A popular saying goes that if a woman is educated in a house, the whole house is lucky to be educated by that woman. This is very true as women are not just experts at household tasks, but have touched the sky as well.
Women of today have achieved excellence in every other field under the sun and continue to perform very well in spite of great biases and differences that hover them at every place they go to.
Engendering men and women
Men and women were born to be unique. Women are usually thought of as weak and humans that need to be protected all the time. Men definitely have more physical power when compared with women, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that women need to be exploited by men.
Engendering men and women means treating men and women equally and giving them on-par status with each other. There are many ways of ensuring that we engender the wheels of development of the nation, let’s start our discussion from these points:
Equality of both male and female
Equality starts at home and what better way than to treat our sons and daughters without discrimination. If the wife is expected to cook and clean the house, even the man of the house can perform these chores. Defining tasks separately for men and women sets the stage for discrimination and hence we should change our thinking to change this process of separation.
A no-bias approach at workplaces
At workplaces, men and women are treated differently. No matter how educated a woman is, she is not considered equal at her workplace.
Many opportunities are lost by women when they apply for maternity leaves and do not find an easy route to return to work later on. A good and productive way that works both for the company and the women workforce to restart their careers after a long break increases efficiency of the workforce.
Involving women in important policy making decisions
If we look at the top brass and the management positions, most of them are occupied by men and we can hardly spot women occupying these chairs.
Women definitely don many hats during their lifetime, take charge of their house, but when it comes to operating a company by taking important policy decisions, they tend to take a backseat. This usually happened due to lack of encouragement and office politics that hinder a woman from reaching the position she deserves.
Improving education of women
With increased awareness and quality of education of women, the bridge between urban and rural women has thinned, yet it’s not completely covered. Even today many girls are forced to stay back at home and tend to household tasks and work as maid servants at various homes. Many young girls are employed at construction sites and they face exploitation and harassment at such a tender age.
Providing equal opportunity for women on par with men
Women face harassment at work places, they are forced to get dowry from their maternal houses, wherever they go outside, they see abuses come their way unabated, eve-teasing and sexual harassment are everyday affairs. Men on the other hand, have all opportunity to surge ahead in work and reach higher positions with perks and promotions.
Bridging the Gap
There are many ways in which we can bring about a change in the society we live. The government has announced many schemes to educate the female child and has also entrusted her with many scholarships for her higher education, both within the country and abroad.
Women need to set the stage to achieve financial freedom and independence. For this, they first need to educate themselves on financial aspects and know that money is very important for them to lead an independent life. Healthcare of women needs to be a primary focus point.
Easily accessible healthcare facilities at reduced cost and flexible maternity leaves and policies should be entrusted by the companies to ensure smooth transition of their female employees.
In order to achieve higher development of the nation, the government should consider higher participation of female workforce, both in policy decision matters as well as at the grassroots level. Women should be given adequate protection that helps them remove fear from their minds.
Women should not fear going out of their houses to workplaces, they should be given freedom to travel at nights. Adequate police protection on streets of cities to ensure safety of women goes a long way in achieving this battle.
Endangering progress without women
The male to female ratio is already on a great decline in our country. If women are not provided with equal rights as men, then we would see a decline in the policy making abilities of our workforce also. Women are basically multi taskers and given any task, they carry out with precision.
We can see a very large workforce comprising women in the mid-level at educational institutions and at banks, financial institutions etc. These places are ideal for women as they are born with certain qualities that help them excel in such relevant fields.
Women today are engineers, doctors, pilots, politicians, judges, lawyers, they are enrolled in the army, navy etc. Not providing them an equal opportunity mars their growth from their roots. All the time they spent on education goes for a toss. The time a woman spends in educating herself, she spends it equally to bring out the best in her personality and outlook.
If only the sons of the house are encouraged to surge ahead in their careers and a break put on daughters after their marriage, it amounts to discrimination. Women have every right to choose the kind of life they want to lead and their dreams should be given wings too.
The nation’s wheels are cluttered and held tight without the contribution of women. Every population has a participation of eminent women in all spheres of life and they have their own special contributions to give to the society as well.
History is proof enough to list a whole lot of women right from freedom fighters to scientists, from eminent personalities to Bollywood actresses, from homemakers to expert professionals. We not only have the best of their minds, but a nation’s very essence stands on their contribution as well.
Women have different ways of thinking and this can actually help solve many problems the nation is facing today. Fearless women of today have shown the world their expertise in more than one specialisations and it’s certainly a wake up call for everyone to involve women in developmental activities.
Conclusion
It is very true that a nation that doesn’t not help protect the integrity of its women force does not see progress or development in any angle. Progress of a nation depends on the respect it gives to its woman folk, it relies on the increasing numbers of women in every sphere of activity.
We should treat women on par with men and this education should begin right at home. Discrimination of any sort should be treated as criminal offence and any person disrespecting women should be treated strictly under law. Only then, we can say that a nation is truly developed.
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