Women (In)Equality
8:38 PM Posted by Krishna
I was watching the railway budget session, Lalluji made some announcement about concession to all women till they complete their graduation. I thought thats a decent move to woo the female voters.
A couple of days after this, a friend of mine called me and said check the class groups, it seems some news about Microsoft placement. And when I checked the group mail, I was kinda taken aback, astonished, dumb struck(well i still cannot find the proper adjective). The mail read thus
"Hi ppl,
A good news for our campus is that MICROSOFT was invited our college for the 'All India Placements for Women Engineers!!'
The criterion for placements if that one must me a B.E/B.Tech or M.E/M.Tech in C.S.E or I.T streams only.
Girls,
Please register at www.merittrac.net/microsoft........."
Now whats microsoft thinking?? I can understand Lalluji's intentions, this being an election year. Does Microsoft think that men are incompetent or does Microsoft think "WOMEN ARE NOT CAPABLE ENOUGH TO COMPETE WITH MEN...", thats a question, the answer for which still eludes me.
Then came the Budget 2008. As a person whos gonna start earning in a few months, I was majorly interested on what PC would do about the "Direct Taxes". The first announcement regarding the increase on tax bracket from 1.1 lacs p.a to 1.5 lacs p.a came amidst loud cheers. PC followed it with a shocker "and for women 1.85 lacs p.a...."
Now why is this Inequality? Why are the major industries and the government trying to woo women? And most importantly why does a gender which dosen't just say but boasts itself of not only being equal, but also being better to their male counterparts, be happy with such announcements? Can we infer from these announcements that the claim made by most of our female counterparts are just a hollow claim with no substance? If thats not the case why do they accept such offers which clearly shows women are weaker and need extra support?
There are some questions which cannot be answered. And there are some questions which people are afraid to answer. I think i'll never get answers to my questions.
Till my next post adieu
KP - THE DEVILZADVOCATE.
P.S
- What do i say here?? Just feel free to comment. I wanna hear your views especially the views of my female friends.
March 7, 2008 at 9:32 PM
if d intensions r 2 equalise women wit men its a good thing.... but tats not so... they r tryin 2 play politics in tat.... i don see any suprises 4m politicians as they feel tat women r sentimental so tat they can attract d women community n incraese their vote banks.... n as far as microsoft is concerned i think its just a mere publicity tat microsoft did their part 2wards women on d womens day...... in reality politicians mustbe broad-mined so tat they actually work 4 d improvement of d women in dcountry considerin nt only only d urban areas which they r rite nw but also rural areas 2 improve..... tats d way 2 go abt it... enna eluthiyachu poduma....
March 8, 2008 at 2:31 AM
gud one da these questions are bugging me always .In india eveybody needs a shortcut here are ther to achieve their goals......if they want women to be equal with men they should enact laws to prevent evils like dowry or domestic violence and ensure elementary education and not sops everywhere
March 9, 2008 at 12:59 AM
women rn't weaker! what nonsense!
kindly re-phrase that. it's the way women are treated in the society that puts us at a disadv. that's y there r compensations..
as for the MS initiative.. well that was a PR thing. they have the money n the time..
it's not like the intake of GUYS is gonna come down coz of this- so don't fuss!
March 9, 2008 at 1:01 AM
Bang on target da, something which has puzzled me for quite long. Somewhat (not entirely) similar to reservation, in the name of providing equality, the basic ideology seems to be compromised...Here too, there are job fairs esp. for Women, called Society of Women Engineers...Seems funny though, this entire crap abt Women's Day.
March 9, 2008 at 4:20 AM
Yes its dumb to say men n women have equal rights. Its oly said,not practiced. this is not oly for microsoft ,budget etc. This damn flaw is ther in the law book too... If a man is given death sentence for a particular reason, woman suffers oly life sentence for the same case. So its absolutely wrong to say tat Men and Women enjoy equal rights....
March 9, 2008 at 4:56 AM
Hi krishna!When u said u updated the blog i was happy.Since i kept nagging u to write blogs continuously.I thought u ll write something interesting.But now it looks like it has backed on me itself!Well,the government plans may be because of elections!But there are people who get benefits because of the plans.And i did engineering only because of one such plan and got u as my "loose" friend!Hey i want the guys to know what happened in microsoft apti.When the presentation got over,a gal stood up and asked "why the company didnt give the guys a chance?Isnt this inequality?".The guy from microsoft answered for guys as well as other department students there will be oppurtunity in may.I dont know whether they will give oppurtunity or not,but u see gals are not people who accept offers blankly.They did ask for a healthy competition!
