BENGALURU: The Indian Women’s Health Report 2021 surveying 1,000 working women aged between 25 and 55 across seven cities has revealed that 91% of Bengaluru women face a conflict of interest while balancing personal and professional obligations.
The study was conducted by Emcure Pharmaceuticals in association with Ipsos Research Pvt. Ltd (Ipsos India) with an objective to gain insights on the social, cultural and medical outlook of working women and eventually find solutions involving various stakeholders. The study also revealed that about half the women surveyed were not comfortable talking about one or more women’s health issues due to the prevalent societal taboos and the stigma associated with them.
The survey was done in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Namita Thapar, executive director, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, said, “When we launched our YouTube talk show, Uncondition Yourself, this January around women’s health, we realized that getting women to come on the show and talk about their health was a big challenge. This prompted us to conduct a study and ramp up our initiatives around awareness and diagnosis. Despite the progress we have made in the corporate sector for involving women in the workforce, issues related to women’s health are still associated with irrational taboos. The findings of our study reveal the persistence of misperceptions and illogical societal taboos related to women’s health issues affecting even India’s white collar women across sectors."
Through the survey, women working in white-collar jobs shared details of the stigma they face related to health, and how it all led to social pressures and professional issues.
The key findings showed that 90% working women face a conflict of interest while balancing familial/ personal and professional obligations. While 77% women were found pressured to prioritise family over work in Bengaluru, 82% working women observed their colleagues, relatives or friends drop out of the workforce, the main reasons being health issues especially pregnancy/child care.
Further, the report showed that 82% working women in Bengaluru have faced stereotypes or judgements around periods such as being told not to go near sacred spaces such as places of worship or kitchen or even being told to hide their sanitary napkins.
The findings highlight that commonly occurring issues such as PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), breast cancer and endometriosis are still subject to taboos and stereotypes. This shows the current state of women’s health in India in a poor light.
The study indicates that besides the health issues, there are multiple professional and societal stereotypes women are exposed to, which can lead to stigmatization, affecting their professional performance.
The study has found that even though nearly half the working women surveyed are either diagnosed with or know someone else diagnosed with issues such as infertility, breast cancer and PCOS, they are still hesitant to discuss these health issues.
However, working women also said that their employers were taking initiatives to help address health issues.
The survey found that 52% of working women across the seven cities find it difficult to manage health with work. Among various sectors, the number was highest at 67% for women working in the retail sector.