- Nothing new envisaging gender equality in every walks of life is often talked about with great passion and patronage during each veritable discussion involving people from diverse backgrounds. Though some genuine progress is visible on the ground, there is still a long distance to cover before pronouncing to the world that opportunities are evenly distributed to encourage and ensure gender equality is finding some concrete traction at last. However, many of the male fiefdoms are zealously continues to be guarded and any earnest attempts at breaching the same are met with opposition, derision, and contempt.
PC: Jenna Ott
- The challenge for the female gender to break the ceiling vis-à-vis taking on the hitherto considered primarily male bastions is quite apparent as we encounter in our day-to-day lives perpetually. As there is any number of jobs available out in the open, those many are bracketed along gender lines with clear delineation. Usurping a certain domain by opposite gender invokes instant berating, no less. One such attempt recently made news headlines in Telangana when two women have fought for their equal right to be considered for the job of electricity lineman predominantly considered a male stronghold.
- Having passed a written aptitude test as mandated while announcements were made seeking eligible candidates, the women’s plans had been thwarted when the state of Telangana’s power company insisted subsequently that they were not eligible for the job. This sudden turnaround by the power utilities after considering reserving a third of the jobs for women was prompted by worries about the female gender’s abilities and capacities to climb electricity poles while discharging duties and responsibilities.
PC: CASSONDRA DOLAN
- As we all are aware, linemen, or rather, line workers, are entrusted with tasks to install and maintain electricity lines as per the jurisdiction earmarked. Lineworkers are required to scale tall poles or underground vaults carrying their gear even during adverse and inclement weather conditions. They are in the forefront during every natural disaster occurrence striving to restore snapped electrical connections. Undoubtedly, tasks expected during challenging times are not only cumbersome but test endurance levels of best of the line workers.
- Upon approaching to seek legal relief, Telangana High Court has ordered a field test, rightly pointing out that women are being recruited even in the armed forces now in combat roles, and that there was no basis for denying women any jobs if they could prove beyond doubt their fitness for carrying it. After all these years, stereotyping genders persists amply shows it is not so easy to break into a male-dominated profession for women, harboring ambitions to break into the fold.
PC: alessandroinnocenti
- To their credit, women are indeed persistently breaking the norms by becoming toddy tappers, truck and bus drivers, auto drivers, flying airplanes and fighters, and commanding the CEO suite as well. While doing so, women also ensure rampant pay disparities do tend to narrow considerably. The authorities should forego gender as a crude and inaccurate way to sort people’s capacities for even physically demanding jobs. As is universally accepted and acknowledged, the only qualification should be to execute the job well.
