they must be much better than their male
colleagues to reach the top. Once at the top male colleagues and
subordinates often expect much greater expertise and efficiency from a
woman boss than from a male boss. Conditioned by social and
psychological tradition women colleagues too don’t lend support to
their own sex. Working in such conditions inevitably put much greater
strain on women than what men

experience. These problems tend to make women less eager to progress

in
their careers. Indeed many of them choose less demanding jobs for
which they may even be over-qualified. A woman’s work is not merely
confined to paid employment.

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 1) Women in workforce

Since the proportion of mothers participating in the paid

workforce has increased dramatically over recent years, women in the
workforce have emphasized that the main problem they find the hardest is
finding the balance between work and family life. As a result, a great deal of
research attention has been paid to the impact of mother's employment on
family life and on the wellbeing of children and parents. Research shows
evidence that women continue to bear primary responsibilities for home and
child care in spite of their entry in the labor force (Berar do, Sheehan, & Leslie,
1987; Peck, 1985).

In today's time, many families must have the earning of

two workers in order to survive. Therefore, a large amount of women chose to
enter the work force is primarily for economic reasons. On the other hand, there
is also evidence that women enjoy paid work and are better off economically
and psychologically if they enter the labor force. Several surveys have asked
working women whether they would choose to stay home or continue working
in the labor market if they were financially secure or could have the same
income by remaining at home. Roughly two thirds of employed women said in
such circumstances they would choose to continue to work (Bartow, 1982).

Discrimination at Workplace
However, Indian women still face blatant discrimination
at their workplaces. A major problem faced by the working women is sexual

harassment at the work place. Further, women employees working in night shift
are more vulnerable to such incidents. Nurses, for example, face this problem
nearly every day. There is nothing that is done in hospitals to tackle and
address the danger they face. Such blatant disregard of current Indian laws is
one reason why sexual harassment at the workplace continues to increase.

Also, Indian women are often deprived of promotions and growth opportunities
at work places but this doesn’t apply to all working women. A majority of

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working women continue to be denied their right to equal pay, under the Equal
Remuneration Act, 1976 and are underpaid in comparison to their male
colleagues. This is usually the case in factories and labor-oriented industries.

2) Stress At Work
Impact of work-related stressors on employees’
psychological health Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and
emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match
the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job stress can lead to poor
health (mental and physical). "25% of employees view their jobs as the number
one stressor in their lives." --Northwestern National Life. "75% of employees
believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago."
--Princeton Survey Research Associates. "Problems at work are more strongly
associated with health complaints than are any other life stressor--more so than
even financial problems or family problems." --St. Paul Fire and Marine
Insurance Co. Workplaces with excessive workload demands or conflicting
expectations on behalf of employers and employees.

Workplace conditions that may lead to stress

include:
• The Design of Tasks

Conditions as heavy workloads, infrequent rest breaks, long

work

hours and shift-work; hectic and routine tasks that have little

inherent meaning, do not utilize workers skills, and provide

little sense of control.

• Management Style

Lack of participation by workers in decision-making and poor

communication in the organization.

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 • Interpersonal Relationships

Poor social environment and lack of support or help from

coworkers and supervisors can be real sources of stress.

• Work Roles

Conflicting or uncertain job expectations and too much

responsibility in which employees can feel caught in difficult,
seemingly no-win, and ultimately stressful situations during the
course of their work day.

Career Concerns

Rapid changes for which workers are unprepared, job insecurity

situations in which employees have reasons to feel worried about
the stability of their future with the firm/company/business--and
lack of opportunity for growth.

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 Chapter – 3

LAWS ON WOMEN RIGHTS

Women's Rights

• Working Women: Are They Really Equal?

Compared to the early twentieth century, women today

have more rights and opportunities in the workplace and other areas.
Back in that day, women didn't have the right to vote and were
considered their husbands' property. However, a lot has changed due to
the women's rights movement in the 1960's, and more and more women
today are taking leadership roles in the workforce.

After stating these facts, one might come to think that

women are treated equally now, and are offered the same positions as a
man in the workforce is offered. Nevertheless, women are not treated
equally when it comes to the roles in the workplace, or even the
responsibilities in the workplace. Some of these treatments are stemmed
from the old norms of women being the care takers of the home, which is
seen as an inferior job or responsibility to a male role. This paper will

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 take an in depth look at why women are not given the same wages or
occupational positions as men, as well as show what is to come for the
future of the working woman.

