Photo Credits: SUNDAY- page 2- column
We moved into the twenty first century fairly easily. Things just went from one moment to the next. We shifted gears and most of us didn’t even pay heed to the transition. Transitions did take place and most were quite radical. Today, the call of the hour, as we all hear it, ‘The Empowerment of Women’. What is this empowerment we are all talking about? Does it mean, women all over the world should turn into power hungry individuals with a penchant for freedom? Do we throw off our responsibilities, shove our husbands in the kitchen and go out and earn the family meal? (The stereotypical undertone is being used to drive home a point and is not intended to propagate any gender roles as a norm).
Empowerment means to give power and/or authority to someone, and when we talk about women’s empowerment then, are we actually trying to say that ‘NOW’ after all these years, our women need to have a tad bit of power and authority over a few things? We are still not an empowered sex, and that is evident from the atrocities we are victims to on a daily basis. Here, I am not even talking about the countless rapes and murders we are used to seeing written about on the papers, just the basic right to live, free of judgement and a male chauvinistic mentality which is surprisingly not only a mentality held by men but a number of our backward thinking women.
Male chauvinism as a woman? Well let’s think about this hilarious little fact. This is something I have seen when a woman is looking for a ‘nice girl’ for her darling boy. She wants her to be simple and pure, free from any blemish, she needs to be God fearing, not God loving but fearing!! Oh and she just has to be thin and tall and beautiful! With a footnote saying that caste is not such a big deal. Now this is empowerment, is it not? I have the power to demand miss perfect for my boy, no questions asked. I had this very hilarious and extremely overwhelming experience recently. A meeting of single girls and boys, you know, to find your perfect match… there were hundreds of people, and I say people because you can’t really categorize 50 year old men as boys can you? From various walks of life, and I say this because most of the lovely ladies there could hardly get past the fact that the men they had to converse with felt that it was fine that having past the 10th grade, it was their right and privilege to approach nothing less than a girl who had ‘at least’ a graduation. At the meet another dilemma we girls faced was, ‘Do we approach the guy and ask about him or would that be interpreted as us being to forward’ or ‘do we wait for someone to come and ask about us’. Sadly, the boys were very shy, so not much of mingling actually happened.
The question here, ‘What more is a girl to do?’
We hopped on the ‘empowerment’ bandwagon!! We studied as much as we could, we got amazing careers helping us earn enough to provide for ourselves and a few others, we became independent, and we have learned that we can rule the world!!! And then we turn thirty and then we are told ‘now settle down with a nice boy, have a few babies and life will be perfect’. The problem our society is facing with regard to this is that we are so very confused about what we are to do. Empowerment, in my opinion is a mixed message. It says, ‘Women folk, you are weak so we are giving you power. Men folk, appease the women, we’ll hand over a few of the responsibilities, but if you want, there’s the bar, let her work now, you chill’. The better message would be ‘We have equal rights, and it is a joint duty for us all to make this world a better and safer place.’
We are changing our words but are we really changing our mentalities? Today, both, women and men are confused. First, we need to do away with the stereotypes, second we need to educate every woman about their rights, third we need to promote equality and finally dear government, and we’d like you to put into practice what you fly around the world preaching.
