GE13: What women want

In today’s tough economic climate, it is a necessity for women as well as mothers to work to help maintaining the family income.

But juggling work and motherhood is no piece of cake. These competing dual roles often come with a high price of huge emotional stress and physical exhaustion.

Nevertheless, despite making it easier for women to juggle their life between work and family, they still face different kinds of problems.

Maisara Ismail, 30, a government servant expressed her disappointment saying that gender discrimination and sexual harassment at work place still exist up until now.

After working for six years, Maisara observed that it is difficult for women to get a promotion compared to men and she couldn’t see a reason why this should be the case.

“I see men easily get promoted to certain position they desire but as for us women, it seems like the management don’t think we are good enough to take up higher position and responsibility.

“This is gender discrimination and I feel this is not fair as we have the same qualification and we worked really hard and therefore should be given equal treatment,” said Maisara.

Getting promoted is not women’s only issue.

According to her, sexual harassment at work place still exists even though we are living in the 21st century where people are supposedly to be civilised.

“Sexually explicit language and jokes are considered as normal by men. But we as women, are not comfortable with it and I find it very rude,” she added.

Women have always been the target for sexual harassment and crime and it is an endless issue where women are demanding for effective solution.

“I think there should be more mobile police station in the city. Not all women work on normal working hours. Some of them have to work until late at night,” said Elyzawati Syafril, 32.

“The police should consider our situation and put more officers to monitor and observe the public walking on the street late at night. This could at least make us women feel safe. I mean, I could be the next victim!” she added.

Another main problem voiced by the working women living in the city is traffic congestion. As much as you want to avoid it, you can’t.

Jasmine Lau, 44 said, more public transport should be provided in order to solve this issue.

“The public transport should be more efficient. We women have a lot of works to do especially the working mothers. We have to work during the day, pick up our children at school, attend to husband and children’s need, clean the house and do the laundry.

“Therefore we need to use all the time we have so that we won’t be neglecting our family. I’m facing this problem myself and I rarely get to spend quality time with my family. Traffic congestion delays my work,” said Jasmine who works as a sale assistant.

Two years ago the government launched the women-only taxis and women-only train coaches a year earlier. This is an effort in preventing sexual harassment and to give women the option of travelling separately from men so that they would feel more comfortable and safe.

Senior Executive, Suraya Nafiza has been a loyal public transport user for almost nine years.

She said the ladies-only coach introduced by the government two years ago is a good effort but the real public transport problems still exists. Timing and attitude.

“The train never arrives on time and this makes us working mothers face a lot problems. Women work to help boost the family economy and to provide comfort for the children. If we’re late to pick up our children from the babysitter due to the delayed train, quality with family will be affected.

“We will be tired as we have to wait for the train and sometimes have to stand. Imagine this situation for a pregnant woman. I used to be in that situation and when it’s getting nearer to my due date, standing for a long time is impossible,” she said.

As for Qurnisha Hamka, 24, she is more concerned on the healthcare issue.

“As we know, women’s body has a lot of function and it is not the same as men. Yes, both men and women get fever and other kinds of sickness.

“But women can get pregnant, deliver and it is a long process. Women are more exposed to other types of diseases and therefore they should get more medical attention.

According to Qurnisha, the government should provide healthcare programs for women all ages as they have a lot commitment – work, family and household work.

Working women, especially working mothers are the ultimate multitaskers and are often taken advantage of.

So what can we do to ease their workloads and burdens? Perhaps by listening to their complaints and grumbles because let’s face it. What would the world be like without these amazing multitaskers?