Development: A Swindling Mercurial Freedom to Women

Hey, 

Is development truly freedom?

Allow me to develop this essay which was submitted for my Current Political Issues class. This is in honor of my advocacy as a human rights advocate on the rights of women in pursuance of the Article 15 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which provides, "equality of men and women before the law."

Nonetheless, this is an argumentative promulgated against a common topic or article given to us entitled "Development as Freedom." My understanding of this article does not necessarily mean to be of some sort of a good take but take it from my view. Take it from someone who tends to be an extreme realist on the view of world, national, and local politics. But in the context of this narrative, please bear in mind that "this article" refers to the "Development as Freedom" article and shall not be interpreted to be referring to this very narrative. 

Socrates once said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." But, can we truly go to the depths of the unexamined when we are in shackles of societal conflicts and economic apparatus which is favoring the capacitated? And here, I meant the incapacitated to the often put into shadow and unappreciated capacities and agencies of women. In this passage where we are highlighting the position of women in, more or less, the discourse of welfare economics. Notwithstanding all the shams and drudgery of this prevailing societal crisis, development as freedom is often romanticized by articles just like this on read. However, the issue at hand is often patched with palliative reforms and does not totally address the elephant in the room. Something that makes the discussion made through this article a picture-perfect fiction novel all throughout.

It is surely a notable idea and vision for women to take place in society - economically and politically. This article, at my own perusal, expostulates the current societal crisis today and the position of women in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the like. It reasonably intends to give women the agency to become part of a society where their perception of their womanhood is not limited to just childbearing. And this article gives us a good perception of what will be a society with women who are given equal opportunities with men to be educated, run a business, and earn a living. This would solve the issue of the demography in India, currently known to have the second largest population next to China, by lowering the fertility rate which will address the issue of child mortality as well. True enough, education can give women a place in the world. 

However, is empowering women enough? Is development enough to say that women are truly free? 

Development is merely a supplemental idea to alleviate woman's unjust place in society, but it does not totally exonerate women from the biases and extensive discrimination we have in this patriarchal society. 

Giving women a position at par with men does not end gender biases. Opening political seats and the business world for women does not extinguish the underlying preconceived notions we have when we talk about women. Let us say, for example, a woman writer is expected to be sensitive because, after all, she is a woman. A President who is a woman is judged for her "politics of kindness" as exhausting because after all, she is a woman. A businesswoman is judged by her tenacity in business because after all, she is a woman. Why after all? What is a woman after all?

Until we learn to recognize the woman as a woman, not inferior to men but inferior to the extensive capacity of her mind, we can truly make women's agency be seen in society. Until we learn to drop all those unnecessary and preconceived notions of the qualities of a woman, women can truly be free to have a place in this society. After all, as it has been highlighted in this article that women when given the chance and the avenue to make their position in this society, there's nothing that a man can do that a woman can't. Let me leave you a piece of note from Jo March of the Little Women, 

"Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they've got ambition, and they've got talent, as well as just beauty. I'm so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for."

In honor of the celebration of Women's Month and beyond, I will always make a stand for all of you. But it is in my fervent hope that my male friends would not equate my stand for women as prejudicial to them. We wanted only to be equal with you, not to be above and make you inferior. 

To end such a narrative, let me tell you that according to the statement from Corita Kent, 

"women's liberation is the liberation of the feminine in the man and the masculine in the woman." 

 HAPPY WOMEN'S MONTH, MGA JUANA! <33

To the oppressed, battered, and discriminated women,

This is the Life Line one for you.