When Women Decide It Is Time
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Many women do not wait anymore for the “right time” to follow their dreams. Life rarely gives a perfect moment. Work, family, children, and responsibilities fill the day. Still, many women are choosing to study again, build careers, and try new things.
Some return to books after years. Some change careers. Some finally follow a dream they had kept aside for long.
Across India, more women are stepping back into classrooms. But the road is not always easy. India’s female labour force participation rate is about 31.7 percent. The global average is close to 50 percent. Many women leave work for family reasons and later find it hard to return.
This is where flexible education is making a difference.
At Amity University Online, thousands of women are studying while managing work, homes, and children. More than 42,000 women are currently enrolled. Over half of them are above the age of 30. Many are learning new skills in technology, management, and communication.
Some are restarting careers. Some are changing them.
And some are chasing dreams that once felt far away.
From Classroom to Cockpit
For Anusha Jain, education and ambition always moved together.
While studying for her BBA and later MBA through Amity University Online, she was also training to become a pilot. Her days were packed. Flight lessons, simulator hours, exams, and assignments.
“Time management was the hardest part,” she says. “Flying training needs full focus. So does studying.”
There were days when she moved straight from a flight briefing to completing an assignment.
But she kept going.
In August 2024, Anusha became a commercial pilot with IndiGo. Today she flies passenger aircraft, something she once only imagined.
“Education helped me think clearly and make decisions,” she says. “Those skills help even in aviation.”
For her, the sky was never the end goal. It was the beginning.
Passion Without Pause
Sujata Iyer’s life moves in many directions at once.
She is a mother. She is also a voice actor, singer, early childhood educator, and founder of a learning platform called Mommy and Me with Su.
Somewhere in between all this, she completed her master’s in mass communication.
“It needed a little hustle,” she says with a laugh.
Live classes, recorded sessions, and online discussions helped her fit study time between work and family life.
“Sometimes I missed a class because of work,” she says. “But I could watch the recording later and catch up.”
Support from professors also made a difference.
“When I had doubts, I wrote to them. They always replied and explained things clearly.”
For Sujata, education did not interrupt her life. It strengthened it.
A Dream Returned
Kabuki Khanna has spent years on stage.
She is a singer, songwriter, and performer. She is also known as India’s first artist working in Indian Opera, a blend of Indian music and western operatic style.
She has performed at major platforms such as Jashn-e-Rekhta and appeared on the music show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in 2023, where she won a silver medal.
For years she also worked as a voice coach. She taught at the Delhi School of Music and later became a voice pedagogist at the National School of Drama.
Yet one dream quietly stayed unfinished.
Her degree in English.
“Not completing my BA always stayed somewhere in my mind,” she says.
Years later she decided to finish it.
“Completing my degree healed something,” she says. “It reminded me that it is never too late.”
Today she also runs the Indian Opera School of Music, where she trains young singers.
Finding a Voice
For Almas Rizvi, education changed everything.
She married young and stepped into family life quickly. Studies stopped. Most of her time went into household work and raising her child.
“I was very quiet in those days,” she says.
Years later, her father encouraged her to continue studying. Slowly she returned to education and completed her graduation and MBA.
Education brought back confidence.
While studying with Amity University Online, she began thinking about business ideas. One idea turned into a startup called Sampark.
The idea was simple. A small tech solution that helps people contact vehicle owners without sharing their personal phone numbers.
It started as late night work and small experiments.
Soon it began receiving around 200 orders a day.
Later, the idea reached national television when she pitched it on Shark Tank India.
“Restarting my education changed my life,” she says. “It gave me my confidence back.”
Changing the Story
Stories like these are becoming more common.
Women are returning to study after years away. Some want better jobs. Some want new skills. Some simply want to finish what they started long ago.
Education is giving them that chance.
They are entering offices, building businesses, creating art, flying aircraft, and leading teams.
Their journeys look different. But the idea is the same.
Dreams do not have an expiry date. And sometimes, the right time is simply the moment a woman decides to begin again.
