Andro and Gyne

Suddenly I remembered today that it’s a long time since I wrote in my blog! Thanks to one of my friends to make me remind. She sent me an email informing me about her new venture and along with it, mentioned that she is an ardent reader of my blog!  Now, that gave me some kind of fire in my stomach and lo, I sat up with my laptop!!

Last day, I met a group of women doctors who are heading Government Health Centers in Kerala . They are all very adept at managing their family as well as professional life. I had administered a psychometric test called “Androgyny Scale”. Almost 80% of them fell into the category called “androgynous”.  

“Andro” in greek means “Man” and “Gyne” means “Woman”. This concept is based on the principle that every human being has some “Male” and some “Female” qualities in them. I know what struck you now: the concept of “Ardhanaareeshwaran” (an incarnation of Lord Shiva, as per Hinduism, who is half man and half woman). Well, that’s something which Indian culture has identified thousands of years ago, but when it is “empirically” tested in some reputed University in America, we tend to accept it without any questions!). The famous psychologist Carl Jung said something similar when he said that every personality has both “Anima” and “Animus” ; that male and female qualities. 

“The androgynous person is simply a female or male who has a high degree of both feminine (expressive) and masculine (instrumental) traits. A feminine individual is high on feminine (expressive) traits and low on masculine (instrumental) traits. A masculine individual is high on instrumental traits and low on expressive traits. An undifferentiated person is low on both feminine and masculine traits” (Says: Sandra Bem, a psychologist from Stanford University, 1971)

Incidently, the lady doctors in my study were falling in that category because of their education and exposure level, I would say!

Now, y am I telling all this? Its high time that our society comes out of the gender role stereotyping and accept the fact that what we require is a human capital which is efficient and effective in their own field of activity ; whether a male or female.

“Gender –role stereotyping”- the terminology is academical.  Let me make it simple. A woman  has all the   “C”s in life :  like Cooking, Cleaning ,  Caring , Conserving , where  as, a man has all the  “E”s in life:  Education , Earnings , Enjoyment and is Entrusted with power. 

I had recently attended a Seminar on “Gender Inequality in Political representation and participation” recently. Met several woman who have “struggled” to reach the positions they are in now. One common thread: they had to face criticisms, provocations, bad experiences, rumors etc one after another before they were accepted. In short, a woman has to run five steps when the man has to run only one step ,in order to make their presence felt.

When a woman becomes “assertive” and voices her opinion, she is branded as “Thantedi” or “Ahankari” (meaning aggressive or arrogant). Incidentally, as part of the International women’s day (march 8^th)- The Kerala Govt organized a one week program called “Gender Fest” at Calicut. I don’t know what happened there, but the name given to the fest is interesting “Thantedam Fest”. (The word “thantedam” normally means “confidence” , but is rather used to denote “arrogance”) 

When women say about their problems, they are branded as “complaining group”, but when men air their problem it is their “opinion”. When women speak for women, they are branded as “feminist” and when men speak for men, they are called as “experts”. In the corporate world or the political world the representation of women in the top positions is very minimal or near zero. Just take the top fifty companies in India and see how many women are there in their director board? (Phenomenon of Glass ceiling) Or just take the number of ministers or political representatives. Well, this is not just in the case of India, but is prevalent in the whole world (refer IPU survey, 2010).

Well, these are just tips of the iceberg. The more and more I meet new people in my life, I get confirmed on the fact that this gender stereotyping actually exists in our society. 

What is the solution? A solution can be given normally to one problem, but when problems are many, we need many solutions. However, since all societal problems starts from family, we can start with a solution at home. Yes, the upbringing of children, that’s where I am coming to! (Hey, we can’t do anything about the harm that has been already done by our previous generation. Atleast we will try to develop the next generation in a better way!) 

In a family, the present generation parents should try to inculcate the values of equality among both genders of kids. For eg: never tell your girl child that she should learn cooking because she has to take care of her family in future. Also don’t tell your boy child not to learn cooking because that’s the job of a female. Give both of them the opportunity to learn cooking as well as changing the bulb (which is normally stereotyped as a male’s job!).
In western countries, the home management is carried out equally by both husband and wife. But here , even if both husband and wife are working at same place, when they return home, the husband sits on the sofa and asks for a “hot tea” to the wife! The wife who has been working all day moves to the kitchen without complaining, coz she also thinks, its her job  to provide all the facilities for her husband.(If you are doing this, then let me remind you that your child grows seeing this and he is sure to do the same in future!)   This inequality is what the so called “feminists” are trying to change. 

As I said in the beginning, every human being has both feminine qualities and masculine qualities . The world needs BOTH. Similarly, there is no job in the world that can be said as a “male” job or a “female” job. Woman, when given the opportunity and capacity building, they are sure to excel in any field.

Whether you are Andro or Gyne, what the world needs is an “Androgyne” who is efficient, effective and elegant in their own way!

Chao….for now!

P.S: most of my comments/opinions above are influenced by great women whom I have interacted in the past many days and I have adopted their views in this post!