Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Swimming in delusion of gender equality

Advocacy for gender equality has been an intense battle for some decades now. Women all over the world have realised the need to be at par with men in everything.

After all, what a man can do, a woman can do better. From corporate governance to in dustry, women have taken the place of men. They run head to head almost in everything.

Certain professions deemed fit for men have been overtaken by women, without let or hindrance. Truth is, women have been relegated overtime.

Most societies, especially, in the previous centuries were majorly patriarchal. Women were restricted by men from doing certain things and there were always explanations for such abstinence – sometimes cultural, at another time, concocted tales to scare them away.

Whether concocted or not, these explanations were rooted in culture overtime to protect its defilement. They were societies that raised the bar of male chauvinism. Women were just used and they couldn’t access certain benefits like their male counterparts.

More than the tactical manoeuvring of men against women, nature has provided explanations to justify the supremacy of men over women. The man was made. The woman was merely created.

There lies a distinction between being made from nothing and being created from something. It therefore follows reasons that the existence of that which is created rests on that which is made.

Even if we pick holes in the creation story, science has provided evidences that men aren’t equal to women. The brains are wired differently. The bones are different. What about the ratio of the ribs?

This might be repudiated by any stronger logic anyway, and I will be glad to bow to such. Available religious writings subscribe to the supremacy of man over woman.

From the unchanging rules of Islam to the liberal Christian practices, man comes before woman in everything. It is the same in popular cultures, except with little variations.

While I agree with the lofty ideals of the total emancipation of women, the equality must be total. Women must get off their dependency mentality. They must share in the responsibility and the ancient roles allotted to men alone

There have never been controversies until civilisation struck us, when we had the surge of reasons to overturn the long verdict of supremacy. It has come to stay with us. And we must embrace it.

Women are invaluable to the development of any nation. They are great assets. It will be wrong to say we should give them a place in a world they belong. It’s an admittance of men’s unnecessary over lordship.

This is their world too. They have every right to reach their potentials. They mustn’t be pegged at a point. They must be limitless. While I agree with the lofty ideals of the total emancipation of women, the equality must be total.

Just as you can’t eat your cake and have it, women must get off their dependency mentality. They must share in the responsibility and the ancient roles allotted to men alone.

They too must pay the bills. I advocate for total equality, not just an equality to benefit. Until a lady gladly takes me out while she sees it as her duty to foot the bills, gender equality is a facade, a perfect delusional voyage.

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