By: Maha Ali Rizvi
This beautiful creation of God! The angel on the earth makes our life a wonderful experience altogether. Imagining life without a woman is quite hard hitting. This angel shakes the cradle with one hand the earth with the other hand. That all the great people of the world are born from the womb of a woman, and it is a woman from whom those great people have taken their initial teachings. And that is the reason we have always emphasized giving due respect to women in their life. And that is why women’s day is celebrated with so much zeal and it has spread throughout the world.
“YOU ARE CHANGEMAKERS,”-HILARY CLINTON
Society is better when women are not taken for granted and are given equal respect. In the olden days, women were confined to the home and could not step out of the house for work. Household chores were their only area of work. But today’s society has seen a lot of changes. This generation values women and trusts with amazing responsibility. Women are given equal potential at work and may stand among and sometimes ahead of men in many fields. Today, women have realized their strengths and abilities and are ready to step out of their home, contributing to the success of their home and the entire society. They are indeed making the world turn heads towards them. Before it was not possible and now, it is possible and they are doing it today. You can see women reaching greater heights and even traveling to space. They are entering all fields and are making success everywhere they go.
On International Day for women, huge sentiments are expressed about the power of women and many proverbs and poems directed towards women. It is nice to have a special day for yourself where you are glorified to a point of being dazed, honored, awarded, etc.
Women’s Day is a celebration of the achievements of these women and millions more.
It is a celebration of the great achievements over many years of struggle to ensure that the role of women in society and public life is recognized and affirmed.
It is a celebration of the many women who have excelled in fields from which they have traditionally been excluded, who today occupy positions of authority and responsibility.
It is a celebration of the great strides being made by young women in the fields of farming, medicine, science, arts, entrepreneurship, and politics.
All this is fine. Then let’s talk about the day after all this hype about women’s day subsides when I am brought back to mother earth–My true place.
Women face significant barriers to progress at every stage of their careers. Explicit barriers, such as rules and laws that act to constrain women’s activity, continue to exist in today’s world. Still today, in at least 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working. How can we expect to get women into leadership positions if we can’t even get them into the workforce? More often, though, the barriers are less obvious–informal rules and norms of institutions that seek to exclude women. Men are more likely than women to have networks that connect them to high-status others and pull them into leadership opportunities. We’ve all seen this in action. Unfortunately, pervasive and long-held gender stereotyping can mean women are simply not as readily associated with competence, decisiveness, and assertiveness, and are thus overlooked for leadership roles. As women are more likely to face the difficulties posed by juggling work and family life, they bear the adverse career consequences that can result from taking maternity leave and seeking flexible or part-time work options.
When women have the power to make their own choices, they will benefit because the chains of poverty will be broken, families will grow stronger, environmental awareness deepens, and socially constructive values are more likely to be handed down to the young. This experience has been validated in the life of communities on every continent, and yet women remain in many parts of the globe as an undervalued and underutilized human resource, as the President has just said.
Not that women have trouble finding work. Often they do — the vast majority of the work — but don’t own land, aren’t taught to read, can’t get credit, and don’t get paid. Women have made great progress in obtaining legal recognition of their rights, but frequently, even when the laws on the books are just, the reality and homes — in homes and villages are not.
Appalling abuses are still being committed against women. And these include domestic violence, dowry murders, coerced abortions, honored crimes, and the killing of infants simply because of their born females.
Some say all this is cultural and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.
I say it’s criminal and we each must stop it.
Some of my favorite personalities are very empowered women in History. Princess of Wales Diana (other than being a royal she was a humanitarian), The very famous author J. K. Rowling (whose novel “Harry Potter” was rejected many times, but she did not give up and is now one of the best authors in the world), Benazir Bhutto (the first thing one remembers about Bhutto was her everyday bravery. It was reflected both in the choices she made, not just restrictions thrust on her, but also with the state of grace she faced down what she couldn’t change in her circumstances. Her 28th birthday was spent in Sukkur jail. It was not a life she had expected, but not one she walked away from after the trauma and tragedy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s arrest and judicial murder. Instead of running from the onerous responsibility of fighting an open-ended battle with a martial law regime that looked like it would not relent in its persecution of the PPP, which she led, Benazir Bhutto soldiered on), Emma Watson (We all remember her as the nosey, busy-body Hermione Granger in Harry Potter, but in recent years, British starlet Emma Watson has been hard at work breaking down gender stereotypes. Her “gender equality is your issue too” speech delivered at the U.N. was a landmark moment for women’s rights. Watson has also launched the viral #HeForShe movement, been appointed a U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador),
Ratan Tata’s quote about how none can destroy iron except its rust rings true here. One’s mindset and lack of self-esteem can do more harm to one’s self than any other thing in the world.
Added to this is the indisputable fact that most of the times, it is women who are obstacles to women themselves
If you have seen lobsters lying together after they are caught open in a basket, you will wonder why they don’t escape. It is simply because every time a lobster tries to climb out; the others pull it back.
I have been witness to my women friends and the attitudes they encounter from their families; women from various strata of the society whom I interact with and their helplessness in doing things that you and I would consider regular and normal – like taking up a course of higher studies or finding a new job or even styling their hair differently. I have been beyond shocked because young girls who want to study and have a career are forced to get married and have no choice or say because of lack of support from their mothers, fathers, families, and society. This is happening today not 100 years ago.
Here it’s not just women’s support that will matter, but men’s support also without which true empowerment cannot be achieved. For men play very important roles–ihFather, Brother, Grandfather, Uncle, Husband, Son, Teacher, Advisor, and Friend. The influence and mindset of all these roles are extremely vital for the true empowerment of a woman.
Small things like encouraging a daughter to find her dreams and helping her achieve them; appreciating the efforts and helping a woman at home; treating all children equal boy or girl; making a woman believe in herself and increase her self-confidence by letting her take some important decisions; making a woman feel safe and other considerate gestures shown to women at the basic unit called family, will impact the society positively and tremendously more than any lofty women’s day celebrations will.
While stating all this I would like to thankfully acknowledge my mother, my dad, and my family and their role in supporting me, developing my confidence, treating me on a par with my brother, while encouraging me to believe that I was better if not equally good as anyone else in this world. This faith reposed in me, helped me stand up for myself and rise time after time, despite innumerable setbacks, failures and falls in life and still be able to stand tall and face life courageously with enthusiasm and a smile.
“Let’s all rally together to make International Women’s Day something that is not just on Monday—but frankly, feels like every day of the year.”- Meghan Markle
I am a realist. I know that–yes – at the moment the scene all looks chaotic, full of contradictions, even longer on the symbolic and short on the workable solutions. But that’s how the waves always start. And then a sweet spot is hit where energy and analysis combine into clear demands for change. That’s where we are headed.
Happy International Women’s Day!
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