“As someone with a job who is managing a house as well, I feel there are several other women like me who are juggling two roles successfully,” said K. Muthulakshmi, a police constable.
Her statement was met with enthusiastic nods from several women at a session on the ‘Champion a Woman - She will build a nation’ workshop conducted by the Global Adjustments Foundation (GAF) on Thursday.
The foundation has been conducting the Champion Woman workshops free of cost and GAF has so far worked with women from the Tamil Nadu Secretariat, nurses, policewomen and corporate staff.
Speaking about the initiative, Ranjini Manian, founder and chairperson of the foundation, said that the initiative was born out of the need to empower the women workforce and show them that the key to their happiness lies in their own hands.
“We want them to strike a work-life balance and prioritise their emotional and physical well being which will help them overcome challenges both professionally and personally. As part of the curriculum of our workshops, we also address how women should look at themselves as leaders,” she said.
Positive outlook
On Thursday, a valedictory session was held for the participants who attended the workshops held over eight weeks. “While we’ve realised it is important to have a work-life balance, we’ve also been told how to look at life more positively and handle challenges confidently,” said Lakshmi, who works as an administrative officer in the Secretariat.
Usha Ramakrishnan, director, Global Adjustments Foundation, said that while work-life integration was a common thread across all their programmes, they sought to address the motivation and pressures of the job which varies across sectors.
“In the present session where we met women working in the Tamil Nadu Secretariat, many women said that they travel long hours and when we had a session with policewomen, they spoke about their erratic schedules and how they were juggling both work and home. The programmes are tailormade for the sectors and following the sessions, we keep in touch with the participants and keep emphasising on the importance of self esteem,” she explained.
