Various laws in countries have declared that men and women should be given equal opportunity in every sphere. From the beginning of the civilisation, it was thought that women are there to look after their children and to take care of the house. But as times changed, slowly the position of women in society also changed. Their positions haven’t changed much in the modern world, but now they have to go to work and also look after their children and take care of the house. Due to their household work they have to adjust with their jobs. Many women who are highly qualified and have the potential to do more responsible jobs than men have to suppress their thoughts and qualifications only because of a new family member.
According to the words of Hillary Clinton, women are promoted according to their performance in the work place but in the case of men, they are promoted according to their potential. Women who switch jobs have been found to earn less as compared to the women who have stayed with their first employer. Every time a women switches jobs, she has to prove herself through her performance, but men switch jobs and earn more only with their potential. A promising man can earn more than a good performing woman in the same workplace.
There is another major problem which plagues women. If a woman is competent enough then her fellow employees don’t like her. They seem to see her as more aggressive, untrustworthy and unfeminine. A woman who is not competent in her workplace might be liked more by people, but at the same time she is not so good to earn well. When a woman works with a man as a team, if the task assigned to them was successful then the credit goes to the male colleague, even if the woman might have done the most of the work.
The socio-economic environment of the world discourages women from working despite encouraging them to get education and become highly qualified. Our society does not accept women in the workplace and it discourages them from joining certain fields. There is discrimination within a field and it is expected that women are basically there to look after their children rather than men. Before women were expected to get married early and start having children and look after their children, but now the times have changed. Women are starting to get into the workplace. As they are outperforming men in education, they can out perform men in the workplace, too.
The very idea of women in the minds of the people has to be changed. They have to be inculcated with the idea that women can also change the world. It is necessary to keep in mind that women keep the potential of leading the world with their thinking. Women are not inferior to men by any means, they just need the support of society.
- The reader is an author based in Dubai.