It is true that women tend to take most jobs that are typically stereotyped
as a "female occupation" such as a retail position in a clothing store, or a
nurse

In the hospital. Most females, and especially males, perceive such

occupations as a nurse and a retail associate as a more feminine job.
Instead of being a nurse, a male will more likely apply for a doctor's
position in that field.

"Men in the United States still outnumber women in

doctoral and professional programs, but both look likely to change in the
coming years. More women than men now graduate as pharmacists and
veterinarians."(Williams, pg. 59) As far as Law graduates go, women and
men are neck and neck, while the gap between the genders has narrowed
in medical schools nationwide. So it is possible that we may be seeing
more male nurses, and the stereotype on male nurses may change.

Gender equality includes protection from sexual

harassment and right to work with dignity, which is a universally recognized
basic human right.

Article 11 of the convention on the elimination of all

forms of discrimination against women states: “Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment

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in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights in
particular.

The general recommendation on CEADW in this context

in respect of Article 11 are “violence and equally in employment”.

Articles 22: Equality in employment can be seriously impaired when women are
subjected to gender specific violence; such are sexual harassment in the work
place.

Article 23: Sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined

behavior as physical contacts and advances; sexually colored remarks, showing
pornography and sexual demands, whether by words or action. Such conduct
can be humiliating and may constitute a health and safety problem; it is
discriminatory when the women has reasonable grounds to believe, that her
objection would

disadvantages, including recruiting or promotion or when it creates a hostile

working environment.

Article 24: states should include on their reports information about sexual
harassment and on measures to protect women from sexual harassment and
forms of violence of coercion in the workplace.

Article 32: The obligation of the Supreme Court under Articles 32 of the
constitution for the enforcement of the fundamental right in the absence of
legislation is viewed along with the role of judiciary envisaged in the Beijing
statement of principles of the Independence of the judiciary in the LAW ASIA
region. These principles were accepted by the chief Justices of Asia and the
Pacific at Beijing in 1995 to ensure gender equality to women.

Under Section 66: Night shifts for women are not permitted to work between 10
pm to 6pm in sectors including the special economic zone, IT sectors and textile
subjects.

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 Chapter – 4

CONSEQUENCE OF WORKING WOMAN

This kind of attitude an spoil a women’s chances at all

levels and in the field of self-employment. With a job come other problematic
situations:

• Late hours and having to cope with all kinds of people at work especially
men.

• Late hours necessarily mean having to be prepared for un safe situations

while returning home.

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 • It can thus be seen how lack of personal transport and fear of reaching
home late, not entirely unfounded, can lead to loss of chances despite
good intentions to work hard.

• The home situation is also not always particularly conducive to working

woman.

A woman’s job gets low priority and the household

chores and social obligations that await her tend to be distracting. The instances
of discrimination are numerous. If a woman works and the marriage breaks for
n fault of hers, her earnings are taken into account and she may be denied
alimony even if she cannot maintain the same standard of living as she did when
she was married on her salary.

Once a working woman marries as she eventually does

and indeed must more problems are in the offing. A change of residence may
prove fatal to her present job. If she goes into joint family, then the expectation
s of that family will definitely tell on her working life. The demands of married
life also take their toll. The onerous burden of household chores, child raising
and the mental and physical pressures of a job are not quite used to working
women although they like the extra money. I have seen that where a woman
works she not only has to keep the kitchen fires burning, the house spic and
span and the family satisfied but in many cases is compelled to hand over her
salary to the head of the household and secure a small pittance for meeting
expenses like transport and so on.

This is contradictory with the people who maintain that

working gives a woman financial independence and the right to control money.
More often than not even highly educated working women find themselves
exploited at their working places as well as at home simply because of their
being women and have no financial competency to speak of whether a woman
works or not if the people she lives with have the right attitude to women she
will not be exploited but if they do not she will be and the working women will
be subject to the horrifying dual exploitation.

