From childhood we have been hearing stories of great men who have conquered all and achieved everything, but rarely have we got stories of women in the similar fashion. Heroes have been always celebrated for their wit, smartness and strategies, but women, who possess similar qualities are labelled manipulative and evil.
Our society is built on these double standards. But the real problem arises when it’s a female who is younger that her male counterpart shows merit. It is challenging to be a woman in the world made for men, and add to it the lousy male ego.
Work space is the most difficult to navigate when time and again women are made conscious of their ‘lacking’.
Just like misogyny, ageism too is an inherent part of our society, and by default, a part of our work culture. The mix of two is the most toxic one. It becomes difficult for women to gain career development due to this, because somehow, a young female employee is the biggest threat to the masculine power and authority of the others.
Generally when we talk about ageism, we think of discrimination against older people, but younger generation too has to face this as they are forever considered a potential threat to the seniors’ job security. And when it’s women, the scale’s only increasing. For, a woman succeeding is the biggest mishap that can happen to one’s masculinity.
The saddest part about it all is, at times women too are responsible for it. It can be due to various reasons including inherent patriarchy and fear of social exclusion.
The problem does not end with merely taking credit for the junior employees’ work or ideas, but also about creating impediments so that they do not grow and achieve success.
Majority of the times, this behaviour is seen among the men who classify themselves as the highly qualified one, but lack the basic understanding of equality and the factor of ‘live and let live’. They don’t understand the essential part of seeking equality and opportunity is not based on physical merits, but on cerebral capacity. For them passing casual sexist comments is fine but speaking against it is being ‘highly sensitive’ and ‘you can’t handle a joke’. These are the same men who scream over social media ‘not all men are same’ but turn to their daughters and sisters and say ‘stay away from men, they all want only one thing’.
It is difficult to bring changes overnight. No one can change their mind set by taking an eight hour sleep. But that also doesn’t mean that change isn’t possible at all. Though slow and gradual, we can collectively bring the change that we so desperately seek – equal opportunity and respect regardless of gender and age. It’s high time that men in senior position stop questioning the capabilities of the junior female employees, and for this to happen, women need to come together. There is absolutely nothing better than sisterhood, no matter what the popular media tries to say.