Women Empowerment- Facts Beyond Fiction

“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”

G.D. Anderson

‘A sense of self-worth, the decision to determine their own choices, and the right to impact social changes for themselves and others’, isn’t this a fundamental human right to live more peacefully in a prosperous world? Shouldn’t this be prevalent above and beyond the nuances of how gender intersects with race, class, and breed in society? The road to gender equality, since time immemorial, has been long, tiring, and ever-shifting. However, the changing paradigms and evolving mentalities have paved the pathway for women’s equality and an assuring hope that we are headed in the right direction.

Breaking newer ground rules over centuries and being spread across phases of the women’s rights movement throughout time and geographical space, women’s empowerment has emerged as a part of a global drift towards a more enlightened and developed society. Are women treading the path to having more power and control over their lives, the freedom to make strategic choices, and the opportunity to participate in society as freely as men? Despite all the hue and cry and the tremendous efforts in establishing progressive societies with equal opportunities for all, women continue to face discrimination, violence, trauma, and lack of respect. Which strata of society need to empower women? Women in every social, economic, and political status suffer from ‘survival anxiety’ and seldom manage to independently walk into the swathe of safety and security without the men in their lives taking charge of their protection. Before creating a virtual sense of a better world, we need harsh reality checks and the acceptance of the truth. Verbal, physical, and psychological harassment within the confines of home and workplace or the expanse of society at large, every woman faces gender bias at different stages of life. Things are improving we say, but compared to what? Differentiating situations from the myopic vision that we carry of our existence, purpose, and gender sensitivity, we form our definitions and principles. Do these work?

Undeniably, there has been a constant improvement in conditions of women on a wider scale, but still, at every nook and corner, there’s a space that is far from seeing the light of day. Some feminist trailblazers have embraced womanhood and portrayed empowerment, and then there are the subjugated ones whose sobs fade away in the dearth of progress. Is there a ray of hope? Yes, education is the key and the strength of self-reliance is the step to progression. To live with dignity and freedom, a woman needs to be aware, educated, and independent, not superficially but on substantial levels. Breaking the shackles of the most pervasive forms of inequality- violence, economic prejudice, harmful societal and family practices, health and safety, and several more, women need to liberate themselves from the imposed evidence of being inferior in any way. A contemplative retrospect free from the wrath of the rebel is what truly leads to the autonomy of women. Be it the participation and partnership in sharing responsibilities at home or equal opportunities at workplaces. Whether it is the recognition and respect for knowledge, abilities, and coping mechanisms or joint efforts for extirpating the hindrances in the attainment of a healthy and fulfilling life. From the most private levels to highly public extents, there needs to be the establishment of mechanisms for women’s equal and equitable representation and participation.

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An empowered woman raises an empowered family, the building block of a healthy society, community, country, and world. A true sense of women empowerment needs to prevail devoid of different denotations of the term created for the convenience of various sects of beliefs. Beyond the perceived complexities of the term and the false expectations of ‘women empowerment being handed out on a platter to women by someone else’, women need to stand up for themselves. Equipped with the powerful tools of education and self-reliance, positive interpretation, ‘power of the pack’ mentality against ‘standing against the world’ status, and a clear vision, women and society together need to glide past the relativity of empowerment and disempowerment towards an open-ended process of progression. Instead of overrating the war, we need to focus on the silver linings to win the battles.

“To all the women who are yet to see the light of the modern and liberated world, the ones who are still buried in the harshness of the family and society pressures in every nook and corner,  and the ones who are blessed to be among the progressive, and yet, face the challenges of being a woman everyday….

I don’t want to compete with a man in a man’s world; I want to do the best I can as a woman while cherishing my existence in a free world.

I want to be loved for being a woman and I want to love being a woman.

I want to be respected for who I am…”

About the Columnist

An HR-turned-Author, Jyoti Jha is an MBA by qualification and has been associated with corporates like Infosys and Whirlpool in the past. After almost a decade of globe-trotting, she pursued her compelling passion of expressing through words and embarked upon the journey of exploring the field of literature.

An esteemed winner of ‘The Times of India Write India Season 3’, she has authored the books, ‘The Realms of Human Emotions’, ‘Around The World Through My Lens’, and ‘Aanandi’. Awarded ‘Savitribai Phule Rashtriya Samman’ on International Women’s Day and having been featured as ‘Iconic Authors 2022’ by Aesthetics International, she has been awarded as ‘Author of the year’ in The LIT FEST 2020 and has won the title ‘Best Reviewer of the year 2020 and 2021’.

A Storyteller, Columnist, and a Lyricist, she has been proud Panelist and Guest Speaker in Talk Shows at prestigious institutions like IIM Lucknow, IIT Delhi, IIT Jammu, and Christ College.  Having been interviewed and featured at one of the Top Literary Journals of the country, Jyoti has been an honorable Jury Member at the Literary Club, IIT BHU for Storytelling and an honorable guest at Kashiyatra, IIT BHU, Varanasi for Hindi Poetry. She has been an esteemed guest speaker and host at a unique Talk Show ‘The Lit Talks’ on a reputable OTT Platform. Her debut Hindi novel ‘Aanandi’ has been featured at the Pune International Literary Festival (PILF) 2021 and is made into an audiobook available at Storytel by Zankar Studios.