Here is the gist of what I'm going to say, hopefully. Not so nervous like my schooldays, of course.
I'm so and so...I finished my B.E. in Electrical and Electronics in 2000 and when I joined my course, there were many who advised me to change my branch as soon as possible. They knew that Electrical was just not meant for girls; it was too tough for us to handle the labs and other assignments. But I stayed on and incidentally our batch had the highest number of girls in E & E. Then I joined a Financial Software company and I've been happy with my choice of career all these days.
But I have seen stereotyping of women at workplace quite often. Apart from other things, there is a very strong conviction in people's minds that for a woman, the top 10 priorities are all to do with her family and a career or work-satisfaction comes a distant eleventh. Another popular myth is that because women are soft creatures, they are not capable of managing tough guys in their teams and much less the hardships of a difficult assignment. I've heard these thoughts spoken aloud and while love for my work is my primary concern, one of the secondary-joys of my life has been to prove them wrong. I'm just one of those many ordinary women who are capable and sincere workers, one of those ordinary women who are sensitive managers, who multi-task all the time. But more importantly, I think women have this capability of knowing when not to bring their egos in front of them which restores order to many chaotic situations in the workplace. So while I don't want any special status or conservation plans for us women, all I want is decent deadlines, the deadlines which don't give me a false sense of being a super-woman.
......
I want to end this with an old joke. There was this woman who wanted to attend her Saturday afternoon club meeting but she also wanted to catch the cooking class being aired by All India Radio. There was this particular recipe she didn't want to miss. So she woke her sleeping husband up and put him to the task of writing down every word of what was being said. She went off to the club and the grumbling husband sat down with a pen and paper and the class began - "Take a deep frying pan and heat the oil...". The next station at the same time was airing Yoga classes and unfortunately these two got mixed up - the Yoga and cooking class instructions. So what the sleepy and faithful husband wrote down finally looked something like this - "Take a deep frying pan and heat the oil...Raise your left leg and cut it into small pieces...Take a deep breath and mix a pinch of salt...Close your eyes and sprinkle red chilli powder generously on them...." and finally ended something like "Raise your head and let it drop slowly into the hot oil". Sometimes, when I feel down, my life looks like this disastrous recipe I'm trying cook but otherwise, mostly it's been a wonderful journey and I've enjoyed every bit of it.
I'm so and so...I finished my B.E. in Electrical and Electronics in 2000 and when I joined my course, there were many who advised me to change my branch as soon as possible. They knew that Electrical was just not meant for girls; it was too tough for us to handle the labs and other assignments. But I stayed on and incidentally our batch had the highest number of girls in E & E. Then I joined a Financial Software company and I've been happy with my choice of career all these days.
But I have seen stereotyping of women at workplace quite often. Apart from other things, there is a very strong conviction in people's minds that for a woman, the top 10 priorities are all to do with her family and a career or work-satisfaction comes a distant eleventh. Another popular myth is that because women are soft creatures, they are not capable of managing tough guys in their teams and much less the hardships of a difficult assignment. I've heard these thoughts spoken aloud and while love for my work is my primary concern, one of the secondary-joys of my life has been to prove them wrong. I'm just one of those many ordinary women who are capable and sincere workers, one of those ordinary women who are sensitive managers, who multi-task all the time. But more importantly, I think women have this capability of knowing when not to bring their egos in front of them which restores order to many chaotic situations in the workplace. So while I don't want any special status or conservation plans for us women, all I want is decent deadlines, the deadlines which don't give me a false sense of being a super-woman.
......
I want to end this with an old joke. There was this woman who wanted to attend her Saturday afternoon club meeting but she also wanted to catch the cooking class being aired by All India Radio. There was this particular recipe she didn't want to miss. So she woke her sleeping husband up and put him to the task of writing down every word of what was being said. She went off to the club and the grumbling husband sat down with a pen and paper and the class began - "Take a deep frying pan and heat the oil...". The next station at the same time was airing Yoga classes and unfortunately these two got mixed up - the Yoga and cooking class instructions. So what the sleepy and faithful husband wrote down finally looked something like this - "Take a deep frying pan and heat the oil...Raise your left leg and cut it into small pieces...Take a deep breath and mix a pinch of salt...Close your eyes and sprinkle red chilli powder generously on them...." and finally ended something like "Raise your head and let it drop slowly into the hot oil". Sometimes, when I feel down, my life looks like this disastrous recipe I'm trying cook but otherwise, mostly it's been a wonderful journey and I've enjoyed every bit of it.
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