Message to women

Neeti Ray is a manager in an MNC, writer and book reviewerSun, Mar 7 10:53 PM

Today is International Women's Day and if you're like me, you're probably hard at work in front of a computer screen. Or your situation could be different: You could be looking at your day's schedule before your patients start pouring in. Or trouble-shooting for your clients. Or finally catching a moment's rest after having sent your spouse to work and your children to school.

Whether you are married or single, working or a stay-at-home, a mother or childless, I hope you are one of the increasing number of women who have chosen their identity in the myriad possibilities that now exist for women. I not unaware of the fact that there are regions in the world where women are still suppressed, bought and sold like cattle, endure a lifetime without basic education and live a life marked by an absence of personal liberty. I'm also aware of the fact that if you are educated, possess an engaging personality and have a job that gives you financial independence, it's no guarantee of a happily-ever-after where love, romance and marriage are concerned.

It isn't easy, is it, being a woman? In some ways, it's harder if you are a liberated, modern woman who has used her freedom of choice. Freedom and choice bring with them the mixed blessings of accountability to the self. If I am soaring on the wings of success today, it is because I painstakingly built those wings. Or if my flight towards my dreams has become grounded, then I must take responsibility for my temporary failure. The psychological pressure a woman of today faces is enormous. But we can't go back, we must move forward. We are the torch bearers for little girls who are learning their alphabets and multiplication tables. Little girls, who will look up to us as their role models when they come of age and start asking questions and seeking answers.

I have only one message, not only for the young ones, but also for you: change the paradigm. Create new definitions of what it means to be a woman. If there is a box that society has created or one that you have created for yourself and you find that box confining, climb out of that box. If following the prescribed guidelines for femininity is the way to your bliss, then follow those! If you need to change those guidelines to suit your soul's need, change them! Let there be no rules except the ones you make for yourself. Allow yourself this freedom of self-definition and applaud its different versions in your fellow travellers. Be yourself and do us all proud!

source : Yahoo News