Equality -a rigged game!

Medium | 31.12.2025 00:42

Equality -a rigged game!

Priyeshi Bhagat

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Why is equality always measured in money?
Why is earning treated as the ultimate proof of worth, while building a home is dismissed as secondary—or worse, insignificant?
And who decided this hierarchy in the first place?

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For centuries, society decided—without consent—who would earn and who would cook, who would inherit and who would sacrifice, who would be celebrated at birth and who would be tolerated. Women were confined to homes, their labor invisible, unpaid, and dismissed as “natural.” Now that women are allowed into public and professional spaces, the expectation has shifted abruptly: earn like men, achieve like men, compete like men. But the world women step into is still not the same world men occupy.

But let’s pause and ask—is the world women step into, the same world men occupy?
How many men feel unsafe on their way to work?
How many change their clothes, routes, or schedules because of unwanted stares?
How many are taught to constantly “be careful” rather than “be accountable”?
Are boys and girls raised the same way?
Are boys taught restraint the way girls are taught fear?
Are boys questioned for staying out late the way girls are interrogated for existing freely?
Men are often raised with freedom and forgiveness. Women with rules and reminders. Men are allowed to fail and recover. Women are dragged down for the smallest misstep. And then—suddenly—we expect women to perform at the same level, with fewer privileges, fewer safety nets, and more scrutiny.
Is that equality—or convenience?
And yes, let’s talk biology—something society acknowledges only when it suits tradition. As Nina Gupta once said, equality cannot be absolute as long as men don’t have babies. Pregnancy, childbirth, caregiving—these are not “personal choices” in a vacuum. They shape careers, bodies, and lives. Instead of restructuring systems, we ask women to “manage better.” Why must adjustment always come from one side?
Then comes the uncomfortable question:
Why is a male child celebrated, while a female child is merely accepted?
Why is inheritance a right for men but a shameful demand for women?
Why is a son considered a legacy, and a daughter considered temporary?
Even today, when women claim space—financial, emotional, or physical—they are labeled aggressive, selfish, or disrespectful. When men do the same, it’s called ambition.
Yes, things are changing. But why so slowly?
And why does the resistance so often come from women themselves?
Women become the flag bearers of patriarchy not because they believe in it, but because they were trained to survive within it. Mothers teach daughters to compromise not out of cruelty, but fear. Communities police women harder because control has been normalized for generations.
So what’s the solution?
Stop treating gender as destiny.
Start treating individuals as individuals.
Not all men are the same. Not all women are the same. Not everyone has the same capacity, IQ, ambition, or circumstances. Equality isn’t about forcing everyone into one model—it’s about allowing people to choose without punishment.
Until we redistribute safety, accountability, freedom, and respect—not just salaries—this so-called race for equality will remain unequal.

Until then, asking women to “compete equally” in an unequal world isn’t progress—it’s denial as well as extortion.

The picture I used in the beginning is still a dream for many.Forget equality, we are happy if just let to exist and not controlled .