Women's Rights: Leaps & Bounds

Women's Rights: Leaps & Bounds Part I

Dear Women,

It has come to my attention (it took a while for me to digest) that over the course of history, women have faced a great deal of hardship on an overall global level. Issues of equality in the workplace, the right to vote and an elective office, sexual exploitation, and fair treatment from one’s spouse are but a few issues – albeit major ones – that surface a wide array of numerous other problems. The women’s suffrage movement, for example, and other battles for women equality are all well known and well established in the annals of history, so I’m confident that I can save readers a historical synopsis about such events…

So, while my personal beliefs contend that Islam truly has an answer for women’s equality in an in fact pragmatic, honest, and equally beneficial manner, I will try to leave religion out of this as much as possible (if possible, that is, because while I write that, I also understand the role of religion for many is an intrinsic component of establishing a gender equality framework).

At this point, you may be wondering where is Imran’s philosophical nature coming from and why, suddenly, is he preoccupying himself with concerns on women’s rights? Is he, for instance, trying to impress a girl? Much to your surprise, my answer is a resounding no. Instead, my inspiration comes from construction workers. Yes, construction workers.

You see, over the past few years I’ve seen a significant increase in women construction workers. Without doubt, this speaks of a shift of equal opportunity for women to be able to share in the same responsibilities that men typically have had (i.e. manual labor). So, conclusively, you can say that the women’s right movement in at least the workplace front has in fact made leaps and bounds; an ever increasingly upward slope of progression. We have women representatives in the House, Senators, CEOs, and now women making headway into the blue-collar industry. This is to be applauded. Or is it?

So, when I noticed women working in construction (specifically road/highway construction), I thought to myself, Well, this is what they fought for! If that’s what they want, then they got it. Working in 30 degrees – 90 degrees weather, I hope they’re happy drilling, digging, etc. away, but, hey to each her own! But this was only an initial and fleeting thought because I soon realized what was really happening: The women construction workers were not actually drilling nor were they digging away. Rather, they simply stood at the beginning and/or end of a construction area holding a sign reading, SLOW DOWN. I chuckled. So, is this the fruit of the women’s rights movement? To fight for the same positions typically rewarded to men to only stand and look pretty (I’m using “pretty” pretty liberally here in this case)??

So the question that begs to be asked is, what do women want? Well, if you ever watched Mel Gibson’s movie What Women Want, you will know that it is a man that is control (wink, wink), feminine and manly at the same time. In other words, the answer to my question is that women do NOT know what they want. A flagger in the construction world is simply a model of sorts. You should note that I find myself constantly looking for a girl that is doing something a little more, shall we say, involved? Riding a bulldozer, manning a driller, etc. Something! But time and time again I see that they are only holding a flag or sign telling people to slow down. On a rare occasion, I must say, I did find one or two exceptional cases where women were drilling (or trying to) and controlling a machine, but the other 99.9999 percent of the times, they were simply super models distracting men from the road (well, that only happened on a rare occasion, too) or distracting themselves from what the women’s right movement should ultimately mean…

And that is the fight for representation within limits and equal pay (I know women have to find it detestable that a man is telling the world over what the women’s rights movement should focus on). I do not consider women working as flaggers as a step in the right direction. Why the hell are women fighting for such jobs? If it’s for positions such as the foreman (okay, foreperson), architect, etc.; then, okay, I will support it and also support that they get paid the same as men, but I also caution them to be weary of representation. Specifically, let’s not forget the plain and simple reality that men are men and women are women…

*** To be continued ***