What most people fail to understand about women empowerment.

Let me explain.

I was sitting in my IPR class on the verge of spiraling down into subconsciousness when a question I heard popped my sleep bubble; "Who is Indra Nooyi?" Now I knew she was the CEO of a company. BUT WHICH COMPANY?!. I thought to myself "Well its got to be a bank or PepsiCo for sure". Others sitting in the class also had a puzzled look on their faces. The teacher sighed and said "Girls? Not even you? shame on you guys". Wait what? But how is it a shame on girls specifically? We as girls do not go about remembering every successful female there is just because the world is moving towards their so called definition of "Women empowerment". It’s funny how people expect us to look up to famous female CEOs when not every man is expected to follow the footsteps of Bill Gates.

After the class, it got me thinking as to how even our role models and aspirations are decided by everyone other than us. With all due respect to the former CEO of PepsiCo, not all women look up to her or any other quintessential successful women. Success in itself is subjective. It means different things to different people. Forcing the idea of running multinational corporations, because otherwise "You will be looked down upon" or "Its okay for me to treat you disrespectfully because you aren't climbing up the corporate ladder" is also oppression.

The true definition of women empowerment is quite simple :

Let women do what they want to do, achieve what they want to do, understand the simple fact that women are humans too and have their own set of flaws and imperfections, understand that women that work in the factories, women that don’t fit into your idea of success, women that cannot speak English, women who prefer staying home, women that have chosen children over career ALSO deserve basic human respect, they too deserve to be treated with dignity, they too should be allowed to lead their lives without people looking down upon them or see them as failures. In simple words, live and let live.

There are many cases where a man that praises "successful" women is the same man that thinks he has the right to assault a woman that comes from a tiny village. This is not empowerment my friend. This is does not make a change. This is oppression too, it just has a glossier face than the other ones.

Another definition of women empowerment that I have noticed has been cited in many movies, TV shows and articles is that: Women empowerment is to crush men down and chop them off the opportunities they have earned because of the pure misconception that "Women are better than men". Again, *buzzer sound* wrong answer. Women empowerment is to give women equal opportunities as men in order to grow together without either of the genders being left behind, it is the idea that given a chance, women too can prove themselves to be as capable as men for a position.

The true idea of empowering women is to liberate them from the clutches of society and their expectations and to let women pursue the kind of life they are willing to live.

So, the next time you come across a woman who isn't as ambitious about life as much as other women are today, don't look down upon her, don't tell her that she's wasting her life, don't tell her that it's shameful because the only shameful thing here is that you're forcing your ambitions on a human being without considering what she wants from life and how it can differ from yours.