What If The Manager Had Been A Man?

Today I visited the bank for some paperwork. There was a queue of 5-6 people at the single window counter where a clerk, a woman in her 30s sat working busily. Behind her was a girl of 5-6, colouring in her book with crayons.

The girl would interrupt the woman once in a while like any curious preschooler, and the woman was handling both the questions of the child and the customers cheerfully, even as she carried on with her work. I just asked my daughter to say hi to the child.

The woman smiled and answered my unasked question “She is my daughter. Her nanny left me a few days back without notice. I couldn’t find another one. I took leave for a couple of days and then decided to get her here with me for a few hours after her school”

As I was led to the manager’s room, I saw another graceful lady seated there. I couldn’t help but wonder, had the manager been a man, would he have let his staff’s child play in the bank for a few hours everyday while she did her work? He might or might not, but this is all that women need- a support system either at work or at home.

The the percentage of women in work force in India, stands at a dismal 19%. And statistics show that most women drop out of work just because there is no support system for childcare. Of the rest 81%, most would happily come back to work if their workplace offers childcare facilities. And I would like to believe this is more likely to happen only when there are more women in decision-making positions. But herein lies the whole problem – how will women reach policy-making positions at work if they have no support systems in place?

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Image source: shylendrahoode from Getty Images Signature Free for Canva Pro

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