A new wave

There’s a change happening around us and it’s taking the country almost by storm. I noticed it first when I was in college, way back in the 1980’s, when I could feel the first waves. And today, I’m amazed at the progress it has made. It has to do with women – and it has a lot of men sitting up in their seats.

Women have become vocal, more assertive. And, though you may call me a MCP, in some cases, much to my dismay, aggressive. But, whatever I may say, the end-result is fantastic. More and more women are thinking on their feet. They are taking up academic and career-oriented programmes to seek employment. And, they are taking up jobs which were earlier in the hands of men.

The preference for traditional jobs like teaching or secretarial work has shifted to advertising, media, marketing, finance, human resources, information technology, and even sales – moving the women into the corporate world, which has always been the domain of men. Today, more women apply to and graduate from MBA programmes than ever before – entering the corporate world thereafter and increasing their share of the gender ratio in their respective organisations.

Not only that, women are entering their new professions as employees equal to men, moving away from traditional stereotyped roles and low-paid jobs. For these women, many of them first-generation earners, financial independence is a key motive to work. They work as well as their male counterparts, asking for equal pay plus privileges, and are forging ahead despite work and societal pressures.

What has brought this change? I really don’t know for sure, but I do have a pet theory: In the middle, upper-middle and upper class families, the father has been a supporter and a facilitator for this change for the past quarter of a century. He has given his daughters a sense of independence and self-worth – giving them a sort of nudge to become equal to the sons in the family… Watching his daughters’ progress with pride.

This may seem an anti-feminist point of view, but you can’t deny the fact that women in India are creating an identity – and a life-space – for themselves. And, there are many men who are cheering them on from their seats.