Diane Mariechild wasn’t off the mark when she called a woman a full circle and added that ‘within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform’. The entire system of a 360 degree development revolves around women and even Kofi Annan wrote that ‘there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.’ However, what we observe around us is that despite well-meaning words, interpretations, and a few scattered activities, women continue to be subjugated around the world. So the battle goes on.

Is women empowerment a battle?

Battles aren’t just fought on the borders or meant only to counter insurgencies or be a part of corporate strategies to create lasting brands. Any battle has the supreme aim to remake the world and, of course, to prevent escalation to a full-fledged war that can only obliterate and devastate all the good work done in the past. Battles are tools to make everyone accept, understand, create, and then follow paths that lead to development. In this context, equality becomes only a variable benchmark and is not something that can, on its own, create lasting transformations. What may and will create a lasting change is when women understand and exercise ‘their power they could remake the world’ so wrote Emily Taft Douglas. The word equality comes with a lot of misconceptions built into it and cannot survive without a continuous fight… and so real transformation enters when the differences between the genders are recognized and put into action. Even Emma Watson wrote: ‘If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don’t shave them, wear flats one day, heels the next. These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop. Women should feel free.’

So yes, women need to feel free… minus that urge to be equal every time. Let me quote the way immigrants feel in any new environment. Many go around fighting battles in small groups and shouting, ‘Make us equal.’ Does this work? Hardly. What works is their work. Those immigrants who identify their strong points and work on them move up to positions of accountability and responsibility. It is this small group that helps other immigrants be understood and then some of them get hold of the concept and work on their skills and talents… until the chant of ‘go home, immigrants’ gets lower decibels and is finally silenced.

The strategy for women then is to make the world know that there are things that they can do well. Not by telling but by showing. Estée Lauder agrees with this when she says: ‘I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.’ This is quite different from vociferous chants about equality where imaginary walls are toppled by wild and whirling words. Not so long back women were not a part of our fighting forces in the army, police or any of the allied services. This was probably because no one ever thought they would be interested in leading a life that is both rough as well as tough. So what happened that changed perceptions?

Lead by example

Some women came forward and began participating in sports that were male dominated. And suddenly we had medals being won in kabaddi, boxing, wrestling, and even long-distance running. There were women making their mark in the martial arts and all this finally led to a decision to create openings for women in the fighting arms. Simple. These women were showing that they could do all that men could in areas where their expertise was questioned earlier. Women in business proved that they could manage well. And gradually we have women in politics, legal affairs, mountaineering, trekking, research, hotel kitchens, fashion design and not just content to sewing, cooking at home, and teaching children. In fact, it is men who have now realized and excelling in tasks that were conventionally done by women and so we have men showing us that they can cook at home, be home-makers, and even run creches.

Women led by example and got empowered. This was certainly not a miracle done by chanting slogans on the streets or getting battle-weary on the social media. We now have women at all levels, including the top who are transforming the dynamics of gender engineering, and they now ‘reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored,’ wrote Sheryl Sandberg. Reese Witherspoon too believes in this strategy and she has written: ‘If you’re one of those people who has that little voice in the back of her mind saying, ‘Maybe I could do [fill in the blank],’ don’t tell it to be quiet. Give it a little room to grow, and try to find an environment it can grow in.’

However, the cycle of empowerment isn’t yet complete because we still have more and more women following the examples set by successful women. Women need to find their voice and once that is done, they, by definition, become strong… and not by merely arm-twisting policies or policy-makers. G D Anderson has rightly said that ‘feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.’ And one does this by showing and not by shouting or incessantly telling.

This, however, does not mean that the government and the rest of us sit back and watch everything as if it were another soap on Netflix. The Indian government has conceptualized and put in action a lot of schemes and policies for those women who are finding it difficult to find their voice. And so we have Women Empowerment Schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme, One Stop Centre Scheme, Women Helpline Scheme, UJJAWALA: A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation, SWADHAR Greh (A Scheme for Women in Difficult Circumstances), Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP), NARI SHAKTI PURASKAR, Stree Shakti Puruskar, Rajya Mahila Samman & Zila Mahila Samman, Mahila police Volunteers, Mahila E-Haat, Mahila Shakti Kendras (MSK), and NIRBHAYA to name a few.

Incidentally, not all women need to join the army or jog up the corporate ladder. Women who are aware and empowered are the ones who have understood the importance of education, jobs, and healthcare. Women need to know that ‘social inequalities ranging from gender-specific abortions, mistreatment from their spouses, eve teasing, being married off at an early age and in some cases being denied an education by their families’ are still there as stated by this study, and this cycle deserves to be intercepted and rectified. The same study informs us that ‘infant mortality rates go down, more children stay in school, incomes increase and the cycle of poverty can be broken’ when women find their voice. So I do agree with Malala Yousafzai when she insisted that she raises her ‘voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.’

These battles will go on until every woman has found her voice. These battles will go on until every man understands and believes that a woman is the full circle.

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A woman is the full circle_women empowerment

A woman is the full circle_women empowerment

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Arvind Passey
15 November 2018