Radhika Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Edelweiss Mutual Funds has described the work-life balance issue as "unfair" because the majority of those who support extended working hours are men.
“One of the reasons I find some of this work-life debate a little unfair is because a lot of it comes from men. I may get trolled for saying this but the reality of hustle culture for women is very different," she said.
The 41-year-old made the statement while speaking on a podcast about how the hustling culture impacts women. Gupta highlighted the extra mile that working women with children must go, stating that they work 120 hours per week managing their office work, household, and children, Moneycontrol reports.
"Working women who have children work for 120 hours a week, but we are not a subject of national debate," she said on The BarberShop with Shantanu podcast, hosted by Shantanu Deshpande, the CEO of Bombay Shaving Company.
Elaborating how she has to juggle her responsibilities as both a CEO and a mother, she narrated, “Before I go into a board meeting, the nanny will tell me that she's run out of diapers so I'll order it online and then get cranky waiting for an OTP and then someone will be calling me. This is reality.”
Recalling comments by prominent business leaders, particularly Infosys Co-founder Narayana Murthy’s advocacy for a 70-hour work week and L&T Chairperson SN Subrahmanyan’s desires to force employees to work on the weekends, Gupta said, “All the comments about 'let's work weekends', 'let's work 70 hours a week', '90 hours a week'... I've never seen one of these comments made by a woman, because we know it's not possible.”
Despite being in a position of privilege in her life, with "an army of staff," Gupta admitted that she struggles to find time for herself.
"Someone asked me in a previous interview, 'What do you do to be fit?' I don't have time! So all the anti-work-life balance comments come from men," she said.
