I Joined A Company With No Women: Indian Man Shares Happiness in Finding Women-less Workplace

An Indian man on the social networking site Twitter (rebranded as X) gleefully expressed that he has finally joined a company which has no women and all his colleagues are of 40+ age, so there is no drama, no politics and all can focus on work. By using the word “finally” the man indicates that he has been searching for a company or workplace without any women for a long time. It is not clear if the entire company is free from the monster specie of women or only the office building that he has joined. (The whole thing could also be a lie but let’s play this for a bit.)

The idea of women-less workplace is deeply problematic because it essentially means that all women should be at home and should not participate in the labour force. Everybody knows this and this guy cannot be that dumb. Therefore, it appears to be more of a clickbait post rather than real opinion or event. In which case, it has worked greatly in his favour. Posted by the handle @MauryanPentool the Tweet has received 383k views, 10k Likes, 660 reposts and 325 comments at last count.

Women News took a cursory look at what people are saying in response. Here is what we found:

Hindutvavadis and Men’s Rights Activists

It appears that the Original Poster and his followers and commentators are mostly belong to right-wing Hindutva camp and are men’s rights activists. Several of the accounts are busy congratulating him, many are asking for a referral so that they too can join this company, many are asking what company is this?

Absence of Women Means No Sexual Harassment Case

Alarmingly, many of the commentators are suggesting that a women-free workplace would ensure that there are no false sexual harassment cases under Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace. One such commentator carried the handle @Ronin_siff in which SIFF stands for Save Indian Family Foundation a men’s rights group rather popular amongst insecure men most dedicated to keep the in-equal patriarchal family system intact. These men believe that the way to stop women from filing cases of sexual harassment against their male colleagues is to abolish women’s right to work and send them all to home.

Women News does not with to dignify such pathetic creature by outraging against them.

How About Home Without Women?

Thankfully, there are a few women who have called out the man’s misogyny. Dr Bhumica Agarwal (@imahappysoul12), who has a PhD from IIT Roorkee, tactfully suggested that there must be no woman in his home too and it must be very peaceful. It is a rhetorical question which actually conveys the double standards of such men who cannot work along side women at a workplace have no problem going back home to enjoy the benefits of having a range of women, mother, sister, wife, daughter, providing unpaid labour of cooking and cleaning for them.

Massive Misinformation Disinformation Related to Sexual Harassment Cases, Alleged False Cases and the Law

A thread of replies below Dr Bhumica Aggarwal’s Tweet shows that men spread a lot of misinformation disinformation regarding the so called “false cases” of sexual harassment filed by women. An account user Prashant Maurya suggested that the OP is talking about avoiding false harassment allegations to which Dr Aggarwal replies, “For a few false harassment cases, is it fair to limit working opportunities for women? I have worked for about 13 years now and haven’t heard a single case. Or should we have women-only offices now?”

In reply to her, another user by the handle @Standard_circle says, “Limit opportunities for women? Heck even in tier three colleges many companies have their placement drives for female only candidates. Even in FAANG companies female candidates are given more preference than males even if they do not match up with their capabilities.”

Firstly, there is no evidence of which tier three colleges have placement drives for female only candidates. Even if it is true, such initiative are much needed to increase women’s participation in the labour force. Women’s labour participation in India is one of the lowest in the world. Lower than South Asian countries Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, also lower than Muslim country Saudi Arabia, African country Somalia (Source: World Bank). India ranks 165th globally in female labour force participation (Source: India Today).

Until 2018, the LFPR (Labour Fource Participation Rate) was just 26% which has now increased to 37% but this increase is driven by rural agricultural labourers. Those for whom the POSH Law almost do not have any meaning. They do not have the means to file cases and actually face much more sexual violence in their daily work life but do not have any access to justice.

The number of women who are in corporate jobs where the POSH law applies is already very low, within that most women do not report harassment because they know it is difficult to prove, and those who still bravely file a case, they cannot get justice and in return are vilified as liars who filed false cases.

Compared to the total number of men who work in this country, the total number of women who work, out of whom those who are in corporate world, and out of that those women who ever file a case, the chances of a false case is miniscule. And yet, the men cannot deal with a world where women have some recourse to sexual violence. Yet men cry about harassment.

It is laughable.