Today morning I opened up the news paper and without surprise it was full with news and admiration about women across the world. Obviously the occasion was the 'Woman's Day 2010'. I went through almost all the pages but could hardly find anything other than women success stories. One thought by Swami Vivekanand was quoted somewhere "Progress of the country can be determined by looking at the position of a Woman in that country". Nice thought ! And I felt proud to be a citizen of one of the countries (India obviously) that have offered many activities for woman empowerment.
With this thought in mind I moved ahead with my schedule. But something was still on my mind. Something was stinging continuously : Why are we celebrating the Woman's Day ? I want to sincerely mention here that this thought was not out of the male chauvinism. Haven't we offered enough freedom to women so far? and what does freedom really mean?
Does Freedom mean free to excel in what you are doing / want to do? or does freedom mean that you are free to follow someone? Most of the articles in the newspaper were oriented more towards the second kind of freedom than the first one... Freedom to Follow... and that is what was haunting my mind.
I want to compare Women Freedom with freedom of India. It is always said that India has got political freedom but it could barely get cultural freedom. Still many of the government systems and social structures are following the western countries. Indian population is just trying to follow the western population to show that they are equally good or even better than their western counterparts. I consider same is the situation with women. Most of the efforts are directed in chasing the men dominated areas and to prove that women are better than men in doing some 'XYZ' things. I want to ask one question here:
"Why to be Better when you can be the BEST"
Does Chitale Bandhu (Famous Sweet Maker in Pune, Maharashtra) come out and say that we are dominating the area where women had dominated so far? Does Sanjeev Kapoor ever mention that he is better than any woman in cooking ? Did Kamal Hasan say (Ref: Chachi 420) that he can play leading woman roles better than any heroine? I guess no... these people are just doing what they thing they can do the best. And they are at the top just because of their Talent.
Then why we say "Bachendri Pal is the first woman to conquer the Everest" ? or "Ms. ABC is first in girls in XYZ exam" ? or "Ms. ABC is First President / CEO / Chairman" ? Why do we insist on the word 'First Woman'? Or is it that there was a race between all the women in the world and then these ladies came first ?
I think the answer is NO. These people are excelling because they are talented that way. And we should not take away their credit by discriminating them on the basis of gender. If we say that this specific mention is to motivate other Women then it is acceptable up to certain extent but still it is not fully convincing.
I think we are confusing the two terms Equality and Competition. We are putting more efforts in wining the competition over the other gender than achieving equality with the other gender. Now a days educationalists are insisting more on skill based training. In a nut shell you should enhance the skills you have to achieve excellence, than trying to learn new skills with which others are succeeding. Similarly, I believe we should try to achieve the excellence in what we can do the best.
I think, women empowerment has two facets : Upliftment and Opportunities... thats all.
What we have talked so far is more over about Opportunities. Uplifting the woman in underprivileged areas, conservative societies is something really required and some social activists are dedicating their life towards it. Mahatma Phule (Woman Education), Raja Ram Mohan Roy (abolished the practice of Sati) are few to name who believed in real improvement of women in the society. And we still need more of these people to achieve complete social justice.
Hence to say, while solving the problem we are focusing more on the wrong side of the solution. There should be right balance between the actions. Extremism / Chauvinism of any sense is dangerous. More than fifty years ago social position of Dalits in India was not good. Some efforts and steps towards uplifting their status helped them in gaining certain level of equality and opportunities. But the main tool used to achieve this (Reservations) is now under question. The approach that helped in certain way to achieve equality is itself now creating the social inequality and barriers between the classes. I hope this should not be the future of Women Centric Activities.
Finally focusing on beating the male counterpart is not the solution. Rather women can be best in certain areas based on their individual skills. By the current competition sometimes they can prove themselves better, but one thing should be kept in mind.
"Better is the enemy of the Best"
