
The famous anthropologist and researcher, Helen Fisher once said, “Women have never been as interesting as they are now. Not at any time on this planet have women been so educated, so interesting, so capable.”
This was evident to me, once again, if I may gladly add during the “Learn and Grow” event organized by IIMjobs.com. They came from all walks of life, despite the heat on a Sunday afternoon. Some wished they hadn’t quit work as going back to work is hard, others wondered why men/fathers don’t take time off to look after children. “Why don’t the HR folks ask men, if they are planning to have a baby, why are only women asked this question in an interview”?
It is a choice we make, since we believe that mothers/women are duty bound to nurture and care and in the process, render themselves irrelevant to the world outside. And when the initial euphoria of having a baby wears off, we need someone who can empathise and join the chorus with us.
Conversations, like IIM Job’s “Learn and Grow” are a sisterhood. A community of women, sisters if you please, who are in a similar boat as us, where you can speak your heart and your mind and not be judged. And we need to have many more of these. For me, they are nothing short of a slow and silent revolution, in progress – one of coming on our own slowly, gradually gaining economic independence and achieving gender equality.