March 8th has been fixed as the date to celebrate Women’s Day by the United Nations. Every year the day has been observed on a selected theme. ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a Covid – 19 World’ was the theme of 2021. This year the theme is ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’.
But if we analyze the reality closely, we find, most of Women don’t even know that a day has been celebrated in their name every year. And in the societies where the conditions have gotten better, women have been suffering, struggling and bearing the double burden to prove themselves equal to men in order to get equal opportunities and acceptance. They often have to speak louder than men so that they are heard. A slight mistake from a woman’s side in the professional field gets generalized and people start commenting on her feminine traits and her inefficiency in general. The end result is a woman has to prove herself better than the best man in that field in order to get accepted in any public space – be it career, politics or leadership in social and religious organizations. 21st century has seen a Modern Version of Slavery of women in the name of Equality that has led her to just merely imitating Men and overpassing the true value of womanhood which had much greater potential and deserved more than Equal.
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It is this Equality slogan that decides how a woman should walk, how much she can eat, what should be her complexion/ height/weight etc. The problem lies in the way ‘equality’ has been interpreted. To most of the progressive women ‘equal’ means identical. Thinking/dressing/ walking/hairstyle/jobs/ eating … all should be the same as men
There’s a lot of difference in saying, “I need the same opportunities and acknowledgement as men” and “I want to be like men.” This statement “I want to be like men’ raises the questions on the very existence of Woman, thereby putting question mark on the Creation of this world, especially the creation of woman.
It is worth noting that the whole creation is created by the One Almighty Creator in pairs which is essential for smooth and effective functioning of the World. Woman is one such creation which is very much essential for the world with her unique identity, qualities, skills and responsibilities.
Today this unique identity of the woman is lost with extra burden of responsibilities on her amidst the slogan of ‘EQUALITY’. This slogan did not make women free from their domestic chores, child rearing and educating as well as taking care of the elderly but added the extra burden of proving to be equal to men by earning equally for the family. This is grave injustice to her.
There are shortcomings in every human being and women are no different. We must get rid of the identity stigma, popularized through televisions and media, which makes a woman to believe herself as inferior thus prompting her to imitate man. This competition between man and woman should end. There will be certain areas where women will prove to be best while other places Men will excel.
Is not the responsibility of bringing new life to this world much greater than the responsibilities which man carries? Is it possible for a Man to get this task done or even share this responsibility with the woman? Hence it is said “Women are created not to do what men can do but to do what even men can’t do. Is not humanity is indebted more to women as mothers?
It is sad that feminist organizations have taken the extreme stand of even denying the natural feminine roles and giving importance to them. This resulted in governments not giving much importance to facilitating these roles. Even now, women are not hired if pregnant or married to avoid the loss in giving maternity leave etc. If at all hired, they are not given any consideration in this regard. Girls are made to suffer a lot in the higher education field due to non-acknowledgement of special feminine needs in the infrastructure within the campus.
The real woman empowerment would be when she will be granted ‘MORE THAN EQUAL’ maintaining her identity as woman with her uniqueness, her potential, her desires, her attire. So that she is successful in her personal, social as well as career life. She need not sacrifice her marital age in pursue of career or her dupatta for constructive job or her hijab for attaining her education
Accordingly, there should be regulations and arrangements in every sphere of life – schools, colleges, market places, offices, public transports, parliaments, panchayats – where women can find their place comfortably without losing their identity or role as woman or stressing too much on her feminine nature and needs. Women deserve extra love, care, attention facilities, reservations security for her freedom and empowerment along with maintaining her identity. Women and girls should start challenging why being feminine is worthy of ridicule; why get rid of stereotypically female traits and why women must be the same as men in order to be treated with justice?
