Women- Truly Liberated?

Come March every year, people across the world, the high and mighty, from schools to board rooms clamor and vie with one another in eulogizing the values of women, their strength, their contribution to the world and how far they have come. As the International Day of women wanes, so does the thoughts seem to as they were not from the heart but from the shallow grounds!

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella could have found fixing of the myriads of bugs in their software releases easier than trying to extricate his foot so firmly inserted by him into his mouth.  

His utterances of 'quite frankly, women who don't ask for a raise have…It's good karma. It will come back."...' came almost true. But its only that the 'karma' came back to haunt not the intended women employees but himself, when the pressure generated forced him to apologize in a memo to the women employees of the Microsoft, as reported in www.inc.com

The normally mellifluous voice for once sounded jarring when the popular singer Yesudas, wandered out of his comfort zone to comment on the practice of women wearing jeans.  The backlash was so forceful that there were appeals from some of his ardent fans in popular newspapers to spare the singer for his faux pas!

I feel, and it is apparent that , despite the lip services paid on such 'celebrated' days, the male dominated society is yet to come to terms and accept the fact of the distaff side clawing its way up the ladder and trying to taking over the reins, demanding their legitimate place in the society ! They are refusing to accept the fact that women assuming positions are on the rise and it appears their minds are clouded with confusion, unable to distinguish between uplift and authority.

 A 2008 Harvard Business Review research report says, "... 41 percent of the young people in science, engineering and technology are women.... " but goes on to add that ".... 63 percent of women in these industries have experienced some degree of sexual harassment..." So the Hippocratic while accepting the ascendancy due to the societal pressure, also seem to make their survival difficult by constant pressures and pin pricks. 

We have been ushered into an era in which woman have started traversing into outer space, drive auto rickshaws and locomotives, manage the financial world , perform complex surgeries as life savers and even adorn  gubernatorial positions. To be frank they have pervaded and are all over with stunning results. Whether one likes it or not, they are here and have come to stay, at times with even better performances than their distractors.

When the world is fast forwarding into a different arena, it is distressing to hear such discerning voices. One may well understand such non-acceptances from morons and minions, but to hear such discordant notes from the high and mighty, one is reminded of the adage "an Athenian blockhead is the worst of all blockheads"and be sensitive to the developments.

It is time women liberation is not confused just with populist rhetoric and lip level support but understood as extending beyond with whole hearted support in all their reasonable deeds.

Women to the fore !

It was a cold December evening and the officials at that software development organization were waiting with bated breath for the development team to release their latest code to clients.  The software testing team of around 30 mostly comprised of new recruits and a mix of men and women were also anxious.  The whole crowd was anxious for different reasons - some for quality of deliverable, some for the timeline to be maintained and amongst them were also some ladies who were tense watching the clock. Though not regular clock watchers, they were anxious about those at home- some waiting for their food, some waiting to be relieved by their daughters in law to take care of the child and some children themselves waiting for their moms, whom they have not seen for the past 12 hours.

This is a common scenario developing in the IT industry, fortunately more accepted by the women themselves, a hallmark of the current day ladies having shown the inclination to play also equal not resting with just their claims of equality. On occasions, where I could, I had relieved the women folk due to late hours and the look in their eyes were full of gratefulness, for they were already torn between the dilemma of work and family.

I have often wondered, rather sympathised with the ladies working in such industry, which demanded uncertain working hours. While I drove home to have my dinner and retire to bed with mind still full of official thoughts, I used to think as to how these ladies could relax. The moment they hit the door bell, there will be more issues at home than at office- children not doing home work, some dishes to be made for dinner, to look after the ailing in law, in addition to their own health issues. Are they really the stronger sex, managing both at home and at work, while the men folk tend to relax the moment they are out of the office and also take on at home, what they could not manage at office!

If this is the life of junior executives, for those who have aspirations and climb the ladders, getting out of the office is no relief. For they have to cope up with the innumerable issues from the team which is still working, escalations from the clients, conference calls at odd hours, which are not odd for the callers will be from different geographical locations….. the list is endless. While wondering at their zeal to handle these issues stemming from their ambitions, one cannot but appreciate the management of their energy in doing this day after day.

It’s not just confined to the IT industry alone. I have seen female nurses sporting enthusiastic smiles even at odd hours at night attending to terminally ill patients at ICUs. 

Young girls (wo) manning counters at malls, knocking at the doors selling encyclopaedias, filling petrol at petrol bunks and even deftly threading through the narrow bi-lanes and traffic in gleaming auto rickshaws, which were for so long the vehicles of men!

Compare it with the late 1970s, when the young boys surreptitiously sneaked into that department which was rumoured to have got a new entrant transferred from Gujarat and the girl was sporting a salwar kameez, a rarity in those days of saree everywhere!

At the job interviews too, one could notice the trend of as many female candidates as males, the counters at the Railway and other organizations more crowded with them- braking the myth of the women being considered suitable only for the nursing profession !  Come on, the emancipation of women, if not complete but is truly on its course.  It is also to their credit, they have announced that they are no pushovers despite some shortcomings but more importantly, it appears they have come to stay, at these places where it matter.

One cannot be but happy at the emergence of these Bharat mathas and it is for the guys to support the distaff part of their family, to make their life complete.

Enjoy your day, dear friends!