Clint Climaco Colaco
Despite undeniable progress in education, employment and public life, women across the world are largely excluded from positions of power and diplomacy. The highest levels of influence and decision making continue to be dominated by men. Even today, 113 countries have never had a woman serve as head of state or government. Only 26 nations are currently led by women. Women hold just 23 percent of ministerial positions globally, and in 141 countries they make up less than one third of cabinet members. Seven countries have no women in their cabinets at all.
These numbers reveal an uncomfortable truth. Equality remains more aspiration than reality. What makes this disparity more troubling is that it exists even in some of the world’s most prosperous and advanced nations. Representation of women in leadership is still inconsistent and often symbolic rather than structural. Closer to home in Asia and the Pacific region, only a handful of countries have had women at the helm. Progress is visible, yet painfully slow.
At the same time, while institutions speak of empowerment and celebrate International Women’s Day each year, violence against women continues at alarming levels. According to global estimates, one in three women, nearly 840 million, has experienced physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. This figure has barely changed in two decades. Millions still face abuse within their homes, workplaces and communities.
For years, newspapers have carried reports of horrific crimes that shake our conscience. The brutal assault in the Delhi widely known as the Nirbhaya case is etched in the nation’s memory. Yet such tragedies are not isolated. They represent a deeper social failure.
Women continue to endure forced marriages, dowry related harassment, domestic violence, emotional manipulation, cyberbullying, trafficking and exploitation. Many are exhausted from balancing professional responsibilities with unpaid care work at home. Others live in silent loneliness, anxiety or fear, trapped in relationships that deny them dignity and respect. If we are honest, the problem is not merely legal or economic. It is cultural. As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, “Man is a product of his mother’s teaching.” The values of a society begin in the home. Boys must be taught from childhood that women are not objects of control but individuals of strength, intelligence and worth.
For centuries, women have quietly carried the moral and emotional foundations of families and communities. A woman nurtures life, offers guidance, and holds relationships together with patience and resilience. She works relentlessly, often without recognition, ensuring that others thrive. She is a daughter, sister, wife, friend and colleague. She is also a worker, leader, thinker and creator. Her contribution cannot be confined to domestic roles alone, nor should her sacrifices be romanticised while her rights are ignored.
Yet it is equally true that the qualities traditionally associated with women, compassion, empathy, care and generosity, are strengths, not weaknesses. These are the values that build humane societies. A woman’s presence transforms spaces.
When given equal opportunities, women excel in every field, from science and governance to art, education and enterprise. They lead not merely with authority but with understanding. They show that strength need not be harsh, and that leadership can be both firm and compassionate. Within marriage too, the relationship must be one of partnership, not hierarchy. Listening to one’s wife is not a courtesy but recognition of her wisdom. A marriage grounded in mutual respect and shared purpose creates a family where trust flourishes. Women are not meant to walk behind men, nor ahead of them, but beside them.
Perhaps the most profound role many women embrace is motherhood. A mother shapes character, instils values and anchors a child’s emotional world. The nation’s future quite literally rests in her hands. Every doctor, teacher, soldier, artist or leader first learns love and discipline at a mother’s knee. But motherhood should never be seen as the only measure of a woman’s worth. Rather, it is one of many ways through which women enrich society. Whether or not she is a mother, every woman deserves dignity, safety and equal opportunity.
As men, we must honestly acknowledge how incomplete our lives would be without the women who guide, support and strengthen us. A wife’s companionship, a mother’s sacrifices, a sister’s encouragement, a colleague’s insight, these are not small gifts. They are the threads that hold our lives together. True celebration of women cannot be limited to flowers, speeches or annual observances. It must be reflected in action and a changed mindset.
A society that uplifts its women uplifts itself. When women are safe, educated and empowered, families prosper, economies grow and nations become stronger. Their progress is not a concession granted by men. It is a collective advancement for humanity.
A woman is not merely a symbol of beauty or sacrifice. She is strength, wisdom and grace combined. She is love in its most enduring form. She is the quiet architect of civilisation. Indeed, she is the mother of love and the nation’s strength.
(The writer is a lawyer and a
visiting faculty for IPR subject at
Parvatibai Chowgule College
of Arts and Science, Margao)
