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The Role of Women in Society
The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. W.R. Wallace – The Hand That Rules The World
For centuries men considered women the less intelligent of the sexes. This terribly wrong perception caused immense loss to their self-dignity. But, at present, women have been playing major roles in politics, economy, household, society, and nation-building. The timid female of the past has been replaced by a youthful, fashion-conscious, and smart girl. Women are jostling shoulders with men and competing with them in engineering, sciences, space research, medicine, and business. This marked change in their status reflects the fact that their emancipation is almost complete.
Only, a few decades ago, the condition of the woman was increasingly poor. Her position was secluded and she was assigned a lower status in society. She was virtually condemned to lead her life as a beast of burden. For a very long time, she was unable to raise her status from a mere household drudge. She was forced to run the house and do all its furnishing, cleaning, cooking, sewing, sweeping, dusting, washing, and so on. Besides this, she had to rear her children and serve her husband. She was no better than a slave. She had to be respectful and submissive before men. They were denied all sorts of higher education and were strictly confined to the four walls of the house. She was always treated in a brutal manner and was generally regarded as a silly, sentimental and dull creature. It was a common belief that women were created only to please men.
Shakespeare addressed her as Frailty and some other well-known writers depicted her as the treacherous creature that tempts men to their doom. The metaphysical belief that "Eve tempted Adam” and he fell made things much worse for women. Gone are those days when all this befell women and subjected them to unspeakable suffering both physically and mentally. Women have now been emancipated from the slavery of men to a considerable extent. The widespread illumination of knowledge has changed the situation altogether.
Women have finally come out of the four walls of the house and found their way to higher educational institutions. And education, in turn, has enlightened them broadening their outlook and horizon simultaneously. They have set up their own organization for the welfare and progress of women at large. They have started claiming equal rights with men and have succeeded appreciably on many fronts. They have entered practical life and are playing a significant role in both their country and family. It is observed in recent times that a number of women are entering the once male-dominated management areas. They are taking an active part in the politics of the country and are fully determined to compete against men in every professional walk of life.
"If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” Plato, "The Republic
Modern women are no longer ignorant and shy as women had been in the near past. Now they are considered brave and have a lot of confidence to accomplish the tasks assigned to them. She has got the complete liberty to decide her affairs quite independently. Man no more enjoys the right to impose his authority on women. She has virtually emerged as an earning member of the family, for today, men and women have to be the joint operators of the economic switchboard.
Today the world has undergone a sea change. The new economic affairs have impelled women to come out of their homes and join various professions in order to supplement the income of their menfolk. But women, by nature, are tender, compassionate, and sympathetic. They can, therefore, become good teachers, nurses, physicians, social workers, journalists, wardens of orphanages, and homes for old and poor persons. This is, however, not to say that they cannot succeed in other professions. Some people object to nursing as something anti-Islamic. They are totally mistaken, for the pages of history give a vivid account of the brave Muslim women who helped the wounded Muslim warriors on the battlefields. The dramatic spread of education has enormously contributed to the positive approach of men toward women’s careers. The medical field is regarded highly noble profession and lady doctors, as well as nurses, are respectable figures all over the country.
"Give me good mothers and I will give you a good nation.” Napoleon
In modern times, almost all professions are virtually open to women. They are entering public services as class I and class II officers in the executive Jobs as judicial magistrates, civil judges, income-tax officers, customs officers, school, college, and university teachers, and various other crucial jobs. Some women are joining as lawyers, secretaries, air hostesses, ticket collectors, computer operators, saleswomen, bank officers, police officers, and so on.
