AWL County has an interesting employment system for stay at home moms. Realizing that the first 6 years of life witness the highest brain development activity, that Quality Early Childhood Care & Education directly impact an individual's later ability and that women with their nurturing, mothering talent are best placed to nurture the children's potential, AWL County pays the women to stay home and take care of their children. It has a salary structure that varies with the education and health of the mother and an incentive system that rewards initiative and patient behavior. Women in AWL County don't try to compete with the men in Corporate Jobs. Instead, they compete with themselves to be the best mother they can and thereby earn handsome salaries. Given that children exposed to Quality Early Childhood Care & Education turn out to be smart and productive citizens, the county more than recovers its investment in the stay-at-home moms' salaries. Women have dignity because they are being recognised for the work they are doing. Every year, innovative parenting practices that raise happy and inquisitive kids win rewards, thereby creating community heroes out of the mothers. Women are highly satisfied and motivated because they are doing what they are inherently good at and not trying to compete with men in jobs where they have an inherent disadvantage.
Further in AWL County, women also carry the portfolio of Home Ministers. Each Home Minister prepares an annual budget and have annual productivity targets. They work with their suppliers to drive down costs, innovate constantly to drive down operating costs and maintain quality and customer satisfaction at home through on time delivery and excellent culinary products. Again, they are recognized for best practices and those who achieve their profitability targets get to invest their profits in pursuits of their liking. Every year their, the top 5 Home Ministers are fetted and their name put on a roll of honor. Past winners come to felicitate that year's winners and the whole community applauds successful Home Ministers.
Ofcourse, AWL County does not exist but my guess is that if ever it did, it would not have seen the advent of the Women Liberation Movement. The reasons why women left their homes and their children to compete with men to gain respect, dignity and an affirmation of their value would not have existed in the first place.
AWL County also affords some ideas on how the idea of Dignity for Women could have been achieved at a lesser cost to families, children and women's happiness. Fact is that women are good in some areas - really good. And men suck in those faculties. Exceptions, of course exist everywhere. Similarly, men are good in some areas and womnen suck in those.......Ever been stuck behind a woman driver in Mumbai?
If we had just recognized each others strengths and done what we are best at, maybe we would have had a much better world. Now we just have them working harder and harder to prove to themselves that they are as good.........when they could have been great mothers, teachers and home makers and be recognized, valued and cherished for it!
2 comments:
If I remember correctly, in his book on Economics, Samuelson also talks about considering the effort put in by home makers while calculating a nation's GDP.
Ok, now I can attack !!
Are you saying that men suck at parenting and women suck at office work ?
Also the assumption that women work for dignity is a bit off..I can speak for myself and I work because I like to be able to put my brain to use - you know the paul graham's bit on doing what you love :)
actually there is too much wrong with your piece - and rsponding will take much too long..trust me, even if somebody paid me my cuurent salary and asked me to stay at home to take care of my child, I would still want an outlet and I would still want to build a business, or something else..
and yes abt the bit on women drivers - guess what my husband just hired one -AFTER interviewing both a man and her..and the reasoning was simple..the lady was pleasant, well behaved, smiling, in addition to being able to drive as well as the guy..the guy was not bad, just not as "nice".
In my company in Thailand, - our country manager works remotely (also heads Indonesia), ALL of his 5 area heads (production, finance, sales, etc) are women, even at the next level there are more women - in fact in the company there are more women at every level - the consequence - IMS Thailand is the best performing country in APAC- we have been the best performaning country 4 quarters kin a row - and not the least because the team is more hardworking, less poilitical, more able to support each other irrespective of personal benefit..
Finally, the bit on parenting - sure fathers and mothers parent "differently" - but neither sucks - both Ajit and I are equally comfortable doing all the tasks for Trayi and she in turn is equally close to both of us - I am sure if a smilar awl COUNTY INITIATIVE PAID either PARENT TO STAY AT HOME - THERE WOULD be atleast a few fathers who chose that as well..if society eliminated the stigma associated with stay-at-home dads, I am willing to bet that a significant proportion of those staying home would be dads!
Shweta
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