Some ask me why do we need Women's day, why not celebrate being a woman throughout the year. If you think like that, I would say you are from the lucky lot. We as a society have come a long long way in terms of women's progress but there is no way we can say that every woman on the globe has equal rights and is not a victim because of being a female. This is a day to review and look back at our struggle for equality and development. If we see the corporate world, companies boast gender equality policies but on average women receive about 40 % less compensation than men for the same work.
I am so glad to be a woman in 2010 as opposed to say 40 years back when women were largely expected to be docile and could only demonstrate her knowledge and skill in the kitchen. Everyday, in normal households, a sister is expected to cook and clean while her brother goes out to play, daughter in laws are expected to eat last, after the men in the family. And still a women’s worth clings to her womb, as they say "motherhood completes a woman", What is an incomplete woman??? And then, is there something that completes a man? Oh wait, that is never the question. Boy's mother is superior to girl's mother, so the latter has to keep trying to produce a boy to make her position. At a wedding, words from groom's parents cannot be ignored while bride's parents need to quietly serve. Till the time all this looks appropriate to our society, there is a need for women's day.
Till the time our wish lists look like this I wish , and till the time, our society doesn't see us beyond our gender, we would need women's day.
I agree... beautifully said Sandhya. Yes we do need Women's Day...'Till the time all this looks appropriate to our society, there is a need for women's day.'
ReplyDeleteWell expressed. Besides the reasons you have outlined, even if all this were to vanish miraculously and women were to be treated as equal humans, even then women's day can be celebrated as an acknowledgment of what we are. Celebrating something on one day does NOT mean the other days are not for celebrations, just that this one day is ear-marked for us to take stock, look back evaluate and look ahead and plan. I would say this is true of most days.
ReplyDelete@IHM: I saw many tweets and facebook msgs asking this question, couldn't resist writing!
ReplyDelete@Shail: Yes, i agree. Just like we celebrate our birthdays but we do enjoy life throughout the year as well!
That was a lovely last line. You are perfectly right in the society seeing women beyond gender, but that is possible only if the same thing happens to men. Society must see everybody beyond their gender; only then will the kind of equality that you are talking about, materialize.
ReplyDelete