Recently Serena Williams
announced that her countdown to retirement has started and had she been a man,
she would not have to think about it now. Honestly, even I felt this to be an
exaggerated tantrum since she is the most decorated athlete with more grand
slams than her male counterparts. I went on to read what made her say this.
Seems like she had been planning her second baby for a while now unsuccessfully
and she had to give up Tennis to plan her family. So obviously had she been a
man, her wife must be taking care of expanding the family while she goes on to
win tournaments. Suddenly the ground below me seems shaky. As much as any woman
would want to pursue her dreams after marriage and childbirth, the
uncertainties around us are beyond our comprehension.
Made me think of the time
an interviewer blatantly abused me assuming that I would not be a good fit,
since I am a woman who may require baby breaks at some point that he cannot
afford. It took me a lot of effort to grind my teeth and get out of that room
in a civilized manner without punching his face. Had my mother been there, she
would have told me to kick his ass on behalf of every woman that jerk insulted.
I waded through my thoughts
and skipped to the following news. Tamil Nadu men were aghast at the
reservation policy followed in the recent TNPSC exam that seemingly became
discriminatory against them. I was curious to find what made the most
privileged entities on this planet, suddenly a victim of discrimination. 57
candidates out of the total 66 candidates selected were women and everyone
wanted to blame the reservation policy. But what is their problem(?) actually?
Let’s see.
In TN, there is a 30%
horizontal reservation for women including 10% for destitute widows. This is
not followed everywhere but only in certain exams under certain boards. If
there are 10 vacancies, 1 will be for a destitute widow, 2 will be for women
other than destitute widows, and the remaining 7 will be filled as per marks,
following the 69% caste-based reservation we already have. So, in that 7, if
there are women as per merit withstanding the reservation system, they are in
the race.
Men allege that they are
being discriminated against because many women are already in the “Top 7”.
Therefore, their chances are reduced. So, they want to fill all 10 seats as per
the list withstanding 69% reservations, and only if 30% women are already not
there, bring in more women to fill just that 30%. Moreover, they have
successfully stalled the government’s proposal to implement 40% reservation for
women and also lodged several cases against 30% as well.
This is in line with making
all the seats in public buses open to all and only if 50% women are already not
sitting, the conductor can vacate the seats of men to accommodate women. By the
same logic, the merit list should not have caste-based reservations at all in
the first place. If only 30%, 20%, 18% & 1% (makes a total of 69%)
caste-based candidates are already not there in the open list, caste
reservation should come in as a second thought. Are the well-learned men ok
with this?
A study of the last
examinations conducted by TNPSC for Group 1, 2 & 4 shows a similar pattern.
In Group 1 where there are only very limited vacancies, women are selected
more, whereas, in Group 4 where the number of recruitments is far high, men and
women are in equal ratio. This evidently proves that women are in more numbers
in the top scoring bracket. Then why is their merit questioned here?
I wonder the rationale
behind the twisted brains that seek justice and fairness only when they are
even remotely affected. I am never going to put my efforts into proving why
reservation is a good thing and fair by all means. But, instead, ask how
shameless can somebody be to ask us to be fair in a system that has been anything
but fair to us.
I work in a technical
marketing role, where my job makes me visit several organizations and job
sites. As much as I feel proud of myself when I am the only woman in a huge
civil job site or when I am giving technical solutions in a room filled with
men, I also get worried about the fact that there are no women in key roles. I
convince myself that this may be because of the field I work and had it been a
more gender-neutral stream like IT or anything, the picture would be better.
But data obviously shows otherwise, women are in very less percentage in the
labor force participation rate in India. There is a separate category in
unemployment called “uninspired workers” in which women form a major chunk. It
means people who have given up hopes of finding a job because they are
convinced that their chances are very less. I know men can easily blame women
that they did not try enough. But, have they ever sat in a job interview and
totally got rejected just because of their gender? Had they ever had to
convince their families to pursue their careers after marriage and childbirth?
Did they ever have to wake up in the morning and cook and fend for the whole
family before going to work and come back and repeat? Or at least is it
expected of them?
For a woman to tide through
this and establish herself in a position is a herculean task no man can
understand. The government despite its effort to bring more women to the
workforce in private sectors by rolling out certain concessions to the
employers has also not been successful. Then I do not see a better policy than
reservation to bridge this gap. Moreover, the government itself reeked of
discrimination by barring women from many jobs, like in combat roles, and
stalling permanent positions for women even in non-combat roles. If men can
encroach 100% jobs in various government roles without any competition, why
should it bother them when we are fighting and winning fair and square?
It is on the opportunities that you deprived us of, you have built your own castles. Men who think that women should not encroach on “their” jobs, should get their ass off the privileges that made them think it is “theirs” in the first place.
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