Femininity is a huge problem in the ‘modern’ world. The society has a tendency to find errors in whatever women do (at home or in workplace).
In the internal report of an international Information Technology company in India, an employee recently wrote that women are usually very fragile and it is not possible for them to perform under excessive pressure. “As we have to work under tremendous pressure in this sector, women fail to perform like men. So, the arrangements made by the authorities to ensure equal rights for men and women in the organisation are unfair,” he added. The company immediately sacked the person for criticising its policies. Now, the sacked employee plans to move the court.

The dispute raises an important question and the question is about the attitude of the patriarchal society. It is difficult for the majority of men to imagine the amount of pressure that women have to take on a regular basis. And we should agree that the pressure of social inequalities is a huge one. It is easy to claim that women cannot perform under pressure in workplaces, but the point is whether women have been given the opportunity to bear such pressure (like men). How can we expect that a mother of one or more children should work freely in the workplace especially when she has to play a mother’s role at home? If anyone has been given this opportunity, then that is a different case. The bigger picture of the society has not changed.

It is important to make big efforts to change the bigger picture. If we want to deal with patriarchal mentality, we should not suppress male voices, but to allow men to express their views and opinions. It is quite natural that the patriarchy would always argue in its favour. Finding the right and strong counter arguments will help us fight with patriarchal mentality. Obviously, we have to ensure the right to freedom of speech for that. We can’t resolve the issue only by rejecting a person who does not believe in equality of women and expresses a different view.

We have to identify the root cause of the problem before resolving it. Of course, it’s a difficult task. But, it is equally difficult to counter the patriarchal mentality through logical reasoning. The media, which propagate ideas of patriarchy and shame women who express their freedom, will also have to play an important role.
It is not that the patriarchal characters of our society remain same for years. Changes are taking place. But, we have to make serious efforts to establish a society that can ensure gender equality.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das