Meet the woman entrepreneur giving ‘overqualified housewives’ jobs and financial freedom
Founder of Chennai-based startup Overqualified Housewives, Sankari Sudhar aims to help qualified women rejoin the workforce by connecting them to companies that understand their need for flexibility.
A qualified software engineer, Sankari Sudhar was working with an IT major when her life took a turn and she had a child during the pandemic.
Though her organisation supported her, juggling work and motherhood left Sudhar listless, tired and unable to cope. Add to that recovering from C-section birth and dealing with post-partum depression, which left her overwhelmed.
Sankari Sudhar, Founder, Overqualified Housewives
So, Sudhar decided to quit after eight years of working as a techie and focus on the home turf. However, things got worse.
“When I decided to quit and take a break, I thought everything would be alright. But every day came with the feeling that I was wasting my potential by not doing anything. I felt a strange sense of emptiness,” Sudhar, who graduated from Madras Institute of Technology, tells HerStory.
She started looking for flexible work options but not many companies were willing to hire her. She also scouted through freelancing websites but there was immense competition.
“I used to be angry and emotional all the time. But one day, I read a piece in a newspaper that said India has the highest number of in the world. I understood I was not alone. These are the invisible women with very few opportunities coming their way,” she says.
When discussing it with her peers, she realised that many women were in a similar situation and at their wit’s end wondering why their qualifications were of no use.
“Everyone talks of accountability of resources, attrition, and people not committed [to their work], but there are so many women who are qualified for jobs and willing to work hard and take ownership; only if they had some leeway with flexibility. If companies are ready to offer the flexibility of time and place, we can connect them with skilled women ready to commit to the opportunity,” she explains the genesis of Overqualified Housewives.
Launched in August 2022, Overqualified Housewives has provided opportunities to over 600 women to date and upskilled 2,500 women to reenter the workforce. Over 26,000 women have registered on the platform and it connects them with 600 companies, mostly startups and SMEs.
Fighting the motherhood penalty
Starting out, Sudhar got some leads using LinkedIn where she had built her personal brand. However, not all companies showed the same commitment towards women.
“Some thought that since it was a women-only platform and women were looking for jobs, they could offer very low pay. One person who approached me said he was looking for a content writer and would pay Rs 5,000 a month. There were others looking for resellers or insurance sellers,” she says.
But one thing was clear right from the beginning. Sudhar wouldn’t entertain jobs like data processing, reselling or insurance buying on her platform. Nor would she onboard clients who offered to pay far less than the women deserved.
Started with roles like content writing, graphic designing, social media management, digital marketing, customer service roles, and admin operations, the platform now offers jobs in business development, testing, project management, and others.
“We offer both freelancing and full-time options but it again depends on the woman’s interest. If she can give 8-9 hours of her time, her application will be processed in a different way,” she adds. She notes that most companies return to recruit more women.
Other than LinkedIn, Overqualified Housewives uses other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to onboard women looking for jobs.
“The process is simple. Interested women can register on our website along with their resume, listing out their experiences and other details and reasons for the career break. Depending on the data and whenever there is a requirement and a skillset match, we call them for a connect,” she elaborates.
She reveals that there are women with PhDs looking for jobs on the platform, which breaks her heart.
“If they choose education or certain industries, they don’t get the flexibility they are looking for. They are also underpaid. Then there are the women who are allowed to study, but not go outside and work,” says Sudhar.
Upskilling is important
According to her, women are unable to find work even after being “overqualified” because of the mindset of women being the “nurturer, carer and giver” and their primary duty to care of her children. While companies offer maternity benefits, some also believe that women become less committed to work once they have children or take a break. Some companies even reject profiles when they see women had babies or children.
Sudhar admits that it takes time to find jobs for certain roles, sometimes even months before women find something that matches their requirements. This is where upskilling helps.
Overqualified Housewives organises regular sessions with experts from different fields to help women gain new knowledge and skills to navigate the workforce after a break.
Jobs and financial freedom
Platforms like Overqualified Housewives help women not only find jobs but also enable them to reclaim their self-confidence which usually takes a beating during a long break from the workforce.
Bhagyashree calls herself an overqualified housewife with an engineering degree. Placed in an IT major after college, she had to quit because of family pressure to get married. Seven years later, she found herself struggling to find her self-worth. She tried her hand at tutoring but lack of timely payments dampened her spirits.
“I came to know about Overqualified Housewives and registered on the platform. I was not sure of what I was looking for, but the team hand-held me at every step to help me find a job that matched my qualifications and expectations. They arranged an interview with a client and I got a chance to start my career from scratch,” she says.
Ashkar Gomez, Founder of Chennai-based martech company 7 Eagles, has placed three women from the platform as interns. After this period, they will be absorbed as full-time employees.
“The women are hard-working and eager to learn. For a month, they were trained on various functions with the team leads guiding them. We look for women who are passionate about rejoining the workforce and are already talking about their skills, intentions and abilities on social media. We are open to recruiting more women from the platform,” he says.
Sudhar wants to onboard more women and businesses onto the platform and also focus on upskilling and reskilling programmes. She also wants to guide women to start their own businesses.
“This will enable them to recruit more women and create a self-sustaining ecosystem,” she signs off.
Edited by Kanishk Singh