Sitting in my office cubicle I often got tired of the monotony, the photocopier that kept jamming and the stale air of the office. It got old really fast.
Whilst traveling my view of work completely changed, and my cubicle started to become alot more attractive and appealing.
It was whilst traveling through the developing world that I got exposed to a different world of working women. They inspired me and gave me a good reason to never complain about my work again.
In the developing world women frequently do some of the hardest physical labor. Hauling water, for example, is classed as women’s work. It was whilst I was in Nepal that I witnessed these women carrying a full size refrigerator on their back, strapped around their forehead!
In the developed world we women are lucky enough to share the same jobs as men (some may not feel so lucky), often working alongside them. Men in the developed world frequently take on their share of domestic duties.
In stark contrast women in the developing world perform the vast majority of work. They often work long hours, as there are no laws such as the eight hour a day rule. Usually these amazing women juggle their paid jobs with their domestic duties.
They are unlikely to have the high tech appliances to assist them with their household duties, such as washing machines.
I witnessed this woman in Pokhara, Nepal doing her laundry on a rock, in a lake. For someone like me who finds it a chore just to load and unload a washing machine, it made me shudder!
Many women of the developing world work from dawn to dusk, sometimes for even longer. I met this carpet maker at a Tibetan Refugee Camp. She had a picture of her daughter on the machine to help her get through the long day.
Witnessing these amazing women, and what they go through during a regular working day hasn’t made me want to pick up things and work the same way, but it has made me thankful for the rights and working conditions that us women have in the developed world.
Yes, I now appreciate my cubicle soo much more – from a distance.
How has travel changed you?
May 23, 2012 at 6:02 am
I did miss my office job for a while and then I went back and after a week I realized that I needed to be far far away from it for just a bit longer.
Ayngelina recently posted..I’m so over hostels
May 23, 2012 at 3:19 pm
That’s funny – the longer the better right?!
May 23, 2012 at 7:42 am
Ha ha… YES! Nepalese women are pretty hardcore. It’s like the women do all the construction work and the men lounge in the shade. I was bowled over by how rugged and heaving the tasks are for them. I was staying in Chobhar and it had a quarry. Women had piles of rocks and they were chipping away at them with a sledgehammerish device and I wondered where all the men were. Wouldn’t wanna be a woman in Nepal.
Christine | Grrrl Traveler recently posted..Is being a female solo traveler easy? …Not!
May 23, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Hi Christine – No I wouldn’t and couldn’t be a Nepali woman! I have a hard enough time moving a few boxes – or, my backpack! I just do not know how they do it and find it hard to imagine how it must feel with a full size refridgerator strapped around my forehead. Goodness knows where the men are! Although I have seen them working on the fields, and in retail – they just leave the heavy stuff to the women