# Pridhi Di intro

I am a woman with a gap in my career. As a mother, I could not gather the courage to return to work after having my child. I come from India, where only 20.3% of women work. They either never start working or cannot go back to work after a gap, and this is because of several reasons, it could be because of social stigma or just the noncooperation of people around. I had to take care of my child in his early years, but now I am ready. I want to break the social stigma of society that women in India cannot go back to work. My addition to Outreachy will also break the common notion that women are only perceived as someone to take care of family and bear children. I am a hard worker and ready to take on the challenge. When I first heard about this program, I could not believe a community that helps underrepresented groups existed; learning more about the program brought hope to my desire to return to work. I have high expectations from this program.

I am at an age where it would be challenging to convince employers to hire me. Several factors are deterrents for women who wish to rejoin work. Women face a battle on two fronts – managing work at home and combating gender bias at work. Female employees often have to quit their jobs to take care of family responsibilities, including childcare, which was my case. Health concerns and maternity leave are the other reasons.
Additionally, women continue to face non-inclusive behaviors at work.
I have heard from peers that overworking or working night shifts has significantly increased their workload. They face regressive attitudes from employers. Not being considered for promotions and not being given challenging work has set women back too. These all could fall in my plate, but the idea of excelling at what I do would be the motivation factor to keep on going.

I am at an age where it would be challenging to convince employers to hire me. Several factors are deterrents for women who wish to rejoin work. Women face a battle on two fronts – managing work at home and combating gender bias at work. Female employees often have to quit their jobs to take care of family responsibilities, including childcare, which was my case. Health concerns and maternity leave are the other reasons.
Additionally, women continue to face non-inclusive behaviors at work.
I have heard from peers that overworking or working night shifts has significantly increased their workload. They face regressive attitudes from employers. Not being considered for promotions and not being given challenging work has set women back too. These all could fall on my plate, but the idea of excelling at what I do would be the motivation factor to keep on going.

I see very few girls/women learning computer science. Only 25 % of girls were part of my course, and most were only studying to get a better degree rather than being interested in working in this field, which is also the case for most women in my culture. I am fortunate enough that my parents are well educated and have always pushed me to do better. This perception has helped me move forward in my life.

6-7 years back, it was challenging to get training for many girls as there was limited internet availability, the web was still evolving, and families were reluctant to send girls alone to take training in person. Therefore, it was much harder to develop a skill than today. So, girls used to drop out of the skill-building practice. Even today, in some places, the notion is the same. Therefore, I feel that I am fortunate to know about this opportunity. It might be insignificant for some people, but it would be a life-changing event for me.