Women And Equality

The women, who are working shoulder to shoulder with men and sharing equal responsibilities in real sense, are those who understand what equality is and how essential it is for any individual’s self respect. Because after working equally hard as men to make the ends meet no women would like to be treated as second class citizen. Any sane person would say that these are the women who deserve equal rights. Fair enough.

Now let us talk about another set of women, who are either housewives or working women who earn less than their spouses. Do these women really want equality? A superficial answer to this question would be a NO. With all sorts of domestic help available, if they are just sitting at home, without the burden of rearing the family and not having to deal with hassles of work life, then on what basis do they want equality? And even if they are earning, income is less than what their husbands earn. Thus claim for equality becomes null and void. These are the first few questions that pop up in our minds. Isn’t it?

Forget rural women, they are not even aware about their basic rights. Let us talk about Urban Indian women. Unlike rural women, these women have somewhat better access to education. In school books they learn about equality and how it is not fair to discriminate anyone based on their caste, colour, creed and gender. But as they grow up and step into the world beyond classrooms, they see and experience gender bias all around. This makes them question what they had been taught via textbooks and thus they demand equality.

Now, at this point they become aware of their rights but not about responsibilities, and that is where the root of the debate lies.The concern over here is that if women are not shouldering equal responsibilities, is it even their fault?Are women even aware how they have been psychologically manipulated into believing that“they don’t have to.”

Since women are made to believe they there is no need for them to work hard and men are there to provide for them, that is why unintentionally or unconsciously they resort to the backseat.

In most of the household, since childhood, women are made to believe that they have to get married, raise children and cook meals for the family. After this, if time permits, they can have a career. On the other hand no one expects a man to think of having a career as an option. It is considered compulsory for him to have a career in order to provide for his family. Thus, the kind of mental conditioning one receives right from their childhood does play a major role in making life choices. And that is the reason why we see fewer women at premier colleges or why there are less female cardiologists than male cardiologist and more female paediatricians than male paediatricians.Women are made to believe that they have to devote more time to domestic issues and if they fail to do so they are shamed for the same. That is why women tend to resort to less demanding careers. Since the jobs are less demanding, they are less paid. That is why an average woman earns less than an average man.That is exactly what a male dominant society or what we call a patriarchal society wants.

Since society pays undue importance to its male members, it has also resulted in a boost of male ego. Will a man be okay if his wife has more successful career than he has? Will a male employee be okay if he has to take orders from a female boss? The answer lies in General Bipin Rawat’s remarks when he was questioned why women are denied combat roles in Indian Army.

Contrary to the popular belief that “Feminists made us believe that life is so much worse for women than men”, feminism has actually made us believe that women too, can pursue their ambitions and achieve their goals. The idea of feminism is equal rights for equal responsibilities and feminism urges women to have equal responsibilities. And in the process, if they have to compromise their family life, they don’t have to feel guilty for it. Because looking after children and old parents or cooking meals for the family is not solely their responsibility. Their spouses are equally responsible for it.

(P.S. I am not talking about pseudo feminists who have ruined the real essence of feminism)

It is a fact that the person who earns for the family, or who earns more for the family is subject to more respect because if they don’t bring a paycheque every month then within few months, the family will cease to survive. Just so that society can pamper the male ego by providing them undivided respect, women are denied equal opportunities, labelled incompetent with respect to their male counterparts and thus underpaid for the same jobs, conditioned to believe that men are there to provide for them, and when women raise their heads demanding equal rights, they are slapped with the argument that they don’t share equal responsibilities. My question is who denied them equal responsibilities? Answer: The same male dominant society who is denying them equal rights.

In nutshell, women who share equal responsibilities want and deserve equality. For the women who don’t share equal responsibilities, the cause for the same should be looked into before reaching any conclusion. If they don’t want equal responsibility, the cause may be that that are believed that they don’t need to have equal responsibility. So next time when a woman demands equal rights, before denying and questioning them on the grounds of responsibility, one should ask themselves has society taught them to have equal responsibility?