Did it ever cross our mind what bridges generations, driving life towards happiness, and emerges as the cause of achieving excellence? The one, who conceives, creates, and transforms life into paramount existence with immense support is ‘woman’!
Surpassing the days of trembling cups, parading in veils, to being in cockpits, maneuvering aircraft, plowing in fields, setting out in armed forces, steering away tractors, computer programming and devising software, baying debates in parliaments, imparting and carving the future through education, and hailing as a professional; she has achieved all of it.
Beyond just hand-holding and shoring up the universe and innumerable lives, there are more stories of her inherent strengths that are still latent.
Ahead of the typical verbal patronage or giving platitudes of “Women of Today should be Empowered”, the thoughts have proven archaic; thus they left afar. The women of the day have emerged victorious amidst all throes and woes.
It’s more of a metamorphosis of the scene today. After extensive embattled states of identity hunt and survival and, evidently, countless testing and endangering warpath, the changed lingo now is “Give more dimensions to the empowered women of today.” Formidably though, it took ages to reach thus far! Liberalization took several years, for them, more than the others on earth.
However, it has now come up with age. Nevertheless, the erstwhile woman still was as powerful, as to manage too many things with the utmost ease. But people undermined their hard work and exploited them to just get work done, not recognizing their intellect, abilities, sharpness, and insightful quotient.
They would have excelled in the benchmarks of predictable and conformist standards of accomplishing tasks at any given time. In the scheme of giving credit to the abilities, there was barely any intent to do so - by a long way obstructed from expressing themselves and their voices muzzled. The picture couldn’t be more frenzied and predatory, and indisputably, not liberal at all.
Appallingly, we’ve had a few unsung women achievers like Velu Nachiar in the 18thCentury, Bikaji Cama, Lakshmi Sahgal, or Rani Gaidinliu from Manipur, Kanaklata Barua or Aruna Asaf Ali in the 19thand 20thCenturies, whose stories hardly emanated as legends to talk about, mainly for their extraordinary command and determination.
They fought it through the freedom struggle, during the Colonial regime. Most of the childhood folk tales for hearsay were Rani Laxmibai, Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and a few in the league with indomitable courage and character; ironically, none preferred one in a normal household. Even today, their extraordinary feats are celebrated all over, but hardly anyone knew the vicious challenges they had to put up with.
Oddly enough, but the reality, for the women of yore - it was always the circumstances logged in obscurantisms, social stigmas, and repressive mindsets. All of those and more followed through the generations and centuries to confine them to the kitchen fireside, barraged with daily monotonous chores. Repression has been diverse and tortuous and brutal.
Society’s insularity, for the most part, was frugal in filling up the opportunity with a platter for them. The more worrisome and lethal is the child mortality and the acrid reality – feticides. One infanticide annihilates the development of the entire human race, in one go. But spiraling changes in the outlook have done miracles; all kudos to education for all.
People with progressive acumen to handle situations better realized the imperative of “Equality in Education, Rights & Awareness” to the core.
The woman of today has gained the dexterity to not only educate herself but others too, whilst having apt pursuits of aspired career and growths, embarking on the desired lifestyle to putting up with too many tasks at hand to manage effortlessly.
Regardless of the milieu, be it urban, rural, or remote areas, they have had fierce tightrope walking to prove their abilities, amidst shambolic settings of home, life, workplace, institution, and so on. As a result, she had to put in twice the efforts, to prove herself everywhere, yet emerged prolific for all, despite the challenges posed by society. They triumphed in all. The outright contrast, but a pleasant one was - their abilities belied all prejudices and partisan notions.
In all fairness, the statistics state that there’s a well-oriented socio-economic resolve, with increased economic independence and sustenance because of working women across India and worldwide. There’s enhanced female labor participation at professional corporate workplaces, in rural work fields, and in several other performing quarters.
Moreover, their spirit, competency, and courage have been the epitome of the generation - as pilots, police staff, celebrated movie and sports personalities, and more - to the youth of today. As the names often doing rounds are Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, Kiran Bedi, Sania Mirza, PV Sindhu, and so on. The inculcation and pursuit of Education, Career, Profession, and Lifestyle, put together, were the cornerstone for happy families, and countless women globally have ratified it.
A small statistic to cite their Economic
Empowerment:
(i) There has been an increase in female
labor force participation - or a reduction in the gap between women’s and men’s
labor force participation - which results in faster economic growth.
(ii) Evidence from a range of countries shows
that increasing the share of household income controlled by women, either
through their earnings or cash transfers changes spending in ways that benefit
children.
(iii) Increasing women’s and girls’ education
contributes to higher economic growth
(iv) Increased educational attainment
accounts for about 50 percent of the economic growth in OECD countries over the
past 50 years.
(v) A study using data from 219 countries
from 1970 to 2009 found that, for everyone, with more years of education for women
of reproductive age, child mortality decreased by 9.5 percent.
(vi) Women tend to have less access to formal financial institutions and saving mechanisms. While 55 percent of men report having an account at a formal financial institution, only 47 percent of women do worldwide. This gap is the largest among lower-middle-income economies as well as in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.
Par excellence abilities of the woman of the day are as real-time: A pragmatic case study for the youth to get inspired from! Also, they can serve as the posterity for the new generation to have a practical outlook and rewarding career paths, and a perfect lifestyle. Of course, needless to say, their growth determines the growth of the household and the nation, at large.
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