Why women must overcome challenges

FE Team | Published: November 12, 2018 21:12:49

Women's forays into uncharted territories of career are no longer discouraged, yet on some select fronts their presence is tentative and rare. If women choose the career of fighter pilots, it makes big news. Similarly, when the country gets its first female army major general, it turns out to be an occasion for national pride. Considered groundbreaking, such events on the other hand obliquely refers to the fact that women have miles to go before they take their rightful place in society. A day-long event titled 'Women of Excellence 2018' hosted by Women in Leadership (WIL) was in effect an occasion for celebration of women on the rise. It is no surprise that corporate world boasts a band of highly successful women careerists. They have disproved the myth that women are unsuited to the business world. It was the lack of opportunities that restricted their way into business and commerce. Otherwise, women can be as business-savvy as their most astute male counterparts.
True, women face challenges and if they are determined to overcome those they surely can. An Indian woman with an artificial leg provides one of the best examples of what accepting challenge actually means. A volleyball player, Arunima Sinha was pushed out of a train when she resisted robbers in her compartment. Her left leg amputated, she vowed to climb the world's highest mountain peak with her prosthetic leg and succeeded. More than the physical challenge, here the mental challenge is bigger. So, women need to break the barrier -not just the one imposed on them by society but mainly that of the psychology. The fact that girl enrolment in schools in Bangladesh is larger than boys' is to the country's advantage. What needs to be done is to stop the dropouts of girls, which is of a larger proportion than that of boys.
Gender divide has put women at a disadvantage for centuries and it is not easy to wish away the discrimination overnight. The need is to create facilities for girls and women to realise their potential in an uninhibited environment. Mutual respect and cooperation right from the smallest unit that is family to the top level of administration and other social callings can indeed pave the way for women to give a good account of their talents. The #Me Too movement surely has exposed male predatory instinct but at the same time it has given the unerring message that such male roguishness will no longer be tolerated.
This is an unprecedented phenomenon. Today women have not just broken the unbearable silence but also overcome the age-old psychological glass ceiling in order to challenge male chauvinism and dominance. Surely, enlightened men will stand by them in their fight against male bullies. This has to triumph over the meanness and myopic concept regarding women's place in society. On equal terms, both men and women can expand their mental horizon and advance the causes of human civilisation.