A phenomenological study of women in India striving to achieve work-life balance in finance with competing priorities

There is a common phrase used in India, Na Stree Swathantrayam Arhati, which translates into women not deserving independence. This ideology gives women a disadvantage at an early age in life. This study strives to strengthen the ability of women that are enduring disabilities, gender issues, and inequality in the home and work place. There has been increased research on the topic in India especially due to the increased discrimination against women in the country. Women’s empowerment can be viewed as women gaining control or power over their lives and this study strived to gain that. This particular study is based on the 4 questions discussed in Giele’s (2008) life course research. The 4 questions cover topics of early adulthood, childhood and adolescence, current and future adulthood. An additional question was added to focus on strategies that women use for work-life balance. The 20 interviews that were administered and completed online were from a wide array of women in the field of finance. Throughout all the interviews one could feel the frustration of how difficult it was to create a work-life balance because of their identity and culture. There were 3 forms of criteria that needed to be met to participate in this study and they included: (a) have to be an Indian woman, (b) living in India, and (c) worked or working in finance. The findings from this study has brought forth 56 strategies for work-life balance and within the 56 strategies nine themes emerged. From the 20 women interviewed 20 of them lived in India. They all had a finance background and were between the ages of 28-54. Overall 15 were Hindu, 2 Muslim, 2 Buddhist, and 1 Jainist. A majority of them were married with at least one child. There were 3 divorcees and 1 widow that participated as well. According to the demographic data 17 out of the 20 women had some college degree or more with one who attended technical school and 2 that graduated high school