Stress management & working women

Women all over the world are working hard to meet up with responsibilities and caring  for people around them. It is very impressive when i encounter women who go out of their way to earn a living no matter the difficulties and challenges they encounter. Sadly there are still people who believe women should not work but just sit down at home and do house chores only. Such people will still turn back to attack such women when things turn ugly and the family financial burden on them becomes unbearable.

Sometime ago i was a guest at a radio show in Abuja who focused on women and empowering them . The topic that day was on helping women start their own small business without much stress and ruffles in their marriage. Most men who called in to the show misunderstood what our focus was and thought we were pulling women out of their marriage to focus on chasing busines ventures.  Not at all. I guess, most old school men who believe women have no brain will always jump to irrelevant conclusion each time they hear about women using their brain to be resourceful in life.

Infact the topic was very clear but i guess the men who just want to tie their women to a rope at home just do not want to hear about a woman being resourcesful in any way. Why can’t women use their skills and Talents to be useful to themselves, families and the society at large? What is wrong about a woman starting a business she can operate from her HOME?  Such women are supposed to work from their home, self employed, managing their work time and yet some people feel this is wrong or would i say abnormal? Give me a damn-good- break here folks.

It was also heart warming to get calls from men  who disagree totally that women should just sit and do no work.  One man practically said that it is funny when a woman ask for money for pepper, salt etc from the husband every day. Absolutely correct my brother!  It does not matter how rich you are…do you truely feel happy every day you wakeup in the morning and before you leave the house your wife will say-  ‘’Papa Emeka…Oga Mi….Megida…I  need money to buy lipstick, pepper, salt,  sanitary towel, do my hair etc?’’

Today, I explore how great women who are into the corporate world deal with stress and still come out successful.  One of the causes of stress for career women still boils down to the ancient culture/ attitude that women should not be seen doing corporate jobs and that women  have no brains. So when people with this attitude meet or encounter talented/intelligent women in their various work places, they make life hell for them. They ensure that they fraustrate such women out of their top positions and this struggle to prove themselves and reject the rejections from the opposite sex create lots of stress for such women.

Last month, a business  partner and Texas based Life and business Coach expert interviewd me on his talk show.  He, unlike African men strongly believe women should be empowered and their work places made comfortable for them just as their male counterparts. When i made it clear that husbands who are married to career women with top jobs should be supportive and help out at home, he agreed and also said that men who support their wives at home are the ones that are ‘’REAL MEN’’ rather than what society call them. He said, African Society call men who help out at home in the area of even making a cup of tea/coffee for their wife or even carrying the baby while the woman is inside the shower –‘weak’ unlike men like him who are not Africans.

Women with top careers find themselves struggling to over come work place problems purposely created by those who see women as nobody. This hype the level of their stress and if such women happen to be married or come from family background that have  same frame of mind of putting women down, bad case.  After dealing with office stress, they still go home to tackle another fresh fight. If you are such a woman, be assured that nothing is wrong with you taking responsibility for your life and people around you. The stress will always be there but you must be very tactful, diplomatic at your work place to over come the hurdles. Never fight back when being attacked but FOCUS on your mission of being productive, resourcesful and making an impact. If you try attacking back those trying to put you down as nobody, you get burnt out and lose focus, concenteration on your job vision/mission and that is exactly the aim of your attackers. When this happen, you get sick, or even get fired. Be Nice to those you work with, delegate duties to lessen your work load and keep your head up…always and if the stress gets out of hand that you can’t handle seek help from experts.

Days are gone when you see female executives covering up their psychological and emotional problems.  I see lots of people in our country enjoy watching, reading and following real life stories of  others in the U.S, UK, ASIA etc who are bold to talk and share their weakness but here in Africa, all they do is conceal theirs and pretend it does not happen and dying in silence.

Listen, an executive under stress can never function well both at home and at work place so why do you pretend nothing is happening to you? Seek help…talk to  stress management experts who can help you unravel the cause(s) of your stress and help you manage or eliminate it.

You see female executives most times over reacting because of little issues, and you wonder ans ask–  how could she throw a tantrum because of such  irrelevant isssue?  She is not getting her acts together because she is under serious stress and bottling everything in the inside.  Most married female executives have lost their jobs, marriage due to stress and burning out from work load and marriage obligations.

Sadly people in this part of the world play around with stress and feel it is a minor issue till it hits them hard.  I have this paper i deliver to all executives(both males/females) on Stress Management and each time i get to how  stale romance /marriage creates stress, almost all delegates gets heated up because half of them have either experienced such or presently suffering from what i am talking but never knew it could destroy their marriage/love life.

Do not allow stress to destroy you. Let us talk more on this on twitter- @jacquiworld. Stress kills SILENTLY!!!!!

JACLYN IWU