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Many like Utsav Chakraborty are lurking free in workplaces, harassing women co-workers as they please. How long can women suffer in silence? With #MeToo, its time to fight back.
I came across an article in one of the most widely read medical journal in the world this week. After reading I could not help penning this down. The narrator is every woman in the workforce.
For years, I suffered with a face that was brave
My reputation, my sanity, my career- I had to save
All inappropriate comments, innuendoes, I took in my stride
Facing harassment, my true emotions I did hide
For the cost of speaking up was too high to ignore
It could have sent my career crashing to the floor…
In a world where women mentors were few
I sought mentorship where available, it’s true
I was driven by a desire for advancement in my career
Yet each step forward I took with fear…
**
Fast forward to the present, it is 2018
A new movement the world has now seen
With #MeToo, I have found the courage to break
The barriers of silence, not worrying, what is at stake
The movement has made millions of women at the workplace
Feel empowered to address the harassment they face
Ah… I must be delusional if I think at the workplace men
Would suddenly change their behavior towards women-
In a patriarchal society, used to masculinistic hegemony
They have turned back on women with their misogyny…
Claiming that mentoring women is difficult in this climate
False allegations of sexual misconduct against them can be made!
Disheartening this is- mentorship is invaluable
This reluctance of male mentors can cause harm incalculable
To the careers of young women with grit and ambition
The last thing we want is to see an attrition
In the numbers of women in the elite workforce
My sincere hope is that things will change their course
True gender equality is still years away
Yet with #MeToo, we have come a long way…
Earlier Published here.
Image Source Flickr, Me Too by Prentsa Aldundia.
I am a woman, a physician, a mother and an aspiring writer rolled into one.
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