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Before we begin, we are not instigating gender wars and elevating the higher moral ground regarding who should be regarded more respectfully. However, we will highlight society’s double standards on women and why we must celebrate women’s month.

March is International Women’s Month. Why do you think the entire world has to celebrate women, particularly when they’re not the only ones on the planet? Society still has a long way to go before recognizing the double standards women face daily and what they can do to move forward. Sadly, these standards often exist in critical sectors like healthcare, parenting, and the workforce.

Nigerian writer and women’s rights advocate Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie became a feminist due to the harsh realities she faced growing up. Her observations regarding the treatment of women back home drove her to stand up for every excluded woman in the world. She notably said in her TED Talk: “We Should All Be Feminists,” that girls have to shrink themselves in every aspect of life.

Dissecting Society’s Double Standards On Women

Basic life skills

There’s a particular inequity around women, where they’re typically viewed as homemakers who cook, clean, and wash for the household. Females are expected to be well-versed in those chores. Otherwise, they don’t fit as the typical woman in a functioning society. They have to serve their families and rear children at the same time. When women deviate from the standard responsibility framework, they become objects of stories that put them in an odd or bad light.

Emotional capacity

Part of women’s struggles is being perceived as emotional, backed by history. Their hormonal imbalances, which affect their emotions, are hard to control. That trait became widely known as mere hysteria at the time. A new study revealed no truth about women being more emotional than men.

The proof is that external influences contribute to the emotional highs and lows, not the hormonal factors. They hardly make a dent in the emotional extremes of women, and both genders’ moods fluctuate similarly.

Dating and marriage

Since time immemorial, the world has posed ridiculous rules and traditions regarding women’s roles in dating and marriage. For instance, women have it hard when it comes to the dating pool. After they reach a certain age where they’re past the calendar, they are unfit for dating within their age bracket.

However, there’s a shift in women’s outlook on marriage. They refuse to be bound by the norms surrounding the illustration of what a woman should be like. For example, they don’t want to be seen as a one-night thing or a wife. The stereotype that women must solely aspire for marriage is regressing the potential of girls to be who they want to be in life, which should not be stunted.

Professional settings

Successful women are often seen as a threat because female subversion has always been the norm, and some parts of workplaces want to keep it that way. Otherwise, they can be seen as “bossy,” and men will automatically avert their approach. Women suffer unjust consequences for speaking their minds and taking action whenever they’re in the workplace.

Misogyny, the root of all women’s struggles

Many female leaders, artists, and celebrities have highlighted women’s struggles, especially in the entertainment industry, where female artists must constantly reinvent themselves to retain their appeal to the masses. In leadership roles, particularly in politics, women are often dismissed for their input and contributions. They are deemed irrational, emotional, or worse, crazy.

The entertainment industry doesn’t fall short on its misogynistic One of the sad realities of being a female artist is the expiry date, when a time will come that they won’t be as young and radiant as they used to be. They will soon be replaced by newer, younger, and brighter stars that will shine for a limited time as they did.

Misogyny won’t go away anytime soon. This is a constant battle for women’s struggles to be heard and seen as humans that deserve the same socioeconomic and political privileges as their male counterparts. The world is far from recognizing women’s struggles, especially how females should navigate life within a patriarchal society.

Women have all the right to live and make their own choices that don’t have to conform to society’s double standards. We can still celebrate being universally human, but it won’t hurt the ego to highlight and fight for women’s struggles to claim their rightful place.