Okay, so from the title of this post, you may not be very clear about what it entails? So lets begin with a very common everyday hassle a woman has to go through, primarily India we are talking about, but its true for many of the other countries too.
I’ve heard a lot of men say – ‘I respect women, I support my wife for all household work’ – okay, pause here!!! Although the first impression we get from this is “wow, such a lucky girl to have an understanding husband”
But if we look into more deeply, the first question that arises here is, are you really supposed to just support your wife?
Are you not an equal partner in life and in marriage?
Should you not be a perfectly equal partner in household work too?
We need to change this very mindset of the society – we may talk about women empowerment, reservation, emancipation and what not! But until we are able to change the every day thinking of our society, behaviors within families and orientation towards girls education right from the very beginning, nothing much is going to be achieved.
So, Governments may make a lot of policies like 33% reservation for women in legislature, but how do we truly realize it, if an average middle class family does not teach their daughter to be career oriented, if she is not taught to be aware about her country and the daily happenings, if she is not asked to focus on the bigger areas of life like politics, societal change, democracy etc. Then there is no chance we are going to achieve a good participation of women in this sphere. India lags so much behind other countries when it comes to political representation of women, why? Its not that Indian women do not have talent, there are countless women who may prove to be a lot better decision makers than their counterparts, but do they really get recognition?
Even today, people usually focus on girl’s education only to find a good match for her, or may be just with a purpose that she would be able to better take care of children. At the same time we pressurize our boys to get a job, earn, else they wont get married, can we not change this very basic notion? Is it good to restrict a girl or a boy just because of the pre-existing notion of roles of each gender in the society. Are we not hindering the progress of an individual and eventually of the whole society?
Can we not bring equality in our daily life, in our everyday conversations?
Is it that difficult to achieve?
A lot of men do many things to support their wife, may be they even equally participate in every work, but until they realize and accept the fact – that its not that they are doing good by supporting their wife,
They have to understand – its their home as well, they also eat, sleep and live there, so be it cooking, cleaning, shopping, taking care of kids or in-laws, be it just anything that happens in everyday life, its all theirs too!! Hence, they need to say, that yes – I own it, and I am responsible for half of the things, hence I’d do this, just as a normal sense of responsibility.
I am not sure how many of you reading this article would agree with me on this, but this is something I stand strongly for, and we all must come together to bring such changes at the ground level, right from the childhood, we need to inculcate these values in our children, and likewise make our generation also more sensitive towards gender equality.
