Empowered Women are Financially Independent

Unemployment is not good for the economy. However, beat data hard and it gives the answers you want. Institutions excel at doing it.

If 50 out of 100 people are actively seeking a job, but not finding one, unemployment rate is 50%. However, if only 40% are looking for a job, it looks like the employment situation has improved. The reasons for migration of this 10% to other unaccounted segments are ignored.

What we are concerned with here is the impact on human lives- especially women’s lives.

CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) has flashed data which says 60% of the employable work force is not looking out for jobs. And if you are thinking on the same lines as me, a large part of this 60% are likely to be women.

Who are these individuals not looking out for jobs?

• An army of people labelled as ‘self-employed’. They may be freelancing or setting up a small business. The income is likely to be less than what they earned in their jobs before, but they are making an effort to strike a work-life balance.
• Women who give up jobs to be a stay-at-home parent or caregiver.
• People who have a passive income and take a sabbatical to explore the world or alternate means of earning a livelihood.
• People who have stopped looking for jobs because meaningful employment is not available.

We will dwell more on the last category.

Why is this happening? What exactly is meaningful employment?

Why are they not returning to regular employment?

Ageism and sexism both come into play here. Organizations prefer to engage a low paid, young workforce which is not a long-term liability. They outsource jobs to agencies, engage freelancers or contractual employees to reduce manpower cost. They prefer employees with less experience and who lack an overall perspective. They are easily driven, skilled in the latest techniques and move on quickly. The space is open to engage more low-paid employees, instead of elevating existing ones. The churn also helps in getting new skills and clients from the organizations where they’ve worked before.

The use of artificial intelligence also paves the way for this cultural change.

Senior and experienced people feel left out, as they don’t get their well-deserved dues.

It makes more sense to work independently on whatever projects they have in hand, and with whatever money they can earn from it. They also have better control on their life and priorities.

The corporate atmosphere is not conducive to their working.

They choose not to go back, because they are over-qualified for available job assignments. They don’t want to be paid less, or accept a junior position compared to what they were doing before.

Self-employment puts them in a different league, and there is no career progression chart to worry about.

HOW WILL THIS PAN OUT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE OPTED OUT OF THE RAT RACE?

1. Loss of lifestyle and discipline

People dress better, have fun with colleagues and enrich themselves with a higher level of exposure to happenings in the workplace and market place. In work-from-home assignments, they remain limited to their own job, face a constant barrage of demands from kids, work in casual wear and have irregular hours.

It gets harder to instill discipline in kids and team members, in the absence of positive role models.

2. Loss of employee benefits

There is no provident fund, voluntary provident fund, group health insurance, allowances and reimbursements.

If people do not learn to invest voluntarily, the adverse impact will show in the long run.

3. Women get relegated to less important tasks

We’ve all read personal stories from women who had to manage home, hearth, work and kids’ school assignments during the lockdown. If a woman is seen at home, she is called upon to perform domestic and parenting chores wherever needed.

Patriarchal mindsets will not change overnight. Staying away from home helps women lead a better life.

I agree that some women find comfort in flexibility. But there are many who may prefer their old lifestyles, but are compelled to give it up.

4. Loss of financial independence

Many women will choose not to work or work lesser hours, in the interests of parenting or caregiving. In the long run, they will also lose their financial independence.

You may hear them saying they are financially supported by their family, and do not need to work for money.

But financial dependence goes against the theme of empowerment.

WHAT SHOULD WOMEN DO IN THE CHANGED SCENARIO?

Review of financial situation

• Take stock of what you own individually, not in jointly held assets.
• Where do you stand vis-à-vis your financial goals?
• If there is a gap, how do you think you will reach there?
• What is it that you are giving up, and are you happy about it?
• If you are supporting others financially, do you need to withdraw that support now?
• What do you need to do to earn the same amount that you did before?
• Is it worthwhile taking up a lesser job profile which pays the same or a higher amount of money?
• Rebalance your assets and investment portfolios to suit the new reality.

Be aware that you are restarting life. You have already hit the Reset button.

You may have to devote a couple of hours in a day to learning new stuff. It may be just watching You tube videos or reading an article. It may be taking up an online course to reskill yourself.

Don’t shy away from spending time and money on self-development. Every small effort has a compounding effect.

It places you in new networks. Rework your content strategy on social media. Talk about what you learn.

The results may not be instantaneous, but over a period of time, you will be seen as a professional with a new skill-set.

You may face snide remarks about spending time on non value-adding activity which does not yield money. Ignore them.

Value takes time in showing up. You can’t get the assignments that you want without going through this process.

All the best!

Originally published at http://sacredcircleforwomen.wordpress.com on April 28, 2022.