Modern Day Women

Women of 21st Century 

“There are still some people who still feel threatened by strong women. That’s their problem. It’s not mine.’’- Gloria Allred

Modern Day Women

100 years ago the most common belief among people was that women were weaker than men, they were considered less smarter than men, they were told to shut their mouths and keep their opinions to themselves, they were told to be satisfied with what they were given and they were the only one who were expected to make important sacrifices for their families. While men were constantly served with a platter of privileges, the women actually had to work really hard for those same privileges. During the early 80’s and 90’s the birth of a girl child was considered a bad omen and a misfortune. Fortunately, things improved for the women of our country when female leaders like Dr. Muthu Lakshmi Reddy, Rajkumari Amrit Kumar, Sarojini Naidu, Indira Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Iron Chanu Sharmila and Jayaram Jayalalithaa stepped in the political circuit and changed the way women were represented earlier. Though majority of people around the country still believe that a woman’s soul purpose in life should be to look after her husband, and to please his fragile ‘MALE EGO’, things have also considerably evolved a lot in terms of empowerment of woman. 

Women of 21st century are now labelled as ‘SUPER-WOMEN’, the women are taking over industries which were always dominated by men and such women leaders are the reason why the economy of our country has witnessed a significant upper-curve. The stereotype that working woman are so immersed in their career that they forget about their family and their kids was burned to ashes by the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern when she walked in to the UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY with her three months old daughter. During her run in the parliament her government created 92000 jobs, planted approximately 140 million trees, the unemployment of the country went to its lowest rate, her government also invested in mental health and she handled the terrorists attack on the mosque with utmost dignity and grace, and under her reign New Zealand also became the first country to declare itself as COVID-19 free.

Women are not only creating history in politics but they are also creating history in science: Farah Ishtiaq, a senior scientist at Tata Institute for Genetics and Society is the only scientist in India and one of the few in South Asia, to study in detail the spread of malaria in birds. For close to a decade now she has been researching avian malaria and doing field work across different sites.

India’s most acclaimed Mars Orbiter Mission was an outcome of intellect of Scientist Ritu Karidhal, Scientist Moumita Dutta, Scientist Nandini Harinath and Scientist Minal Rohit. Each and every one of them faced the expectations and pressures of our society but that didn’t stop their burning desire to conquer space. These women made us realize that we can manage having careers and families. Another example of an extraordinary woman in science is Muthayya Vanitha Muthayya, an electronics system engineer who is now the project Director of Chandrayaan-2. She is the first woman to lead the interplanetary mission at ISRO.

Just like any other area sports was also considered to be a field where there was no place for a woman, so women decided to make a place for themselves and decades later there is an endless list of women athletes and sportsperson inspiring us with their stories and their hard work; Serena Williams, Dutee Chand, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, Lindsey Vonn, Aly Raisman, Danica Patrick, Mary Kom and Mithali Raj are few examples of many such women.

The women of today are strong, ambitious, opinionated, highly intellectual, smart, hardworking and independent. They know their self-worth, they know that there isn’t anything that they can’t do, they know that they don’t have to tolerate any nonsense that makes them feel uncomfortable, and we really need to thank their supportive families for this. Every woman you see around yourself is a live statue of bravery, strength, love and grace: be it a single woman raising her three year old, be it a middle age married working mother, be it a housewife, or be it an unmarried forty year old woman looking after her old parents.

Though there are still some people who thinks that your first child should be a BOY because he will be the only one who will be your pillar of strength during the golden days, many have started to realize that in your old age, only a daughter has the heart to take care of her parents the way they truly deserve.

There are still rules and regulations that we as a woman have to follow so that we can survive in this patriarchal society, but hopefully in the coming decade these rules will change too. The men and women of this generations are full of fire and they know what is “acceptable” and what isn’t. Men know that women should be encouraged and empowered, women know that men being sensitive should be normalized, they both know that “listening to society” isn’t going to make them happy , they know that both genders should have an equal say in matters, they know that work load should be shared among the spouses , and they know that respecting the opposite gender should always be an unsaid rule, they know that they don’t necessarily have to be around people who belittle them, or make them feel uncomfortable and they know that a "Good Partner" is the one who is supportive, loving, logical and honest.

The generation of today knows how to make world a better place for the generations to come. They have realized that now is the time to change the way we think, so that our future generation of daughters and sons have an environment where they are actually thriving, instead of just surviving.

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