Women's Day Special: How fierce women are struggling to survive in a world full of autocrats and populists

Even as the world watches Russian President Vladimir Putin closely for a clue about what he’ll do next, he’s not the only autocrat we should worry about. Be it North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad or Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, our bucket of autocrats runs over with above 50 world ‘leaders’ falling in this category. And supremacist groups such as the Taliban have down the ages championed the same tired cause — domination of the rest by a superior race, sex, or religion.

Any sane person examining this situation will have one primary question—what do the ‘rest’ think about that? With International Women’s Day around the corner, Women claim the ‘rest’ tag and answer that query in all its glory.

Closer home, we needed Tinder India to initiate “Conversations on Consent” to try and highlight the need for women’s sexual agency in relationships last year. Seeing that it takes privileged, woke women to understand the concept of their agency in relevant matters such as owning their right to spend their salaries as they deem fit, having personal financial planning in place including personal investments plans, and enjoying the same, that’s hardly a surprise. Hence, the fate of Indian women in the domestic sphere and at workplaces, where till recently they were a rarity, is a matter that needs some study.

Starting at the middle

People don’t go mad suddenly, they throw clues all along — they say. And so we enquired about women’s perceptions of men in mid-management roles as against men wielding absolute power as captains of organisations.

To this, Astha Shukla, until recently a Senior Associate with an IT company, avers there’s no difference. “There’s a total lack of gender equality from promotion to salary and all work-related opportunities today.” She has had her fair share of face-offs with the management, and believes “Change can occur only if gender equality is applied at workplaces, instead of being entombed in policies. When women’s opinions are unwelcome, there’s no point to any further discussion.”

Dhritisree, an economic researcher, a theatre practitioner and an independent filmmaker, knows, “The institutional format has been absent from my work arena, but it’s absolutely clear that regular men in their 30s and 40s have a quest for hierarchical success as opposed to senior management people who have either achieved their goals or resigned to their stations in life.” So are power-hungry people okay with furthering their ambitions at someone’s cost? “Powerful men often have force, drive and an extensive network of followers on their side. If they want to misuse power, it’s tough to stand up to them. Sexual exploitation is definitely a weapon of choice but the mere helplessness of the weak, irrespective of their sex, gives them a high. #metoo has revealed many horror stories but it’s merely the tip. Sexual exploitation is but one factor; manipulation is the real game,” she opines.

SM, who began her career at a data analytics start-up about two years ago, has her own experience to share. “At my workplace, the men in management roles were unapproachable. Whenever presented with problems, they met us with blank stares and disapproving looks. Women would have understood our problems better.”

While she had no run-ins, she believes gender equality would have resulted in better productivity. “Starting with the pay; it’s disheartening to learn my colleague gets better pay simply for being a man, all other things being equal—be it qualifications, skill sets, team, or workload. It kills your buzz completely. AND by underestimating and undercutting women, is the management not limiting their own productivity and success?” she wonders aloud.

Elaborating about the sexism bit, Dhritisree holds that, “Irrespective of gender, autocratic leaders are sexist. For, it takes sensitive people to understand gender dynamics, which’s not an autocrat’s forte.”

Authoritarianism on the rise

With totalitarianism being in the focus currently — how does it bode for women’s rights? SM immediately directs us to “just look around. In China, women are being silenced; in Saudi Arabia, women still have to seek approval of their male family members for even seeking healthcare while the Taliban has abolished women from Afghan workforces. So if history is correct, it doesn’t bode well for the women or society, because ultimately it’s the society whose progress is hampered when you punish one half of its members.”

Adding further SM believes, “Autocrats are worried by women and people because the powerful always fear being stripped off power. But strong women really scare them, as historically speaking, they’re more likely to achieve their dreams. As a result, so many world leaders are shamefully trying to push back on the progress of women.”

“If being strong means opposing propaganda with an iron spine, then either sex can send chills up dictators’ spines. Then again, women are the original challengers within societies, so an average woman is stronger than an average man. Hence, whenever fascism is on the rise, strong resistance rises too. That’s how I see the silver lining amidst this uptick of authoritarianism,” Dhritishree articulates before quoting another braveheart, Maya Angelou’s verse,

‘You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.’

Women are falling down hard today as they’ve done forever in history; as they’ll continue to unless we re-calibrate our societal bearings to the straight north. Only by preventing people from clipping her wings and unshackling her binds can you give her the reason to find her heart’s song. When Jhansi stood with their queen, did Manikarnika become Rani Lakshmibai. When we explore reasons to fail Kamala Harris on savage personal opinions, not hard facts, we fail as a society.