Moreover krish u were playing while the budget was announced.It was a gal who called u and told u to see budget.Also the friend who informed u about the placement was a gal.Anyways thank u krish for helping me to complete the project and for helping me for the apti!I'm proud of my friend!
March 10, 2008 at 9:19 AM
I feel women take undue advantage of this women equality crap. There was women inequality say abt 5 to 6 decades back. But the transition has been such were women inequality has and is turning into men inequality.
@Divya- We are making a fuss? Excuse me. If the guys were offered Microsoft placement n if the gals were not allowed to appear, wudnt u have said itz women inequality? n wats worse is u back ur point by sayin the intake of guyz isnt gonna come down. Wat if we say the same thing if we were allowed to appear n gals werent allowed?
March 10, 2008 at 10:06 PM
@raghuveer: if at all v have mens day... defenitely not da... its getting 2 much out of our hands... one can just sit n watch like a silent spectator......
i will tel u one instance... wen honourable finance minister during d budget session rejected d loans of farmers one person in d parliament blindly opposed tat... speaker asked y is he opposing as its good 4 d ppl... d person sat.... it shows d clear pic.....
March 13, 2008 at 9:53 PM
CRAP: BANG on Target Krishna.. Well said. This can be termed as one of the Ridiculous Women's Day Celebrations i have ever come across. Women's inequality is still predominant in the Remote areas of the country. But the scenario has been completely Wiped Out in Urban and other Developed/ developing areas.
A very good politics is being played by Micro soft recruiting 500 women Engineers and FM's Budeget allocation.. Does it gonna serve the real need for women. Its just the Urban Females who gonna enjoy all these Priviliges.. Nothing has been taken to improve the standards of Really Under Priviliged women.
Absolutely Mad..............
March 21, 2008 at 4:17 PM
@ganesh
divya would have appeared in CNN-IBN as a citizen journalist... showcasing MS's anthem over women...
March 22, 2008 at 8:28 PM
@blah
Hey buddy. If u have guts then why don u type ur comments along with ur name. And u have no damn rights to call women weaker with this attidue of urs. No profanity on this blog. So I request u to show some responsibility and behave better. Btw a few points abt pro woman country like USA was good. Again no profanity on this blog. And have guts to let the world who u are.
@veeran
I dont want any personal attacks, Each one is entitled to their views. Jus because someone had given heir opinion doesnt mean we gotta make fun of them. So cool it.Ur views and comments are always welcome. Dont draw people into fights and drive em out.
devilzadvocate
March 27, 2008 at 2:48 AM
Hey blah here again,
I hail from the US dude..and I dont want anyone coming across my comments here for fear of leading the rest of my life in complete misery. I dont know how this kinda stuff is treated in your world, but in mine, u get ur world shattered for it...u lose friends..u lose ur job...the kid on the road spits on ur knee! So please refrain from making judgmental statements like "if u got the balls..." such things have long lasting consequences from where I come! I dont live in Arabia to be praised for it.
March 28, 2008 at 2:33 AM
Haha..and also..u must feel ur "sense of control" being satisied on this blog..asking people to shut up or asking them to do stuff..haha..nowhere else can u excercise this level of control...Wo! enjoy! control here while u can.. control maniac!
March 28, 2008 at 2:37 AM
plus this site is caled "Devils ADvocate" if u cant live upto its name...thn ur jus malapropistic!
April 30, 2008 at 3:13 AM
I can understand giving a helping hand... but there is no necessity of this in the world of IT. Maybe in hard physical work.. But IT is all mental stuff. You need not be a body builder for typing into a file and compiling it.
IMHO, There must be no reservations whatsoever but 1.
The poverty line. These people really do need help.
BC/MBC/SC/ST etc is crap! I know people who are in the ST quota and yet live in a huge mansion
Gandhiji himself disliked reservations because reservation == incompetence.
I know girls are as competent as men. i wouldn't say more because somewhere near -&inf the line of time, man got to rule. If both were equal, the woman should have.. Eg. The python! Widow Spider!!
And yeah... 7/10 inventions are by men. I am not chauvenist. But if that trend does not change even with all these bonuses for women down in ten years, i guess we will have a verdict.. But till then, We are equals. Even after that I will respect you people as humans!
And yeah... I expect nobody talks of women being more compassionate... That is there. But when there is a challenge, do not use it to defend yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~~
As for Microsoft. I dislike it.
