The last year was particularly challenging for everyone. According to your experience, what were the key OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS female employees came across?

According to Forbes, Women were already working a “double shift” i.e., a full day of work, followed by hours of work at home before the pandemic. Now, with the shift to virtual/homeschooling and the loss of many child-care options, the concern is that the double shift has “doubled again.” They are under intense pressure at both work and home.

In the current scenario, THREE Opportunities and Threats for Women Workforce are as follows:

Opportunities -

1. Greater flexibility and the opportunity to work from anywhere would give them choices they have never had before.
2. More women will stay in the workforce; more will reach senior leadership levels.
3. Given time and location flexibility, fewer women will quit after having children.

Threats -

1. The unemployment rate for women jumped drastically due to the pandemic because of their concentration in low-wage groups.
2. WomenÂ’s life was negatively impacted by the pandemic. Women who have experienced these disruptions are concerned their career growth may be limited as a result.
3. Women who feel they always need to be available are also concerned that if they are not able to fulfill this need, their career progression maybe impeded and at home, the acceptance will be threatened.

If women in the workforce must have to succeed and work-from-anywhere model has to thrive, the mindset that women have to single-handedly manage the household and childcare has to immediately change.

[Kindly note that this is my individual opinion keeping in mind the current state. It has no bearing on my organization or the industry nor is it reflective of their view in this context].

The year 2020 was a special year and everyone, irrespective of gender had numerous concerns, unheard and unimagined, ever. Specifically, in the case of females, it turned out to be drastically different in terms of responsibilities and opportunities in personal and professional areas.

Retail, Manufacturing, Catering, Domestic Work, Hospitality are some professions that are predominantly dominated by the female workforce and these were the most affected sectors during the past year. The financial crisis followed by social impact and relationship issues are the major concerns they faced. Balancing work and home were physically and mentally taxing.

On the other hand, there were many positives. They got a lot of time with family. It has strengthened the bonds. They could revisit their hobbies/leisure activities. Many have started becoming entrepreneurs in the areas of Food, Technology, Retail, Education, Creative Arts. Women feel more empowered and think that they can manage any responsibility.

The experiences are many and it is more important to learn from the threats and convert them into opportunities.

2020 was a boon and a bane for humanity in the wake of the unprecedented pandemic. Zooming in to the female workforce, as with any change, this viral outbreak created both opportunities as well as threats.

More women able to balance work and home responsibilities as work from home became the norm. It opened opportunities in the talent marketplace where women could be considered for roles that would pose a challenge in the erstwhile world, in case the role was inflexible on physical presence at the workplace. Female attrition which sees a spike in middle management levels due to home & family responsibilities did see a slowdown consequently. Thanks to the pandemic, more women had the opportunity to continue in the workforce.

The downsides that they had to grapple with was a rise in stress due to being overburdened with home responsibilities as they increased manifold in the lockdown period. Personal safety was another area of threat, the rise in domestic violence at a place that ideally should be safe, was a bane for the female workforce with general stress levels going up in the home atmosphere.

Loss of livelihood was a significant threat faced by the women workforce at the grassroots levels - contract workers, domestic help, and vendors saw a steep rise in unemployment and financial distress.

The remote setup suddenly resulted in an increased burden on women of managing the children and the house, along with work; especially in situations where they had less or no support from family/ partner. However, this has also opened an unimaginable number of possibilities for women – who had given up work on account of childcare/ personal responsibilities, and limited remote work options in the market. This will be a defining era, where talent would come first!

The greatest opportunity that every women employee received as a gift from Pandemic was - Work from Home, which I think each working female employee aspired all this while. It will improve work-life balance and build the family bond without having compromised on my work!

While most of the working women employees had assumed that Work from Home was a boon!! Little that they realized that it means being AatmaNirbhar = Independent this means doing all things by yourselves and this means the family expectations have also gone up!!

Honestly speaking....in an Indian context a working woman plays various roles at the same time, such as daughter, daughter-in-law, wife, mother, sister, mother-in-law...alongside her being a true professional! Playing multiple roles at the same time became a unique threat for Indian working women during the pandemic. Attending a dhobi, to being a cook, to cleaning the house, to cleaning up your babies and elderly care, to being a partner in certain decision making with your spouse, to be the pillar of strength to your elderly parents and always giving them psychological support without getting depressed herself and without losing her own calm!! Multitasking became the biggest challenge on earth for women employees.

Men are considered as primary earners while women are considered as primary caregivers. Given this perception, 2020 has made it more and more difficult for women in India to pursue employment or continue to be as effective in their work. With more work from home options available, we expected to see a higher participation of women at work. However, with little to no help at home and homes being transformed into offices, women faced the unique challenge of managing household responsibilities along with work commitments.

A good number of women in the workforce came from service sectors, which bore the biggest brunt of the pandemic. That along with full-time child and family care responsibilities saw more and more women move out of the workforce, especially in these industries. This trend is not just visible in India but other parts of the world as well.

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