Nobel Laureate Ada Yonath, who won the Nobel for Chemistry in 2009, was once interviewed by a journalist about the many challenges she had encountered in her career and how she overcame them. Hearing her, the completely awestruck journalist asked, “Madam, is it difficult to be a woman?” To which she chuckled and replied, “I do not know because I have never been a man.”
Lessons on equality do not need to be reserved for formal class or online training. They can be learnt from such stories we encounter every day.
MEN & WOMEN BEING DIFFERENT
Men and women are equal in value but not the same. Equal because women contribute as much as men with their competence, experience, and skill sets at home and at work. They also need same kind of opportunities for advancement as men do but often do not get.
At the same time, they are different. This comes from understanding the natural differences between men and women that go beyond the biological, social and cultural differences. Women are also different because they have different needs at different stages of their lives. This is primarily due to the nurturing roles they are entrusted with. These differences have to be acknowledged in order to reach the goal of equality. Equality alone is not the solution, unless it is accompanied by a complete overhaul of mentalities of both men and women.
It is also important to recognise that the similarities shared by men and women are more universal and fundamental, than the differences shaped by the family, education, culture and environment that separate them. It is, therefore, a new declaration of interconnectedness and interdependence between men and women.
UNION OF MASCULINE & FEMININE
In the ancient Indic texts, there is an interesting concept of Ardhanarishwar — a form of Shiv that is presented as half male and half female – Shiv and Shakti. In fact, the name Ardhanarishwar translates as the ‘lord who is half woman’. The apparent paradox that exists within the form of Ardhanarishwar represents the wholeness and completeness of human existence. The principle of masculinity or femininity are not mutually exclusive. They act as interchangeable identities distinct and in unison. Excessive and obsessive identification with one is the root of all problems. By their opposite yet complimentary attributes, they act in symmetry and harmony. They represent the profound dualism present in nature: day and night, summer and winter, heat and cold.
The masculine and feminine principles exist in each one of us. One cannot exist without the other. To that end, men need to recognise and release ‘the inner woman’ just as women need to ‘recognise and release’ the inner man to develop the full range of masculine or feminine behaviour. In fact, men and women need to be released from old polarities of gender that force them into limiting roles.
Finally, while accepting and committing to develop the physical and mental attributes of gender to one’s fullest potential, it is also important to go beyond the limitations of gender, in order to transcend the very gender to embrace limitless possibilities.
It is only by functioning together with unity and mutuality that men and women can actualise the inner potential to discover their inner resources, complementarity, and creativity.
This article was published in The Speaking Tree Section of The Times of India on Mar 8, 2022.
Refer to the article in this link: https://www.speakingtree.in/article/going-beyond-the-limitations-of-gender
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