Women who truly have it all are not a mess like the one above. They do these things:
1. Marry an "independent" man who can contribute to atleast 30% of household work.
2. Invest in help. If one's hourly salary is more than the help's then this investment makes sense. So they create an autopilot household with a cook, maid and nanny who are also "independent" and responsible workers that come at a higher price. They hire, set processes (including people taking leave) and train. One also invests in a dishwasher, a roomba and a washing machine to the least. The machines make help far efficient and are useful when they take leave.
I agree and have done most of this myself. My only problem with this and why I didn't give any such advice in the piece is that it transfers the burden of responsibility back to the woman. The point I want to focus on is how working women's partners and employers need to do better to make life livable for working women, especially working moms.
You know, this drawing the line from wfh hits quite close to home. This doesn't apply only to the participants. Think about the children or the parents who have to walk on eggshells while the zoom call is on. Imagine this for the entire day, my parents would be pretty much on a maun-wrath the entire day ... between both kids schooling from home, and me and harshaja's office calls.
The gender issue you mention can easily be solved by hired help. The one thing that COVID taught us men for sure, was to participate in the household chores :). I now appreciate which dish is hell to clean and which isn't. Normal daal-roti-chawal is doable, bhel poori for dinner is awesome ... but idlis are a mess!!
Men cannot make boundaries at work because due to competition we are easily replaceable. We can only help our wives at certain times but if it's urgent work we have to take it.
Also you have a very one sided view of everything. Most men in India do earn more than their wives. Maybe the examples you gave are outlier. It's not common for a wife to earn more than her husband.
Interesting post, Mahima. While your article is about how Covid impacted working women, I thought I should share what my team found out about homemakers during the pandemic.
Women who truly have it all are not a mess like the one above. They do these things:
1. Marry an "independent" man who can contribute to atleast 30% of household work.
2. Invest in help. If one's hourly salary is more than the help's then this investment makes sense. So they create an autopilot household with a cook, maid and nanny who are also "independent" and responsible workers that come at a higher price. They hire, set processes (including people taking leave) and train. One also invests in a dishwasher, a roomba and a washing machine to the least. The machines make help far efficient and are useful when they take leave.
I agree and have done most of this myself. My only problem with this and why I didn't give any such advice in the piece is that it transfers the burden of responsibility back to the woman. The point I want to focus on is how working women's partners and employers need to do better to make life livable for working women, especially working moms.
You know, this drawing the line from wfh hits quite close to home. This doesn't apply only to the participants. Think about the children or the parents who have to walk on eggshells while the zoom call is on. Imagine this for the entire day, my parents would be pretty much on a maun-wrath the entire day ... between both kids schooling from home, and me and harshaja's office calls.
The gender issue you mention can easily be solved by hired help. The one thing that COVID taught us men for sure, was to participate in the household chores :). I now appreciate which dish is hell to clean and which isn't. Normal daal-roti-chawal is doable, bhel poori for dinner is awesome ... but idlis are a mess!!
Once again well written and true . Men need to start understanding that women's jobs are as important .
Men cannot make boundaries at work because due to competition we are easily replaceable. We can only help our wives at certain times but if it's urgent work we have to take it.
Also you have a very one sided view of everything. Most men in India do earn more than their wives. Maybe the examples you gave are outlier. It's not common for a wife to earn more than her husband.
Interesting post, Mahima. While your article is about how Covid impacted working women, I thought I should share what my team found out about homemakers during the pandemic.
For many homemakers, Covid was a blessing in disguise, and you would be surprised to know why. Plugging in a tweet thread I did in Nov - https://twitter.com/alltalk/status/1325820677711155201?s=20
You are absolutely right, Mukta. I wrote about homemakers a few weeks back in fact and, on average, their lives make going to an office feel like a true luxury: https://womaning.substack.com/p/fabulous-lives-of-indian-housewives