💸 We Owe Women $11 Trillion!

We owe women a massive debt. Here's how we can repay them. (Reading Time: 3 mins)

Imagine if women asked for payment for all the things they have done last year.

Like cooking meals, washing clothes, etc.

How much do you think the world as a whole would owe them?

$10.9 trillion.

That's more than India's GDP: $3.2 trillion.

That too at minimum wage!

So, how can women be compensated for all this lost money?

Women Are the Backbone of the Economy

Do you know what happened in Iceland in 1975 when all the women went on a strike to demand equal rights? 

The economy came to a standstill. 

In India, if we took women's unpaid labour into consideration, it would account for 17% of the country's GDP!

But it doesn't. 

And what about working women?

In India, only 23.41% of women participate in the workforce as compared to 36.14% in Bangladesh and 34.76% in Sri Lanka.

Now, this is a huge loss for both women and the economy.

How can we compensate for this?

By creating employment opportunities for them.

They can then hire help for household work.

This way the unpaid labour turns into paid labour, plus women get money, and the economy grows.

Sounds like an easy fix, right? Then why isn't it already happening? 

Women are inherently considered the primary caregivers for their families.

But juggling work and home is difficult.

So most workplaces don't even want to make it easier by offering flexible work hours, child care services, and appropriate transportation to work.

And this is despite the fact that our country requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide mandatory child care.

Even after all of this, when women do enter the workforce, they face discrimination, like being passed over for promotion.

Now, many problems that women face including preference given to male colleagues, or families' refusal to allow women to study and/or work are deeply rooted in the way our society functions.

Since ancient times, women have been relegated to the home. While men hunted, women were to stay close to home and gather. 

And even though we as a society have evolved a lot since then, we cannot escape this hunter-gatherer mentality. 

And this cannot be changed overnight.

But there are things that can be done to improve the situation.

How Can We Help Women?

First of all, the government needs to introduce and enforce laws that mandate better working environments.

For instance, even though we have the child care provision law, it isn't enforced right now.

Second, stricter workplace discrimination laws should be created.

And third, and probably most important, aid needs to be given to women who choose or are forced to stay at home.

These women are often the most vulnerable in society as they are completely dependent on someone else for even the smallest of things.

Several politicians have proposed putting a fixed income in the hands of non-working women to make sure they can gain some form of independence.

The government's Ujjwala scheme is also doing this.

But the problem is that these efforts are too limited.

What we need is a countrywide mandate to provide homemakers with some kind of a fixed wage to make sure they are taken care of.

Why? Well, they spend the whole day taking care of us. And these labours of love need to be recognised as work that deserves payment.

Tell us the story of a woman who has had a deep impact on your life. The best answer gets to join the ReadOn community for free :D

Happy Women's Day!

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