Representation matters, without that gender equality is a distant dream

Gender equality is still a hot topic, many people have written about it and many more will write. I have also written extensively about the issue of gender quality. Even after all the progress and barrier-breaking, gender equality is a distant dream. I know, many men and maybe women may disagree with me and argue that there is already gender equality as women are free to do whatever they want in many societies, especially in developed countries like the USA. However, this is far from reality. People who make this argument have no idea about the prejudices and challenges women need to face every day and at every step of their life for things that are granted to men just because of their gender. For example, women still get harassed in public places; they still need to be conscious about the way they dress as many judge their character based on the dress they wear; there are specific beauty standards set for women; they need to perform better than men just to show that they deserve that job; and in most households even when both partners work, it is the woman who is expected to cook and bear childcare related workload. I have cited just a few most common challenges faced by women, the list can grow depending on which country, religion, and socio-economic background they come from. All these hurdles that hinder their path make their journey incredibly difficult and unpredictable. This is why I have tremendous respect for all women who fight against all these odds and still chase their professional and personal goals. Women are still fighting for representation forget about gender equality, and that's still a distant dream. Representation matters. It not only provides opportunities but also provides hope for all those who are struggling and trying to maneuver through different obstacles. One can look at the data and see that women are missing from many key domains of decision-making. This needs to change. Be it by affirmative action, reservation, or by any other means, this needs to change. Also, there is nothing against men in the process of improving women's representation, men need to work on improving their representation in all domains where women were forced to cordon themselves. One of the problems why we are still struggling is that people who have no clue about the real difficulties faced by women are sitting in policy development. These people are either ignorant or full of prejudices and they propose solutions or policies that hardly produce any desired results. We aimed for gender equality but we are still struggling with representation, gender equality is not possible without proper representation. Unless we improve women's representation all our talk about gender equality is just a talk, nothing else. Therefore, focus on representation first, once we reach there, we will work towards equality. 

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

© Vinay Thakur, All rights reserved, Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com 

Society's endless desire to control women's rights

It is true that we have come a long way as far as women's rights are concerned. Just a few decades ago, women did not have the right to vote, own property, sign a contract, or right to ancestral property. However, this does not mean society's desire to control women and their rights has ended or eroded, we see glimpses of this in various incidents around the world. Whether it is commenting on their dress, sexual behavior, right to choose a career over family, their reproductive rights, or in some countries their right to choose a spouse (for example, love jihad laws in India), all this is targetted towards women and their rights to make independent choices about various aspects of their life. The question is why women's rights are endlessly targeted? Why do societies fear independent and self-sufficient women? 

The answer is simple, society, no matter whether developed, developing, or undeveloped, is not yet used to living with independent and strong-minded women. Societies, especially, men are worried that if they lose control over women they may become a disposable entity and that's why there are efforts to control women's rights using various political and social methods. Women's reproductive rights are a very good example of this. A man has no inhibition to use contraceptives and decide whether he wants to become a father or not. The same rights are not offered to a woman. In many places, even if a woman becomes pregnant due to rape or incest, or even if their life is in danger they cannot terminate the pregnancy. This means, society literally forces a woman to give birth to a child that she doesn't want to have. Imagine the consequences of this for that mother and that child, they both are subjected to live in a relationship that both didn't choose. Also, society only takes interest in this until the child is born, the same society that forced women to give birth by banning abortion or birth control does not show any interest in taking care of that child once it is out of that woman's womb. One would expect that when some society claims to care about unborn fetuses so much it will create a great facility to take care of unwanted children born out of forced pregnancies. Such a society will provide necessary facilities such as childcare, food, shelter, and education until such children become independent. But no, they just force a woman to produce that child and leave both of them on their own, such is their interest in the welfare of that mother and child. They just want to control the reproductive rights of women, they have zero interest in the welfare of any woman with an unwanted pregnancy or any child born from such pregnancy. The words "pro-life" and "pro-choice" are just marketing tag lines, there is nothing pro in abortion. Reproductive rights including abortion is a woman's right to choose whether she wants to become a mother or not, period. 

Abortion is not an easy choice for any woman, but it is their right to make that choice. Sperms and eggs both have the probability to develop into humans under the right conditions and so is the embryo, no one is banned from disposing of their sperm or egg, so what a big deal with an embryo. Who is the state to control women's bodies and reproduction? Every woman should have exclusive rights over her own body and her reproductive rights. Just because nature has given women the ability to become pregnant society does not get the right to control their body and reproduction. Society needs to let go of the endless desire to control women. Women must be treated as humans and not just reproductive machines, not infringing on their reproductive rights is a step in that direction. 

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

©Vinay Thakur,  Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com