Sisterhood - A celebration of being a woman

‘I'm very proud to be a woman. I've been one my whole life.’ – Ellen DeGeneres

The bra. The medical syringe. Chocolate-chip cookies. Windscreen wipers. Bullet-proof vests.  Disposable diapers. The electric dishwasher.  What do all these things have in common? They were all invented by a woman. Not the same woman, of course. (Now that would be a brilliant - yet potentially unstable woman!)

So, without women, as well as not being able to reproduce, we would be left with dirty dishes, unruly breasts, and terrible visibility on the roads.

Along with arguments as to whether or not windscreen wipers are an important invention that can be accredited to women, there are numerous arguments about the stereotypical idea of women being bad drivers. Women are said to be negligent drivers, something that men usually blame on their ‘emotional instability’. Another car would have driven into the woman, but it would have been because ‘she had a rough day’ and ‘didn’t stop in time’.

Women are usually made out to be whiny, emotional and sensitive, and when women are anything but cheerful, it is generally due to ‘that time of month.’

Then, men have this idea of a stepford wife, who smells of cookies and spends every day baking. She enjoys watching rugby all day, and always makes sure there is an unlimited supply of beer and biltong in the house at all times.

As well as the pressure of having to live up to the expectations a man has of how his future wife ought to act, a woman must also bring in at least half of the household’s income, if they are not already the primary breadwinner. This does not, however, negate their role as a main care-giver and making sure that their offspring attends ballet, French and piano lessons every week.

What do we really need men for anyway? If every man had to drop dead right this second, the world wouldn’t end. Humans would not even die out due to sperm banks and women already carrying their ‘precious loads’. On the other hand, if every female had to die, besides men being completely apathetic and not even attempting a solution, the species would not ever continue.

The Black Widow Spider expresses a similar idea, if not the epitome of my thought process.  After conception, the female bites off the male’s head – if this isn’t concrete proof that women do, indeed, hold more purpose than men, then I don’t know what is.

Throughout society, women have always had a vital (if not dignified) role in society. Women have been used to link families through marriage, they have been used to gain political power and they have been used to raise the next generation.  Women have been repressed in terms of their freedom and choice, but we have always had women in the past to look up to (Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale…need I say more?) When Joan Jett began to start her band, the Runaways, she was told that ‘girls don’t play electric guitar.’ She broke the stereotype, and formed the first ever all-girl rock band.

An illustration a bit closer to home is the political stance in South Africa. Kwa-Zulu Natal is run by the African National Congress, which essentially, is being run by a group of men; the Western Cape, however, falls under the ruling of the Democratic Alliance, which is run by a woman. Comparing the cleanliness of the beaches, the overall state of the cities and the general efficiency of the two would be like comparing pears and apples. While Durban city centre is too dangerous to walk through and reeks of the rubbish decorating the pavements, Cape-Town is free of these litterbugs.

 So now people begin to think, ‘well that’s great. It really is. Women can change light bulbs. But what do women really have to celebrate in terms of their achievements? Well. We can celebrate our liberation and freedom. We now have our free will to make our own choices, we have independence and we’ve broken stereotypes.

Also, we can use our ‘weaknesses’ to our advantage. When a woman gets pulled over and the policeman is about to give her a ticket of being a metre over the stop-sign, she can start up the waterworks with ease, and tell the cop that she really is sorry, and it’s just been one of those days, and nine times out of ten she’ll get herself out of the ticket.

In the same way, men will nearly always get squeamish when you mention anything to do with menstruation, and this can get you out of PE almost always.

Women have succeeded in breaking gender stereotypes, but we haven’t quite reached gender equality. While women can be lawyers and doctors now, and while I am not discrediting the existence of such, I have yet to meet a female plumber, or a male nurse.

I yearn for the day when we can accept that ‘an incredible person’ did something, not questioning whether the said incredible person was a male or not.

In my view, this is when we’ll experience true gender equality.