Opposite Sexes

In the age of women's lib, it is but natural that men and women should be working side by side in an office, in a factory and at other places of work. Gone are the days of veils and prudery or false prestige. Women are now going ahead clamouring for equal rights. While glamour, primness and show are attributed to the presence of women in. the office, it v/ould also be pertinent to mention that' one would be mistaken to regard women in such places as only pieces of glamour or extravagance. These working women have their own capabilities and adroitness. The perfection of efficiency, that some of the women can reach in some professions or fields like positions of secretaries, receptionists and so on, may well be beyond the comprehension and power of achievement of many a male.

A male colleague, therefore, has to show ade­quate respect and appreciation for the work that is performed or attended to by the women-members of the staff. Women should be treated as equals and it would be advisable for male colleagues to eat humble pie in their relationship with females in the office. The female colleagues should not be kept excluded from the affairs of the staff in which the male mem­bers may take part. If a woman is doing a man-size job, she is entitled to receive a man-size treatment. It is true that in health, haughtiness and physical strength a woman may not sometimes match a man, but that has nothing to do with the quality of work that she is capable of turning out. It would be also wrong on the part of women-members to find fault with their male colleagues and maintain fixed opini­ons about the male sex. It would not be right for women to keep to their shells in the office, or in their own groups. They should have the open-mindedness to work with their male colleagues congenially.

Kindness, sympathy, help, fellow-feeling are the attributes of the two sexes as colleagues in the work­place which may create the proper atmosphere of hard and continuous work. Notwithstanding the different capacities of the sexes, it should not be forgotten that a male member may be exhausted in the same manner as the female member at the end of a whole day's work and so in the spirit of camar­aderie the small tiffs or the little outbursts, if any, should be withstood by both the sexes. Any form of teasing, banters or unreasonable jokes should be made taboo in an office and unless the employees themselves consciously abandon such behaviour, the standard of the office may possibly suffer.