“Are You Working?”

Why does the society look at working women with rose tinted glasses and fail to accord the same amount of respect for those ‘non-working’ women who are extremely versatile?

“Are you working”? I was asked by someone whom I had met for the very first time. I managed to say yes, I have recently started working. Suddenly, the stranger with whom I was trying to acquaint myself with, looked at me with an expression that said, “You will henceforth be taken seriously and your opinion will have weight”.

Ever since I took a long break from my career after the birth of my child, I have at innumerable times felt that since I no longer worked professionally, I had stepped some ten ladders down the parameter of “sensibility.” Your employment status certainly showcases as to who are you. It represents you as a matter of fact. But, it should not make you bereft of your individuality. You may be not financially independent but that does not mean that you do not have qualities that make you stand apart from everyone else. Though I strongly believe that women should be educated enough to be financially independent, whether they want to work or not should be entirely their choice. We should not judge a woman on the basis of her ‘work status’. I have met myriads of women from varied walks of life, who were multi-faceted and each one seemed to have one quality or the other that made them individuals par excellence. The fact that they did not work for a living does not, according to me, make them less talented.

Ever since I took a long break from my career after the birth of my child, I have at innumerable times felt that since I no longer worked professionally, I had stepped some ten ladders down the parameter of “sensibility.”

Then why does the society at large look at working women with rose coloured glasses and fail to accord the same amount of respect for those ‘non-working’ women who are extremely versatile? Many a times, women abandon their careers owing to the demands of the family or do not take up a job in the first place, may be because their skill is not marketable. For me, a woman is an individual who has many aspects to her persona. She deserves to be “not judged” not only on the basis of cast, creed and religion but also on the basis of her ‘work status.” Do not look down upon her because she is not going out there, she is still a person with an opinion and a voice that cannot be thwarted.

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