“Stay inside your home after 8 pm”, “Don’t travel at night without a male partner”, “Why are you wearing such short dresses”, “No manners- speak softly”, “Stay in your limits”, “Avoid making male friends”, “Dare I see you opposing him again” and the list goes on.
The speaker here is our “Dominating Male-patriarchal society” and these conversations are being addressed to each and every woman compelled to be a part of this society!
For ages, women have been oppressed and their voices have been silenced. They have been exploited both at workplaces as well as homes where they are expected to give their service for the sake of the “family” and in return may/may not receive the love and honor that they truly deserve.
As per the reports of World Employment and Social Outlook — Trends for Women 2018 — Global snapshot, “As of 2018, the global unemployment rate of women, at 6 percent, is approximately 0.8 percentage points higher than that of men. This translates into a ratio of female-to-male unemployment rates of 1.2 in 2018.”
Society has framed many jobs to be such that are supposed to be done or taken up by women, for instance, the “Care sector”- which includes household chores, cleaning, raising kids, nursing. As declared by the UN Women report, women makeup 70 percent of health and social sector workers and do three times the amount of unpaid care work globally.
Domination by masculine society is paired with the oppression that is physical, moral, structural, and symbolic. Physical oppression includes domestic violence, forced sexual abuse, mutilation. Women often face moral dilemmas of opposing insults, humiliations for the sake of keeping their families together. Various institutions like government agencies, schools, office places are responsible for restricting women from entering fields of STEM, military, entrepreneurship, etc.
Symbolic violence is the main cause of discrimination faced by each group. Men are supposed to be earning a living while women are encouraged to raise their children. But why is the opposite not thought of as normal? Even if a man is willing to take up the responsibility of “his own child” and let his wife take up managerial roles, he will be judged as ‘inferior’,’ parasite’, or ‘unqualified’. When you talk about women’s empowerment, why is society biased towards masculine counterparts?
According to Gilligan’s theory, the male voice emphasizes independence (“separation”) and responsibility for oneself, whereas the female voice emphasizes interdependence (“connection”) and responsibility to others.
I emphasize the fact that “Women are by no means less than men, it’s just that they do not get the right opportunity”. In my opinion, if you want to give a reservation to women be it politically, socially, managerially, etc, make it 50% instead of 33%(and give chance to deserving candidates). I bet the world will be a better place to live then!
In the end, I leave you with this verse from Guru Granth Sahib:
“We are born of woman, we are conceived in the womb of woman, we are engaged and married to a woman. We make friendships with women and the lineage continued because of a woman. When one woman dies, we take another one, we are bound with the world through woman. Why should we talk ill of her, who gives birth to kings? The woman is born from a woman; there is none without her. Only the One True Lord is without a woman” (Guru Nanak, Var Asa, pg. 473)
