A BREAK in career results from motherhood for an estimated 26 per cent of the women professionals that BRAC has surveyed for a study that it presented in Dhaka on March 13. BRAC analysed profiles of 1,100 women under its programme that supports women getting back into the work force after a career break. A significant number of women are reported to be leaving their job mid-career although women鈥檚 participation in the work force is noticeable at the entry level. BRAC鈥檚 executive director likens the situation to the participation of girls in schools, which is higher than that of boys, with the girls somehow disappearing later. The women who have experienced career gaps in narrating their tales at the event have said that they were unwilling to leave job, but were forced to do so as they needed to look after their children. The situation is worrying on at least two grounds. This suggests that workplaces are mostly devoid of daycare facilities and largely women-unfriendly.
The absence of daycare facilities and women-unfriendliness of workplaces have ramifications. The prime among them is that it holds back women鈥檚 employment and stops women from climbing the employment echelon to the decision-making points. The worrisome issue that comes up is that when such women, having had a career break, later seek employment, they face insensitive questions and are not treated as equal candidates. The proposition could also play a role in adding to economic violence, an act or behaviour that causes economic harm to individuals, against women. Economic violence 鈥� mostly non-physical but sometimes accompanied by physical assault, mental torture or other forms of abuse 鈥� is rooted in gender inequality that is reinforced by traditional gender norms where perpetrators use economic control, economic sabotage and economic exploitation against the victims, often in the context of intimate relationship. The joblessness arising out of career break caused by motherhood intensifies the gender inequality. Experts, therefore, say that employment is not a corporate social responsibility but an option to access skilled human resources. In such a situation, experts have called for the establishment of daycare facilities at workplaces, a change in workplace culture and an end to practices discriminatory against women in hiring. They believe that a break in career should not be considered a weakness and, rather, be taken as something that makes individuals strong and courageous.
Actors in the public and the private sector alike should, therefore, impress upon the employers to offer women the support they need during their motherhood to reap benefits from women professionals who have reached a certain stage in their career. The authorities should also change the way they have traditionally considered motherhood.