Marriage, Job, Higher Studies: How Indian Women are Being Forced to Reorder Their Priority Pyramid

The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Index pins India at 135 out of 146 countries in gender parity. But that our country doesn’t exactly boast of equal, high women labour participation is not news. At just 22.8%, the quantum of active women in the Indian workforce has always been among the global lowest. And these figures have only declined during the pandemic.

At 143, India is only marginally ahead of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan on the economic participation and opportunity sub-index. Working and aspirational women in India were already braving it hard in the job market. And their struggles are naturally spilling over to their search for a partner as well.

A recent study on Shaadi.com startlingly reveals that women who have never worked a job attract 70% positive responses from men. In case they are working but willing to give up their career after marriage, the number dips to 66%. But the percentage of positive responses nosedived to 59% for women who wanted to continue working post marriage.

Prachi (name changed) currently works as a senior manager at Gurgaon-based MNC. Now married for 1.5 years, she recounts her harrowing experience during the match-making process.

“I’ve lost count of how many guys I interacted with via matrimonial sites. Most men I met wanted me to focus more on household than my career. They were okay with me working, but there was a certain reluctance in their support. Even my parents had subtly started egging me to shift my priorities. Pandemic has allowed me to work flexibly, but we are far from the day when women don’t have to choose between a solid career and a happy family,” she noted.

Education for Marriage, Not Employment

India, however, distinctly and positively stands out when it comes to women’s educational attainment. The gender gap index ranked India at 107 in this regard. But this is not without caveats.

The underlying idea, unfortunately, has been to improve marriage prospects and not employment ones. Most women are also restricted by the idea of what is deemed a “societally appropriate job”, seriously limiting their options.

As a result, more women are opting for higher studies rather than employment. Take Meera, a communications professional who finished her Masters two years ago. But after a two-year work period, she is now looking for opportunities in higher education again.

“My parents are forcing me to get married. They think that now I have a job, there is nothing left to achieve. I’ve been actively searching for educational programs abroad to circumvent this. But they are insistent they’ll only let me fly out only if I am married,” she sighs.

All this simply means the widening of an already huge wealth gap between the two genders. There’s a 31% wealth gap between men and women working in professional or technical roles. The lacuna is wider at 38% at higher levels of management and leadership.

But women are finding newer ways to stand their financial ground. New data from LinkedIn shows that the number of women entrepreneurs grew exponentially during the pandemic. Between 2016 and 2021, female founders jumped 2.68 times. In comparison, male founders climbed just 1.79 times.

Anil Thankachan, Co-Founder, Director at PeopleAsset, highlights this. “With the rise in remote work during the pandemic, there is also an increase in high-impact short-term and entrepreneurial gigs. While work-from-home has its own challenges, it empowers women to continue building their careers.”

While going independent might seem positive at the outset, it points out to a deeper issue — structural barriers at work. To date, men are 42% more likely to be internally promoted to senior positions at work as against their women counterparts.

“We do see the higher percentage of female workforce having strong preference of continuing in hybrid models, which is quite understandable given the larger role that women are playing in managing the home front, which by itself has also transformed due to the remote educational matrix in play for children. If there are career disruptions due to the transition back to work from office, we do anticipate the women workforce to be impacted higher than the male workforce,” Bhavishya Sharma, Managing Director, Athena Executive Search & Consulting, says.

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