Single working woman face an accommodation problem

if working in a city where their families do not live. One has heard and read in
the newspapers of the unfavorable and unsafe conditions prevailing in hostels

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which in any case are not enough to meet the need. If a single woman ventures
to hire an accommodation she will be faced with steep rents which may be
beyond her means and suspicious neighbors and reluctant landlords.

Children constitute yet another problem for the working

woman. Domestic help to look after the children is becoming scarcer and
crèches are a far from satisfactory solution. The joint family system has its own
built tensions. A working woman may well find that what she has to spend on
transport, child care and other increased expenses because of her job may not be
worth job may not be worth job in terms of monetary return. To make the
situation worse her

home life may suffer due to neglect and strain.

The constraints of marriage and child bearing leave a

woman with a very little scope for entertaining and socializing which her career
may entail. A woman has the right to be a little or a lot of everything and she
should have the freedom to choose and dictate where her earnings go.

The main problems of Indian women include:

• Malnutrition

Generally in India, women are the one who eat last and
least in the whole family. So they eat whatever is left after men folk are
satiated. As a result most of the times their food intake does not contain the
nutritional value required in maintaining the healthy body. In villages,
sometimes women do not get to eat the whole meal due to poverty. The
UNICEF report of 1996 clearly states that the women of South Asia are not
given proper care, which results in higher level of malnutrition among the
women of South Asia than anywhere else in the world. This nutritional
deficiency has two major consequences for women first they become
anemic and second they never achieve their full growth, which leads to an

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 18

 unending cycle of undergrowth as malnourished women cannot give birth
to a healthy baby.

• Poor health

The malnutrition results in poor health of women. The

women of India are prejudiced from the birth itself. They are not breastfed for
long. In the want of a son the women wants to get pregnant as soon as possible
which decreases the caring period to the girl child whereas the male members
get adequate care and nutrition. Women are not given the right to free
movement that means that they cannot go anywhere on their own if they want
and they have to take the permission of male member of family or have to take
them along. This results in decrease in women's visit to doctor and she could not
pay attention to her health as a result.

• Maternal mortality

The mortality rate in India is among highest in the world.

As females are not given proper attention, which results in the
malnutrition and then they are married at an early age which leads to
pregnancies at younger age when the body is not ready to bear the burden
of a child. All this results in complications, which may lead to
gynecological problems, which may become serious with time and may
ultimately, lead to death.
•
Lack of education

In India women education never got its due share of

attention. From the medieval India women were debarred from the
educational field. According to medieval perception women need just
household education and this perception of medieval India still persists
PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 19
 in villages of India even today. Girls are supposed to fulfill domestic
duties and education becomes secondary for them whereas it is
considered to be important for boys. Although scenario in urban areas
has changed a lot and women are opting for higher education but
majority of Indian population residing in villages still live in medieval
times. The people of villages consider girls to be curse and they do not
want to waste money and time on them as they think that women should
be wedded off as soon as possible.

The main reason for not sending girls to school is the poor economic
condition. Another reason is far off location of schools. In Indian
society virginity and purity is given utmost importance during marriage
and people are afraid to send their girl child to far off schools were male
teacher teach them along with boys.

The lack of education is the root cause for many other

problems. An uneducated mother cannot look after her children
properly and she is not aware of the deadly diseases and their cure,
which leads to the poor health of the children. An uneducated person
does not know about hygiene this lack of knowledge of hygiene may
lead to poor health of the whole family.

•
Mistreatment

In India violence against women is a common evil. Not

just in remote parts but in cities also women bear the brunt. They are
subjected to physical and mental violence. They are the one who work
most but are not given their due. The women is not safe anywhere
neither at home nor at workplace. Every hour a woman is raped in India
and every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death due to dowry problem.
There are many laws such as The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, The
Hindu Succession Act of 1956, The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of
1856, The Hindu Women Right to Property Act of 1937, The Dowry
Prohibition Act of 1961, to protect women and punishment is severe but
the conviction rate of crime against women is very low in India.
•
Overworked

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 Indian women work more than men of India but their
work is hardly recognized as they mainly do unskilled work. Their
household chores is never counted as a work, if a woman is working in
a field to help her husband it will also be not counted as a work. A study
conducted by

Mie’s in 1986 states that in Andhra Pradesh a woman works around 15

hours a day during the agricultural season whereas a male on an average
works for around 7-8 hours.
•
Lack of power

In India a large percentage of women do not have

power. They cannot take decisions independently not even related to
their own life. They have to take permission of male members for each
and every issue. They don't have any say in important household
matters and not in matter of their own marriage.

