Youth who are believed to be the pillars of the nation, having the responsibility to change the paradigm of the society from traditional value system to the era of modern technology has the rust named as patriarchal values in their mind. Every problem of nation can be changed if the psychology of the people living in it changes.
School curriculum with loophole
Whenever we discuss about the change in psychology of the people, the first thing that comes in our mind is the education but the question to be asked is what kind of education actually help solving this deep rooted social problem. Lots of youths who are educated also have the injected patriarchy in their mind. Knowingly or unknowingly course curriculums might promote patriarchy for example:
I am a youngest female member of my happy family. My father works in office. He earns money and fulfills all our wishes. My mother on the other hand looks after my family. She takes care of us. I have an elder brother. We both study in same school. My parents love us both equally. After I come back from school I do my assignment later I help my mother in her household works. My brother helps my father in his business. We are a very happy family.
Values of society
In society like ours, sad but true boys are brought up with the belief that he is superior to women whereas on the other hand, girls are brought up and they are taught to serve their husbands in future. Gender stereotypical behaviors are taught to the children. Boys will be given toy machine guns in their birthdays whereas girls will be given Barbie dolls. Values like men are supposed to protect the women are injected in the minds of men whereas women are taught that they are delicate and not strong enough to protect themselves so they need men to protect them. Then the clothes pink and blue. Later the girls in kitchen and the boys in office.
This injected belief leads to another belief which would be why I should study if my husband will feed me as the cause and effect relationship. Feed me is the literal term used in many cases. Such is the scenario in our society where women herself puts herself in lower hierarchy than the men because she is brought up in the society with patriarchal values. Then in the case of educated women, again the values compel her in many situations to surrender in front of patriarchy. Whole new notion of this value starts with the paradox of surname change. As a newlywed bride you will get new identity and change in identity is shown as the matter to be proud of but is this change proud worthy. In the marriage ceremony, bride’s family should drink the water washed from the feet of the groom till today and there are many other examples.
When a girl is raped, her identity is kept hidden and we consider that as the good aspect of criminal justice system. She is innocent and has the right to live with dignity in society. Getting raped is not her fault rather she is the victim so rather than making her the character to sympathize for, making her strong enough to overcome the torture she went through is important.
Eliminating this evil
Educational institutions should play important role in eliminating this system out of peoples mind. Student should be taught to respect each other. Children from the very young age should know about patriarchy, the problem it has been creating in present context. They should be taught about the effects that patriarchy has in the mind of the people and should be kept well aware about their role in uprooting this problem. Only then the psychology of new generation can be changed. To state that “Patriarchy is the problem of women where men dominates women so women should be empowered to solve this problem and no men should be concerned about effects of patriarchy on women” is not true as well. This is the age where both men and women should co-operate to defeat this problem. Empowerment of all the people in society is necessary, society where men realizes the importance of women in society and women gains equal status as that of men.
A group of people winning is just the fallacy as this is not the battle ground i.e. patriarchy might give special privilege to men but the ultimate result is the failure of state as with half the population getting dominated by half the population a state can never be considered developed. Rather development requires both energy and idea. For obtaining maximum of both of these intangible things maximum participation of both men and women is necessary. People who are already aware about the evil going around in our society should not surrender to this malpractice. All the people trying to break this gender stereotype should be motivated. Only co-operation between people in society can bring positive effect. A group of capable but dependent people will only lead to the society of anarchy and chaos.
Author: Runa Maharjan (published in kathmandu post)
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