Problems and challenges faced by construction working women in chennai

The main objective of the study was to understand the problems and issues faced by urban working women in Tamilnadu. The objectives also included identifying the key socio-economic attributes contributing to women’s status, safety and security, and to study women’s involvement in various activities/ organizations for improving of family, community and society. The study was confined to the urban working women in white collared jobs in the construction of Chennai, Tamilnadu. A mixed methods approach involving face to face interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaire technique including both close-ended and open-ended questions was chosen for effective elicitation of data from the respondents. Methods triangulation was adapted for establishing validity and reliability of the study. The study was based on primary data collected from Chennai city to find out the possible solutions for working women which could help them to overcome the problems that they face in the workplace. The results of the study showed that different age group of working women have different kinds of problems and challenges and different categories as married, single, divorcee, single parent, separated, have different issues at stake in the workplace. Some problems are definitely common, like mental and physical stress, lack of proper balance between employment and family care, unfair treatment in the workplace, stressful life and work place discrimination etc. But some challenges are age or category specific, like prejudiced and stereo typed thinking, safety and security issues, ego hassles with colleagues, and problem of glass ceiling etc. Some probable solutions for problems plaguing urban working women that could help them to overcome the problems that they face in the workplace are proper safety and security measures by the parent organizations, sensitive and supporting partners at home, effective child carepolicies and appropriate grievance redressal mechanisms for women in place at the workplace.