You know me.. I am Ashok Gautham. I am pro GNU and FOSS
Taking a leaf from the great hacker, Eric S Raymond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_os#Quotes
"""
I bumped into him (Craig Mundie of Microsoft) in an elevator. I looked at his badge and said, "ah, you work for Microsoft."
He looked back at me and said, “Oh ya, and what do you do?”
And I thought it was some kind of tad dismissive, here is a guy in a suit looking at a scruffy hacker... so I gave him a thousand yard stare and said, "I am your worst nightmare!"
"""
And @blah: People who do not have the balls, need not comment. In fact I feel women are better than loudmouths like you with a pin head sized brain
May 5, 2008 at 6:24 AM
Hey dude an interesting post... i agree with all your concerns, i think this happens coz women's rights are always misunderstood in our society. Look at the daily-wage women workers, they are mistreated and paid low when compared to their male counterparts...we dont care bout them but we do all these stunts in the sectors(Such as IT) which has empowered women beyond limits..If all this is true its really a shame on microsoft.
May 5, 2008 at 6:25 AM
HHey dude y dont u write more?? i see a lot of gaps in your calender :)
July 7, 2008 at 10:59 PM
hey guys!!! Will all u ppl stop this.. Reading all ur comments seems as most of you have not developed a basic sense of respect towards the Women.
I very well agree that womens are bein provided with cretain reservations but that is all bcoz even in todays world there are still thousands of women who are forced to remain in the social bounds whle men are given every kind of freedom.
At every nick and corner u'll find eve teasin. Girls are being harrased even in MNC's and not men. U pik the news paper n there will be atleast one news reagdin a girl bein raped. In smaller places of India there is still Child marriage for girls.
If Girl after completing her studies has a will to work she is stopped either by her own family or by her husbands family and still in many cases she's happily there to support you in ur bad times and be wid ur family....
Even she has the capabillity to work as you and handle the things strongly but she leaves it all for you ppl... in return this disrespect is the least she could have expectd.... Atleast have the basic sense of respect towards her and not use the abusive wrds too.
July 8, 2008 at 1:22 AM
@kim
Thanks for ur comment. I do aggres abt eve teasin, I do agree abt child marriage and i do agree abt rapes but how does microsoft providin oppurtunity only for women help in women empowerement. I do respect women but i am not for givin freebies to women earnin 3.5 lpa and women who finishes her BE from the likes of IIT's Annaunivs etc. This is no way women equality.
"If a gal after completin her studies has a will to work she is stopped either by her own family or husband's family"
U are Out dated. Look at the number of women in the IT companies and so on and so forth.
" in many cases she’s happily there to support you in ur bad times and be wid ur family…."
Well isn't it the whole point of matrimony helpin each other out. I don like this sketchin guys as a "EVIL REINCARNATED", and we are not spineless ninnies. THis is the bane of women right wing thinkin guys as devil. And i am not wrong to say the law is entirly biased for women. I read this interesting article on TOI where a women threatend to go to cops on harrasment case if her husband sent money to his parents. So much so for women's right. GOD SAVE THIS COUNTRY AND GOD SAVE PEOPLE.
Krishna - The devilzadvocate
P.S As far as abusive talk is concerned i am always against profanity in my blog
July 10, 2008 at 10:05 AM
I very well agree dat not 100% of girls are so called angels wid no bad intentions but the % of such girls when compared to guys is minute.
You say m outdated wid the number of women wrkin at IT sectors.
I say you still seem to be far away from the truth and the real stats....
Number of working women has certainly risen from the earlier times, but it is yet not comparable to the number of men wrkin out there. I guess all you ppl were talkin that women are given more privileges and it's a womens world now....
I don find dat anywhere...See at yourself buddy...You would have certainly not said this if you would have compared the % of women working to the % of men working... but it seems as if you have compared the % of women wrking in earlier times to the % of women wrkin today...
As far as microsoft is concernd - It does not require any publicity stunts..Even you wud agree to it..Micorsoft- It's work speaks for it ... I guess it had organised the women's drive just to honor a single day (8th march- Womens day). There were thousands of girls allowed to sit in the examination but Microsoft was there to distribute the job. Among thousands of Girls, it had hardly picked up 6 to 7 girls who deserved to be there and had the capability to match any so called IITian through her own I.Q level..
So buddy lets finish it off n why to make a fuss of few provisions dat are given to the girls so dat d larger number of girls can come forward n finally both men and women wrk together and make our developin country into a developed one.
