Five hours of work, three hours of gratitude

Lately, my newsfeed has been ablaze with outrage over certain remarks by the head of Jamaat-e-Islami. His latest statement is that if his party comes to power, women will work for five hours but be paid for eight, with the employers footing five, the government kindly covering the other three. How generous! And for women who choose not to work outside the home? They will be anointed as "Rotnogorbha mothers" (women who give birth to successful offspring). As for the rebellious ones who dare to work a full eight hours? They will be "respected." Magnanimity personified!

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‘Women to get full day’s pay for 5-hr workday’

All this should not have been a cause to get our eyebrows in permanent scowls, but somehow these words just don't sit well in the stomach. First of all, why this attempt to micromanage women's working hours? After managing to elbow us out of all discussions on the future of our country, why this encroachment on how long we should work? Should the government decide how many hours women should work, or should women decide that for themselves?

They work to contribute to family income, to pay for parents' treatment, to put food on the table, send children to school, and yes, to meet their own needs. Why are we even explaining this in the year 2025? It feels like we have time-travelled to an era when it was considered "unseemly" for women to earn a living.

It is not about easing women's burden as so charmingly hinted. It is about making them invisible. The idea is to let her spend more time cooking, cleaning and tending to her children and husband. But dear saviours of womanhood, here's a newsflash: she is already doing all that and bringing home a pay cheque. In today's economy, few families survive on a single income.

Then there are women who are the sole breadwinners of the family. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 17.4 percent of households were headed by women in 2022, up from 16 percent the year before and 15 percent in 2020. Being widowed at an early age, husband's chronic illness or disability, being abandoned by husband, divorced, having a husband who just refuses to work or is a drug addict—there are a myriad of reasons why a woman does not have a husband to rely on. Working is for survival, to feed the family.

And what if it is not for survival but because a woman wants to utilise her degree, her creativity and her intelligence, or just wants to be financially independent? If women are limited to working only five hours, why would any employer want to hire employees who will work fewer hours? Who will take on the extra three?

This is not "honouring" women, it is a disingenuous way to push women back home where "they are supposed to be." Ironically, there is no talk about women not going out to vote because that would mess things up, wouldn't they?

Also, what will happen to the women working in the informal sectors—agriculture, domestic work, construction—who work many more hours than the eight-hour shift? Will they be also relieved of the burden of labour?

While these proclamations are disturbing and conjure images of women excluded from all public spheres, like in Afghanistan, it is hard to believe that the people of this country will accept a Bangladesh where there will no longer be any women in any professions, such as medicine, banking, law, or in the RMG sector. How will hospitals run without women nurses?

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‘Will reduce duty hours for mothers to 5’

At present, around 43 percent of working-age Bangladeshi women participate in the labour market, not the most ideal percentage, but at least a considerable presence. Latest BBS statistics show that a very large number of women have dropped out of the workforce due to various factors, with a decline in the number of jobs available being a major one. This is not good news for a developing economy, and you don't have to be a feminist to realise that. Equal participation of men and women inevitably allows an economy to grow and thrive. It is plain common sense and a fact in the modern era. All over the world, countries are adopting policies to make work environments more conducive to women with better child care facilities, longer maternity and paternity leaves, work from home options and so on. Even in Bangladesh, organisations and companies have adopted these changes to encourage more women to join.

So, before making these proclamations about "what would be best for us," self-appointed saviours must wake up from their Rip Van Winkle slumber. We are in 2025, not 1825. Let women decide whether they want to work five hours or eight, or be stay-at-home moms (who, by the way, work 24-7 without any pay and very little recognition, if any). This is what is called choice, which is part and parcel of a democracy—something all political parties claiming to serve the "new Bangladesh" would do well to remember.

Aasha Mehreen Amin is joint editor at The Daily Star.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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