•
Marriage

The family mainly fixes the marriages in India. The

scenario in villages is very bad. The girl is not consulted[r6] but is told
to marry a guy whom her family has chosen for him. They are taught to
abide by the whims and fancies of their husbands. Going against the
wishes of husband is considered to be a sin. In marriage husband always
has the upper hand. The groom and his parents show as if they are
obliging the girl by marrying her and in return they demand hefty
dowry.
•
Dowry

It's a serious issue. Courts are flooded with cases

related to death due to dowry harassment by husband and in laws. In
ancient times women were given 'Sridham' when they departed from the

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 21

 house of their parents. This amount of money was given to her as a gift
which she can use on her and her children but her in-laws did not have
any right on that amount. This amount was supposed to help the girl in
time of need. Slowly

this tradition became obligatory and took the form of dowry. Nowadays
parents have to give hefty amount in dowry, the in laws of their girl are
not concerned whether they can afford it or not. If a girl brings large
amount of dowry she is given respect and is treated well in her new
home and if she does not bring dowry according to expectations of her
in laws then she has to suffer harassment. Due to this evil practice many
newlywed women of India have to lose their lives.
•
Female infanticide/feticide

As women were supposed to be and in some areas

of India are still considered to be curse by some strata of society their
birth was taken as a burden. So in past times they were killed as soon as
they were born. In some of the Rajput clans of Rajasthan newly born
girl child was dropped in a large bowl of milk and was killed. Today
with the help of technology the sex of the unborn baby is determined
and if it is a girl child then it is aborted down. In all this procedure
women do not have any say they have to do according to the wish of
their husbands even if she does not want to abort she have any choice.
•
Divorce

The divorce rate in India is not so high compared to

western countries but it does not mean that marriages are more
successful here. The reason behind low level of divorce rate is that it is
looked down by the society. It is regarded as the sign of failure of
marriage, especially of women. She is treated as if she has committed
some crime by divorcing her husband. In some communities like
Muslims women did not have the right to divorce their husband they
were divorced at just the pronouncement of " I divorce you" by their
husband thrice and they could not do anything except to be the mute
spectator. Recently Muslim Law Board has given right of divorce to
women. After divorce women is entitled to get her "Mohr" for herself
and her children's sustenance. In Hindu society women get maintenance
for themselves and their children after divorce.

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 22

Chapter – 5

CASE STUDY

This chapter has focused on the following aspects

• Identifying problem faced by women while working in an organization.

• Policies and strategies available for women in an organization.

• Coping strategy that women use for solving problems.

Individual female researchers interviewed women in various

workplace and the issues and strategies shared by the women with researchers
are presented below through cases, for comprehensive understanding of the
issues influencing the women workforce in the Indian society.

1)Husband is not supportive

Angina, 51 years is working as an assistant director in an organization for
the past 34 years; She joined as a clerk and has now reached the
designation of Assistant director. She mentions that she accepted slower
career progression, as she had to take care of household activities. There
was no support from her husband so she had to look after the family and
perform household duties all by herself. At times she used to feel the
pressure and was mentally tired but she could overcome this as she loved
to work.

2) Sexual harassment by a letter with bad language

Sabena, 39 years of age, has been working since the last 20 years, as an

officer. She has a daughter of 14 years and her husband is an advocate.

She stays with her mother and younger sister as her husband has gone

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 23

 abroad. According to her, her daughter does not feel neglected since she
stays with her grandmother. She does not have to cook and look after
household work. She had once faced a problem of sexual harassment
receiving a letter containing bad language and comments on sexuality
from the union people. Instead of reporting to the higher authority, she
had a direct talk with the union people and they then apologized to her.
She feels that there is a communication gap between the seniors and
juniors and she has also seen that if any person is hard working, others
will just give their responsibilities to that person and will not do anything
on their own.

3)A secretary (age 25) has the following to say

Problems faced by all of us (women) at our workplace just because we
are women. Women are made to do all the work and the credit in turn is
given to men, as also the other benefits like money.

