The Frontlist Show: Beyond the Written Word

Episode 4 | Gender Empowerment

on Aug 10, 2022
Listen to Mohua Chinappa discuss gender empowerment in this episode. The author discusses the social prejudices between men and women and the importance of empowering women.

Frontlist: Hello, everyone. Welcome to our podcast session.

Today, we have a wonderful guest, whom I'll introduce soon. But first, let me introduce you all to our podcast session. So the name of our podcast is "The Frontlist Show" - Beyond the written word.

We have an amazing guest, an author, podcaster, and voiceover artist, Mohua, who has over 15 years of experience in leadership positions as public relations and corporate communication specialists. We will unravel a lot more about her in our chat with her today.

The topic for today's session is Gender Empowerment, something very close to my heart. So ma'am, my first question is, when you hear gender empowerment, do you think it is essential for us right now?

Mohua: Well, gender empowerment for sure is a term that is being used everywhere. And it's being used because women need to be empowered. They see LGBTQ, the queer community; even they need to be empowered inclusively. And equality is definitely an area that I think the government has begun recognizing now, and it's very, very positive. And I feel thrilled to see the kinds of changes that the government has also started initiating. Of course, we have a huge mountain to really leap and go forward. But yes, empowerment is necessary for all genders.

Frontlist: Generally, when we talk about empowerment, we segregate it to the fact that only women need empowerment, and I think every gender possible requires some sort of empowerment. What are your thoughts on this?

Mohua: Well, I'm not too sure about that. Because I mean, I do agree with you on the fact that every gender does need empowerment, but men have not really had such a tough time the world over. It has been women. I mean, we were not even allowed to vote. It was just a few years ago that women were allowed to vote. And yeah, if you look into our own country, if you look at the rape cases, we're talking about this 19-year-old girl, in Uttar Pradesh, in Hathras district. The National Crime Records Bureau shows that the number of rape incidents has risen even after the gang rape and murder, which shook the nation in 2012. Safety for women, and empowerment for women, are necessary for them to feel safe. I don't think men really go through the safety aspect that women do. Yeah, it is exceptionally challenging. If we look at an analysis of the statewise rape cases, and even in the last ten years, if there's an India Today, the Data Intelligence Unit, found that the ten states, from UP to Rajasthan and Kerala to Madhya Pradesh, have reported within two-thirds of the total cases in 2018. There's been a rise. So, these days have gradually gone from bad to worse for women over these ten years. Irrespective of the ruling of the political parties, India's rape pandemic is enormous. Women are definitely not at par with men in our country, and out of the total reported rape cases in India, four out of five rape victims are from these ten states. The latest data and CRP show that it's huge. It doubles every year; it's doubled in the last ten years. So empowerment for sure. I mean, it's the women who are still at the worst, yet to reap the benefits of an equal society, which will take another century.

Frontlist: Yeah, I genuinely agree that women have slightly more steps than men to climb to reach the point of success in their lives, to reach the point of empowerment in their life. And for men, it's a little easier, I believe. When it comes to women, it's not that I believe every gender requires empowerment, but women do need to have a journey together and go for extra steps toward reaching empowerment.

Mohua: I agree with you. Absolutely. Yes.

Frontlist: So, how can empowered women bring change in their surroundings?

Mohua: Oh, well, I think empowered women gear. It's like osmosis. No, because you will empower more people around you when you are empowered. For example, I rebooted my career after many years in 2018 and rebooted it 47 or 48 times. Many women are working along with me now. In my organization, my closest assistant, who works with me, is a 53-year-old single woman. And yes, empowered women will bring about change even in their families. Because I think if they raise boys, they will learn that the mother is an equal contributor to the financial decisions at home. And, of course, like I always said, I repeat that we are far, far away. Many women are still not treated on the same level as the earning father because gender roles are still very skewed in India. But for sure, an empowered woman brings about change. Second, osmosis, I repeat, you take a lot of people along with you, and you're empowered.

Frontlist: It's a long journey. And it is something that you don't have to work alone, sometimes you have to, but sometimes you watch for a bit of support. And I feel that in that journey, reaching for help is important. But do you think women get the support they require at that point?

Mohua: It depends. I mean, it'll be challenging for me to say a bland statement by saying that all women do receive support, and all women do not receive support. No, I don't think so. Some women have huge challenges at home because sometimes they're not allowed to go out and work, and they have to do a lot of chores when they return home. Because many men in India do not do household work, women generally do it. So whether she is working or not is not the question. I think it is to make a more prominent statement that some families are very understanding, and some families probably do not have that sort of an understanding environment. And it gets tricky for women to manage both work and home.

