Today is International Woman’s day and a flurry of greetings through mails and sms’s have been floating around. Thanks to all my friends and the corporate world – I appreciate that me and my gender mates are celebrated for our womanhood today. Despite this amongst some sly remarks such as “why not a men’s day?” or “what is special about this day?" and so on and on and on....
The battle of the gender is as old as Adam and Eve. There is no written law that has been binding on women than unwritten customs supported by popular opinions. And hence we find that in most societies, women are conditioned from childhood to accept men as superior beings. But awareness through education and life’s experiences has led women to shed their inhibitions. While the urban Indian women have found their wings and we have spurts of heroism from the rest of the country, these great women leaders, artists, scientists and other professional women are a source of inspiration to transform women from age old inequities.
A woman is a full circle. She has the power to create, nurture and transform. But more often than not, she restricts this power to the confines of her home. True that the building blocks of a great society are laid at home, but the power is subdued mostly by self and some in the name of compromise to lead a happy home. I quote Eleanor Roosevelt that “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission”. Think about it and I can find a variety of instances where one is responsible for their actions and could have done things differently and probably today is an event to start thinking differently :-)
A woman with a voice by definition is a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult. And in that effort individuality is lost and there is wallowing in self-pity. I read some amazing poetry and articles of the turmoil a woman – at the end of it – I admit I also felt a tinge of self-pity...but had to bounce back... There is a power within us to create a change and a lead a transformation. Having made up your mind, there is the next blockage to overcome.
Women still have an uneasy relationship with power and the traits necessary to be a leader. There is this internalized fear that if we are really powerful, we are going to be considered ruthless or pushy or strident--all those epithets that strike right at our femininity. We are still working at trying to overcome the fear that power and womanliness are mutually exclusive. And at this point though there is an intention, we also succumb to upholding only feminism as in the unwritten rules.
Hence this day is marked out to start an endeavour, to make a difference in the life of a woman. With the myriad roles played by a woman – a professional, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a lover, a partner – not different from the roles of a man – the subtle difference is the feminine power – the power to create, nurture and transform
HAPPY WOMAN'S DAY !!
The battle of the gender is as old as Adam and Eve. There is no written law that has been binding on women than unwritten customs supported by popular opinions. And hence we find that in most societies, women are conditioned from childhood to accept men as superior beings. But awareness through education and life’s experiences has led women to shed their inhibitions. While the urban Indian women have found their wings and we have spurts of heroism from the rest of the country, these great women leaders, artists, scientists and other professional women are a source of inspiration to transform women from age old inequities.
A woman is a full circle. She has the power to create, nurture and transform. But more often than not, she restricts this power to the confines of her home. True that the building blocks of a great society are laid at home, but the power is subdued mostly by self and some in the name of compromise to lead a happy home. I quote Eleanor Roosevelt that “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission”. Think about it and I can find a variety of instances where one is responsible for their actions and could have done things differently and probably today is an event to start thinking differently :-)
A woman with a voice by definition is a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult. And in that effort individuality is lost and there is wallowing in self-pity. I read some amazing poetry and articles of the turmoil a woman – at the end of it – I admit I also felt a tinge of self-pity...but had to bounce back... There is a power within us to create a change and a lead a transformation. Having made up your mind, there is the next blockage to overcome.
Women still have an uneasy relationship with power and the traits necessary to be a leader. There is this internalized fear that if we are really powerful, we are going to be considered ruthless or pushy or strident--all those epithets that strike right at our femininity. We are still working at trying to overcome the fear that power and womanliness are mutually exclusive. And at this point though there is an intention, we also succumb to upholding only feminism as in the unwritten rules.
Hence this day is marked out to start an endeavour, to make a difference in the life of a woman. With the myriad roles played by a woman – a professional, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a lover, a partner – not different from the roles of a man – the subtle difference is the feminine power – the power to create, nurture and transform
HAPPY WOMAN'S DAY !!
1 comment:
A poignant and thought provoking article. Woman is the foundation on which the building of Humanity is raised as she has the power to create, nurture , transform and Destroy anything and everything. Kudos Sunita on your article
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