In times gone by, male chivalry trumped over male chauvinism. During those good old days men did the earning and provided for the family, while the women did the more mundane task of being home makers. Very few women ventured to work in offices and were bread-winners. Housewives dutifully carried on their roles of cooking, tailoring, crochet and tending to the needs of the home. As for men, rarely were they called as male chauvinist pigs by their fairer counterparts. Save for a few, women by and large did not even seek to venture into higher education. The men were the pillars on which the institution of family stood and men remained fiercely the heads of the families.
Then as times went by, in the 1970s and 1980s, women began to venture into the formerly male domain of education, even higher education and many of them succeeded in finding and holding offices of repute and power, thus establishing themselves to being worthy contenders for holding posts of honour and respect that encouraged others to follow suit.
Today if you go to any office, girls and women outnumber men and the role of the home-maker has turned to one of being earners and providers not only for themselves but also for the family too. Today not only in lower education, females have matched men in terms of numbers and in intellectual and scholastic performance. Women continue to be competitors in the field of education and also the modern girl or women are becoming increasingly independent.
In all educational faculties and all aspects of human endeavour, women are increasingly making their presence felt and have given the men a run for their money. However, the fall-out of this modern tendency has been the erosion of family values and the disturbing trend of instability in the institution of family which formed the core of society in days of yore. What is required now is despite the self-assertiveness, the inculcation of tolerance, humaneness and belief that independence can combat the tendency to vitiate the modern malaise of selfishness and restore the sacrosanct aspect of family values.
Those taking the marriage vows should not only say `I do’ but should also be able to surmount differences through good times and bad times, which form the cornerstone of the marriage vow, thus reinforcing the traditional roles of the family with responsibility and leading to the formation of a well-knit unit that strengthens society and builds a firmer human race. Let independence not stand in the way of building a strong society that is fair and just to everyone. Let materialism not be an impediment to fulfillment.
