The business world or workplace mobility is a good thing to have on your CV. Mobility brings experiences, opportunities, exposure, pride, and new skills like adaptability, resilience, self-awareness, creativity, empathy, and patience. Many of these are top skills for future of jobs as per World Economic Forum report of 2020.

When it is so good, why do numbers show distinction between migration or mobility patterns treating men and women differently. The probable answer is it is engrained in gender roles. One part of this is physical, where men can migrate easily for work, with women following them or staying back as care givers to the family. Many a times in this migration, women lose their jobs or forced to discontinue their education. It is rare that women migrate for work and husband follows. Usually, it boils down to who is the main bread earner of the family. In some rare cases with technology, couple and families do find a mid-path, where one partner continue to work remotely and sustain job despite change in location. With pay gap, demand on women due to many stereotypes, lack of infrastructure, dearth of work opportunities, etc., it is often the case that men have an upper hand. This affects women’s decision-making power, making her vulnerable. It is a vicious circle where one thing leads to another and all together, they lead to low women workforce participation rate in India. In 2022, it was at 23.97 percent (India: female labor force participation rate | Statista). This is what often leads to women stepping back in their career or not accepting senior roles, which may attract transfers or involve travel. That’s why very few women reach the top executive roles.

Second aspect of this migration story is emotional. When men travel or relocate, women handle the house along with everyone’s emotions to keep the household running. She will support and not make the man feel guilt of his move. She will adjust and make all the sacrifice while putting spotlight on the man. She runs the show with all fanfare, but it’s the man who is the hero as he is leaving comfort of home to make all ends meet.

Third aspect is social. Man starts to live a normal life and adjust fast to the pace of things in a new city. On the contrary woman takes time to adjust as our society won’t let her settle too quickly. Back home the feeling is now she is independent and enjoying life; or when are you coming next; or an emotional cold war with family for leaving them behind which hinders her new social life. So, while the man starts living a focused life without guilt and climb career charts; woman on contrary is looking at holiday calendar or booking travel back home or just sitting by herself and reflecting if the decision she took was right or wrong. She is torn apart and settling is usually longer or maybe never.

Now put together all these aspects and imagine a woman moving for work to a new city and her family being left behind. Firstly, she will be called selfish, too ambitious, and careless/irresponsible mother or daughter. Secondly, she will be drained of her mental health with everyday drama of how worse things are at home since she left. Thirdly, she will be taunted for enjoying life while back home family is having a terrible time. In all possible scenarios, she will be declared the prime culprit.

Same could be the reason that when companies go through transformation and relocation more and more women slip out of the numbers. I have witnessed this professionally and personally. If you remember, during the pandemic the women workforce participation rate declined to almost 16% (2021). It was the pressure of home care and work from home which stretched them. So many decided to leave workplace and just be home as care givers, to buy peace. The true story is she doesn’t have agency to make her own decision and her career growth is affected for life, and in many cases death of career is common.

This brings us to two key points,

1. Why can’t a woman focus on her career and take mobility as an opportunity to leap her career?
2. How can organisations keep gender lens during transformation times, so they don’t lose women workforce?  Can policies enable women to stay or balance work and life?

+how can we make men physically/emotionally/social strong to handle the household pressure be the care giver and balance home and work front.

We may not have answers to why these differences exist, but if we start to talk about this issue and address it with good set of policies at workplace and raising our children at home with good examples, we will seed hope to bridge the gap..