Check out the ultimate guide to 16 return-to-work programs in India for women
Hema Gopinathan left a blight of a corporate career to homeschool her two children. A teacher trained in the Waldorf/ Rudolf Steiner pedagogy, a writer, an artist, a crocheter, Hema spends half her time in the manic Mumbai waiting impatiently for her teens to fly the coop and the other half in the sylvan Himalayan foothills where she lives the quiet, sustainable life on her farm. She can also be found at youareanothing.com
If homemaking is not career enough, then the question that needs asking is why do we only value those things that can be monetarily quantified, and which women were deliberately kept out of for centuries?
I imagine what Savitri bai and Fatima Shaikh would be thinking watching this future they sacrificed their lives over, watching young women fight over inconsequential things, and fritter away the precious opportunity of an education.
He's very uncomfortable with the boorish, rifle-toting, Patiala-peg swigging alpha male played by Parmeet Sethi or the grumpy sanskaari patriarch Amrish Puri.
Aparna quickly became an extremely polarised personality. Even I who completely identified with her, understood why her existence would shake up the vital pillar of casteism and patriarchy: Arranged Marriage and that made her dangerous.
While every character, every actor is so fabulous, and this truly is the genius of Manjule, his ability to spot the diamond in the rough, Ankush is special. His eyes speak volumes in the absence of dialogue.
Is it any stretch of imagination to realise that probably the mother was also being raped by these men? That if she objected, worse could happen to her and the child?
OTT recently threw up two surprisingly sensitive, sincere depictions of mental health. Unexpected in a country that does not know what to do with those suffering from mental illness.
"To create loving men, we must love males…" - bell hooks. Nope. If men want a better world, they need to do better for themselves and each other and their sons and the world at large. It is not the responsibility of women.
Rinku Sooryavanshi in Atrangi Re is a foul-mouthed, free spirited manic pixie trope of a woman, the Indian cis male idea of an emancipated modern woman. But she is a nothing.
Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum (SISP) is an ode to all of the lost women, who could have been sports stars, singers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, just... happy, if they hadn't been enslaved in matrimony, and then forgotten all about.
Beauty is a very clever, very evil capitalist tool. It traps those who have it into hanging on to it for dear life and those who don't into mutilating, torturing themselves to achieve the unachievable.
It's not wrong to be nice, just be nice to everyone equally. If you are complimenting female colleagues only, on their looks, then you are not treating her as a professional, as any other colleague, but as a woman.
I looked at my watch. I had taken 15 mins to get ready, including hair wash and make up and clothes. By the time my friends got ready and we all could leave, it was 9pm. We reached the venue at 10pm.
When Kishwar Chowdhury made panta bhaat as haute cuisine at Masterchef this year, she exposed that tiny, slightly shameful secret of my mother's, fermented leftover rice that no one else would touch, and my heart broke slightly.
Rape and sexual violence are power tools, they have little or nothing to do with desire or lust and everything to do exercising power over those can be dominated.
Whataboutery has no place in a fight for equitable rights. First listen to what is being said instead of jumping in with assumptions if you consider yourself feminist.
Surekha Sikri is proof that age has nothing to do with beauty, so why are so many people sharing her 'youthful' picture while expressing their grief?
While the new Malayalam film Sara's is primarily about a woman’s right to abortion, the film centralises a woman’s ambition and even attempts to normalise it.
Mandira exercised her right to send off her partner the way she chose, and has inspired many; but will it intrinsically change anything in brahminical patriarchal?
This is what makes Ghar such a surprising film, that it questions the safety of a person who is considered the most secure and protected by virtue of being a good woman, married to a good man.
Let's hold accountable the husbands and in-laws who callously murder women when dissatisfied with the dowry, and parents who raise daughters to be 'good wives and daughters in law'.
I have been a homemaker all my life, but I don't remember a time I didn't write or paint or study. So I've honed my skills over a lifetime.
There's a new Cars24 ad, that has elements appealing to feminists everywhere; especially the free, wild, unbridled laughter of women.
Saudagar (1973), the Nutan-Amitabh-Padma Khanna starrer shows how women's work is not just invisibilised, but also how it is used by men to uphold patriarchy to benefit themselves.
So much of patriarchy is about controlling women, their behaviour, their bodies, their choices. A Chudail, or as in Roohi, a Mudiyapairi, is the way Hindi films often deal with this.
Can the unnamed but spunky heroine of The Great Indian Kitchen help to finally put away all the adarsh naaris on the Indian screen, like Suman from Maine Pyar Kiya?
Mumbai HC judge Pushpa Ganediwala rules that "mere groping is not sexual assault, unless it is skin on skin contact", setting back the struggles to define sexual violence against children.
By glorifying the sexual harassment the female protagonist faces in the film Sir, Is Love Enough, we've made life more unsafe for domestic workers. Just note the power differential.
The Great Indian Kitchen. A movie that can only be made by a Malayali director, who takes on patriarchy and religion, with such gumption.
Women farmers, especially from the farming communities of Punjab who are in the protest, cannot be 'kept' anywhere without their consent.
Karnataka State Government to provide 'bride price' for poor Brahmin brides with Arundhati & Maitreyi schemes, but with a few caveats that make us wonder.
Kangana Ranaut yet again puts her foot in her mouth by taking on those she calls 'housewives', dictating that they do all unpaid labour just for 'love'.
Why do we need to use tropes of mental illness, addiction, violence that breaks a woman, to show her as a strong character that then 'rises' from these ashes to avenge herself?
The kitchen is made to be the battleground where women are pitted against each other, by a patriarchy that benefits from it. Time for a change?
Indian Matchmaking. Made me wonder if we have progressed at all since Independence, in our attitude towards women, their education, and their place in society.
The whole point of pressure cooking was to keep the pressure in and not release it multiple times thereby wasting time and fuel. But...
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Please enter your email address