The Old Woman

In the past two decades there has been some key transformation in gender roles and the focus of parents towards empowering their girls has grown rapidly. Girls who are born during the past decade are less likely to face the prejudices common in the older generations. Technology has helped more people find solutions to bridge gap between sexes.

Today's woman regardless of her age is aware of her freedom and can fight for her rights. She is modern, independent, driven and confused. 

Why confused?

She is confused because the world around her is a paradox. 

On one hand is this woman who is full of hope, acceptance and radical ideas that she idolizes, and on the other is this woman who is left behind by our tech-savvy generation. 

This woman is her mother, grandmother, aunt, house help or maybe the wife of her colleague. She was brought up in a patriarchal society where she was judged on the basis of her skin colour, body shape and everything other than her mind. She was taught to crave approval from the man in her house before making any decision, from what clothes she should wear to what should be the maximum height of her sandals depending on the height of her husband. She was taught that among her biggest failures will be the loss of her beauty due to approaching age. Her sense of identity has gone vague in the struggle to hide her own opinions or desires. She is a victim of deep rooted misogyny, she is manipulated into thinking of herself as an object that should please everyone. Her old age and struggles are considered useless by today's society, unlike the man of her age. She is still at some level living in the same patriarchal society she was brought up in, and she has just adapted herself in that prison.

When our modern woman is exposed to someone who is a victim of this level of discrimination it begins to affect her too. She begins having the same insecurities as the older woman but more subconsciously. She might not be ashamed of her skin colour but she doesn't eat properly because being fat makes her less desirable by men. She might talk about women's rights and gender equality for hours but she will be ashamed of her old age. When an older woman tells her that finding a suitable boy is supposed to be her biggest achievement everything she has achieved loses its value in her eyes. When an older woman tells her biggest defeat is spending her thirties alone she is bound to settle with someone out of fear.

Thus, the issue is, there is a lot of stigma in our society around women and the older ones can use some representation since they are the ones who were hit by the worst. These women are survivors and its high time we tell them that we are proud of them for being so resilient. When we teach our younger generation about gender equality, we should ensure that even the older ones get to know about it.