I believe that women are highly astute beings. Men can be hard working, intelligent but I believe women have innate ability to govern and manage better, sometimes ruthlessly too. Unfortunately, since the civilization began and over the time role of women has been confined to the boundaries of home as caretakers.

Gender discrimination is in the core of our upbringing. A small example, recently a cousin of mine having a 4 years old son met me at a wedding and asked me “So when is second baby coming?” I casually replied asking the same question and she said “See, obviously I don’t have to but you will I am sure.” I felt rush of blood on my face but look this is what we have brought our society up with.
But this post is not about gender discrimination but how a discriminated upbringing plays role in a working woman’s life.

Owing to the natural instincts, female gender has a quality of being a nurturer and the tenderness of motherliness

and care taking. On top of this, our families don’t typically raise a girl child to go out and work. We keep them guarded, protected, decorated like pleasant and presentable dolls. Do we tell our girls that it is ok to live by choices.  Family’s constant protection and shield sometimes shadows and affects women while taking important decisions regarding their career and work.

This is a story of my generation but lately I have seen modern housewives and fathers who want their daughters to conquer the world but don’t bother to make them even use public transport or auto. A girl whose family must be aspiring to send her abroad wouldn’t let her face an interview alone. How about letting your daughter free for a while and let her get a taste of real world? What is life really like beyond your vanilla protection?

A mother always teaches her daughter how to cook, how to make sure house hold is maintained properly but would miss out on how to make sure we handle, manage and interact with people, how to keep one’s emotions on check while working. Conventionally all these important lessons are not considered in the usual scope of parenting.

When a woman wants to make it to the top, her upbringing, conditioning and ability to manage people and pressures – altogether at some point will affect her judgment and performance at work. Can we women be as strict and assertive as men? Can we women be more practical in our decisions? We women are taught to be humble, motherly and gentle in our dealing. Overpowering these natural and upbringing related inhibitions; when work is “the calling” women can really take on the world.

Don’t you think a gender neutral upbringing where she is not just trained for ‘marriage’, but prepared to take on all sorts of challenges of real world going to be more advantageous to her in a long run? These days as much as important it is to make sure safety is at the center for our daughters we must not forget to teach them how to be emotionally independent. What is influencing their choices for important life decisions, consequences of their choices and rather than being a secondary earning support, can be a pillar if needed. Career, for a woman, should not be an option but a conscious choice.