FEMINISM BY SANKAR DAS

We are in a society which is in a state of continues and constant flux. Hundred and a half  years have  passed by, but  there,  still remains a little or zero sense of what really it is, Can we still hope for the improvement , hasn’t enough have been done by us? Can it now be said that we are equally participating or this is just a mere propaganda  to make this half of Human-being feel equal? It’s really appalling and oxymoronic  that the value of women is deteriorating day by day, even when the literacy rate has risen up from sixteen to seventy four percent.

A famous sloka from Manusmruthi says “Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah” which means where Women are honored, divinity blossoms there, and where women are dishonored, all action no matter how noble remain unfruitful. “There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of woman is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing” says Swami Vivekananda. So feminism came as a movement and an ideology to unleash the shackles of years of subjugation and subordination, to tear the man-made manacle into pieces.  It is a political doctrine which stands on  two foundational beliefs that women are disadvantaged because of their sex and this disadvantage can be and should be overthrown . The Feminists have underscored the supremacy of men and the subjugation of women in all most all societies.

The concept of public men and private women is deeply entrenched in every society, the public sphere i.e. forms of politics, art, and literature, has been a monopoly of men, while women have been confined to an essentially private existence, to the repetitive task of domestic chores and family responsibilities.  And the irony is that even when they spend hour after hour doing the monotonous and heavy domestic chores  without any complain as a mother, as a sister, in-laws, etc, we forgot to attach monetary value to it, we have forgotten to measure it in terms of the so-called measuring unit i.e. GDP or GNP. The first and the second wave of feminism brought with it the long desired sexual equality in political arena and strived to end discrimination, respectively. But did that end discrimination?

The inequality that exist  between male and female is a by-product and direct result of existing Patriarchy, is a  consequence of our notion that women are born not made. Patriarchy is all pervading, it spreads to each and every sphere starting from public to the so-called private. Millet went to the extent of describing  the patriarchal government as an institution whereby that half of populace which is female is controlled by that half which is male. The most common argument that gender division in society are natural: women and men are merely fulfilling the social roles for which they were naturally designed, forgetting the fact, that difference exist between gender and sex. The real problem lies here, these anti feminists don’t know or rather pretend to be not knowing the difference between Sex and Gender in which the former is natural but the latter is Socially consecrated, politically conspired .

  Being considered as the embodiment of weaker sex, women were considered timid or lesser intelligent than men, needing special protection,  hence under the cloak of sexual protection, a division was created,  denying women equal rights as man and it was warranted  by the argument  of existing  natural inequality, which doesn’t exist at all. Not getting rights, resources and opportunities women are still forced to remain underprivileged, uneducated & even undernourished at times.  Women are conditioned in a particular way  to a passive sexual role, which has repressed their intrinsic personality.   

The pioneers in the Indian history, reformers such as Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar & Jyoti Rao phule fought for the betterment of women in India. Peary Charan Sarkar Found the first free School for girls in India. Engels suggested that the position of women in society had changed fundamentally with the development of capitalism and the institution of private property.

   Although the objective of feminism is to overthrow patriarchy and end the oppression on the basis of sex, feminists have sometime seen in a state of eternal conflict over the methodologies to achieve it. This makes the word feminism a bit confusing. However, the issue of equality is always key to the feminist thought. Meanwhile, the issue of equality have also exposed major faultiness within feminism: feminists have embraced contrasting notions of equality and some have entirely rejected equality in favour of the idea of difference.  

   Although there is a constant  fear that feminism  with its high tide will wash away the skyscrapers of man-domination and men will eventually lose out –of power, influence, impact authority, control, economic opportunities,  and religious beliefs, and established gender roles will loose their sanctity, which makes the man feel scary. But we never know what could she bring to the society with her that hands which is today running the home swiftly, May be something we are desiring in future or may be we never have dreamt of.

About the author-  Sankar Das is a chemistry graduate from Berhampur Universty.