Why gender equality doesn’t feel like equality anymore 

"I’m glad we’ve begun to raise our daughters more like our sons, but it will never work until we raise our sons more like our daughters.”  – Gloria Steinem 

When we all first began our journey to bring girls at par with boys, we began to teach girls everything you would teach a boy like archery, martial arts, and several other outdoor sports considered conventionally un-ladylike among other things. We also started providing girls with education which, at that moment, wasn’t something that was prevalent commonly. At least not in an every average household. 

As time went by, girls started climbing the ladder and managed to attain a high position for themselves. Though girls have accomplished a lot in the past few decades, certain disparities still remain. 

The discrimination against those not belonging to the dominant gender has led to serious and long-lasting consequences for women and other marginalized genders. Exposure to violence, objectification, discrimination, and socioeconomic inequality can lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and PTSD, among other mental disorders. 

But these scenarios shouldn’t be used to overlook the fact that because of these stereotypical social processes, men have to suffer as well. Some women may use their gender as a tool to gain favours. We tend to forget that both men and women, regardless of their gender, are still human beings and can err. 

I really feel like we need to step up and really make an impact to change people’s stereotypes regarding the whole gender equality shenanigans. We need to achieve a certain stage of equality which can act as the basis of a new beginning where equality is given on the basis of humanity. We need to start bringing up men and women in the same way if we want to achieve actual gender equality. Sure, there will definitely be some disparities during the whole process (that would be normal), but those shouldn’t stop us from reaching our goal. 

Pihu Pant is a student of Seth Anandram Jaipuria School, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad. Views expressed are personal.