Tomorrow is Women’s Day, and you must have already started seeing mailers targetting women for sales or even HR asking us to share stories of what makes us strong women. As I had written earlier, the empty promises of Women’s Day are everywhere with hollow gestures ruling the roost. I wonder if anyone ever stopped to ask us women what we want for Women’s Day. Why would they for then they might not be able to continue with the charade.
It certainly isn’t a flash sale or an activity where we wear sarees to click selfies that we want people focussing on on Women’s Day. Though there is nothing wrong with them because who doesn’t like dressing up or a good sale? But limiting Women’s Day to these shallow gestures achieves nothing. It just trivialises and reduces women to show pieces. Again. So, let me tell you what we women want for Women’s Day. Who knows, somebody could be listening or reading!
What We Want for Women’s Day
Equal pay for equal work. We want pay parity. I want to be paid as per the market and make as much as a male colleague with the same experience and skill set is making.
Equal division of unpaid work at home, too much to ask? We want to have the same freedom of stepping in and out of the house without having to do the household chores before and after. We want men to understand the pain of maids taking off.
Don’t ask us to calm down. Ever. Believe me when I say we stay as calm as possible despite the dumbfuckery we tolerate, day in and day out. So, if we are saying something, listen to us.
We want the flexibility of working from home if the kind of work we do allows that. Hence, our concerns should be addressed when policies are being made.
Safety. We want to be able to step out of our houses at night without worrying about our safety. Women shouldn’t be penalised on account of their biology.
Maternity Leave should not be considered as a vacation or as something where women lose their entire faculties. We shouldn’t have to restart our careers from scratch after a maternity break.
We want clean washrooms when we step out in public since we can’t very well pee in the open.
We want women’s health prioritised and most investment in women’s health research. PCOS, Cervical Cancer or even Sanitary pads not being taxed need to be prioritised.
Stop asking us to calm down!
Women’s sports should not be neglected but developed. Without money pouring in, even if interested, women can’t reach where men have with decades of investments.
We want pay raises based on our performance and ability, not on the number of late nights at the office.
Promotion policies shouldn’t be different for men and women. Even though not written down explicitly, the impediments women face before being considered for promotion exist in organisations. It needs to change. Men aren’t by default equipped to handle higher roles.
Just talking about parity isn’t enough. All organisations must walk the talk and prove they are serious about gender parity. Blazer-clad men in higher echelons of power in every other company go to show the opposite.
Organise health checkup camps for women on Women’s Day instead of organising yet another talk or a rangoli competition.
We want to be able to rest. We want the gift of time just like men do, irrespective of their marital status or even when they have kids.
Stop expecting women to take care of grown men. There’s a reason partner or wife isn’t the synonym for mother.
Well, these are some of the things which came to my mind, but I’m sure there are more. Women reading this, tell me what do you want? What do we want for Women’s Day?