2023: the year for progressive female leads in the workplace

Read time: approx 5-10mins

It's been awfully tiring seeing women in the same typical majboor bahu roles don't you think? Whenever we see working women in dramas it's always a case of harassment or majboori as a secretary and never a leadership or empowering role for women. However, this year we begin to see a shift in female roles with capable women in a male-dominating workplace. Let's take a closer look at how women in the workplace have been head-strong at their job and how they've managed to balance out the work-home life equation...

Kuch Ankahi: Sajal Ali as a real estate agent

Aaliya (Sajal Ali) is shown to be the middle sister and the breadwinner of the house. She works in a competitive male-dominating field, but she works with her head held up high and faces men in a headstrong manner. She is quite capable and headstrong in her field of work, which is refreshing to see a leading lady like her play such a strong character after repetitive female characters that are usually shown to be farik and gossiping at home. She seems knowledgeable in her field of work too, as we see her voice her opinions and be actively involved in business deals. 

It's interesting to see the work dynamics between Aaliya and Salman (Bilal Abbas), or should I say Aaliya vs Salman? Aaliya is quickly progressing in her job up the ladder and is independent enough in the decision-making progress. Salman, however, seems insecure about this, and he perhaps wants to slow down her taraqi or divert her attention by adding marriage into the mix of things?

Aaliya never seems distracted from work or swayed by Asfar (Shehryar Munawar) or Salman's slightly flirtatious comments. They've both expressed a desire towards her, but she challenges them and usually brings the conversation back to work-related. She's never seen pondering or smiling over these interactions for hours in flashbacks. She purely leaves the house to work and support her father. 

Mor Mohran: Sonya Hussyn as an environmentalist

Ruhi (Sonya Hussyn) comes from a small village called Cholistan and goes to Lahore to study environmental science. She returns to her village to use what she's learnt and her dad's reputable position to tackle issues in her village. She is seen as a free-thinking and independent woman who actively tries to make a positive difference in society. She aims to tackle issues such as plantation and water consumption.

Additionally, she helps the women of the village start businesses and builds their confidence with sewing and embroidery work as a means for the women to make money.

Initially, at the start of the drama Ruhi was seen opposite Ghurdezi saab (Zahid Ahmed) as almost rivals. Ghurdezi saab is a local MNA of the area whose first interaction with Ruhi is when he was poaching and she stood in front of him against this. Throughout the drama, as they spent time together and challenged each other's views, Ruhi heavily influenced Ghurdezi saab's ideologies and behaviour towards bettering society. Together, they are seen working on projects and discussing ideas to bring about change in society.

 

Chand Tara: Ayeza Khan as a gynaecologist

Tara (Ayeza Khan) is a trainee gynaecologist who works directly under her mum's (Saba Faisal) supervision. Her mum appears strict regarding work and maintaining professionalism, keeping Tara grounded. We get to see the hustle and bustle of the hospital setting and the emotionally challenging side of the job. Tara is usually seen assisting her mother at work, and whilst they do have their own fun and games at work (which can also be controversial), Tara is equally able to advise patients medically and be responsible for her patients.

Through the character, we also see the challenges of balancing work and home life. There have been situations where Tara sometimes has to leave home in a rush without informing anyone because she must attend a hospital emergency. Tara seems quite committed to her job and caring towards her patients, and this is evident when Tara comes home from work one day upset that she couldn't save her patient's life. This stimulated a very real and emotional response from the character and added greater importance to the emotional baggage people in such professions sometimes have to unfortunately 'take home'. 

The most controversial part of Tara's character at work is her continuous misuse of the ambulance. Tara not once, not twice, but three times uses the work ambulance for her comfort and ease, which flags up irresponsible behaviour. What if the ambulance was needed for a real emergency when she was using it to rush home or to her wedding? This would've been a real issue with the careless attitude. When people see an ambulance on the road and make way for it to pass traffic, it is usually with the concern that it is urgently needed to help someone in a life-or-death situation. Tara normalises using the ambulance for her personal gain- is this her misusing her position?

Jhoom: the flip side of women in the workplace

Dr Maryam (Zara Noor Abbas) plays the role of a surgeon, but this has been so badly portrayed it's quite frustrating to watch her scenes now. Whenever Maryam is at work, all we see is her sitting dazed in flashbacks about Aryan and quite literally a typical girl sitting and doing nothing. It makes it worse that she's at work, and never have we seen her actively doing her job as a surgeon except perhaps when Tina came in at the very start. Maryam never looks busy at work, even typing away reports at her computer, nor does she have patients to regularly attend to. I'm quite surprised her manager has not called her in to discuss her disengagement at work or advise her to take leave for a couple of days.

Similarly, we now see Sidra Niazi as a CEO of an automobile company, but she seems far more invested in poking her lambi taang in her employees' personal lives- this is far from professional. It's nice to have seen a woman as the CEO of a big company, but it would've been nicer to see her knowledgeable and passionate about growing her company, making business deals with rival companies and showing off her expertise in a male-dominated field. But, the story has now gone down the usual path of scheming and plotting women.