Rajju Shrestha, 47, a schoolteacher, wakes up before everyone in her family. After quickly finishing her daily household chores, she rushes to her school where another tedious six hours of continuous lectures and classes follow. But even after exhausting herself like this – managing both family and job simultaneously – what Rajju earns at the end of the month makes up for only a negligible percentage of her family’s monthly expenditure.

“Our family mainly runs on my husband’s income which is many times more than mine,” says Rajju whose job is a relatively low-paying one in comparison to a lot of other jobs in the market and which she does with an intention of spending her time fruitfully rather than earning money. 

The number of women working and pursuing serious careers has increased significantly over the last few decades. This has helped to increase women’s share in paid job and monetary economy, unlike before when women’s participation used to be concentrated in the agricultural sector only.

But in spite of  it, the unemployment rate is still higher among women, and women still earn lesser wages than men do. According to a report published in 2010 by the Asian Development Bank, titled ‘An Overview of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Nepal’, “the proportion of economically active women in Nepal is quite high…however, women’s wages lag well behind those of men.” Also, a research report, ‘Women Leaders in Asia’ published by Asia Society in 2013 states that “globally, women earn 20-30 percent less than men for similar work performed.”

A startling example of this is found in Bollywood where a female actor is likely to  be paid many times less than her male counterpart. An online Bollywood website in India “Pinkvilla” quotes what Priyanka Chopra, a goodwill ambassador of UNICEF India, said in a UNICEF event aimed at empowering girls and youth: “The male actors do get paid a lot more. There is a tremendous disparity in remuneration between male and female actors. The remuneration difference is insane as the disparity is big."

Many times, societal norms and expectations also lead women to deliberately choose to work lesser hours or to leave the job sooner. In many communities, girls are still taught and expected to place greater value on family than focus on what she is going to make a career in or how much she would earn out of it. This acts as one of the prominent factors that discourage women to make a good career, or money for that matter.

Indira Sharma, 30, a mother and a housewife, used to teach at a school until before the birth of her son. She explains that she chose a teaching career because it demanded considerably fewer working hours and hence made it possible for her to easily allot time to her family. But she quit the job right after the birth of her son because she thought it more important to give all her time to the child in order to properly bring him up.

“It’s not that we choose a low-paying career because we have a ‘bad’ career choice or because we lack ambition. In many cases, our choices are influenced by our role and by what society expects of a daughter, a wife, or a mother,” she says.

According to a paper published by UN Development Group Task Force on the MDGs, close to two thirds of all employed women in South Asia are engaged in “extremely vulnerable employment which lack security and benefits,” and which can be easily taken away from them in case of recession or crisis.

Gender wage gap also has to do with differences in roles assigned to males and females in society. There is a lack of support for women in domestic works and childcare, and a double standard notion of what it means to be a father and a mother still prevails in many households. So whenever a family divides labor among its members so that while one parent takes care of the children the other can go outside to work, it easily and routinely falls upon women to take care of the domestic sphere which, in turn, undermines women’s economic independence and growth.

“It’s comparatively easier for men to engage in work that demands longer working hours or climb up the career ladder sooner because the wife takes on a larger portion of responsibilities at home,” Rajju says.

Some occupations and certain jobs are popularly tagged as being gender-specific. Service posts like teachers, assistants, or secretaries are thought of as more suitable for females. A growing body of research also highlights how females can perform better in such jobs as compared to men. But these are also the jobs that pay comparatively less and include fewer chances of climbing up the vertical career ladder.

According to Rajju, though providing equal education and access to opportunities are some of the prerequisite steps towards lessening the gender income gap, they are not adequate. “Only when the societal norms and expectations related to women and their roles can be changed for the better can women pursue better career path and, for that matter, make more money,” she says.

Rajju, who decided to work as a teacher because that would enable her to juggle between her work and family life,  hopes that this gender disparity in terms of career opportunities and wages will lessen in the upcoming generation. “Fortunately, times are changing and it’s not necessary that our children should do what we did. My son may very well share household responsibilities with his wife and my daughter may do great in her career,” says Rajju who has been equally training her son in household tasks as she is doing her daughter.

One of the reasons women earn less than men is also because  what women traditionally do inside home goes unpaid for and is a monetarily unrecognized labor. All these factors put women in multiple disadvantages when it comes to pursuit of career in the labor market and wage earning. But whenever it comes down to wages, it seems quite unfair to tag females as a low wage earning group when women are the ones who are found working relentlessly for hours in a row, first at home and then at the workplace.

Published on: 10 October 2014 | Republica