In a country where female deities are worshipped, tales of horror against womankind continue to make headlines. Harini Calamur analyses how a social context that shows a rather regressive attitude towards women has paradoxically produced some of the strongest female political figures through history
During the last presidential elections in USA, an evident double standard for evaluating the two candidates was on display. As far as Hillary Clinton was concerned, she had to conform to a higher set of ‘good’ than Donald Trump. He was forgiven for his trespasses. She wasn’t. Part of the problem was her gender, and the American reluctance to accept a woman in their highest seat of power. India doesn’t seem to have that kind of obvious, blatant sexism. We aren’t thought of as being lesser in the workplace because of our gender. We may be paid less, but our ability is usually not in question.
As Charlotte Whitton, Canadian feminist and former mayor of Ottawa, observed, “Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.” However, to do things better, even twice better, women must first get to a job that enables them to compete with others on an equal footing. And therein lies the crux of the problem. If you open the door to let us in, we will smash the glass ceiling. But, how do we get the door open wide enough to get in?
This story is from the June 2018 edition of Verve.
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This story is from the June 2018 edition of Verve.
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