The document discusses the challenges women in the IT industry face in balancing work and personal lives. As more women enter the workforce, they take on both professional roles as well as traditional homemaker responsibilities, putting pressure on them to balance multiple demands. This is made more difficult by long work hours, travel requirements, and an inability to shift domestic duties to partners. While companies offer some flexible work arrangements, women often still face career setbacks due to balancing work and family commitments. The document advocates for employers to implement more work-life balance policies and provisions to help support women professionals.

1. Ms.Vandana Sharma
Assistant Professor
DMS, DCRUST,
Murthal

2.  Today Work/life balance is a global topic of
growing importance and frequent discussion. The
reality is that most of us are facing increasing
competition for our time and energy.
 One of the significant changes witnessed in the
labor markets in India has been the entry of
women IT professionals in the rapidly growing
software services sector.
 As the women take on the role of working
professional in addition to their traditional role
of the homemaker, they are under great pressure
to balance their work and personal lives .
 Work-life balance , is a satisfactory level of
involvement or ‘fit’ between the multiple roles
in a person’s life.

3.  Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is
defined as a satisfactory level of involvement or
‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s
life.
 Although definitions and explanations vary,
work/life balance is generally associated with
equilibrium, or maintaining an overall sense of
harmony in life.
 The study of work/life balance involves the
examination of people’s ability to manage
simultaneously the multi-faceted demands of
life.

4.  Societal role expectations
 Women’s career ambitions,
 The nature of the IT industry challenges the
way women manage their professional and
personal lives

5.  More women going out to work, there has been
little change in patterns of household
responsibilities .
 Family-to-work spill-over is stronger for
women.
 work-life conflict seems to be quite high in
case of working women.
 They take care of children, older family
members, and other dependents.
 The men, not surprisingly, feel that at-home
mom is the best solution.
 putting career ahead of family leads to social
disapproval and rejection.

6.  projects with tight deadlines
 Extensive travelling
 Long and/or odd working hours
 Holding conference calls outside the
traditional 8–6 workday
 Fast-tracking a software project in shifts
leads to work-life imbalance.
 The internet and mobile phones have made it
possible for the organizations to keep in
constant touch with the employees both
during the day and at night.

7.  working and mothering often affects career
growth of the women at work.
 women tend to take a slow track in their
career growth as a conscious choice as they
feel their families needed them more at that
point in time.
 Workplace support in India seems
conditional. women experienced support
from supervisors, but this mainly occurred
when a woman had proved to be capable and
competent and had earned respect at the
workplace

8.  Flexi – time
 Job sharing
 Work at home programs
 Part time work
 Shorter work days for parents
 Paid maternity leaves
 Paid leave to care for sick family members
 Paternity leaves
 On site or near site child care
 Program for emergency care of ill dependents
 Childcare programs during school vacations
 Re-entry scheme
 Relocation assistance

9.  Prioritizing
commitments
 Personal self-management / ‘reinvention’:
reconsidering not only the kind of work one
wants to do but also the kind of person one
wants to be and the sacrifices one is
prepared to make to grow into that new self.

10.  In conclusion, the themes that emerged from the
review highlighted the pervasive factors that impact
the work–family balance of women professionals.
 The societal role expectations, women’s career
ambitions, and the nature of the IT industry
challenges the way they manage their professional
and personal lives.
 Women do require negotiation both at home and at
work in terms of how and when work can be done.
The fact that work family challenges do retard career
advancement of women professionals, and ultimately
affect the pace of organizational progress to a
considerable degree, has to be acknowledged fast.
 It is suggested that employers need to come up with
various work-life balance-friendly provisions which
can help them in attracting and retaining female
talent.