Another International Women’s Day!

Recently a dear friend (who is also a feminism pro) had posted an analysis done by OECD (Organization of Economic Co-operation & Development) about the average time spend by men towards unpaid housework. Incidentally, India ranks at 132 out of 148 countries listed in the same, with an average 19 minutes spend by Indian Men on household chores. It has been an interesting discussion overall and hence it compelled me to put down a few reflections made through the intriguing discourse.

Opinions expressed ranged from “genetic insufficiencies” to the most pigeonholed responses like “men being the bread winners and having no more time for ménage tasks”.  What exactly is the analogy between women and house work, which comes so naturally to each one of us? Being wives, mothers, sisters we actually give up hope that the nuances to these petite, trivial but umpteen and ubiquitous tasks will never be understood or acted on by the male counterparts. And this leads to unacknowledged incumbrance of everything under the roof, on women.

This varna system we’d imagine would only be existent in India if it still survives. But the situation presents itself in similar fashion across the world; it’s just the old wine in a new, sophisticated bottle. I have been indulging in the celebrated work by Betty Friedman, “The Feminine Mystique”; where she talks about the problem which has no name. Women, who lacked purpose of life, felt incomplete or factually invisible, inspite of being fully fitted with the adorns of modern life. The problem here is the terrestrial discontent faced by sub-urban housewives in scrubbing their floors, raising three (or more) kids and occasionally nursing their unwell husbands.

Why is that, there is a TOR to match along with the color of crib and walls when a girl is born? There are classifications for the carrier options, academic courses, sport as well as musical instruments that are “biologically suited” for girls. Women now are financially independent, technologically advanced, racing for every phase of life, but still the age of marriage is a non-negotiable clause for almost all classes and castes. The “fair sex” is obliged to demonstrate the literal meaning to the word.  We are still fighting female feticide, rape, low levels of women literacy rates, dowry deaths, domestic violence, trafficking etc. and to top it being also damned as a cause for most of them. There are questions, despite this being 39th international women’s day; which yet are not answered, and there are questions which are not raised yet.
 
Hope is not to be lost, because there is a world which we should strive to bring into existence. A world where perspectives are evenly respected, burden is shared, no-one is categorized as superior gender; people are not identified by vagina or balls. There is a face and a story to every being, which is appreciated across the society. Let’s make a society free of discrimination and discernment; it is then we can actually eradicate celebration of a day or two for women, because they will also hold a tantamount ownership to rest of the days in the year.


“Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to become themselves? Who knows what women’s intelligence will contribute when it can be nourished without denying love? Who knows of the possibilities of love when men & women share not only children , home, and garden, not only the fulfillment of their biological roles, but the possibilities and passions of the work that creates the human future and the full human knowledge of who they are? It has barely begun the search of women for themselves.”

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