Why Do Only Married Women Need To Prove Their Worth In The Workplace?

‘You are married still, we hired you…’

This was the statement given by my manager to one of the new joinee and of course she is a female. As if, he has done any sort of favour on her.

You hired her because she is experienced and very capable of delivering whatever is required for that role.

It is a wrong assumption that married women will quit work

Because it is always believed that girls after getting married should not continue to work, as they won’t be efficient enough. They have other responsibilities to look after, and they will not stay at workplace till late as their male counterparts can.

They will take more leaves, for fasting or for following rituals (karwa chauth, teej) etc. Not only that, but they will take maternity leaves once they conceive. Then they will have kids to look after etc.

I have heard, one of my male colleagues say, ‘Women are lucky! Whenever you want to take rest, go for maternity leave, that too for six months.’

Maternity leaves are not holiday

I was shocked to hear such statement, don’t you know or understand, what a woman goes through during that phase of her life. She is not having any fun. She is not chilling at home, watching movies and eating popcorn.

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Likewise, she goes through a lot of change physically, mentally and emotionally.

Women at every point are being judged, and they always have that pressure to prove their worth, be it at home or be it in work place.

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed, if I fail no one will say “she does not have what it takes”. They will say, “women do not have what it takes”.
– Clare Boothe Luce (former US congresswoman)

This is so true; a woman represents her entire community, whereas a man represents only himself.

Image Source: Kanchanachitkhamma and VSanandhakrishna via Getty Images, free on Canva Pro

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