Many a times women are looked upon as weaklings and are abused by the
boss and colleagues.

Boss tries to take advantage of the females just because she happens to be
one and sees to it that he calls her and not him to the cabin more often.
And while in the cabin tries to act funny, thereby lowering her image in
front of the other colleagues.

As far as the facilities are concerned. I think we don’t have any as we

work like dogs and in turn get insults.

4)Divorce
Sana, working as an executive travel agent in a reputed travel agency in
South Mumbai, used to be constantly late for work. There was also a time

When she had asked for few months leave. According to trainees there, it
was all due to the fact that she had an abusive husband. Finally, she filed
for a divorce.

Managing both the home and workplace can be quite a bit of juggling for
most women. Insecure husbands, children, household chores, etc. can
take a toll on them and their working lives.
PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 24
Taking a look at a case study, in 1986 Mothers in the Workplace (MITW)
investigated what employers can do to help employed childbearing women
balance the demands of work and family life. They conducted face to face
interviews with more than 2600 women in 27 states during the last trimester of
pregnancy (68 percent were still working at the time), and face to face or
telephone interviews with almost 2000 of these same women approximately
four to seven months following childbirth. They also studied on family relevant
workplace policies and practices that may influence the labor force participation
and workplace experience of childbearing women. Such as: Maternity leave
policies, related benefits, flexible time policies and...

Chapter - 6

CONCLUSION

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 25

 An attempt has been made to study and analyses the
problems of working women in various groups. We feel a detailed study
will explore various problems of the working women and suggest
improvement for better working conditions of women and family welfare.

If we ask any women to be a women again, the

answer will always be “NO”. Nobody will say it is a joy or pleasure. A
15-16 hours’ work per day allows the women little time to think of health
care and general well-being. If she is undernourished, her children are
also malnourished and generally fall into chronic ailments. This is
frustrating because she needs information regarding health, and practical
support from the men and community. It is difficult to approach the
health clinics because of the inconvenient health personal can result in
low immunization level even if the mother is aware of it. Similarly the
Government has banned on baby food advertisements to encourage
breast-feeding, but there is no legislation or social welfare provisions to
make breast-feeding a feasible option for working mothers. The mothers
today know the advantage of breast-feeding but the stress of the new
styles forces then to redefine their roles and change their motherly
behavior.

It is said that in one way the children of working

mothers tend to become more undisciplined. On the other hand, they
become more independent, mature and full of initiatives of the full time
housewives.

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The working mother neither can leave her job nor can bring up her children
without support from others. The women shift from villages to cities in search
of jobs, leaving behind the children. Poor construction laborers hardly fin time
to take their children for immunization or health checkup. The mothers are more
worried of their duties and get set-up when the children are sick. It is easy for
the planners to make mother responsible for the health of the children, but why
not the Father? He is hesitant to handle the child, or change his/her dress or to
enter the kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee or tea.

PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 26

 It is easy to educate the mother but we have to think of
the constraints also. The family planning programmer forces women to
accept contraceptive methods which really do not suit them. They don’t
have legal rights to plan their family.

The status of women in India has undergone

considerable change, but the problems continued to remain unchanged.
The education to girls in nutrition, health and reproduction, undoubtedly
make them better wives and mothers, but why not this to be imparted to
boys to make them good husbands and fathers? The housekeeping, child
care and keeping the family together has too long been on the women.
The time has come for men to share the above responsibilities.

Following are some suggestions for improving the conditions of working

women:

1) Reduction in working hours for women in industries

2) Provision of crèches

3) Feeding interval

4) Protection at work spot and residence.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERENCE BOOKS:
 Kumar, R, 2OOO, Women Problems, Anmol
Publications, New Delhi.
PROBLEMS OF WORKING WOMEN Page 27
  Gonsalves, L, 2001, Women and Human
Rights, A.P.H. Publishing, New Delhi.
 Pandit, S.K, 1998, Women in Society, Rajat
Publicaions, Delhi.
 Kaila, H.L, 2005, Women, Work, and Family,
Rawat Publications, Jaipur and New Dehi.

WEB RESOURCES:
 http://www.google.co.in/
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