According to Google, feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality of sexes”. The definition is completely appropriate, feminism is when women fight for their rights and for equality of both sexes. Over the years women have been degraded and shown down upon by the alternate sex. Not only are women as strong as men but also can do every job equally perfectly. Indian men forget that India is our ‘motherland’ and there were women who have made our country proud too. Unfortunately, in this ‘motherland’ mothers are not given the respect they deserve. Women are always caught up in the storm of criticism and judgments that they have never had the essence of fresh air.
Women, in our country, have only been taught to suffocate and over a period of time they feel that’s what their life is all about. Their parents have taught them only one thing that marriage is the ultimate goal of their life and they don’t have anything else to offer to the world. They are not exposed; they are not given the opportunity to prove their mettle. Women have this uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble which is degraded by men and considered that women do it on purpose to destroy things. Anything a woman does to make her career secure and earn money is averted and things narrow down to her marriage. According to the mentality, a woman must not earn money because eventually she is going to be married and hence her top priority is going to be her husband and his family because the husband is obviously incapable of cooking his own meal, dusting the very house he lives in or doing his own laundry. Marriage is like a two Way Street, if a house is shared by two people then the responsibility should be equally shared by the man and the wife. This is the simple Math that needs to be understood by men, parents and eventually the society. Women are not born only for household chores or giving birth, they have more contribution to make to this world.
The other major problem is merely a seven lettered word CLOTHES. Why do clothes of a woman hold such great importance? Why is the length of her skirt a measuring tape for men to know if she wants to sleep with you? Why is a woman who sleeps with you a ‘whore’ and who doesn’t sleep with you a ‘slut’? These few questions revolve around to the very basic question, “Why are a woman’s clothes so important?” It is a license for men to describe a girl’s character because if a woman is wearing short clothes then it means she is “asking for it”. This mindset of men and society has lowered women’s confidence about themselves and their body. People need to understand that a woman is a human being too and has the right to wear whatever she wants.
We hear news which broadcasts that a woman was raped or molested or eve-teased. The only reason to this is ‘family values’. Maybe women are not respected or given enough freedom in the man’s family that he thinks every woman to be a sex object. India needs to broaden their mindset about women- their rights, freedom, choices, independence. The day society will start accepting these things; will be the day when India will be worth calling a ‘motherland’
However, it is an age of evolution! Times are changing and so is the society. Society is advancing its mindset and trying to improve. Women are also fighting for their rights and feminism is spreading like a virus; but what feminism needs is for women to push each other up and for men to join in the feminism venture. That would the time when the only difference men and women will have is their physicals structure!