Woman

Her boss doesn’t look at her face when he talks. He looks about 6 inches south and talks to a different body part. It doesn’t matter that her vocal chords and the brain aren’t situated there. She may be wearing a suit, decently covering her or a shirt. It doesn’t make a difference.

Or he coos to her, “Don’t call me sir. Call me by my name.” He brushes past her and pretends like it was an accident.

He calls her to his cabin or asks her to stay late. Then without any guilt, he asks her for ‘favours’ so she can get her well-deserved promotion.

There are times she keeps quiet and takes it all. At other times, she raises her voice. People say that maybe her character is flawed and she asked for it. The man is obviously allowed to get away with harassment.

Welcome to the workplace, girl. Your fight for dignity, equality and respect continues. It starts from the moment you are born and it continues throughout your life.

You can don any hat – of a daughter, mother, wife, sister, juggle housework with office work and yet be called the weaker one.

You forget your inner strength sometimes. Or are made to forget it.

This is for all the stronger sex aka men-
One last thing, be man enough to be labelled as the "fun-spoiling" guy (read Spark’s post for the reference to context).

To recognize Women's Day, a blogathon was being organized for Tuesday, the 7th of March 2006. Blank Noise is asking bloggers to put up a post about their opinions and experiences of sexual harassment - as a victim, perpetrator, observer or bystander - at work, at home or in the public sphere. Some of my fellow O3 bloggers Jitu, Maya, Sapphire, Savy, Surabhi, Smile Girl, Spark, Scarlett, Sumit, Wild Child, Techie, Tejbir, Sunny and Maxx have already done their bit. I tag everyone - man and woman to put up their posts.

Originally posted on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 11:38 AM