Half-baked feminism:

When we look at many of our inner beliefs and its actual action in our lives, we find ourselves to be hypocrites. It’s very easy to praise a concept and preach it, but the challenge is when we start implementing in our life. Today there is a lot of discussion about feminism. This is discussed in corporate offices, educational institutions, and political arenas and so on. Let us try to understand the concept of feminism. Feminism refers to the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. It tries to define, establish and achieve political, economic, personal, and social equality for men and women.

We can discuss in length on the topic whether feminism should be understood in terms of equality or equity. Let us not discuss equality and equity now. We can keep it for another occasion. Practically feminism includes seeking to establish educational, social and professional opportunities equally for men and women. And also feminism focuses on basic concpets such as the day to day communication. Example: If you want to communicate an information to employees in a traditional form, you would use sentences like this, ‘He’ will be responsible for reporting on the team progresses. When the concept of feminism popped up, people started writing like this ‘He or she’ will be responsible for reporting on the team progresses. And currently, it’s become the opposite of traditional statement. ‘She’ will be responsible for reporting on the team progresses’. Does the usage of statements make someone feminist? Or, there is something practical form of feminism.

Let us try to understand practically are we hypocrites or are we really feminists. Nowadays the urban trend is men and women both are breadwinners of the family, both spend most of the time at place of work. In a standard eight hours workday, both men and women work for a given time. Now, this is equality, as both have put the same effort for winning bread to the family. And once both come back home, in a feministic form, both husband and wife, should equally work at home. Doing the chores like cooking food, cleaning home, washing clothes, taking care of children and so on. In maximum cases, man enjoys all the relaxing and entertainment after coming back home. While women are toiling all around till the end of the day. Why can’t men be feminist in working along with wife at home? Where does the sense of feminist go? And traditionally in some cultures, it is considered unmanly for men to enter the kitchen. Aren’t we talking a half-baked feminism? It is very important for us to critically think about the meaning of feminism. How these non-feministic thoughts have come rooted in our cultures and traditions. And particularly the hypocrite version of feminism.

Maaz Mohammed A.Q

The author is learning strategist @ Credence Learning Foundation, Bangalore India.