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Women For Feminism!

It is silent in the rooms where the women work-silent but for the whir of sewing machines, prick of needles through fine fabric and an occasional refrain of Hindi Pop from a cell phone. In one room, about 20 women (and one man) sit on the floor or on low stools, fabric stretched onto timber frames leveled just under their chins or at lap height. They are women from the villages - moms of daughters who go to school at PPES or women recruited to do this fine embroidery. They are concentrated as their needles move in and out of the fabric-red, green, dirt brown with silk thread?endless above and below and finally a work of art spreads from one edge of the frame to the other. ..In several other rooms the women make uniforms or garment bags. All of these products are for sale and help the Society to survive and more importantly for the women to have an independent income. It is believed that with that income there is freedom to build a new life or improve the lives of their children. This is the heart of this school/work community built here five hours drive from Delhi and a world away...For the first nine years of the organizations existence there was a belief that the best a young woman could hope for, be trained for, was to escape the drudgery of country living with a blend of very basic education and job training-with the emphasis on training. It was the girls themselves (and some very uncomfortable challenges and conversations about child labor) that changed the mission of the school. The girls dream of more education, not a life over a sewing machine. They want to be teachers and doctors. The school is proud of several young graduates, one who is now in nursing school and another who works at a hotel in another city..So a year ago it was decided that only the village women or graduates of the 10th level or more would work at the textile trades. ..That being said there is a special quality to these older women being in the building. They are on three of the four flo

A woman will always be seen differently in terms of her responsibilities and capabilities when compared to men. Today, when so many girls compete at equal levels with boys in schools and colleges, we young women expect the same when we go out to work in companies. But there is something that pulls me and probably any other girl who hears the actual expectation that people have from a woman. The thing is that this patriarchal society has so deeply instilled its seeds into the minds of people, that it has found a place in the young women of this generation too.

The biggest problem is that though women want to do well in their lives and support feminism, many of them don’t even realise that they subtly destroy their own existence in society by accepting things that are not right for them. It’s very important for the women of this generation to not feel that everything is their fault or their responsibility.

On paper, our country states that it has equal opportunities for men and women in every field, but for real, we all know this is not true. This is because [envoke_twitter_link]a woman is always seen less capable of doing well enough[/envoke_twitter_link] due to multiple reasons. The first being that male dominance in society makes them think that men are more intelligent and more likely to handle work in a better manner. This myth has been so easily passed on to the minds of young girls today that they too think that they are not capable of doing well enough, which in turn makes them less confident hence, job opportunities lessen for them. This is the second problem. And thirdly, it’s the pressure from a society that expects a woman to take care of the family and quit her job if she is not able to do so in a perfect manner.

(REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)

If a woman doesn’t fulfil these responsibilities, she won’t be warmly accepted by society. With all these existing norms, a women can’t be expected to rise enough, which makes the problem worse as men start thinking of themselves to be more superior. But for women to grow, it is necessary that they themselves take a step forward by being more confident of themselves and keeping their career goals in mind with high determination. [envoke_twitter_link]It is also important for other women to embrace the success of a woman[/envoke_twitter_link], so that women themselves don’t come in the way of spreading feminist values!

Apart from this, an issue that’s worse is that women always become the centre of attention in any case, be it a survivor of rape or a women publicly expressing relationship. The problem is that even young girls, when they see a boy or girl displaying love in public, they see the woman in the wrong light. Our society has made it impossible to break stereotypes of what a woman is supposed to do and what she is not. When we hear leaders of national relevance voicing their opinion that it’s the woman’s fault that she got raped, it simply ignites the patriarchal nature of the society and women once again realise that their position will always remain the same.

Even women who call themselves feminists sometimes hesitate to support other women against whom a crime has been committed – be it rape, sexual assault, marital torture or anything else. This is because of the shame they think is associated with the victim of the crime. The sad part is that [envoke_twitter_link]even today, there is a huge portion of women who are tortured every day[/envoke_twitter_link] – mentally, emotionally and sexually – and we are doing nothing about it. For a country to be a feminist country, all its women have to think in the same direction. So here is a plea to all the women out there to not stay silent when any wrong is done to any women you know. Don’t think it to be a shame to support a woman, when a crime is committed against her. It will always be the culprit who will be guilty, so don’t hide from saving a woman ever to help this society ensure that all its women can breathe peacefully!

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