Weekend Musings: Striving For Equality, All Year Long

With International Women’s Day just around the corner, my social media feed is starting to become a familiar view. People celebrating womanhood, creating awareness and highlighting efforts towards achieving gender equality are being as vocal as possible. However, I fear that once again all these voices will die down once Women’s Day is over. Doesn’t it defeat the purpose? As wonderful as it is to hear the call for equality on Women’s Day, it would be even better if these voices were just as loud all through the year.

Equality is not a belief to hold just for a day. I believe that everyone is equal and I reflect this belief through both my words and action. Where anyone is today, be it a woman or a man, it is because of his or her capability and determination – not gender. Equality is about ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents irrespective of their gender. The day equality becomes a year-round celebration is the day we win.

All of us can contribute to such a day. To build a truly equal world, we need to start by changing ourselves – challenging stereotypes and broadening our own perceptions. And when I say ‘our’ I mean both men and women. We are all part of the whole: our individual thoughts, actions, and outlook have an impact on our society. Hence, it is imperative to amend our own mindset, as it is something in our control. As Mahatma Gandhi said – “Be the change that you want to see in this world” – if an equal world is the change we need, each one of us needs to set the right example.

If every individual does his or her bit, it will change the collective mindset. Even if your actions inspire and change the life of one person, you can hold your head high. The aim should be to change the world into how you want it to be rather than just try to fit in. Rome wasn’t built in a day. No matter how much time it takes, we must always be ready to take the necessary actions.

It is encouraging to see many corporates are taking such actions if the past few years are anything to go by. Creating equal opportunities for all at workplaces will require policies for parity in pay, leadership roles, among other important initiatives. To achieve real business growth, capability is fundamental regardless of gender and as such, gender diversity can be a big enabler for any business. Irrespective of the role we play in the organization, the right mindset can boost teamwork, coordination, and output – doing wonders to our professional growth.

Once gender equality is ingrained in our DNA, we can work towards enabling equal opportunity for all every day of the year. When women equality becomes a norm and not just a day’s celebration, when equality is our belief and not our aim any longer, we will be a lot closer to delivering on this year’s theme of #EachforEqual.