The day stats of men and women equalise all over India..these privileges dat are given will stop automatically and i truly believe - dat day we won't be called as developin country ne more but certainly a Developed one....
August 4, 2008 at 10:21 AM
Dear all,
I see a very lively discussion going on about women’s empowerment and after my previous outburst, I feel compelled to shed some light (of enlightenment if you may) on kim and her compatriots.
Kim,
For a moment let us classify the world into just 2 categories - the fortunates and the not so fortunates.
A fortunate would include someone well educated, from a reasonably well to do family. A not-so-fortunate as the name suggest would be the exact opposite.
Our society has taken it upon itself to uplift the “not-so fortunate” and to reward the fortunate on the basis of fair meritocracy. The “not-so-fortunate” do infact need to cross that threshold to compete with the fortunate.
As an example, let us take the great state of Tamil-Nadu in the great country of India (For the record, even though I was raised in India, I am not Indian anymore):
Population: 63million
Sex ratio: 950 per thousand (for mathematical convenience we will assume a ratio of 1:1)
Percentage of government registered official “forward classes” : 5%
Hence percentage of backward classes: 95%
Of this 95% as the sex ratio suggests 50% are women, that makes it 47.5% backward women class.
Please do note that the above government classifications are based on decades old situation of societal priveleges (or the lack of it).
So infact only 2.5% of the population (half of the 5% are women) are officially well to do and ultra-smart and awesome and brilliant and extra-ordinary and super-human. So what does the goverment decide to do - ask them to f-off.
Very little is taken into consideration as to this antiquated, biased, illogical method of classfying the “not so fortunate”.
The “not so fortunate” can infact be identified on a case-to-case basis as is elsewhere in the world. However the government wishes to cater to its own vote bank and company like MS likes to appear “women-friendly”.
I researched into the jobs that were awarded under this very generous and philathropic scheme of theirs. The women ended up getting dead-end, round of the mill (read ultra horribly boring) jobs.
Women as a general category CANNOT be classified as one giant chunk of unfortunate beings. That would include 50% of the world.
However, women dont want to let go of this luxury being accorded to them as well. Why would they?
I am extremely sorry for making the following statement, but this treatment of unfair bias (positively) towards them has made them lazy! Very few women appear competent enough to assume greater responsibility in todays corporate world. Women are not forced to fight the way men do. Men are left to fend for themselves, hence fight harder, learn harder. Women for example even in office settings are not even expected to work as hard as they are “frail creatures”. Men jump in even for that!
This situation will one day end up making women so incompetent that no law as this even can help them.
The above is to show the reader that law is making women only more incompetent and hence failing in the original well-intentioned objective anyway!
If women want to climb the ladder they have to fight for it.. why dont men get stranded at home if the wife says dont work after marriage? Well they just refuse to do so! as simple as that-.- women need to be empowered oin that way, made more competent and taught the values of self-esteem.
This is much better than award an incompetent, self-unaware woman (as is most of the times today in India–sorry!)
Further at Kim:
“Microsoft does not require a publicity stunt”?
Which world are you living in woman? MS’s public image is down heavily after its anti-trust suits around the world which it lost.
The company is beginning to look more and more as the big bully that doesnt want smaller ones to develop and as the mony-mongering symbol of corporate greed!
The company has hence formulated a number of “good-will measures” around the world to improve this image!
“Among thousands of Girls, it had hardly picked up 6 to 7 girls who deserved to be there and had the capability to match any so called IITian through her own I.Q level..”
So why werent men allowed to sit in as well? Were you scared that the men would score higher than these awesome pseudo IITian, academic charlies angels?
Even thoigh 1000 women sat there one man wasnt allowed there because there is a subconscious acceptance of the intellectual superiority of men? Women for example dont compete with men in sports that require heavy physical activity and strength because it is accepted as a scientific fact that men are infact physcially more powerful.
Are you saying that you have come to accept that with intellectual capability as well?!!!!!
You must have really low self esteem about yourself and your sex to be even thinking that.
Finally, the women who came and attended the test were already liberated individuals who are not stressed by husbands to stay at home or poor or anything..they are alrady out there looking for jobs and jumped the moment MS said only women allowed! These women need empowerment?
I leave it to you to come out of ur feminine body for once and think logically and unbiasedly for once.
Cheers!
Akilesh
June 21, 2011 at 1:49 AM
Your are absolutely wrong that these offer are to uplift all the women to a position, every one will get confident on self, you mentioned that train offer, the girls are very struggling for their higher studies bcoz of their family back ground, think of that, don't get confused, cool... :-P