Saturday, September 23, 2006
WOMEN: TO WORK OR NOT TO WORK
A long running television discussion has been going on for sometime now on KTTV on the issue of whether husbands should allow their wives to work or not. Needless to say it is quite amusing to watch and listen to all the views. The discussants include men and women from all walks of life but the polarisation of opinion is a bit disturbing: the men are against working women while the women favour work. But the fact that this issue is still being discussed at all says a lot about how far behind we in KT are in the area of modernisation. Or shall we say zamani is leaving us behind? After all how many women are working in KT and in which organisations? The number is certainly small compared to the overall population and you find most of these women in Hospitals and in primary schools only. Yet the debate rages on with no sign of any side winning. It reminds me of the battle between the forces of light and those of darkness. Progress and backwardness.
First of all I think it is preposterous to even question the immense contribution that women are capable of giving to the society by merely going out to work. This is because by going out to work the woman gives back to society her own contribution and in the process realise her own potential. To understand it clearly imagine what will happen if all these women were to withdraw their services and stay put at home. And thus abide by the wishes of the forces of darkness. What would be the fate of all those places they work at? Won’t they all collapse due to dearth of manpower? This is not even talking about the special jobs that are best suited for women like we know them in ante natal area etc.
But the majority of the panellists hold a different view that border on negativism. The main thread of their arguments hinge on the shenanigans that working women commit at the workplace. In fact there seems to be a kind of fixation among the males on this issue but they all conveniently forget the big role that their counterparts play in these shenanigans. Research has shown that the preponderance of these shananigans occur more among men than women in all races and cultures. And biology teaches us that its all due to their overdose of testosterone. So whose fault is it here?
Of course no one denies that these shenanigans do not happen in some instances among the working women but why can’t we for once consider the good contributions that these working women give. Leave the shenanigans alone and lets for once concentrate and bring examples of the positive things associated with the work that these women are doing. Why can’t we bring to the fore the good legacy left behind by working women like our well known educationist, Hassu Iro Inko? If she had not been given the chance to go out and work, KT would have lost all the contributions she made and the other good things she did. Likewise the good work being done by hundreds of our nurses and our few female doctors scattered around our health care facilities. And the female teachers in our schools and all the other women workers in the state and elsewhere.
It is high time we understood our priorities and stopped chasing shadows.
