Women in India exit over work-life balance concerns

More women in India are quitting their jobs due to prioritising work-life balance, while only 4% of men are affected by this option, findings from a recent study showed.

As the recent Women in India Inc HR Managers Survey report by the Centre for Economic Data at the Ashoka University and Udaiti Foundation revealed, the top three reasons for women leaving their organisations were due to wanting higher salaries, better career opportunities and work-life balance.

Men, on the other hand, were concerned over salary concerns, career opportunities and future employment direction.

“This suggests that policies to retain women in the workplace need to specifically address this issue,” the report said.

The survey also revealed that some organisations still took the marital status of female job applicants into account during the hiring process, with 38% of HR managers doing so for women in comparison to 22% for men. Other factors that were taken into consideration against women included age and location (43% and 26%, respectively) compared to men (39% and 21%). 

“We find that hiring managers are far more likely to consider a female applicant’s marital status and age when considering her for a role, compared to a male applicant, which can create barriers to hiring more women. We also find that women who have taken a career break face significant challenges in being hired if they try to re-enter the workforce. This underscores the fact that merely establishing gender-neutral recruitment practices will not guarantee gender-equal outcomes,” the study noted. 

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“The right mix of policies at the workplace will enable women to stay on, advance in their careers, and contribute to the growth of the organisation,” Dr Ashwini Deshpande, Professor of Economics at Ashoka University, said.