ABSTRACT
A few years ago, when Hyderabad was witnessing the “software boom” and also the influx of increased numbers of women in the software industry, I was invited by a leading software organization to deliver a lunch hour talk on work–family balance to their women employees. When I suggested to the organizers that they could also invite their male employees, as the juggling of work and family responsibilities was something they too could discuss and reflect about their experiences, the organizers politely but flatly refused, saying that it was “a women’s issue”! I too then politely declined the invitation as I did not wish to reinforce this myth that work-family responsibilities were only a women’s issue.
