JOIN USLast month when Patricia Arquette won the Oscars for the best supporting actress, she concluded her acceptance speech with a heartfelt plea for equal pay for women. “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s time to have wage equality once and for all.”
Men and women may be born equal, but world over there is an ongoing struggle for women to be treated as equals. It is significant because we have to fight for rights that are rightfully ours. Gender disparity invades our lives and stays in the many folds of our daily chores.
Our census reads 976 girls for every 1000 boys. We celebrate the birth of boys and continue to suffocate the girls. At this juncture, we need a bit more than a fight. We need empowerment. Even as we busy ourselves doing our daily household chores, there are certain changes that we can bring into our lives and make it better for our little girls, who will be the future generation.
What does it mean to be empowered? The word gets used way too much these days. The dictionary says the word ‘empower’ means to give power or to grant authority. So, to empower yourself you must give yourself the power. The power to be the change you want to see.
At the recent World Economic Forum, Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed how as a country, they thought of a radical way to improve after the civil war. With the right measures and encouragement, Rwanda today boosts of 64 percent of its MPs being women. These women, who hold pivotal roles, have brought about many changes and thereby, influenced the country's continual economic growth. Rwanda is, currently, one of the global leaders in terms of gender equality.
India has a long way to go. A study conducted in 2010 revealed that while 95 percent of Indians believed that women should be given opportunities to work outside their homes, only 16 percent agreed that women should be given job opportunities and educational choices, if it were to be scarce.
It’s your life
The world is full of people who do not treat women with respect or as equals. Taunts, sexist remarks, biased attitudes abound in a woman’s life. While it is easy to drown in self pity, empowering ourselves would be to break free from such shackles and get on with life. Traditionally, there has been an unreasonable set of expectations from women. They are the first ones to rise in the morning and the last to go to bed. Women live in the glorified idea of sacrifice and second-rung citizenship. Few women believe that they can nurture a dream and give wings to it.
Women think that by sacrificing their health, they are helping their families. If any member of the family even as much as coughs, women take it up upon themselves to help the person get better. But when women feel a nagging pain in the head, they choose to ignore it and get on with work. It is about time we stop doing it. It is perfectly legitimate to take a break. Your health should be your top priority!
Be the change
We can start by being our best friend. Just like we are there for our best friend in good and bad times, we can be there for ourselves. By giving our thoughts and ideas their due credit and by standing up for ourselves. As women, let us start believing that we can take up important roles and make those decisions.
Let us take up on those opportunities and challenges. Let us not be ashamed of our physical or mental attributes. We can set an example for our girls and teach them to love themselves, too. As women, we have always put every one in the family before us. While most men take some timeout with their friends, women are, more often than not, restricted to their homes, dealing with meals, kids' homework and just being the soccer mom. In all this rush, women forget that they can have friends of their own – and not just other moms.
Loving and caring for oneself brings in a new confidence. Confidence yields to empowerment. It is about granting ourselves the power to dream, love and care for ourselves. Yes. Gender disparity exists. To this day, men get the priority to finish a meal before women and are the primary decision-makers in most household. Women, on the other hand, manage household chores and jobs that fit into the traditional mould carved out for them.
For this to change, women should be able to grant themselves the power to get over the idea of perfection that is constantly pushed down their throat. By giving ourselves our due, we may actually bring in a social change. As Philanthropist Melinda Gates puts it, gender equality may actually see the poorest of the poor improve faster. Educated mothers are twice more likely to educate their kids. Earning women are more likely to spend the money on their families than their male counterparts. And for that to happen, let us first empower ourselves.