MUMBAI: Women in India are surrounded by a multitude of imagery and opinions, as they face judgement from both their family & well-meaning friends. The common perception is that urban millennial Indian women are different from their peer in Tier 2 or 3 cities. In a lot of advertising and popular media, millennial women are often portrayed in the same vein as generations before them – seen as mothers and daughters with their role being of prime importance.
POPxo India’s largest digital community for millennial women deep dived on the idea of what it means to be a modern Indian woman, desires to want more from life and how has their priorities changing. This gave birth to the central idea of the POPxo campaign for Women’s Day: #POPxoWomenWantMore.
POPxo surveyed over 7000 women. In addition to this, the POPxo community created 865 questions and 236 polls. Data was collated across POPxo English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bangla. Examining the questions asked, the polls taken, the team delved deeper into the millennial woman’s thoughts and stance on life: how they prioritize life goals, how they balance the expectations their families and society had of them with their own.
KEY INSIGHTS ACCORDING TO THE SURVEY:
• Top priority is ‘It's just me, myself and I’ – 60% of women on the platform said in order to stay mentally and physically healthy they made themselves their first priority. They found this enabled them to be much better people in the family, relationships, and the workplace.
• Financial independence, higher education, trumps marriage or parenthood on major life goals – Women, across geographies and languages, have strong reasons to prioritize financial independence, higher education, etc., over marriage or parenthood. In fact, a strong thread that emerged is that women increasingly want time to themselves. More than 45% found it problematic that brands or society still speak to them as if marriage and having children is an end-goal, and not a choice.
• Self-independent now – Only 10% of women said they were dependent on their partners. Refreshingly 40% said they were not dependent on anyone.
• Motherhood is my choice and decision – On the topic of health and reproduction rights, a question was asked “Do you think it’s your choice to have a baby or not?” And more than 70% women felt it was their decision to take the step. 20% felt it was a decision between them and their partner, and only 10% felt that they had no say in it at all.
Other key insights according to the survey:
On Work & Life
• Only 26% said their husbands share the workload at home
• 74% said they could not say no to work-related calls after working hours
• 74% don’t have access to a daycare centre near their workplace
• Just 28% have ever had to pass up on a promotion or a job because of a personal/family commitment
• 52% visit a place of worship during menstruation
On Marriage
• 70% women said having a child is entirely their choice
• 67% would like to live with their in-laws after marriage
• 60% said they wanted to take their husband’s last name
• 92% women believe a wedding cost should be split between both the families
• 44% said they are mutually dependent on their partners
• 40% said that they were not dependent on anyone
On Sex
• 74% women said they discuss their likes and dislikes with their partner
• 44% women said they surf porn
On Fashion & Beauty
• 82% women feel they are judged on their personal style of dressing
• 53% feel they need to dress a certain way at work to avoid unnecessary attention
• 71% don’t feel the need to follow their family’s opinion when picking their wardrobe pieces
• 46% women said wearing makeup makes them feel more confident
• 33% women still feel pressured to look for fairness products
