“She did it, despite being a woman”, have we not heard this statement quite often. It has been so deeply engrained in our thoughts and psyches that whenever we see a woman performing, this statement, which will be henceforth called as Dialogue, comes out as a de-facto behavioral pattern. And this pattern has far reaching implications which we will see in this article.
The Dialogue generates a lot of sympathy for the women folk and the girl, who did it, despite being a woman, definitely feels good because for sure, the dialogue has a motivational and lauding tenure. However, it demeans the women folk in general and imbibes a feeling in them that they need to do something extra-ordinary to get recognized whereas the males can get away with ordinary performance. But this view is again only a perception and not a reality. In reality, girls are encouraged even if they achieve anything small, whereas boys do not have that luxury.
The dialogue reflects a general sentiment that women are inferior and need extra-motivation to perform. Also it reflects that since women are weaker, apparently, they need to be given concessions. However this again is a perception and not a reality. In general, the society has an overwhelming tendency to pamper women and this dialogue is the result of Women Pamperment.
Let us take some real life examples. The very recently popular TV Show, the Indian Idol is running its fourth season. And Sonali Bendre, one of the judges openly says that this time she wants a girl to be an Indian Idol, because the last the idols have been boys. It is unbecoming of a judge of a talent based show to make such a statement. The dialogue as mentioned, actually tries to engenderize the issue.
Nature does not distribute its talent based on gender. Every single individual is talented and this fact needs to be respected. However, since feminists wanted to run their shop of selling women rights, they propagated such memes in the society like, “She did it, despite being a woman”. It actually bogs down the entire womanhood and any self-respecting woman would condemn such an attitude.
I cannot help, but quote Chanda Kochar, the CEO of ICICI Bank here. In a recent TV interview she was asked, “Is it not a fact that you need to be 2 times better than others to be here?” The reply she gave was, “The CEO of the largest private sector bank definitely needs to be 2 times better than her peers.” But the dialogue does not go with it, since the merchants of the dialogue always want it to be associated with every woman’s achievement since they use this dialogue to draw further concessions for women from the society.
As a matter of fact, gender has got to do absolutely nothing with performance and such dialogues should be discouraged because women are equally competent and do not need any extra concession or motivation to perform or achieve. She did it, because she can, not because she is a woman.