Celebrating women

March has now become more famous for the celebration of Womens Day than for the arrival of spring. With every year, there is more awareness of this international celebration of women. It is the day when almost all TV channels bring out women centric movies and dramas. I could see discounts for women in so many shops, restaurants, cafes and malls. All the consumerism aside, I think it is a good idea to have a day to remember the progress women have made in various fields. It is good for little girls to know that there have been remarkable women in the past who have fought against all odds to give us this amount of freedom and representation.

In today's context, I am sure most women would find a 'feminist' totally outdated and weird. But I think it is good to read up on all that has been experimented to reach the stage women are in now. I graduated in Commerce from a typical womens arts college. Most girls who studied in arts colleges did so to have some stop gap arrangement until they got married and settled. A few of my own classmates got married and even had their first child by the time we graduated. I used to get quite shocked at the mild acceptance among girls about their status. I used to ponder over the need for womens higher education and I still do. I sometimes feel that subjects like religion, philosophy, foreign languages and home science should be offered for women in Arts colleges. I probably should have liked them better.

When I got married and went to the US, I used to be drawn towards feminist writings which was completely new to me. I tried reading Betty Friedan's 'Feminine Mystique', Simone de Beauvoir's 'Second Sex' and Gloria Steinhem's articles. I was amazed by the bold and strong writing in each of these books. I was relieved when I read that many women, much before my time, had gone through similar feelings of anger and frustration.

I started reading authors like Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emily Dickinson. These were authors that I had not read in India. Frankly, I was more inspired by the lives of these women authors than by the twentieth century feminist writings that I read. The book that I enjoyed reading was 'A room of one's own' by Virginia Woolf. Just as the title suggests, Virginia Woolf was of the opinion that a woman needs time and space and financial independence, to develop her interests and intellect. According to her, a woman's life is so crowded that she does not have the time or inclination to think and ponder about the deeper aspects of life. And that is the reason why there are so few women philosophers or authors or scientists. The book was written during a time when it was not considered appropriate for women to work or seek independence.

In the twentieth century, women do not have to fight to get represented politically or to attain positions of power. We are fighting a different battle now. Women in most countries (the middle east is a different place altogether) have been given the freedom to pursue their career and have families but we have got caught in these images and have not really grown beyond it. Women are still judged by much higher standards when compared to men. A woman's primary purpose in the world still seems to be reproduction and continuation of the species. At the same time, women are also under pressure to achieve professional success just so that they do not get branded as 'housewives' or 'non-career women'.

It is now time to find a balance between what one wants professionally and personally so that every woman feels complete and authentic.  There is no need to hide or suppress our need for softness and kindness or be ashamed of our need for recognition and material success. Only when we give sufficient attention to both the masculine and the feminine tendencies do we feel completely human.