💸 We Owe Women $11 Trillion!

We owe women a massive debt. Here's how we can repay them.

Imagine if women asked for payment for all the things they have done in 2020.

Like cooking meals, washing clothes, etc.

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

$10.9 trillion.

That's more than India's GDP: ~$3.5 trillion.

That too if we gave women minimum wage! And this is only the amount we would owe American women.

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

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✊ 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 40% of the country's GDP!

What about working women?

In India, only 23% of women participate in the workforce as compared to 32.4% in Bangladesh and 38.1% in Nepal.

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, 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 offer flexible work hours, child care services, and appropriate transportation to work.

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.

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. 

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.

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🤔 How Can We Help Women?

First, 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.

We should also provide hybrid or work from home opportunities for women. Give them higher maternity leaves and better transitions after work related career breaks. 

Second, stricter workplace discrimination laws should be created.

And third, and probably most important, aid needs to be given to women who have no choice but 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.

Madhya Pradesh has also launched the Ladli Behna scheme which gives Rs. 1,000/ month to women whose families earn less than Rs. 2.5 lakh/year. 

The government also announced the Mahila Samman Patra in the Budget 2023. This savings scheme gives women a fixed interest rate of 7.5% for two years.

But 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. The least we can do is recognise and appreciate these labours of love. 

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 Belated Women's Day!

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