Keen to learn more about inclusive workplaces? Want to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community? Download our special report with Randstad India on making Inclusion without Exception happen
Normalise your son doing chores at home as a step towards a gender equal generation instead of making him an entitled Raja Beta!
I recently saw an ad created in 2019 for a major detergent brand, which created headlines during some festival celebrations.
A brief synopsis of the ad: A couple is at their daughter’s home for a pre-festival visit. The son in law serves them tea. Later they see him cutting vegetables and ironing the daughter’s clothes. The mother-in-law considers her daughter blessed to have a husband like that.
Cut to the next scene.
The couple is back home for for the festival. When the mother sees her son’s clothes stained, she asks him the reason. When he tells her he was helping his wife she reprimands him for the same.
The father, looking at all the happenings tells the son to live with his mother at her daughter’s place only. He tells her that when another’s son helps her daughter it’s progressive, but when her son helps another’s the daughter he’s a henpecked husband.
So do you want to change this and make gender neutrality usher in the workplace as well as home? Here’s a simple way how we can do it.
Let him put his own clothes for the laundry, fold his clothes, arrange his cupboard. Recall another detergent ad when the mother talking to her daughter asks her why she’s living her job? The daughter tells her mother that she cannot balance her home and office as her husband doesn’t contribute to the household work. That’s when the mother realizes that somewhere she too is responsible as she does all the household work for her son.
Normalize your son loving to cook and bake. If your daughter doesn’t like to cook it’s ok. Teach your son to serve food for him.
Pink for girls and blue for boys? Let’s throw out this stereotype. If a boy likes pink, please stop labelling him sissy or girly.
The same for toys. I remember a scene from the web series Mental Hood where a mother returns the gift given to her child by Karishma Kapoor. The gift was a kitchen set given to a boy. The mother returns it as she believes that a cooking set was only for girls. Let us put an end to this toys differentiation.
Teach your girl technical skills like how to reset a laptop if it stops working in between her work/study. Let’s not assume that some tasks like filing tax returns are skills that the only man only knows. Teach your girl also how to do the same.
Also, a task like changing car tyres is not a gendered task, but a life skill that everyone should know despite their gender.
Normalize a man changing a baby’s diaper, giving a bath, staying up with the baby at nights while letting the mother rest. This is because a child is both the contribution of the mother and the father.
Stop telling him that crying is a sign of weakness. Masculinity is just a prison in which your son doesn’t need to be a prisoner. Release him from the prison of masculinity.
When the above things are followed in our homes it is only then we will achieve gender neutrality in our homes and when gender neutrality is achieved in our home then the gender-neutral humans will achieve the same at their workplace which is, in turn, will lead to a gender-neutral world.
Image source: a still from the film Thappad
Agnes Fatima Pinto describes herself as a voracious reader and an even ferocious writer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from St Xaviers College, Goa and a Masters in Public Policy from Mount read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, indivisual posts do not necessarily represent the platofrom's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Stop glorifying biological parenthood - other methods of growing a family are just as valid, and completely a couple's choice, especially of the woman whose body goes through pregnancy and birth.
Stop glorifying biological parenthood – other methods of growing a family are just as valid, and completely a couple’s choice, especially of the woman whose body goes through pregnancy and birth.
Trigger Warning: Contains derogatory remarks about having a baby through surrogacy or any means other than giving birth through biological means, and may be triggering, especially to adoptive parents.
Recently Priyanka Chopra Jonas announced parenthood by surrogacy. This has once again sparked the debate about ethical surrogacy, which is a discussion for another day.
Arathi Rajagopalan, founder of 'House of Kalart', talks about thinking like a designer & transitioning to thinking like a business owner.
Excerpts from an interview with Arathi Rajagopalan, founder of ‘House of Kalart’ – a fusion jewellery label that merges global aesthetics and traditional craftsmanship.
When did you start ‘House of Kalart’ and what was the intention?
I started House of Kalart in 2017 as a venture where painting, drawing and embroidery are married with metalsmithing to create well-handcrafted fashion jewellery. Along with painting and styling, the venture aims to create a holistic fashion experience for a bold and dramatic woman!” As a child, I had always been fascinated by arts and crafts.
Indian families think that "the girls will adjust" to anything thrown at them, and this leads to a lot of heartache all around. When will this change?
Indian families think that “the girls will adjust” to anything thrown at them, and this leads to a lot of heartache all around. When will this change?
Today I want to bring to you a story. All characters in this story are purely fictional but it is loosely based on typical Indian mentality.
Once upon a time, an old woman lived with her two children, Arpita and Arnav.
Yes, Indian parents should love their sons (like all parents love their children), but ought to let go of the constant scrutiny and mollycoddling once they are married.
My father once told me a story when I was very young. This was when I had expressed my displeasure at his strict disciplinarian attitude. This story was about two domestic helpers, young lads in their teens who were employed by two families. Both boys were close friends. One family was extremely kind. They always put the best food on his plate, showered him with gifts and even got him a radio!
The other fellow was not so lucky. While no one was mean, there was no deep affection showed. He was served regular food and received no gifts. But they enrolled him in a nearby school and made sure he never missed a single class. He was also given time for studying.
This boy who deeply grudged his friend, was later thankful to his employers because he managed to finish school and got himself a job while the love and affection showered on the other fellow took him nowhere.