Every year, the world ‘celebrates’ International Women’s Day on March 8. In fact, the year 2011 marked 100 years of celebrating womanhood. However, one wonders – in this day and age – does awareness on a single day help change the way a woman is perceived? What if the world celebrated this day every day? Would it really make a difference? Would women be free of the stereotypes that continue to be associated with them? While there are a growing number of women who pride in being the empress of their own free will, there yet exists a large section of society who face innumerable challenges and are forced to pay the price for choosing to tread their own path.
The battle of the sexes is not something of the past; it isn’t a new concept either. From the days of patriarchal societies, women were conditioned to accept men as the superior sex. With a certain degree of awareness, education and dealing with life’s struggles emerged the desire in women to shed their inhibitions. Inspirational women leaders, scientists, artists and from all walks of life have continued to inspire other women to overcome social obstacles. From the days of women’s suffrage rights up to culture-centric movements of today such as Slut Walk, it’s now quite evident that women have reached near empowerment if not already the empowered stage. And, we say near empowerment because in this day and age, women still face a high degree of discrimination and prejudice whether it is in the workplace or behind closed doors in the house.
Women all over the world continue to work hard to make a difference to alter their lives and the lives of others. If one looks at the quintessential woman of today, the first, second and third wave feminism movements can well be declared as history. In fact, a new strain of feminism has emerged, one in which women strive to support, inspire and motivate their kind. Today, women want to claim their right to be treated as equals with their male counterparts. They want to be able to be granted the right to be educated and to be protected from violence.
A woman wants equality and to be able to access the same things that her brother, father and husband have been able to access. For this sense of equality to be bestowed on women, empowerment alone is never enough. What is needed is a mass change in people’s mindsets to be able to regain the balance in the gender equation.
In a country like India that is rife with barbaric practices like female infanticide, dowry murder, sati and the denial of education, it is fortunate that there are a number of micro movements, institutions and campaigns that work towards the empowerment of women. FIGHT-BACK, an ongoing movement that has garnered much momentum over time, spreads awareness on gender discrimination. Hip hop rapper Hard Kaur, who happens to be one of the ambassadors of this movement, once said that she actually had a male performer come up to her backstage and boo her down saying, “You’re in the wrong place, you’re better off standing in your kitchen making hot rotis.”
Zubin Driver, founder of FIGHT-BACK says, “FIGHT-BACK believes in empowering people with information and perspective so that they can rally against gender inequality and create a more equally balanced and humane society. From female foeticide, child molestation, dowry deaths, to rape, Indian women have been victims too long. It must be noted that FIGHT-BACK supports male rights equally and believes that both genders need to work together to create a new paradigm of equality.”
There has, without a doubt, been a shift in the definition of women’s empowerment. After all, women are tired of the male-oriented society we live in. The contemporary agenda to achieve gender equality is changing. Women are now coming out into the light and are ever ready to showcase the multi-dimensional aspects that represent womanhood. And people are waking up to the fact that a woman can be independent, career-driven, powerful and intelligent and at the same time raise a family, feel beautiful and live life to the fullest.
Volume 1 Issue 9
