In mythology and other religious theories women hold extremely prestigious positions. Given the achievements of women in today’s scenario it is quite hard to believe that they ever had to struggle in order to be where they are today. As a matter of fact strength is a quality that helps one hide away his/her pain and sufferings. And women as we know are one of the strongest creatures on earth that are capable of creating life. Therefore every year 8th of March is celebrated as the International Women’s Day to pay tribute to all the great women who contributed to the revolution.
Tracing back to the roots we find that it all began with women struggling to acquire equal rights as men in the society. Women were denied of rights as basic as the right to education during the early stages of revolt. Not only that, when women got exposed to the working opportunities in factories during industrialization the owners made it a point to exploit them by paying unfair wages.
In 1848, a wide movement against the injustices faced by women was initiated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, encouraging women all over the world to raise their voices. It was quite the beginning of raising voice against the wrong. The women who carried out the movement demanded access to basic human rights such as the right to vote and equality in all spheres of life.
“Bread and Peace”
-Slogan from 1917 protest
The prevailing gender equality was absolutely against the rule of nature. As they say everyone stands equal in the eyes of nature and it is the man-made differences that create an imbalance. Male community being the suppressive one exploited women in every possible way and tried to establish control in order to keep them from protesting. But their suppression was threatened when hundreds and thousands of women decided to come together and fight against those injustices. It is because of those women who decided to stick together that most of the women have access to basic rights and amenities today. Had they not come together, there wouldn’t be any laws pertaining to gender equality and crimes against women protecting them from male suppression.
Where sex is a biological concept, gender is a social construct. Throughout the history, different feminists fought for different issues. Some revolted to acquire voting rights while some fought for female independence. A room of one’s own by Virginia Woolf is a wonderful example of what a true feminist of those times used to deal with. As a writer she sounded extremely calm and composed in her novel matching the standards of male writers of her time, but if we examine closely we find her feelings suppressed under her words. Being a woman she not only spoke for herself but for her entire community that deserved a fair and equal treatment as men in the society.
Bronte sisters who are famous today for their contributions to revolutionary literature once had to pursue their passion of writing under a pseudonym merely because women writing were not encouraged during that age. Such was the male dominance that women had to think twice before expressing themselves openly to the public. But with time and continuous protesting, female writers, speakers, players and employees multiplied and began flourishing.
In her famous novel The Second Sex, De Beauvoir beautifully explains how women were only passive recipients in all spheres of life. Instead of letting the women write for themselves, men used to take up the responsibility of portraying them in their works for a better understanding of their gender. On the contrary, as reflected in The Second Sex, men portrayed them as objects and not someone as human as themselves. By pointing at the unnatural male superiority, De Beauvoir drags the attention of her readers towards the root cause of female oppression. It was largely the wrong portrayal or absence of female characters in plays and other works of significance that people understood female gender as unimportant.
Feminism has come far away from where it originally began. Today, this concept implies different meanings to different individuals. Nevertheless, Feminism was a movement that left behind an everlasting impact for the generations of women to come.
Elaine Showalter, a feminist critic, ideally divides the female voices into three different phases – Feminine: those women who fought for mere acceptance in the male community, Feminist: those who tried to threaten men by pointing out the unnatural treatment of female community encouraging thousands of women to raise their voices, and Female: a phase when women had finally found their place in the society and were recognized as a gender equivalent to that of men.
Undoubtedly most of the women have made it through the hard times but even today there are a lot of women who are victims of male dominance and gender inequality at workplaces. Crimes against women are still reported in large numbers and women still fear the consequences of raising their voice. These are few of the many reasons why International Women’s Day is a significant game changer even today. Besides celebrating the achievements of our ancestors this day is also meant to make the victimized women realize that they have the power to change their situation.
By Roshni Arora, Rajasthan
