The one-dimensional view of success

When we talk about women’s leadership, a female executive making decisions come to mind. One must be “employed” to participate in the competition of leadership, as that is the “minimum eligibility criteria”.

However, there is a big flaw in this model — It is one-dimensional.

Women’s leadership is a very complicated topic and cannot be limited to just one dimension. A woman has to be a leader at the office as well as at her home. She has to lead her children, her spouse, and her marriage — and for Indians, her in-laws, and extended family, too.

I was reading a women-centric article on Linkedin. It was a wonderful read — every word of it was true and many people posted replies. One of the replies baffled me.

It read: “Women can aim high.” This made me ponder — what does “aiming high” mean?

Let’s say a woman finishes her education, secures a coveted job, has kids, and takes care of ailing parents or in-laws. Then, she decides to quit her job to focus on family — can we call it aiming high?.

Many would call it unambitious, boring, and self-destructive. In my opinion, it is extraordinary and brave. Why are higher aims only restricted to being a C-Suite executive, doing business, or earning a Ph.D.?.

In fact, it takes a lot of courage to quit your job.

It is very strange that none of the work that women have been doing traditionally is looked up to but, all the work that men have been doing traditionally is always looked up to.

Is this equality? In my opinion: NO. Equality will come when men start applauding the traditional work of women, aspire to do that work, and take pride in it — just like women take pride in doing the traditional work of men by becoming pilots or starting businesses.

What needs to change is the one-dimensional view of success and the attitude in which homemaker women are made to feel small and told that their aim is not high enough by the society and “women leaders.”

Schools need to teach kids to respect the diligence and commitment that being a homemaker requires. Young boys need to be taught that managing the home is a “boys thing” too.

Let women decide what success means to them. “Thinkers,” “liberals,” “rich people,” or “women leaders” have no right to dictate what success should look like and to label women based on their uni-dimensional thinking.