Argh, Enough already with women empowerment! Time to move on....

The image shows Shiva, an Indian Deity in his Ardhanarishwara form. He is the symbolism of ultimate masculinity, but you will see in the Ardhanarishwara form of Shiva, one half of him is a fully developed woman. ‘Ardha’ is half; ‘Nari’ is women; ‘Ishwara’ is lord, Shiva. This is basically trying to manifest that the masculine and the feminine are equally divided within yourself. This article is not about lecturing you, why women’s rights are important or asking you to pick up a banner and start marching on the road, or start posting on your social media accounts or get into a debate with strangers that might end up into a fight.

Hi, I am biologically a woman and I am writing about this to better understand myself, what I want as a woman for myself and from society.

Let me begin from the beginning. The creator of this mesmerizing world must have given a thorough thought before creating these biological differences in every living entity on this planet, though sometimes looking at this world with my sarcastic eye, I do feel, Creator just spilled his/her coffee while writing his/her notes. Anyways, moving forward, these biological differences served only one purpose, to create a new life, supposedly Creator didn’t want to just stop at Adam and Eve, and thus he/she also strategically placed a ‘shiny red apple’ with a warning. I would have certainly done things denied to me. In those early times, mankind was mostly involved in hunting and gathering for survival, the most suitable employee for this job, certainly was Man with his inherent capabilities, where women had to stay behind to take care of the offspring and create a healthy environment overall.

1. Now, I have a question for you to contemplate within,
2. Is a women’s job any less than a men’s job here?
3. Can we reverse the roles?
4. If yes, for how long?
5. And can all the members in the society will be able to do this, at all times?

Answer those questions to yourself, while we investigate further. So, slowly with time, inventions, discoveries, and renaissance, we have evolved into a sophisticated society. Where we aren’t any more dependent on the strength of the muscles but our intellectuals bring bread to the plate. Thus a level playing field has been created, where sexes don’t matter anymore. Now it’s about the quality of work one can do, whether a Man or a Woman, ideally it shouldn’t be a concern at all but we are still getting there, where we will stop bringing genders in between.

Hmm, now I am wondering, I hope so you all are too, that if it was all that simple, then where is the problem? When and How and Why women started protesting for their empowerment? The very problem lies with us, our thought process, and our very nature of wanting to place certain things/people on a pedestal and start praising them. Same we did with the various job roles, some roles were better than others and were respected more. Clearly, those job roles which fetched more money. Our whole existence now revolves around money, we are slaves and it is our master, certain features of our cultures too revolve around this one factor. We want to openly accept it or not but that is the truth. We will promote the gender who assures to bring this money, well sure it’s difficult to survive without it. But not at the expense of dominating the other gender.

We compared the gender, who brought the food on the table with God, and forgot about the one who made it sumptuously delicious for us to savor it. We undervalued the role of the women in the society because she had to silently accept the role she was granted by the nature and she continued to lovingly nurture it, without asking, What about me? We took all her contributions for granted and pitted her against the power of almighty money. That she had to now cry and shout and voice out for her basic HUMAN RIGHTS (not women’s rights). She was asking for a dignified life, to be respected for what she is or what she wants to be.

Now, the only way she sees to get that respect is to compete with men in a man’s world, imitating them where it is not even required, striving and struggling, breaking her chains to win, so she can finally enjoy some respect and honor.

All we needed was a sense of HUMANITY, to respect each and everyone’s place and role, which is unique. Today, countries talk about women’s participation in the country’s economy and how it can be amazing for double-digit growth. Umm, what is our aim with higher GDP numbers, this ever-increasing economy? Facts prove that growth doesn’t necessarily trickle down to development. It will still be filling some countable pockets and people at the bottom of the pyramid will still be striving to meet their basic needs. Now, women are also in the same race, as they are fighting for equality. In this whole process, the greatest suffering will be for the children involved.

I also want to mention here that, every woman cannot go out leaving her children behind, as all of them do not have that necessary support back at home or nor she can afford it. Here, we need to respect her for who she is and not look down on her because she cannot bring a green paper for any reasons. Her present contribution is equally appreciable in society.

Let me also clarify here, I am not against women working out in the field, women anyways are always working round the clock, 365 days of the year without promotion, or their names in the Forbes 500. I want men as well women to do whatever they want to do, because they want to do it, not because it’s a race to win against another gender.

How we in our daily lives can maintain a gender balance in society?

I do not want to make men my enemy, by constantly nagging them about my rights, I want their support in the endeavor to create a gender-neutral society, free from the thought that one gender is superior than the other because we will still not achieve anything at the end.

1) Relationships.

It is an area where people often express their most gendered selves. Even in queer relationships, a person with a more feministic inclination is expected to be involved in roles more associated with women in society. Partners need to sit down and discuss who is comfortable executing which role as per their own known conditions and circumstances and needs. And not based on some set rules in the society.

2) Dumping preserving sexual responsibility on women.

Women in society get huge flak on how they should behave sexually and how is it their responsibility to behave in a certain way so that they can ensure their safety. No, we as women do not want to keep ¾ of our brain busy always preserving and protecting ourselves. Please behave humanly. What is acceptable for one gender should ideally be acceptable for another too. Though what is acceptable in society overall, is another debate.

3) Start baby steps, with the Baby.

A baby irrespective of gender should be kept free to explore his/her preferences and shouldn’t be set in a mold, choosing between pink or blue, kitchen set or F1 cars, painting or cricket, Arts or Science, right away from such an early age. If they are set free, I am sure they can teach many lessons to us adults about the real importance of life.

4) Understanding the Biological needs.

We women certainly go through many biological changes in our lives. The weird experience of initiation of our first period in the middle of a school lecture. Experiencing its pain, some even need medical help. Every month working around it, whether it is a school completion, or some household responsibility, or an important meeting that could have boosted our careers, or a simple de-stress vacation. Pregnancy and its various hormonal effects till our menopause. In our whole life cycle, we go through major hormonal variations and the little we ask for is your understanding, that it’s not in our control, if it was we surely would have opted out of it.

5) Balancing Masculine and Feminine.

Well, I saved this point for the last. There are two attributes masculine and feminine, irrespective of the sex one is born in, an individual possess both the characteristics. Masculine by characteristic is firm and assertive, thus the projection seems to be rigid, while the feminine is caring, concerned, and nurturing. We need both characteristics in equal balance to achieve fruitful results. Anywhere, if one is more dominating than the other, we will go off balance. Embrace all your characteristics, irrespective of your gender.

“Respect is the greatest form of love.”