MORE WOMEN TAKING UP PAINFUL JOBS

An increasing number of women employees in India are taking up high-pressure jobs, including those involving long working hours and frequent travelling, a survey has said. According to the survey conducted by recruitment consultancy firm, CareerBuilder.com, two-third of women employees in India are now open to travelling as part of their job and another 33 per cent actually prefer a 'high pressure-high rewards' work environment. The study further found that 82 per cent of women employees agreed that their families were supportive of their career ambitions, while 60 per cent felt that marriage would not come in the way of their career progression. Other experts also agree that family support and better career options in various sectors are helping women take up jobs in a high-pressure work environment. Citing example of the IT industry where job is demanding and require long working hours, cloud services provider Knowlarity's CEO Amabarish Gupta said, "Women do not shy away from undertaking this responsibility also". "Rather, they are able to manage both office and home with great ease and comfort. A lot of credit for this kind of a scenario can be attributed to the families and their indispensable support," he added. HR firm Unison International Consulting Managing Director Udit Mittal said modernisation and globalisation of the economy have led to creation of new industries that allow a lot of new opportunities for women employees. "At lot of companies, women are considered more apt for the job than their male counterparts. Today families are open to letting their women of the house go out and work and not to be merely sitting at home. Therefore, they are being educated and motivated to take up challenging career," he said. HR consultancy firm Executive Access' MD Ronesh Puri said many organisations are striving to correct their gender diversity, thus generating lot more opportunities for women today, than there have been in the past. "Women are also moving to non-traditional avenues and are excelling in them. Today women are ambitious and more to open to relocate as career growth has become more important to them than anything else," Puri said. HR expert and Nino Bambino's Creative Director and Partner Shikha Kumar said women need extensive family support to take up jobs requiring long working hours. "When it comes to own organisation, you need lot more family support than usual. My current job needs lot of attention, extension, focus and long working hours. It was not possible without family and I am glad that I have a supportive family. I have a 3-year old daughter and I was not able to bring her up if I would not have my family support," she said.