International Women's Day

On this International Women’s Day, we should really try to understand what the entry of women into the political and economic lives of their nations has meant. Many have reached the heights in their chosen professions and many women have also lead their countries. Others are trying their best to fight gender biases through education. Many more have taken up careers hitherto confined to men, that too in traditional milieus. This, in a society where there is little, if any, protection for women within the law. However, the very fact that most people now see the raising of children and the running of a home as being equally important as being a breadwinner is also a victory--these often thankless tasks have been solely a woman’s preserve. But men, too, feel a need to spend time with their children--they have no wish to be as distant as their grandfathers 60 years ago. Hence the demand for work-life balance and the need to spend more time with the family. The fact that more women choose to work from home is also a victory--they not only do the unpaid labour of managing the home and the children but are also economically productive. This issue has already become important in the West, where women retirees face a steep fall in their pensions because of time taken off to have and raise children.