International Women’s Day 2014 - inspiring change

Shout out to all beautiful women out there:
“Happy Women’s day to all of you! Not only on this day, but every day inspire a positive change within yourself and other women around you.”

I have been seeing many beautiful images, videos and messages, about women’s day, making rounds on Facebook. I am sure you must have seen it too. Who has been posting those? At least in my circle of friends, around 80% of those posts came from females and only 20% came from male friends. And how many of those males really mean it what they posted? I would guess, very few. How many of all the males around us treat women with respect and dignity?

• It is saddening to know that in many Indian liberal families, where both husband and wife are earning members, women still go through loads of verbal and in some cases physical abuse behind the closed doors. Women who don’t get to work, their sufferings are even more brutal, beyond imaginations in numerous cases.
• Working women have to work harder to juggle between family and work. On the other hand, in India, how much of a time one man spends on a household work? Any guesses? Mere 19 minutes a day, read TOI article on it.
• Even being in USA, I have come across chauvinist Asian men who disrespect and discriminate female co-workers.
• In this age and world, in many households in India, why still girls have to choose their career that would be best suited after marriage? Why can’t girls choose what they want to do, instead of what they should be doing?
• To date in India, there are numerous households where boys are raised in superior manner to a girl.
• To bring the complete change, each and every person will have to take a tiny bit responsibility. Yes, we are progressing, but that is not enough. The change has to happen at the root level first.
• Every parent has to teach their kids and moreover set an example for their boys to treat women with respect and dignity. It has to start at home, that we are still lacking in major amount.
• At the tender age, a boy needs to learn that it is not OK to hit her sister. Only teaching wouldn’t help. Setting an example by his dad, uncles and granddads would help; otherwise no matter how much mom teaches a boy to be respectful of his sister and other women, he could very well follow footsteps of his dad.

I am sure there are many other points that I could pen down that need change.

But call out to all men out there:

“Losing it is easy. Holding it back, being nice and respectful to others is harder. That is where true person’s strength lies. That is the change we need to see from you to make world the beautiful place to live for your sisters, daughters, wives, mothers and every other woman.”

Now coming back to my women friends, do you realize that, in many cases, men get encouraged for disrespectful, abusing and discriminating behavior, they indulge in, by women hiding what happens with them behind the closed doors of home or office. This is the sincere request to all women:

• Don’t tolerate it to get to the worst. Oppose it at the start.
• Come out, speak about it.
• Seek out for help.
• Hiding those problems won’t give any resolution, but definitely could make things worse.
• Inspire yourself to stay strong and fight against it.

Always remind yourself of following lines
“There's only one very good life and that's the life you know you want and you make it yourself.” --Diana Vreeland

Linking it to Write Tribe Festival of Words – International Women’s Day 2014