As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we have a lot to be grateful for. It’s been exhausting, but we have come a long way from where the fight for our equality had started. We should acknowledge that our basics are more or less in place. We are fortunate that we do not need to fight for our fundamental human rights, unlike our predecessors. This article on Women’s Day celebrates womanhood and stresses the need to break the shackles within ourselves.
The forerunners of the Women’s Liberation Movement have been tirelessly working for the upliftment and empowerment of women as a community. It is for their vision and their sweat that women like us are blessed today with rights and opportunities. We have the options to explore and choose from. Hence, it becomes essential on our part to contribute in our own way to propagate this blessing further.
We Need to Look Within Ourselves
Ironically women in India are as much a product of a patriarchal system of society as are men. We are so used to the elements of patriarchy that often we ourselves end up becoming the perpetrators.
Though with time, society has changed. So have perspectives, ideas, and expectations around gender, to a great extent. However, it is both sad and paradoxical when we, as women, in a modestly privileged situation like ours innocently become victims. We more often than not also victimize those around us to fit into the patriarchal mold of a woman. And this happens mainly because of the patriarchal society we have grown up in. But at one point it needs to stop. We are capable of bringing in the change. And we should be responsible to at least do the bare minimum for the coming generations.
There is a pressing need for the women of today to unlearn first to be able to learn better at a later stage. From what we experience or see around us, we unintentionally pick up information and start accumulating it. Gradually, this accumulated information starts influencing our thinking without even us realizing it. So often we face a dilemma! This being said, we without realizing start to adhere to the very norms that we want to oppose and become perpetrators of the same.
Issues to Contemplate Upon
The ugly truth is that we have either been complicit in the oppression of another person or have innocently or accidentally oppressed another person. Hence, it is of utmost importance to self-evaluate our values, our thinking, and the social norms that we adhere to organically. By the time we are oriented to concepts of liberation, equality, rights, freedom, oppression, etc., a major portion of our cognitive capacity is already developed. So a state of conflict arises between our existing values and the new ideas that we are exposed to. Hence, retrospection of our beliefs and values becomes fundamental to firstly liberate ourselves and then those around us.
There are enough hurdles presented to us as women from external sources which we require to tackle on an everyday basis. So it becomes essentially important on our part that we make a conscious effort not to pile on, on the existing hurdles unnecessarily. We should take a step towards breaking the shackles that we have built within ourselves. Then only we can thrive on a more meaningful existence devoid of any misogyny.
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Attaining a gender-balanced society is a collective responsibility for all. Government policies, political will, and non-government organizations undisputably have a large role to play. However, severing the shackles within ourselves is also equally important. Leave your thoughts in the comments below! If you liked this article, share it with your friends.
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