It’s a subject most close to a woman’s heart. In fact, she’s been dying to talk about it. How to calculate the working hours for a working woman? Caught between a capitalist economy that requires her as well as the man to work and a social system where the burden of child-rearing and house-keeping are entirely hers, what exactly are her ‘working hours’ is indeed her foremost concern.

But that’s not her only problem.

The structural constraints placed on her due to her social role that remains unshared do not allow her a level playing field. There are certain kinds of jobs that are considered out of bounds for her, being exclusively in the male domain. Where she is allowed in, she is expected to put in as many hours, without time flexibility.

In both agriculture and industry where women work as labour, pregnancy, marriage and children are considered a liability and, therefore, women are discriminated against when it comes to wages. The attitudes are replicated for white collar women workers and continue up to the level of top CEOs.

Women who choose to work outside their homes are up against a deluge of stereotypes. For a start, their work is considered ‘second grade’, done solely to supplement the family income while the man remains the principal earner. They are stereotyped both as ‘more’ conscientious workers than men and ‘less’, though the latter impression obviously holds more attention.

At the workplace, they constantly face statements like "men work longer hours than women" and that they the women are keen to rush back home to sort out one problem or the other. And then obviously there is work that "only men can do and women can’t".

A woman civil servant in the district management group explains how she reaches at work on time in the morning and how eager she is to finish her tasks during the entire day -- to be able to reach home in good time in the evening. Her male colleagues, on the other hand, socialise the entire day in the name of ‘meetings’ and start their actual work when it’s time for her to leave and stay in the offices till late. "Somehow, their networking exercises during the day also count as work, and by managing long hours they are able to convince the bosses of how efficient they really are," she says.

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Paradoxically, this networking opportunity which is unavailable to women affects their job prospects and promotions. But they are helpless in the face of the multiple roles they have to assume and with men within the family structure refusing to share their burden.

With time, more and more women are joining the workforce, defying the structural constraints and entering into all fields possible. But this does not change their responsibilities at home. With no day-care centres available, they depend on women within the family, like their mothers and sisters or paid maids or both, to look after the children.

The stresses of a working woman are compounded in a system where the children, the homes and in many cases the ageing parents are left into their care alone. Their jobs that give them a sense of purpose apart from money often leave them feeling guilty for stepping out of the house, for not being with their children.

Ideally, in such a situation, one would expect the organisations to change their work culture entirely. There is dire need for affirmative action from the stage of hiring more women to giving them flexible hours. The work needs to be output-oriented instead of being measured in terms of fixed hours which are, in most cases, only wasted hours; and this is true for both men and women. The workplaces need to be made more women-friendly -- by building day care centres, instituting a transport facility and simply by inducting more women.

Within the family, men need to understand that something must give way -- for the sake of equality or at least a sense of fairness. Because, the way things are, a woman’s work never ends. She leaves the chores at home to go do her day-job and returns to another pile of responsibilities. And all of this comes at the cost of her physical and mental health.

A woman has no concept of a "break" because she never gets any. And yet you want to try calculating her working hours? Go ahead and do it!