Married women and employment: Not a 'match made in heaven'?

As the government prepares to roll out employment-linked incentives and other schemes aimed at first-time workers that may increase the participation of women in the workforce, we must also think about women who have exited. 

Our research with low-skilled workers in the manufacturing sector clearly shows that manufacturers face a huge turnover among women working on the shop-floor. At the same time, our conversations with highly-skilled women from premier business schools in India show that they too are quitting the workforce at a far higher rate than their male counterparts.

India’s labour force and employment numbers suggest that when a woman gets married, she is likely to drop out of the workforce. Married women and employment, it seems, are not a match made in heaven. 

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On the face of it, this appears to be an issue of cultural norms, with married women being encouraged by their families not to continue working. Or about lost motivation to work after marriage. However, the phenomenon is more complex than that. 

Women, married or unmarried, are interested in being financially independent and have an identity that goes beyond being a daughter, wife, sister or mother. Then why do women leave the workforce after getting married?

To understand this, we conducted focus group discussions with MBA women graduates of premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the country. Some of them had taken a career break and either returned to the industry they’d quit or were pursuing their dreams in new fields. These were highly skilled and ambitious women who spent much of their youth persevering with the education and jobs they had chosen.

In the course of our conversations on career breaks, we found multiple factors influencing that decision. While we found that marriage to some extent led women out of the workforce, the workplace culture had an equally strong role in pushing married women out.

The household marriage story: Women were found likely to leave the workforce after marriage for the usual reasons, such as the husband’s job location or transfer, pregnancy or the demands of parental care. 

Our interviewees found that it was hard to sustain highly competitive careers, especially if they chose to have children. Moreover, recent studies point to the growing use of IVF for childbirths. Such pregnancies call for extra rest and caution, leading many women to step back from work.

The workforce marriage story: On the other hand, we also found a pattern of married women being nudged out of organizations by their workplace culture. A workplace that requires its employees to be available at all hours strongly signals that it does not want women, since they tend to be primary caretakers at home. 

This kind of culture that takes a myopic view of productivity (with one’s presence required at all times) could explain Foxconn’s alleged aversion to recruiting married women for its shop-floor in India. Such a culture equates maternity leave with a vacation, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

In our discussions, a woman pointed out that her bonus and promotion were put on hold once the management learnt about her pregnancy. Additionally, women see men being promoted and chosen for opportunities while their pregnancy or family obligations are seen as a handicap. 

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Such covert discrimination impacts not just the women who experience it directly, but also sends signals to other women that focusing on their personal life would be treated as being disloyal to the organization.

However, some women said they also encountered supportive managers. And those who took a long-term view of the value delivered by their team members were rewarded with loyal and hardworking women employees. 

We also found that women preferred joining non-profit organizations after a break. While these jobs are as or more demanding than roles at for-profit organizations, bosses in this sector appear to be more empathetic, providing flexible work hours and opportunities for mutual goal-setting.

Support women returning from breaks: We need to rethink our family and workplace cultures that place the burden of returning to work entirely on women. Changing a culture that affects familial norms is much harder than changing organizational norms. 

However, there exists an opportunity for organizations to mould rather than mirror society. Rather than setting up a returning woman for failure, employers should take a more supportive approach.

Employers should be more proactive and open to integrating women who return to work from breaks. The organizational culture could make space for the returnee to rebuild her diminished confidence and lost networks. 

Substantive support should be offered in the form of flexible work hours, projects that do justice to her talent and empathy from managers. In return, women are likely to reward such an organization with dedication and loyalty.

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Organizations that focus on recruiting women eager to rejoin employment should be willing to forgo immediate productivity gains till such employees find their footing. But once returning employees settle into their roles, such employers could look forward to productivity gains that will eventually pay them back.