Who is a woman? She is a separate gender with a different take on life than a man. Women have varied strengths, emotional prowess, family building traits, better grooming tendencies, beauty, charm, courage, and wisdom. This is a gender God perfected to carry no fault, in a figurative sense at least! She has the same soul as that of a man, however, different in the way she bears it. Why should men and women be compared or equated when both the genders are wholesome, and complete with or without each other, complete as a human being should be. Women are true guardians and blessings of nature. Their presence in this world does matter and they are half the reason this planet survives.
When speaking about empowering women, care must be taken to understand the true meaning of the word ‘empowerment’. Of course, women need better opportunities to upscale their living standard, but what prospects grant them the desired level of liberation? Feminism is one answer. It is a concept, a thought, an ideology that men and women are equals in the society and their family. It preaches women to be self-sufficient, know their rights and duties, and understand that this society needs them as much as it does a man. This kind of confidence-building might result in women empowerment.
However, some feminists believe that women are better than men and that every female needs to prove it. This should not be the case. Forcing women to compromise their dignity, respect, time, labour, and life in the name of proving anti-feminists wrong just proves the latter’s point. Why should a woman need to prove herself for this patriarchal society to accept or even acknowledge her presence? Is she worth so little? The only thing a woman would achieve in the name of this mediocre thought is incessant pain. This world is filled with men with indestructible primitive attitudes towards the female gender, and with women who wish to demoralize other women just because of jealousy. Will they change because a woman proved to be the top competitor in a national exam or achieved a high-paying job? The answer is No. Why, one might ask. It is because such people do not change overnight. They change only if they want to. Why waste energy over them?
Utilizing this energy to achieve her aims, without the burden of proving anything to anyone, is what she must be counselled to do. Hence, feminism in the right amount is beneficial to a woman. Women working in MNCs, factories, government offices, or private facilities whilst maintaining their households properly are proof enough that she can handle both her job and personal life well.
Being able to take care of mental, physical and spiritual health, maintaining contact with strong influential women, living as a close-knit community, and forming reliant self-help groups is what will empower women. Making sure nobody commands her to prove her feminism, because no one has the right to, is a societal responsibility. She has the right to make decisions for her life. But she does have to keep in mind to choose both her family and profession, in a balance, as both aspects are important in the long run.
However far a woman may go in life, no matter her aim, background, status, or education, first and foremost, she has to believe that she can overcome anything. Having faith in her abilities and trying to understand her worth will benefit. A woman will be empowered only if she stops letting others decide for her. She is an entity, a complete and perfect creation of God, incomparable to any gender. She has to own confidence that she is strong enough to take that first step; a step everyone is afraid of. A step towards repossession of her worth that was lost but can still be reclaimed, only when she tries.
