Undoubtedly, most of you will find the topic too repetitive and boring. The reason is simple: any step taken by any political party has the aim of women empowerment, even though it does not in reality lead to the same. All debates and discussion has this key idea of women empowerment. The female panelists can be found to be frequently using the phase "this is against women empowerment". Most of the female celebrities in Bollywood involve in parties on trivial occasions and tag them as "Mah friend birthday #get_together #WOMEN_EMPOWERMENT".
Well, I do not have any issue with the use of the term. Infact, it is a good sign that people are discussing on such matters. The more people discusses such matters, the better it is for the society to realise the concerns faced by women. India, on this front as well, is doing fairly good as can be seen from the growing discourse on this topic in daily course of life, particularly on the high decibel media. If everything is fine, then why am I writing this article? I do not want to add another layer to the already noisy discussion, but I want to raise a different point related to the same.
The point is: do we really understand the meaning of the highly celebrated term "women empowerment"? Does it include male bashing in it? Or does it include instagramming nude photos? Or, to add, does it also cover shouting at a male colleague for no reason just to show that women have indeed achieved empowerment? Why am I making these points is simply because I find the so-called empowered women as greatly using social media to highlight such activities and call them as consequence of empowerment. For instance, a well-known female bollywood actress recently instagrammed her nude photos terming it as celebration of feminity and women empowerment.
I have no issue with anyone using the social media for making people aware of their lifestyles. It may include partying on beach with their celebrated friends, highlighting their disputes with their male collegues or even for that matter, tweeting their nude pictures. But, I am unable to digest when they call these events as a sign of empowerment. I think such ideas gives a wrong and distorted image of the idea of empowerment.
Having discussed all these, it is time to understand the meaning of empowerment and why the above instances are not empowerment in true sense of the term. Empowerment, in simple terms, can mean that women are increasingly able to take decisions for themselves. They are no more guided by the dictates of their male authorities at home to decide for themselves and their own future, future of their children, their sexuality and so on. They can walk, and walk with all authority at their command, on equal terms with their male colleagues in offices and public discourse.
In this context, one can see the examples of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi, the ICICI bank chief Ms. Chanda Kochha, Biocon Chief Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others. They have created a separate niche for themselves and have shown the world the meaning of empowerment with their deeds. They did what they wanted in life and never allowed the societal barriers to come their way.
The point that I am focussing on through these examples is that these empowered women have worked with their colleagues as equals. They became the chief of their respective institutions but have not indulged in criticising their male conterparts to prove their point. Neither, they take to social media websites to highlight their girlish party to drive their point of empowerment. This is because, if such activities are empowerment, in that case only a handful of the women in India are empowered. And sadly... the meaning of empowerment gets reduced to two things: (1) access to social media website, (2) a photographer to click photos. Then what could be the name given to such activities? Well, at best, it could be called a form of growing feminism, which is technically different from the modes of empowerment.
Empowerment, to conclude, means that both male and female counterparts are equal in all spheres. No gender is superior to the other. There is no point in showing the other in bad light. For this, India needs a co-operative and collaborative approach and not a conflict approach. This can come when we, all individuals, respect the other person in family, at office and in public life. It certainly does not include male bashing by the other group or female bashing by the traditionally dominant group in the society. Because neither of the approach will lead us to an equal society.
Well, I do not have any issue with the use of the term. Infact, it is a good sign that people are discussing on such matters. The more people discusses such matters, the better it is for the society to realise the concerns faced by women. India, on this front as well, is doing fairly good as can be seen from the growing discourse on this topic in daily course of life, particularly on the high decibel media. If everything is fine, then why am I writing this article? I do not want to add another layer to the already noisy discussion, but I want to raise a different point related to the same.
The point is: do we really understand the meaning of the highly celebrated term "women empowerment"? Does it include male bashing in it? Or does it include instagramming nude photos? Or, to add, does it also cover shouting at a male colleague for no reason just to show that women have indeed achieved empowerment? Why am I making these points is simply because I find the so-called empowered women as greatly using social media to highlight such activities and call them as consequence of empowerment. For instance, a well-known female bollywood actress recently instagrammed her nude photos terming it as celebration of feminity and women empowerment.
I have no issue with anyone using the social media for making people aware of their lifestyles. It may include partying on beach with their celebrated friends, highlighting their disputes with their male collegues or even for that matter, tweeting their nude pictures. But, I am unable to digest when they call these events as a sign of empowerment. I think such ideas gives a wrong and distorted image of the idea of empowerment.
Having discussed all these, it is time to understand the meaning of empowerment and why the above instances are not empowerment in true sense of the term. Empowerment, in simple terms, can mean that women are increasingly able to take decisions for themselves. They are no more guided by the dictates of their male authorities at home to decide for themselves and their own future, future of their children, their sexuality and so on. They can walk, and walk with all authority at their command, on equal terms with their male colleagues in offices and public discourse.
In this context, one can see the examples of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi, the ICICI bank chief Ms. Chanda Kochha, Biocon Chief Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others. They have created a separate niche for themselves and have shown the world the meaning of empowerment with their deeds. They did what they wanted in life and never allowed the societal barriers to come their way.
The point that I am focussing on through these examples is that these empowered women have worked with their colleagues as equals. They became the chief of their respective institutions but have not indulged in criticising their male conterparts to prove their point. Neither, they take to social media websites to highlight their girlish party to drive their point of empowerment. This is because, if such activities are empowerment, in that case only a handful of the women in India are empowered. And sadly... the meaning of empowerment gets reduced to two things: (1) access to social media website, (2) a photographer to click photos. Then what could be the name given to such activities? Well, at best, it could be called a form of growing feminism, which is technically different from the modes of empowerment.
Empowerment, to conclude, means that both male and female counterparts are equal in all spheres. No gender is superior to the other. There is no point in showing the other in bad light. For this, India needs a co-operative and collaborative approach and not a conflict approach. This can come when we, all individuals, respect the other person in family, at office and in public life. It certainly does not include male bashing by the other group or female bashing by the traditionally dominant group in the society. Because neither of the approach will lead us to an equal society.
