Women IAS officials’ experiences and choices differ from men in certain aspects. If you ask why you want to work in the civil service, women of my generation could give the same answers as men; as for beauty contests, you will have standard and unrepeated responses (job security, pay, benefits, prestige), as well as acceptable responses (public service), and higher doves are a good reason alone for male officers since the IAS often dissuades you from marrying. Once women officials have been in the administration, they are still faced with restrictions imposed by husbands, families, and society. In order to create the foundations of a good public service career, field assignments with 24 daily7 responsibilities are needed Women were generally only allowed to take on occupations if spouses and children were not neglected, which meant that they had to visit workplaces just between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
This meant that women officers could be stationed only in metropolises when transferring to the IAS setting without their spouses or other appropriate men’s escorts and could not work or even travel in rural areas and come home in an acceptable hour for household obligations. Indeed, as similar as feasible to what they may have as academics or officers, they had to have lifestyles. The popular mind has such a mind that a chief electoral officer of Karnataka puts each women’s officer on his list in a district adjacent to Bengaluru when he appoints the senior public servants as electoral observators in different electoral constituency areas of the state so that they can all reach their homes and families in no time! He was surprised when I said I’d rather see the election at a place far from the capital, where I could always meet with political party representatives who could complain about electoral malpractices. In postings and career advancement, sexual bias was also common. Those first women officers (Chonira Belliappa Muthamma in 1948 and Anna George in the administration in 1951) who joined the government were induced with reluctance and caution that they would be forced off, even if they married. Although higher civil services were theoretically open for women since the independence. Patriarchal and misogynistic views were at that time extensively used among colleagues, bosses, and public members about the unsuitable status of women at higher official levels. However, these ladies remained role models that inspired the stars to be reached.