Why bother about Women's Empowerment? Are Masculine and Feminine 2 separate entities?

Image from Pinterest

The image shows Shiva, an Indian Deity in the 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 a mesmerizing portrayal that the masculine and the feminine are equally residing within oneself.

This article is not written to sound like a bashful lecture on why women’s rights are important or asking people 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 as a debacle. Though, these are some steps and efforts creatively employed to spread the voice, but I think we should start thinking past genders in our lives every freaking day-to-day moment.

Hi, I am biologically a woman and I plunged into this omnipresent topic to better understand myself, and what I really want as a woman from the society.

Let's ponder for a bit, we all do that once in a while. 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, extremely judgmental eye, I do feel, Creator just spilled their coffee while writing the draft and editor too was dozing off. Anyways, moving forward, these biological differences in my mind are here to serve only one purpose, to create a 'new life', supposedly, Creator didn’t want to just stop at Adam and Eve, and thus Creator also strategically placed a ‘shiny red apple’ with a warning. I would have certainly done things denied to me (giving a second thought, yeah surely!!). 

In those early times, mankind was mostly involved in hunting and gathering for survival, the most suitable employee for the job involving heavy lifting, certainly seems to be men with his inherent capabilities, so the women had to stay behind to take care of the offspring and create a healthy, pleasant environment overall. Today, we see a certain decline in the fertility rate, as on a serious note juggling with children and monetary/aspirational goals becomes quite exhaustingly laborious. There are many more reasons for the decline, to name some, financial insecurities, disintegration of joint families, lack of responsible child care facilities, increasing aspirations of women to make their mark in this world, etcetera.

Now, I have a question for readers to contemplate within...
Is a women’s responsibilities any less than a men’s responsibilities here?
Can we reverse the roles?  
If yes, for how long?
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. With inventions, discoveries, and renaissance, we have evolved into a sophisticated society. We aren’t any more dependent on the strength of the muscles but our intellects bring loaf on the plate. Thus, a level playing field has been created, where sexes doesn’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, I hope we get there, when we will stop bringing genders in our conscience and just be respectful in our gestures with all humans regardless. What a pleasant world would that be.

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 core of the problem lies with us, 'our tendency of idolizing.'  With job roles, we glorified some roles were better than others and were respected more. This troubles me even more, because countless people are genuinely and silently working towards the welfare of society, the real philanthropist, without tax benefits survives on meagre wages. Our whole existence revolves around money, we are slaves and it is our master, certain features of our cultures too revolves around this one factor, being a patriarchal society, wishing a male child etc. We will promote the gender who assures to bring the financial security, well sure it’s difficult to survive without it. But not at the expense of dominating the other genders.

There are people who work for the means that can be used to buy the basic necessities or the luxuries, the commercial markets has to offer, and the one who shapes it, beautifies those basic necessities, such as food into a meal, or a humble abode. If the latter part is paid services, all feels satisfying, because the time put into work, have been provided with the feedback and sometimes with appreciation. 

What if the latter part is taken for granted, without any respect or appreciation. That is the story of most of the homemakers, is it justified? Just humanely contemplate this, someone's time for work is paid, and someone's not! Ain't both putting their heart, soul, blood, tears or sweat in it? As we discussed earlier, because of the biological differences the unpaid part of homemaking fell into women's lap which she silently accepted and continued to lovingly nurture it, (do you think paying it will still make it a pleasurable nurturement, which we all silently seems to savor it) without asking, What about me? We took all her contributions for granted and pitted her against the power of almighty money. 

Now, she is crying and shouting and voicing out for her basic HUMAN RIGHTS (not women’s rights). She was asking for a dignified life, to be respected for what she is, what she does, or what she wants to be.

The only way she sees to get that respect is to compete with men in a man’s world, imitating them when it is not even required, it shouldn't have been the goal at all. Striving and struggling, breaking her shackles to win, so she can finally enjoy some respect and honor.

All we required was decent sense of humanity, to respect each and everyone’s place and role, which is unique. Today, politics talk about women’s participation in the country’s economy and how it will be uplifting for double-digit growth. Umm, what is our aim with higher GDP numbers, the ever-increasing economy? Data proves that growth numbers doesn’t necessarily trickle down to development of the lowest. 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 is unable to financially contribute because of her other responsibilities. Her present contribution is equally appreciable in the society.

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, its a shame many don't even have their names etched on the house name-plate. 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 other genders.

Steps we can take in our daily lives to bring in gender balance in the society?

I do not want to make men my enemy, by constantly bashing and blaming them about my rights, (when it is a historical wrongdoing). 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 already set gender rules in the society.

2) Preserving sexual responsibility isn't women task.

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 th of our brain busy always preserving and protecting ourselves. Please behave humanely. 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 mould, 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.”

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