Institutionalizing Gender Equality

I was beginning to hate the word patriarchy because it's being used for every random issue now. But I recently read an article by a chief scientist at WHO that talks about Institutionalised Patriarchy which I think is the crux of the problem, and if solved can be a game-changer towards gender equality. 

"It is more difficult for women researchers to get their grants approved, significantly smaller portion of research grants go to women, and women also have difficulties in getting their results published if you are from developing countries in journals because of perceived biases. I have faced those kinds of challenges and biases", says Dr. Swaminathan.

You know even today in our uber-urban social structures you see that men can do blunders in crores worth of projects and they don't turn into casual office jokes but when big women-led projects don't go as expected, they're used as permanent jokes featuring at parties. Or even our male friends who otherwise believe in gender equality, often feel less of themselves when a woman does better than them. How do we hyphenate the age old concept of a man's sense of self-worth being derived from a woman's placement in the structures around them? And how did this seep into our generation?

This is not just a woman's issue, it's as much a man's issue because honestly most of them are clueless. Is it okay to pull the seat at a table, is it okay to open the door? Is it okay give the woman a bigger project? Is it okay to invest so much in a woman's startup or research? The issue is of the mind and until we fix that every other effort is going to be a waste. 

I think we need an enabler that would bring more women into govt. institutions because it's the govt. sector that has the most visibility. Why can I count women in politics on my fingers? I see women's reservation bill for a certain time period as an enabler. The objective is - first visibility, second reset of the mind and third making gender equality a norm and not a special item of consideration.

Lastly, fixing the not so visible issues in our personal spheres. For example, there's this concept of a woman being a man's cheerleader. But I've seen it happen the other way round very less. I often come across guys who want to be with a woman because they think she'll grow them as a person. But things are changing now and women are busy accomplishing their dreams. We need our men to find their role in such new structures where women don't need caretakers but life partners. And we need the men to be confident of who they are in these new structures or there'll be space for bigger frictions. I see people today growing individually while having their significant other as their best friend. And I think that's such a good sign for gender equality. 

To sum up, institutionalised patriarchy is where we need to look at as far as trickle down effect is concerned and realigning our personal relationships is important for a bottom-up impact. 

Ref: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/our-institutions-are-very-patriarchal-who-chief-scientist-soumya-swaminathan/article32846728.ece