In my last post, I had shared my surprise on 'Stressed Out' as one of the top 3 words of recall with the phrase 'New Indian Woman'. I have been wondering why. Why was I surprised in the first place ? And then, why, isnt it true ? Don’t we see women around us in all walks of life, stressed out ? Is this the new norm ? With every generation, are we going to be more stressed out than the earlier one ?
What prevents us from being in the opposite state…ok, what is that ? Of peace, happiness, contentment ? Is it more to do with the current fast pace of life ? For us to understand the image of stressed out vs the opposite state, what do we do ? Maybe, we need to again think of our mothers/grandmothers and the lives they led. Whatever they had or didn’t have, life was not a cakewalk for them either. Do we have this image of them being stressed out ? I don’t think so.
Some of my very close friends responded in this manner - Todays Indian Woman is stressed out because
She is trying to do everything a man does while still doing what society expects from her as a woman.
She wants to prove she is multi-talented and good at everything.
She wants to maintain that she is a master in multitasking. (Oh, this one is especially interesting to me..I promise to come to that , in a later post though)
She wants to be there for everyone.
She is "greedy" to have the prefix of super/perfect. Yeah, super mom, perfect wife, perfect daughter, perfect daughter in law, perfect sister....... you got it, right ?
You would agree she has managed to push herself to do as good a job as her male counterparts at work, if not better. But, very few men have actually taken on the caregiver and home planner role. It still falls on the women to do that, leading to stress.
Yes, I like the last point ! She is stressed out because the male counterpart is not ready to take up the roles traditionally associated with women. Yes, yes, I know there are quite a few men out there who are ready - but they are exceptions, aren't they ?
This list also makes me wonder - is she solely responsible for being stressed out ?
What about other women in the ecosystem around her ? The mother, the neighbour aunty, the sister and the most cliched mother in law ?
We, as women, need to start thinking differently, for ourselves to feel less stressed out and for the benefit of all the women around us. How, what, why ? Questions and more questions, let us explore together…