Breaking Gender Stereotypes

Celebrating a baby shower with a pink theme started the gender stereotype. “Pink” more than associate qualities like softness and gentleness. Wow! Pink looks so good on you. Does this make her choice limited? Growing up, she wants to play with cars, guns and balls, but the room is full of Barbie dolls, teddy bears and building sets.

She also has a beautiful kitchen set, a gift from her father. There are all the required things – utensils, cooking accessories, along with some set of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. Her mother taught her the cooking skills from childhood in that mini kitchen. Born as a daughter and after marrying a daughter-in-law, her primary duty is the kitchen.

So, her father’s choice was not wrong to teach her how to make delicious food and keep the surrounding clean. Cooking delicious food and keeping the surroundings clean is a job of human beings, but it was imposed on the daughter only. With growing age and good grades, her dream was big: to be a doctor like her role model father. But he always tells girls they look better being nurses. She has many questions and queries left to answer, but even after being a teacher, her mother fails it. 

Not because she was not a good mother, but she doesn’t have an answer for her daughter. We are more influenced by our society, and if we have to live there, we have to follow them. She was bold and self-confident, yet the emotion was taught to her from time to time. Her dream was bigger than the limit of society.

Soon the home was hit with another good news with the birth of a baby boy with a blue theme and different assets. The life of her brother was completely free and wonderful. She is loved; all her needs were fulfilled, yet there was a boundary on how she needs to speak, how she needs to sit, how she needs to behave, where she needs to go and with whom, how she needs to eat, and what she needs to wear. It was a culture to maintain discipline, but why is that not taught to the brother? 

Thousands of questions, yet no answer. She was now clear about the patriarchal system in her family and society. She researched more and more – early marriage, early pregnancy, menstruation taboos and stigmas, girl trafficking, rape, violence (physical, sexual, emotional), and harassment – there are women who even have to fight for basic rights; the life they are living would be so painful. The more she studied, the more she knew her privilege. 

The minds of past generations cannot be changed, but the upcoming generation should not be bound in this trap.

Her journey started there; she started fighting for girls who are unsafe even from the womb. The preference for a son increased the abortion of a daughter in the womb. The girls are sent to school; they are also allowed to work. Yes, but after completing household chores. The struggle of women is complex. For this, the more women must be aware, educated and uplifted. The progress is going on, yet sometimes breaking the glass ceiling leads to hurting from the glass pieces. 

Looking back many years, women today are challenging gender stereotypes, supporting other women, and advocating for many issues. The women today are free from the cage, learning to fly and reach higher. A woman with different roles in the home can definitely change the world. A woman has been a bridge to another woman. Each girl born has a voice to change, improve and uplift.

(The author is pursuing higher education at CiST College.)