Editorial Column Music & Art Carnatic Music Current Affairs Women Health Short Story Travel Humour Reflections Health & Fitness Prev Issue Next Issue

Women are weak, men are strong--such notions held by many are wrong.
Men make decisions.
While women make coffee.
Men will be bosses.
They'll rule over nations--
While womens' concerns are lipsticks and lotions.
Sugar and spice and everything nice.
Women shriek at the sight of lizards and mice--
Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.
A boy is brave, he never wails.

I do believe that women the weaker sex are no longer. They are as good as men, as strong as men--this is the point of my contention.

Women have been discriminated against for centuries, perhaps ever since life on earth. While men went out hunting, women were considered fit to stay at home, stay in the cave and look after the children. After the discovery of fire she was given the responsibility of cooking food, but still they came to be labelled as the weaker sex. Isn't that ironic!

They are not and never were inferior to men, but their talents and capacities were not allowed to be given expression. Much has changed in the recent decades, women have been waging a war against the INJUSTICE done to them by man, proving the world that they are no longer the weaker sex.

Some days back, I happened to read a hair raising event in one of the famous magazines of India called FRONTLINE. The story was about a forty-two year old woman who had settled abroad and held a very high position. She was molested by a man who happened to be one of her family members. After the event, she did not keep quiet--with great boldness she took up the matter to the highest authorities. The result was that the man was given nine years imprisonment. Does it not prove that women can even move mountains ?

Coming down from the world of crime to the world of advertising models. We had our own two great models in the form of Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen who took the world in their stride becoming Miss Universe and Miss World, one after the other. Nobody could even imagine that two Indian beauties could achieve such a great success in such a short span of their career.

Saying that women are no longer the weaker sex implies that they are strong. Are we talking about physical strength? Well, India does not have many Kunjrani Devis to boast of but who knows, in the coming years there might be a few damsels to challenge the likes of Hulk Hogan and Tatanka. Women are shining in the sports area too, bringing laurels for their country. And isn't it praiseworthy that they do it even after dishing and delivering a few excellent blows to the vegetables and bowling over all those who know her patience, loving and understanding nature?

Women have been to space; they've explored the mysterious depths of the seas and are soaring high in the skies too. They are excelling in medicine, law, engineering, technology, teaching, politics, administration and so on. Can you name an area where women are not doing their bit for the country? What's admirable is their potential to manage their work sphere. This is not easy for any man to accomplish. So, how far is calling women the weaker sex justified?

I do not deny that women are being discriminated, exploited against, ill-treated and abuse--but this is because the so-called strong men are brutes, and not because the women are weak. Women have tremendous strength, fortitude and courage to face the difficulties of life.

Today's women are armed with education, their own will power and determination, proving to the world that they are no longer the weaker sex but are forces to reckon with.

So, next time when you try to be chivalrous and open a door for a lady, be careful--for women are going in for judo, karate and taekwondo, and also armed with Ponds-Dreamflower--you never know what's in store for you.

Do you?

Graphic Credits

View and Post comment on this article