Harassment In The Pakistan Workplace Environment

Do women bear a heavier load balancing work and family?

We think the work/life balance thing is the biggest factor, but it’s too easy to just put those words on a job ad. So we actively model our family-friendly work culture by not being shy about fitting my work in around our childcare responsibilities (pickups, drop-offs, sick days, parent days, etc). Balancing family and career is a tough act to do. This just goes to show that women are risk-taker and multi-tasker. If parenting is such a bad deal for women, why do they continue to have babies? Women tend to be the “default parent” no matter what it seems. Even outside of societal views of women’s “roles”. This imbalance is very real. This comes from a narrow-minded view of a woman’s “role”. This is taught to us by our parents first, our culture outside of our family secondly, and finally by our society as a whole. But it does not rock solid. Companies are slowly starting to wise up, especially in the IT / Tech/data worlds. The issue with “family time” versus work time isn’t Just about the women. This is a bigger topic than a simple gender role. And even the still critical Point is that women want to have children. This is still a career killer.

As prejudicial as you may think it sounds, women do bear the burden of a balancing family and work more than men. And, because of that reason, job stability is a greater issue than chance taking. Add to that the remaining gender role bias that’s about… and how disconnected men are to their families. Men are a lot more distant and will put career over their kids. Plenty of dads have to make the “big boy” choice and can’t have it all either. Some single parents (man or woman) HAVE to find a work-life balance – still keep up with trends and changes in tech and BE parents (they don’t have a choice outside of welfare). The bigger issue is the cost of living. You CAN’T reasonably raise a family and work a corporate job. Even making 50+k a yr barely covers bills in a single-parent household. When you have a spouse that doesn’t work, whose sole job is kids…. that’s an additional dependent. That’s more money that ONE person needs to make. So to make ends meet, most families it requires two incomes.

So it’s not JUST about the woman… never was, never will be… we applaud those men who face the same struggle women do to balance family and work.

There were always enough women in STEM or at least in the last 20-30 years; those who fire the women with education are the same males who want to keep their jobs and high paid salaries although they are incompetent. Pakistan is falling behind but it can be attributed to other factors. At Information Technology University there are over 100 male persons and fewer than 10 female persons in the first year.

Universities such as ITU are providing amazing opportunities for young girls to become involved in STEM – #STEMforGirls #goENGgirl – hopefully the increased interest in STEM-based careers correlates to an interest in decision support/analytics/performance measurement! Even in some parts of the industry, we are bonded to very old-fashioned and traditional role concepts. We know what we are talking about as women are working in a male-dominated industry. Women need a model but there are so few of them. We try to do Networking and mentoring here with the younger women to avoid the Trouble Pakistani women have been through and to strengthen their own self-confidence. Women are so well educated and trained but the industry still does not see them as future Parameter.

The managers of good cultured organizations respect well. Respect in the workplace is huge. Ignoring the presence of another human being is the ultimate description of disrespect. It has become commonplace in society, although unacceptable. Unfortunately, people are given the title manager these days and think that they are deserving of huge levels of respect without having to return any at all. Respecting coworkers is the main divide that separates actually being a leader from just being a manager. The greatest leaders are more nuanced and empathy is a facet in their multi-dimensional personalities.

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