Women’s empowerment is now a cliche phrase. In India, women have been empowered for many years, unfortunately, that power has not been acknowledged, appreciated, or taken in the right spirit.
If we look back at the setup of a traditional Indian home; the men would give their daily or monthly wages or the income generated after selling crops to the matriarch of the house. She was then in charge of distributing it to the men for their daily expenses. She would keep money aside for the day-to-day expenses of the household. Money was also kept aside in safety for a rainy day and some kept aside for weddings or naming ceremonies or death.
The men had no clue how much was allocated where and also did not know how much was remaining. Women managed home and finance beautifully. However the downside to this was that women stayed in the wings while men stood out front. They each handled their posts efficiently and without much fight for power.
The dynamics have changed now. Women are no longer just managing the household. They are stepping out as professionals, handling their careers, board meetings, and presentations. They are simultaneously also handling the home, kitchens, family, children, and every other responsibility that comes with being an Indian woman.
To an extent women’s empowerment is helping women. For instance women are now more comfortable with managing, delegating, and monitoring tasks which traditionally was the forte of the women of the house. Cooking can be done by the cook, children can be handled by the maid or the daycare for a few hours, home nurses can look after the elderly and ailing, on-call retailers can deliver groceries, vegetables, fruits, fish and meat to the doorstep. This is possible because women are empowered to make decisions that help them function better and efficiently. A woman is able to handle all her duties personally or even remotely because of this empowerment.
Unfortunately there is a flip side to this empowerment. Women are getting busier and busier with their careers leaving hardly any quality time for their family and children. It is important to realize that the child’s first teacher is his mother and then the father. No matter how caught up in work or in one’s career, a mother has to make time for her child. This is simply because the stability and the future of the child and family purely depend on the quality and time spent as well as the teaching given by a mother or the family as a whole.
This quality time is important for families too. Husband and wife need to spend time with each other as well. Just coming home to share a meal or the bed is not enough. Cases of ego issues being the forerunner in the breaking of marriage have seen a sudden increase. The ego is on both sides. Talking about it, discussing it, and solving it seem to have taken a back step. Fighting to prove who is in charge seems to have taken precedence now. This is breaking up families like never before.
With power comes responsibility as well. To be empowered also means to empower others. While this is great on paper, balancing and adapting to the situations and doing this in actuality seems to be a big challenge. So Women’s empowerment is helping women who are actually trying to find their independence, their identity in a life that’s stuck between Societal norms and family expectations. Unfortunately women’s empowerment in the hands of those who abuse it, either to fulfill their ambitious career aspirations, or to escape the reality of family and the accompanying responsibilities, or look into others’ homes and cause havoc is not empowerment.
To sum up, Woman Empowerment generally has 3 dimensions
- Women should sense their own worth
- Understand their Rights, Duties & Responsibilities.
- Take Charge of their own lives and inspire others.
