I truly believe that just about all of the issues in Nepal can be linked back to a man’s ego. With a society still infiltrated by patriarchal roots, it’s no surprise that Nepal seems to run under the rules of a man’s world.
A quick look at Nepal’s history can easily explain why, till date, men have a monopoly over the economy, business, politics, and higher positions in any profession – this is simply because the education of women has been held back and we’ve yet to produce a generation of equal opportunities for all genders.
And if you look slightly further back, its clear that boys have been given priority and importance over girls since the beginning of time. Whether it’s treating sons like gods, boys like the hope of the family, and girls like trouble worth only as much as the dowry they bring. it’s really not a surprise that Nepal is unable to improve its situation when all men in Nepal still think they’re the alpha.
This desire to feel important has transcended familial life and has seeped to the work environment and public spaces where young women like I have to put up with men who need to understand that having an external reproductive organ does not make them better or more capable than me.
If I were to make a list of examples, the list would beat the length of Homer’s Iliad, so let me avoid a rant of all the times a man has wronged me (be at work or in public) simply because I have a uterus. Instead, let me bring to light a few points that would serve Nepal well if we were to accept them and use them to our benefit:
1) Women strive for resolution; men want to turn everything into a cock fight. Men are willing to risk more for the sake of their ego while women will do what it takes to save the things that matter to her.
2) For women, family is usually the number one priority. I recently found a statistic from UNICEF that said when a woman earns money, she puts 90% of it back into her family compared to the 30-40% that men do.
3) A woman has no problem taking the responsibility of running a household and working a job, most Nepali men are unable to take the dose of humility in order to share the house work which would lead to a smoother running family.
So what’s my point? My point is, Nepal needs balance and allowing women to rise up would take the nation forward by leaps and bounds. And to even out the scale, men should be able to lower their ego and their sense of entitlement to level out the beam.
Women are just as capable of men and I’d be happy not to live in a man’s world with their rules but looking at the state we’re in – it’s clearly not working to our favor. Give women a chance, and let women take over not just on women’s issues (because really that’s just insulting and limiting to us) but give us equal reign over everything, and I guarantee – we’d see the changes everyone has been hoping for.
Saani has no real goals and aspirations but she sees opportunity in everything and goes with the flow. This is probably because she loves exploring and discovering. She writes for fun but for the same reason she also cooks, reads, and spends a lot of time on random websites that offer a chance to learn all sorts of tid-bits on life!