Frontlist: How did the nude photos of Ranveer Singh become a question of women's modesty?

Mohua: Oh my God, when? Women's modesty should not be challenged with these things, especially nude photographs, because we have more significant issues daily for the nation to look at. The unemployment rate is there, and so many other things are happening, and honestly, if you look at it, India is a country where it's been at nudity for a very long time. Yeah, so I don't know why a woman would be so challenged if she were to see a drunk photo shoot. So I don't understand why modesty is being questioned. I don't understand it at all—one thing I do quite enjoy. I wasn't shocked when I saw it. Of course, you know, for dinner, I opened my eyes in the morning, woke up, and saw this, and I said, Oh my God, what is this? Here's another publicity stunt. But well, yeah. He did what he did.

Frontlist : So I have a fun question. People claim that Hillary Clinton lost the presidency of the United States in 2016 'cuz of wearing pants. Please express your opinion about it.

Mohua: Well, what I see is US politics, and Hillary Clinton is an old topic. When you look back, honestly, she doesn't matter right now. What I would look at is currently in India, we've had Murmu, who's become the President, the first tribal woman president in our country, and that's huge. Yeah. And it's so amazing because, for someone from the tribal Delta, this is the first time in the history of our country since independent India. We now have a tribal woman President, and I think India is definitely embracing a whole lot of new changes. And as far as Hillary Clinton goes, like all politicians, I'm sure they face sexism in some form. And, yes, there. There has been a lot of conversation about this, and the campaign wasn't great. It was not the best, but it was definitely a shock. Because of Hillary Clinton, as a woman, I had thought that she would have done an outstanding job instead of the next guy who came on. I don't want to take names, but I think most people are very, very worried about female power. And yeah, I think you know. Yeah. So I honestly believe that Hillary Clinton is a long-lost old topic. We should talk about better things with Murmu. It's such a pleasure to see her taking off. And I'm so proud of being a woman. Yeah, absolutely.

Frontlist: According to the statistics, it is generally found that women in the publishing industry are slightly less significant than men. What is your take on that? And what do you think is the exact reason behind it?

Mohua: But women in the publishing industry, one can say that because it is everywhere, fewer women are working. So obviously, the ratio will become lesser in every sector if you look at it because the number of working women is far, far lesser than the non-working women. So, in the publishing industry separately, one can't really look at, I mean, we have a long way to go ahead for all women to realize that financial independence is the first step towards empowerment because if you do not depend on someone else to take care of you monetarily, you're already an independent person. So yeah, we still have a long way to go. But I have immense faith in the new generation of people forward. I'm sure everybody is beginning to recognize that women need to have their own livelihood. God forbid, sometimes women go through a divorce and or the man decides to leave, a woman who's never worked, who's not literate. I mean, I can't. I shudder to think of what would happen to the woman if she was somewhere in a village and had very young children. And sometimes, returning to their maternal homes also doesn't work for women. They're not accepted after being shunned by the husband's house. So there are very crazy stories. Obviously, the disparity is vast in every sector.

Frontlist: If a woman is not working, it's your choice. But if a man is not working, that is a question of disgrace. What is your opinion on it?

Mohua: A woman not working as a choice is very, very recent. Very few women don't work out their own choice. Invariably, there'll be some problems in their lives, so they may not be able to go out there and work. And a man not working is a question of disgrace. I think gender roles have been very explicitly done and created for men and women worldwide. Men are supposed to wear pants, and women are supposed to sit at home and do things, but things are changing today, and at the end of the day, it is not just men and women. We are not even addressing the queer community. So if you look at it, Tinder lists 37 Gender options for its users. We are still talking about men and women, but there is a whole new spectrum of gender, and one can't ignore that while we are having this conversation. I keep saying that we're still talking about whether a man should work and whether a man can become a househusband, and he'll still be very comfortable among people. We are far away from that acceptance. But I think women, even if they work, sometimes are discouraged. They can't take on completely because the entire responsibility of household work and chores are always on the woman. So even now, marriage partnership is unequal. So yeah. Till the time all these things are not taken seriously, like I keep saying that it's gonna take some time before all these things change, and I'm sure things will change.

Frontlist: Yeah. I'm hoping for the same—great talking to you. And I hope to see you back on our platform. And I want you to be a part of France listening again. Thank you, it was such an extraordinary session, and I learned so much.

Mohua: Thank you so very much for having me today. And yeah, looking forward to more interactions.