Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
The head of a government polytechnic college in Mumbai has decided to revisit medieval times by having separate canteens based on gender.
While the rest of the world is fighting for women’s equality, the head of a government polytechnic college in Mumbai has decided to revisit medieval times by having separate canteens based on gender.
Thus we have ‘girls only’ and ‘boys only’ sections. What’s more, this head of the institution seems to believe that a hormonal disease like PCOD (polycystic ovarian disease) is apparently because of a mental gender-role reversal caused by dressing like males. So, she has decided that a salwar kameez would be more ‘physiologically’ appropriate college attire rather than trousers and shirts that boys wear.
Reading this will probably make most of us laugh or cringe; believe me, I did both. Yes, people like this do exist even in the 21st century. Most of us will brush this off without giving it a second thought, because it’s so commonplace. We encounter such individuals everyday and choose to ignore them. What makes this incident unique is its being done at a college level by the head of the institution. So the effect is at a mass level and on adolescents who are still developing their personalities. This sends a wrong message to them about how gender issues in the workplace are to be handled.
How wearing certain attire causes any kind of disease is beyond my understanding. Now I don’t have anything against salwar kameezes, but I do not know how they are more physiologically suitable for girls and how it would enhance their performance in studies or in life for that matter. Making such mindless statements reflects the kind of ignorance that is prevalent among people even today.
Girls and boys study and work together today and issues of harassment do crop up every now and then and need to be addressed. While separating the areas for girls and boys will curb these issues in this case only in the college canteen, both the genders will be left with the impression that it’s wrong to interact with each other rather than understanding that harassment is wrong. For women to be safe in their place of education and work, stern action needs to be taken against the perpetrators of harassment of females. The issue needs to be handled sensitively rather than using crude, obsolete methods.
And as for clothes, a choice can be given to the female students so they can choose for themselves.
Stereotyping women and men based on gender specific roles has to stop at this very moment. Interaction with the opposite sex needs to be recognized as an essential part of growing up and should not be discouraged even though old cultural norms suggest otherwise. Segregation promotes sexism rather than curbing it.
Become a premium user on Women’s Web and get access to exclusive content for women, plus useful Women’s Web events and resources in your city.
Top image via Unsplash
read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address