When Savita gave up her highly-paid job in a bank there was consternation amongst her family and friends. What was the point of doing her MBA if she was going to sit at home and twiddle her thumbs, they asked. But Savita was adamant. Since joining the bank she had married and produced a child. This little girl was the reason for Savita?s seemingly earth-shaking decision. ?The first few years of a child are very important,? she explained. ?Besides, I want to have the pleasure of seeing her cut her first teeth and take her first steps.? Savita?s plan of action was very simple. She would take a career break till her daughter was in school, and then she would go back to work. But will she ever get a comparable job again, worried her family. In any case, she can afford adequate help, so why give up a good job, they asked angrily. Nevertheless, and in the face of all opposition, Savita stayed at home for six years, till her daughter, and son, born a year later, were both of school-going age. And then, contrary to her family?s fears, she found a place with another bank that was as good as her last job.
Savita is not an exception to the rule. Her story symbolises a small but growing phenomenon: women who quit well-paid jobs in order to stay at home and raise their children during their early years, before resuming their place in the workforce. Their reasons are both emotional and practical. A child tends to make even the most career-minded woman rearrange her priorities. With the joint family virtually dead, the support of grandparents and relatives can no longer be relied upon. And domestic help is generally dubious and unreliable.
But there is another consideration. Qualified women in executive jobs are no longer nervous about finding another job when they are ready to resume work. The reason is that they recognise their own worth. Confident of finding something comparable to the job they quit, they do not hesitate to take a break for a few years. Nor is their confidence generally misplaced.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a new social category of women called the Competitive Marrieds. The women in this group are under constant pressure to compete with each other to achieve a more super life. High multi-achievers, their aim is to achieve glossy magazine lifestyles. They are fabulous homemakers and cooks, raise children who do brilliantly and participate in every conceivable extracurricular activity, hold down high-powered full-time jobs, and are fit, slim, glamorous and well groomed.
It would appear that these supermums and superwives are in startling contrast to the women who deliberately opt out of the race to raise their families. Yet both groups are searching for the same thing ? total success in whatever role they play.
