“I wonder why we have a need to shake the world’s shoulders to let them know the importance of the existence of half of its population.”
The first wave of “feminism”, an eminent word buried under the layers of controversy, began in 19th and 20th century to promote women’s legal rights in the West, something that shouldn’t have been denied in the first place. UNICEF declared that Gender Equality means that women and men enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections, although I believe they hesitated from mentioning one thing, being, respect. For those who are still under the covers of obliviousness, practices such as domestic violence still exist which crushes the respect of women under its feet.
While we believe that we live in a modern era with much more acceptance and respect, there still prevails the unfortunate triumph of wage gap. On 14th March 2019, Vogue, a worldwide famous fashion company, released a video interviewing nine of the most famous actresses around the globe including, Scarlett Johansson from Hollywood, Deepika Padukone from Bollywood and Eiza Gonzalez from Spanish Telenovelas. One of the questions they asked from all the actresses was, “Have you ever been paid more than your male co-star?”, and most of them answered NO. Even though they played an equal, sometimes an even better part than their male co-star, one can still find lesser zeroes in an actress’s paycheck. How can the society justify that? We talk about standing up to our bullies but what does an actress do when her bully is the society itself. So instead of shutting other people’s mouth, she shuts her own.
While forming the Sustainable Development Goals, UNDP made Gender Equality as its 5th goal. Why do we specifically need a goal to tell us that maybe giving equal opportunities to a women be a good idea . In 2015, Shri Narendra Modi launched the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, generating awareness about a girl’s right to education, and while the others felt proud of the nation, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in the fact that we need to make people aware to pay attention to educate their own daughters. This campaign itself coveys that the female in the womb is still in jeopardy. But honestly if these plans are helping with enlarging the acceptance capacity in our population then by all means heavily implement it.
Some raise the fact that why there is specific reservation for women in the Parliament and the easiest answer to that is, if the reservation did not exist then women would immensely struggle with getting their own seat. That being the truth, women actually have an immense power and ideas to broaden the nation but these ideas are still veiled under the dark sheaths of politics.
What can a woman offer that a man can’t? A female perspective.
In any kind of working environment, be it an office or an institute, every project requires a female perspective. The point of view of a woman can completely differ from that of a male, bringing new ideas and strategies. With a healthier and broader mindset, a working environment can become less cohesive giving space for other future issues to come up. We often come across such facts like how Australia’s GDP can increase by 11% if the gender employment gap was closed; or how the Australian economy would gain $8 billion if women transitioned from tertiary education into the workforce at the same rate as men.
So don’t ask what a woman can offer but definitely never ask what a woman can’t because such a thing doesn’t exist.
When they say women are brave, I regard that as an understatement because considering the turmoil of the past and going through it, strongly overcoming them in the present, and hoping to stay as strong in the future, that doesn’t only require bravery, but it requires audacity, courage and most importantly dissimulation.
Dear World,
Wake Up and Think.
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading...
Leave a Reply