{"id":4899,"date":"2016-07-28T15:13:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T09:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=4899"},"modified":"2016-07-28T15:13:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T09:43:25","slug":"gender-perceptions-column-for-she-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2016\/07\/28\/gender-perceptions-column-for-she-the-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Perceptions – Column for She the People"},"content":{"rendered":"

(this first appeared on shethepeople.tv<\/strong> <\/a>)<\/p>\n

A headline caught my eye today, and made me grimace. \u201cChennai man killed by speeding Audi, police to determine if woman driver was drunk<\/a>.\u201d It made me ask the same question I seek to answer, every time I write. Is a descriptor needed? Does the line still read right, if I bump off the word \u2018woman\u2019. Does it really make a difference whether the drunk is a man or a woman? But, there are things that we don\u2019t expect women to do. And, it is not just headline writers. A few days ago, a professional acquaintance was telling me about a case of corruption in a private company, and someone getting sacked. \u201cShe was caught red handed\u201d they said. I responded \u201ca woman taking a bribe?\u201d part incredulous, part shocked. Frankly, after all these years of working, some of it in news, things like this should not surprise or shock me, but they do. There are things we expect of men and women, and there are things we don\u2019t expect them to do.<\/p>\n

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent refer to the world, through gender lenses<\/a>. There are things we expect ourselves to do, and expect to be done for us. And, it applies to men, women, and society at large. \u00a0The number of female friends who do not pay attention to personal finance (I used to be one of them), and leave it to the men in their family; the number of men who have no cooking skills, and leave it all to the women in their family (how many men do you know who tell you they can just make tea, and boil an egg). These are at a very basic level. And, the roles determined by culture and society<\/a>, which we broadly call gender roles, impact both sexes.<\/p>\n

\"wire\"<\/a>