A woman’s voice is her most powerful weapon, her greatest strength that nothing and nobody can take away from her. Many of us might have been discriminated against simply based on our gender. This discrimination may vary from a silly comment to denial of a job opportunity or compulsion to marry. People often fail to realize that even a small comment that means no harm can cause in fact a great deal of harm. These comments affect the individual’s health and well-being, confidence, self-esteem, dignity, and so on. It can also lead to anxiety, depression, PTSD etc.
In many cases girls are compelled to marry upon reaching a certain age irrespective of their interests, hopes or dreams. Their wishes are simply overlooked by societal pressure and views. Many a times this ruins their educational goals and their career, this robs the girl of the future she has envisioned for herself. Cases of forced marriages have gone down but it is yet to reach a complete stop.
What many women do not realize is that a firm “NO” is all it takes to tackle most of their problems. If a girl is being forced to marry while she has other plans for herself, she must speak up, show them the sense in what she is saying; help them understand how beneficial higher education and building a career can be. If she is denied jobs for being female, she must speak up for herself, make it clear that ‘she can and she will’ take up her job seriously.
A major problem with gender-based discrimination is that girls are denied education because many parents still believe that educating a girl child is a waste of time and money. Some parents fail to realize that their daughters are more than capable of doing what their sons can do. They do not see that given the right training and support their daughters can reach to great heights and carve their names in history. The success rate of women in certain fields are low due to these reasons alone, not because they are not capable of doing it but simply because those around them do not trust their capability. A full stop to gender discrimination will cause rapid growth in our society.
Often, we do not realize the power and potential of our voices. We do not realize that we can be the change we want to see in our world. We are capable, whether male or female. We can reach great heights provided we believe in ourselves and work hard for it and stopping at nothing till we can say “I made it.”
Humanity will evolve only if all those who are a part of it are allowed to do so. People are still hostile about the ideas of gender equality. It is about time that equality among different genders change from mere ideas into a reality. It is time that society accepts that femininity is strength and not weakness. Women empowerment does not refer to women having power over men, but over themselves.
This article is written by : Shreya Sujith of Grade 10, Leaders Private School, Sharjah
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