Pak "Career Mentor" Slammed For Remark On Women's Family Emergencies

A Pakistani "career mentor" is being slammed down on the microblogging site X, formerly Twitter, after she questioned the work ethics of female employees. A woman named Sofia Reza shared the post on LinkedIn. A screenshot of the same was shared on X by a cake artist from Islamabad, which made the post go viral.

In the post, Reza is seen mentioning that "female candidates" show up for interviews approximately 50 percent of the time, while male candidates turn up about 80 percent of the time. She mentioned that women use "family emergencies" as an excuse quite often.

Pak Career Mentor On Women Having Family Emergencies

Sharing a chart of "Candidates in Pakistan," Reza wrote that if we had to believe female candidates, half the families across the country are always having "family emergencies." She noted that even senior employees have the same problem and make the same excuse. She sarcastically mentioned that even the WHO hasn’t figured out the "endemic" yet. She went on to urge women to own up, try to improve themselves as professionals, and develop better commitment levels.

As a working woman, the statement infuriates me. No wonder the post didn’t go well with netizens and received severe backlash. Given the prevailing gender roles and stereotypes in society, of course women have higher instances of "family emergencies" than men. Who takes off when the child is sick? Who rushes to the PTA meeting amidst office hours? Who takes on the domestic responsibilities as soon as they get back home from work? Who takes care of the elderly family members at home? Women! It’s always women!

When women are solely dumped with all the household and parenting responsibilities, not just half, then the entire female population will have "family emergencies."

Gender Roles And Stereotypes Are To Blame!

Regardless of whether a woman is pursuing a profession or not, she is expected to be the ideal wife, ideal mother, ideal daughter, and ideal daughter-in-law—she’s expected to be perfect in everything while still financially contributing to the family. To ensure that women don’t realise that they are being exploited and taken for granted, society glorifies women who "do it all" as "superhumans." Sadly, many women fall prey to this glorification and develop the superwoman syndrome.

Due to social pressure and internalised patriarchal minds, women deal with the never-ending "family emergencies" so that men can continue to live normal lives. If men started taking up their equal share of household and family responsibilities, women wouldn’t have as many "family emergencies" as claimed in this post.

This statement coming from a woman who calls herself a "career mentor" makes it a million times worse. It's definitely saddening, but not shocking, given that patriarchy keeps doing its bit to pit women against one another by creating the perception that they are each other's competition, thus killing the spirit of sisterhood.

But what is it going to take for society to realise that women struggling to have a work-life balance are primarily because they lack support from their spouses and in-laws? Even unmarried women, especially the older daughters of the family, are solely responsible for carrying the entire burden of the household on their shoulders. The pressure to get everything done takes a toll on women’s physical and mental health, but they still manage to keep doing it because they never have a choice.

Women cannot say "no," because they are raised to believe they shouldn't. They are taught to prioritise the needs of others over their own, even at the cost of their own happiness and well-being.

If they do, they're judged, shamed, and criticised for not being good enough. Although I’m not generalising, this would undeniably apply to the majority of society. The problem lies with the gender roles and stereotypes in society. When is society going to start addressing that instead of putting down women for not being good enough?

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