Woman are often regarded as care giver, nurturer who can smile and give courage to her children in midst of a storm. They are strong with a soft heart. In nature, woman is often compared with moon, lamp, whereas male with sun and fire, though all are source of light But moon is dependent on sun and lamp on fire to bring light to lives midst of darkness. 20^th century woman has added more to this definition by being highly educated; economically independent, moving freely which was primarily man’s privilege and domain.

We will try to analyze if this radical change in a woman’s life and society has really empowered or it had lead to a recession in woman’s life? Is new found independence taking away the very essence of feminism from a woman forcing her to behave like man? Are we still projecting image of woman being strong only when she achieves her family or society laden targets?

These days girls since childhood are groomed to become beauty with brain to excel in life. Empowerment has moved our society to mentality where success is measured in terms of goal accomplishment. Whether its school / college of education, profession, salary, skill, position we have to achieve to be the best.

This continuous pressure of achievement has drained femininity out of woman. In a survey released on woman’s daily life, woman from age 30 become prone to illness that used to strike them after 60 earlier. Hormonal imbalance is leading rise of cortisol, testosterone primarily a male hormone leading to cyst and cancers.

Continuous sitting desk job is increasing risk of diabetes, cardiac problem in 30’s. Caffeine and processed food is actually causing depletion of many minerals which is essential for maintenance of healthy female cycle. It is surprising to see depression is setting into female brain like plague. Have we really got empowered or we are getting transformed into state of no return where our natural potential is getting altered.

Our society is accustomed of equating success with achievement and most of the society being patriarchal believes you are successful when you achieve like a man; career, property, networking etc. If one thinks of our grandmothers, they got married in teens, had 5-6 children, hardly much education, dependent on husband or son for survival.

They groomed our mothers to get educated and groomed to support their husband when primary responsibility of earning for household stayed with male head. They dressed like females, sweet spoken yet head strong and good decision maker. Otherwise why would our grandfathers and fathers hand over all earning to their wives and mothers if they were not good managers?

Our generation is witnessing radical changes than last two generations. Woman today are witnessing self-sufficiency, higher education, career, outside exposure beyond imagination of last two generations of woman but simultaneously horrible rapes, murder, extramarital affairs, divorces, denial of equal work equal pay. It seems somewhere man is feeling threatened due to achievement of female and wants to exercise their superiority by any mean.

In a way, woman’s life is facing recession in physical and psychological aspects. In such a scenario how shall we groom our daughter to become an empowered woman of next decade? Should they silently sacrifice or fulfill their wishes. How parents and society can work together to groom them into physically and mentally strong woman?

The day a soul is born as human, we start making her agenda of life, which I feel is an insult to soul. We often tell babies if you love your mom and dad, do this and that and make us feel proud. This puts unnecessary pressure on brain and life solely made to achieve goals until death. Female baby needs different grooming than male baby.

They need more assurance, attention to stand up, explore surrounding whereas male baby needs motivation for target achievement. For e.g. when child starts walking and stumble, female baby will cry and look for presence of her mother within her sight range, motivating her to stand up but male baby will focus for comfort in his mother’s lap which he will achieve only when he stands up. Both will stand up but motivation will be different for both as psychological needs for both is different, so should be grooming.

Even in corporate world when woman is made to compete with her male colleagues, she has to work overtime, go through cut throat competition and stress that drains her energy. Since she has to leave her home and kids behind, after a while, guilt starts encompassing her mind. If there is an important meeting, no woman can take leave on pretext of ill child or old parent at home. It’s true that company pays her for getting work done but at times struggle is really hard between a mother and an employee and most often employee wins due to lack of jobs in market. Though some big companies are adapting themselves to retain their female staff but still the no. is really less. Many a time women has to leave her job to take care of family duties as very few companies allow work from home.

It will take change in mentality of family, society, corporate world to develop a woman who is valuable to family and company together.

I don’t feel females can be empowered by making them dress, talk and behave like men, as they are engineered by nature to be owner of powerful energy with numerous talents. If we develop their talent and skills and make them confident about themselves, we don’t t really have to pressurize our girls to hit targets. With support of society when they are motivated to focus on giving their best shot rather than winning first prize obviously they will perform well. We need to make them realize their true potential to empower them.

Article By: Sucharita Banerjee