Challenges and tasks for women professionals in modern India : Present and future

Dr Meinam Binota *

AK Mirabai lights the inaugural candle at the International Women's Day 2011 & Women Expo-2011
Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

"When women move forward, the family moves, the village moves and Nation moves" – Nehru

India is one among the Commonwealth countries with the lowest percentage of women (below 10%) in politics. It may be due to the unwillingness on the part of governance to select women to these positions, or due to a feeling of insecurity in women to handle these positions for which reason they might not come forward. Cultural norms continue to dictate that the role of women at the work place is seen as secondary to her role at home as a nurturer and home maker.

The patriarchal attitudes to women in the Institution of family are carried over to other Institutions of society, including higher education and higher professionals. Women professionals in public sphere being a professional and beings a home maker. Although their minds work as a professional their heart works as a traditional home maker.

However, that women have the potential, to contribute effective skill and management in public sphere is an acknowledged fact and effort have to be made to meet this challenge. Majority of people are unaware of the role played by the women in major scientific breakthrough historically.

Of course there are a few women scientist who had made great contribution for the welfare of human civilisation in the Diverse Field of Science. Nobody denied the personality such as Marie Curie, Rosaline Franclin, Dorthy Hodgin, Rochel carson, Gertrude B Elien etc. of their contribution for better mankind. The challenges, hardship experienced in the political history by the great women leaders paved the path as role model of women today.

In the meantime, the world however, is changing at a speed never dreamt of into a single compact family easily communicate with one another. Gender relationship changing in a new matrix. The concept of womanhood is changing gradually but all these have thrown a new challenge to the women professionals.

What are the new challenges ?

- Women professionals isolated and burdened by the simultaneous demands of her new aspirations and traditions.
- Women professionals experiences helplessness in making new response within the culture (the culture is perceived as a monolith, rigid, and invincible).
- The social system cannot accept the new roles of women and as such women end up feeling misunderstood and distress.
- Women silently evaluate and judge man and social system and governance.
- The location of women self is always transient and never had the chance to defined herself.
- Women fail to talk from their own perspective.

To face these new challenges, women professionals in public sphere needs to have new strengths and spirits.

- Make your work/profession visible that which is invisible.
- Articulate your judgement that which unarticulated earlier.
- Decode the deeply embedded social cultural codings and discover new logical meanings.
- Redefine yourself and other women.
- Own the disowned inner asset &skill of yourself.
- Integrate self, others and system of belongings.

Facilitate your inner feeling & ignore unlogical man-made laws & theories.

- Keep a self space between 'you' and 'your love one'.
- Belief and trust to 'physical service' not to the 'lip-service', overlook the trivial matters.
- Clearly demarcate your emotional space and professional space.

Of the challenges and strengths there is a need for women professional in public sphere to move from social structure and roles to work structure and roles.

It is not an either/or choice but an added concept and dimension of professional role taking. In this transitional stage, work/profession becomes a pivoted part of life space, tasks and performance acquires efficiency, effectiveness and new learning/meaning.

There are the essential criteria for modern professiona- lism women need to give themselves legitimacy in formal planning policy formu- lation and strategic choice in the higher platforms of public decision making. They need to acquire a competitive edge and professional parity by acquiring knowledge attitude and skill anchored in a personal professional perspective.

It is essential that women take charge of their own destiny and give shape to substantive roles in the present system women professional has to question her socio cultural beliefs, her own need to hold on the structured normative prescriptions and realistically assess her strengths, limitations and new challenges.

They have to create new spaces, meaningful relationship in the family work with other women & men given the reality of both social and professional role, women experiences dilemmas, ambiva- lence, anxieties and stress. In an attempt to balance social & professional roles/demands they extend super human efforts and end up with high risk morbidity. Therefore, a shared perspective between women and men needs to be evolved in the social & professional life. Here, it is noteworthy to mention the KAS Model (Parikh, I-J, 1991).

Approaching system which can provide the basic understanding and widen the perspective enhances the knowledge and generates the administrative/management competencies in women.

Life space of women professionals has many components and no any component can be looked in isolation. New definition of roles in society under transition is processing, pulls & pushes of old and new society is emerging. Women are at crossroads— attempting to forge the new horizon of tomorrow.

More than a century and a half after the spectre of communism have haunted the entire Europe; another spectre is today haunting not only the entire Europe but the whole world. The spectre of women's empowerment – "womenism" if i may term it. Everywhere, everybody who is somebody or aspires to be somebody is talking/discussing/deliberating women's issues. Suddenly women have become a Force, a force to be reckoned with as if they were not a Force in earlier times.

Issues confronting women:

Some of the important issues facing women today are:
1. Women are discriminated in all walks of life.
2. Women are subjugated, dominated and exploited both at work places and home.
3. Women are unrepresented and/or underrepresented in decision making bodies.

Further extension of these leads me to list some of the main problems faced by working women such as:
1. Maintaining and looking after their home and place of work.
2. Leaving kids at home and going to office early in the morning.
3. Unable to give proper and quality time to husbands, kids and family.

These are some of the most crucial issues/problems that dominate academic and/or non-academic discourse all over the world. And I could not agree more. But to me, these issues, crucial and important as they are, do not represent the CORE issues confronting women today. The real core issues/problems, as far as I am concerned and I would like to believe that I am as concerned as you are about the women's cause, are something hidden somewhere within women themselves. Let me put the core issues/problems this way:

1. There is no tangible sense of solidarity among women.
2. There is no tangible feeling of fraternity among women.
3. There is no tangible sense of "sisterhood" among women.

What is to be done then? First and foremost:
1. Women should support women.
2. Women should stand for and behind women.
3. Women should emphasize women.

Once this is done, women will automatically transform themselves from a "Force in itself" to a "Force for itself". If and when women become a "Force for itself", things will change for better. And things are changing before our own eyes.

Indeed, we need to change ourselves. Women need to change their outlook/orientation towards women. After all, as Gandhi said, "YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD".