We had an unusual and interesting discussion on our lunch table, which was surprising and shocking to me. A statement came out from a female engineering graduate who has 3+ years of corporate experience that “women is a minus and man is +”, Immediately with an emotional tone a contradictory statement made by another female engineering graduate that, “why did you say that, women are better to men in many ways”. At this point of time the only senior person on the table asked “How women are better to that of men?” Answer is silence from all the three women.
Having a feminist ideology, in our earlier discussions I participated and conveyed my opinion, but this time I was silent to listen what the three women say. But the answers were not at all convincing to me.
When I looked for the reasons, I could find few, 1) They are living in a patriarchal society which never allowed them to even dream that they are also equal to men 2) Because of the comfort level they would not have told few things 3) they would not discussed about the topic any time before 4) Fear of rejection from the male dominated lunch table.
But I am putting my points here... This may at least help few people realise about the facts :)
Starting from womb to tomb there are few interesting facts about female gender. I will not term them as advantages because it is nature’s partiality towards its replica (women) in every home.
1) A female foetus is stronger to that of male foetus. It is relatively less affected with early stage diseases to new born babies. So less medical expenditure and nutritional expenditure to the Family so as to the Govt.
(But shockingly Number of deaths of female babies (less than 5 years) is more than male babies, because of our patriarchal family structure and dowry system people believing that a female is minus, so they want to eliminate the minus)
2) A woman has good nurturing power to that of male counterparts. So kids who grow in the hands of female will be relatively good Citizens.
3) Even though female are 48.2 % in number they take only 33 % reservation to promote the 51.8 % male counterparts in a patriarchal family structured country. If women take 48 % reservation the 15 % male counterparts have to stay at home.
(When SC/ST/BC are X% in the population Govt. Gave X % reservation, but our feminists are satisfied with 33% reservation for 48.2 % females who have been suppressed from ages)
4) Women, as a re-productive agent plays a crucial role in the existence and survival of the human populace.
5) Mother milk is the best nutrition to the baby with out which the baby growth will be affected.
(Strict advice from the doctors is that with in 3 hrs of delivery mother should feed the baby except in special cases)
(But the women in a male dominated patriarchal society, is given relatively less importance by us (This will not be applicable to college students and bachelors), be it power, authority, property male dominated society does not like to share with women)
6) When a women’s partner dies she prefer not to marry, thinking the new man may not take care of children, when a man’s partner dies he prefer to marry, thinking the new women will take care of children. (We and our society has so much faith and confidence in women, that is natures greatness, here I do not prefer to talk about a humans who kill their partners to make a new partnership)
7) In rural poor families the mother feeds her baby boy first then her baby girl, thinking that he will be a +. The same baby girl will do the same thing after she becomes mother without having any partiality, just because of patriarchal social pressure which promotes a belief “Pouring water to a tree which is going to be in some other garden is useless”. A mother in rural India (Majorly) believes that her son is “+” even though the same son who came out of her womb will call a female baby as “-“.
8) In Indian Society women gives less work to FM (Finance minister) because their home work is not required to be calculated into GDP.
(As you know, service sector contribute more than 50 % to the GDP, but if we value & add women home service to the %, it will grow to 70- 80 % of GDP. We neglect the home service done by women, even many women say that they are doing nothing at home, because they are made to believe that the home work is value less. This is one of major reason why few men do not see women contribution as they see every thing in paper money)
· Providing equal opportunities in all aspects
· Eliminating the dowry system with the strict law
· Providing property rights with the law
are few of the many possible options to make the man realise about the greatness of women, but the challenge is to bring the educated women in to the fight to pursued the Govt. for better laws which would make India to achieve one of its it MDG (Millennium Development Goals) i.e. Gender Equality.
Thanks for reading
Yogesh Thandava
