Expectation Vs Reality
As the uproar of women’s rights and feminism is heard across the globe, more women have become leaders in various sectors. Meanwhile in Nepal, an increasing number of women have been stepping out of the generic gender-based roles. Having said that, even with the population of 51.54 percent, women are not involved in decision-making. However, even men don’t stay unaffected from these gender-based roles as they are also expected to behave in a certain way. My City’s Nasana Bajracharya met with grade XII students of Global College of Management and discussed how they perceive the role of both the genders in our society.
Anita Karki
A mother is generally restricted within household chores, and a senior male figure is given priority when it comes to decision-making. Our society has a set of ‘rules’ and we are supposed to abide by them. A woman leaves her house, her family and even her name when she gets married whereas men are not obliged to do the same. If a man decides to leave his parents’ house and stay at his wife’s place, the society will question his ‘manhood’ in every possible way.
Swodesh Dahal
The society’s mind-set has improved with modernization. Both my mom and dad cook, and are equally involved in decision-making. I think decision-making is not a gender-based role. What matters in shaping the people’s mentality is the way they are brought up.
Women are not only suppressed by men anymore. In fact, they are sometimes crushed between the clash among women in the house.
Retina Maharjan
Working men are not expected to look after household chores. But working women are obliged to look after the household even when they come back tired after work. A guy is not expected to clean his plate after eating, and if he does, he is overtly appreciated.
Whereas a girl is not even given the liberty to leave her plate unwashed. Also a male’s ego is easily hurt. Many cases of rape and acid attack are the results of men not being able to accept that a woman said no to them.
Bishal Pandey
Women are way too sensitive when it comes to their roles and turn feminists right away. Everyone has to cook, so does a woman, what is so wrong about cooking? Though our government has focused more facilities on women, they misuse them. For example, women sometimes misuse their seat reservation quota in public vehicles. I have seen young girls making elderly men get up from the women’s seats, just because the seats are meant for women. I believe women should stop expecting, work for their rights and utilize the rights they already have.
Regina Basnet
For women to grab opportunities like men, a girl and a boy should be raised equally. If a family has money to educate only one of the children, boys are given priority. Learning to cook and do household chores should not become a gender-based role. Every gender should learn the basic nitty-gritty of life to become independent. Women in rural areas are still struggling to get access to equal education let alone equal rights. But we youngsters should work together to change the biased perception that is evident in our society.
Prashant Pandey
It is not the society that has stopped women from growing. It is rather the circumstances that hinder women or anyone for that matter from pursuing their dream. But a girl child not getting education becomes a father’s fault not mother’s because men are the responsible heads of any family. If we talk about cooking, men can cook and it is doesn’t make him less of a man. Neither crying nor expressing his feeling would. Manhood is about humanity. But as we have seen our older generation functioning in a certain way, we kind of adopted the same mentality.
Sadikshya Luitel
I have always seen my mom working harder than my dad. Though she is physically more invested than my dad, she is still expected to come home and cook for us. Feminism arises where we need to empower women and free them from gender roles. Men also need to motivate women to be more active outside kitchen. But here if a man is seen supporting his wife/girlfriend, he loses respect among his group of fellow men. Men supportive of gender equality should be the definition of ‘man’, not those who impose their power to suppress women.
Suwasit Gautam
Men have always been associated with physical strength, someone who supports family and a guardian. But it’s sad that a father telling his daughter to come home early is taken as a restriction and not as an act of love. It’s our environment that has shaped us in that way. If a son is raised right, he will eventually respect women and protect them. In Nepal, our president and speaker of the parliament are both women. But this alone cannot guarantee equal rights and women’s empowerment across country. Women need to fight for their rights.
Rupsi Parajuli
Girls and boys, from their childhood, are not raised equally. Guided by gender roles, women are expected to work in the kitchen and those who work outside of their houses are mostly criticized. Whereas men are supposed to take the lead, be it in a relationship or in the house. Males are expected to do laborious work and the physically weak ones are not seen as ‘men’.
Hemang Shrestha
Girls get jobs through quota system even if they are educationally and economically sound just for being females. This doesn’t make sense. While males are expected to treat girls with equality, punishments are harsher for boys. Both feminism and masculinity argue in favor of women. In fact, feminism just instigates women to rebel against men.
You cannot enforce gender roles on either gender and women should not expect men to do things for them.
Alisha Lamichhane
What women seek is not equality but equity. We don’t need the quota or reservation system rather what we need is education, training and opportunity. We need to give women equal opportunity to compete with men. Women are guided by gender roles.
Feminism, more often, is taken in a negative connotation. It should be used to uplift the women of rural areas that are under-privileged and deprived of their basic rights. If women were given an equal chance everywhere, there would be no need for feminism to advocate for women’s rights.
Roles and Challenges of Nepal’s National Defense University
