THE SHIFTING GENDER ROLES

Confident, bold and elegant, Fahmida Mirza chairs the national assembly sessions. Being the first
female national assembly speaker, people see her with admiration and at the same time question
her ability to conduct the assembly sessions. It has been three years since she has been the speaker
and everything is normal except the fact that a woman presiding a male dominated parliament is
something new. Several thousand miles away another woman has not let gender hold her back from
achieving great things. Hilary Clinton ran for the president in the 2008 US presidential elections. She
managed the full load of the presidential campaign for a full year and gave a tough time to Barrack
Obama. Although she did not win the elections but her merits were duly recognized and she
became the secretary of state
The world as a whole is witnessing a transformation in gender roles. 21st century does not
differentiate between genders when it comes to select the best person for the job. The major shift in
gender roles is women taking up jobs that were previously exclusively reserved for men. Although
men are actively pursuing 'female' jobs like nursing but the change is less tangible. Previously
women were restricted to household tasks and other minor activities that did not involve leadership
roles. Today the society has changed; women have taken the jobs of men as a challenge. It is in the
nature of humans to go for things of which they are deprived and women have been deprived of
certain jobs for a very long time. They won't let their physical strength be a barrier in joining the
army, they are heading corporate firms and along with that they are setting new standards in their
own traditional jobs.
This major shift in gender roles is partly due to empowerment by evolving technology. A computer
does not recognize the sex of its user. Grueling and demanding tasks like manufacturing planning in
industries are easily done with the help of software packages. Today the general requirement for
success is a good mind and the ability to work hard. Women like men have both of these qualities
and their success rate is improving. Although we are witnessing shifting gender roles but there are
some tasks for which both men and women are hardwired. Nothing whatsoever can change the role
of men and women in those tasks. Men can't raise infants on their own neither can women face the
blood and death in the battle field.
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                    Sikander Waqas
                                                                                                                         UET Taxila