The man said “The post of a leader is very crucial. He needs to have the proper mix of qualities to become a leader.” And then he corrected himself saying, “When I say ‘he’, I mean ‘he’ and ‘she’ both”. One funny guy replied “Karna padta hai sir warna WLS waale aa jaayenge.” Sorry to disappoint. But we don’t stand for that. Maybe very remotely. But wait. No, ladies and gentlemen, we don’t. Using gender neutral pronouns is a good thing and a must but we, as WLS, stand for something else entirely. It’s the part of a common confusion which our team generally encounters. But the real thing is that we exist because there are barriers, which most of the times seem invisible, for girls and women when they take on the initiative to lead. We stand to uproot these barriers and difficulties. We exist to ask the questions “Why can’t a girl who is equally capable lead this team?”, “Why can’t they give it a shot?”, “Why do we have so many baseless prejudices in our minds?” and No, we are not the “pseudo-feminists” and neither are we the “Mahila Morcha Dal”.
At first, I was also ignorant of the facts regarding this issue. By facts, I don’t mean numbers. I mean real incidents which happen around us or which have happened to girls and women who we interact with. I would really like to narrate an incident here. I met a girl yesterday. I have to keep the name anonymous because she had asked me to. Her eyes had a glitter like none other. She wanted to learn, to grow, to party, to study and to lead. But she didn’t seem like such type of a girl anymore. According to her, she had already fought her battles, winning some and losing many. Now when we think of it on an off day, we would say that no one could generally face problem in these areas, right? But still, here she was, very unsure, very unsure of the society as to what would the society’s take be? Very unsure of herself that whether she could pull off these aims or not? And how exactly did this happen? She is from a sub-urban background. Middle middle-class. Yes, she is exactly the type of girl one imagines whenever you hear the words – ‘a common girl’. And I can laugh at the common man’s ignorance right now because I did hear the stories about the bias which she used to face in her school, in her society, in the market place and what’s more, inside her very own home. She wasn’t supposed to do any of these things which she had dreamt of. This is how badly her thinking had been affected. She broke down into tears at the end of a 30 min conversation and I hadn’t uttered more than 2-3 lines!! Surprised?
Moving back to the main theme, why is it that we think of men when we talk of leaders and leadership? Now, it’s not that women are not capable of doing tasks requiring such skills. Maybe some of them aren’t. Maybe many of them aren’t. But some of them, some of them definitely ARE. Even the probabilities stand in favor of this argument. It’s just about giving everyone the same start, not holding back some of them just because they belong to a different gender and you have some preconceived notions regarding how a woman will work as a leader. Lots and lots of stories of discrimination go unnoticed and the women have also grown used to it in a way, taking all these inequalities as a given. But it affects them, it affects them deeply and believe it or not it affects us men too. We too are being continuously deprived of the diversity (this will seem like a globe term but try talking to a woman on any issue and notice the difference in the way of thinking the opposite gender has).
It’s no wonder we have a handful of fancy names like Indra Nooyi which we throw every time we are asked about women leadership. But what about those who are living next door, who work with us in all the assignments, quizzes, who dance with us at the parties. Let’s not put half of our population behind invisible bars from which they can’t escape even if they want to. And what’s even worse is that many of these women themselves are giving in to the current situation. Let’s not let this picture become a sad one. After all, we are in India. We do need a happy ending J
The Women Leadership Society is coming to your doorstep to know your story. The movement has already started. The creative and unbound revolution has already begun. Do come and be a part of it. Mail to us, Write us a letter or Give us a call, whatever. We exist. And we exist to help these highly talented and diverse women realize their dreams.
- Written by Yashaswi Chawla, PGP-1 at IIMA
At first, I was also ignorant of the facts regarding this issue. By facts, I don’t mean numbers. I mean real incidents which happen around us or which have happened to girls and women who we interact with. I would really like to narrate an incident here. I met a girl yesterday. I have to keep the name anonymous because she had asked me to. Her eyes had a glitter like none other. She wanted to learn, to grow, to party, to study and to lead. But she didn’t seem like such type of a girl anymore. According to her, she had already fought her battles, winning some and losing many. Now when we think of it on an off day, we would say that no one could generally face problem in these areas, right? But still, here she was, very unsure, very unsure of the society as to what would the society’s take be? Very unsure of herself that whether she could pull off these aims or not? And how exactly did this happen? She is from a sub-urban background. Middle middle-class. Yes, she is exactly the type of girl one imagines whenever you hear the words – ‘a common girl’. And I can laugh at the common man’s ignorance right now because I did hear the stories about the bias which she used to face in her school, in her society, in the market place and what’s more, inside her very own home. She wasn’t supposed to do any of these things which she had dreamt of. This is how badly her thinking had been affected. She broke down into tears at the end of a 30 min conversation and I hadn’t uttered more than 2-3 lines!! Surprised?
Moving back to the main theme, why is it that we think of men when we talk of leaders and leadership? Now, it’s not that women are not capable of doing tasks requiring such skills. Maybe some of them aren’t. Maybe many of them aren’t. But some of them, some of them definitely ARE. Even the probabilities stand in favor of this argument. It’s just about giving everyone the same start, not holding back some of them just because they belong to a different gender and you have some preconceived notions regarding how a woman will work as a leader. Lots and lots of stories of discrimination go unnoticed and the women have also grown used to it in a way, taking all these inequalities as a given. But it affects them, it affects them deeply and believe it or not it affects us men too. We too are being continuously deprived of the diversity (this will seem like a globe term but try talking to a woman on any issue and notice the difference in the way of thinking the opposite gender has).
It’s no wonder we have a handful of fancy names like Indra Nooyi which we throw every time we are asked about women leadership. But what about those who are living next door, who work with us in all the assignments, quizzes, who dance with us at the parties. Let’s not put half of our population behind invisible bars from which they can’t escape even if they want to. And what’s even worse is that many of these women themselves are giving in to the current situation. Let’s not let this picture become a sad one. After all, we are in India. We do need a happy ending J
The Women Leadership Society is coming to your doorstep to know your story. The movement has already started. The creative and unbound revolution has already begun. Do come and be a part of it. Mail to us, Write us a letter or Give us a call, whatever. We exist. And we exist to help these highly talented and diverse women realize their dreams.
- Written by Yashaswi Chawla, PGP-1 at IIMA