#May#our#girls#dream#big!

#May#our#girls#dream#big!

Very recently a friend told me that she had been to an induction program for the new batch of trainees recruited in her company, which is a famous manufacturing concern. She chatted up with the new joinees, all of them electrical or mechanical engineers, asking them about their education, their career plans, what they like most to do. She told me that while the guys were a lot more articulate about what they liked, what they wanted to do and so on, the girls were pretty vague.

To give an example, a guy said he loved machines and everything about them, so he studied mechanical engineering and now has joined a hard core engineering company. Another said, the best part of college life was when he was in the workshop taking things apart and putting them together. Another said he had declined job offers from an IT company as he wanted to specifically join a manufacturing company, that too real manufacturing, not an assembling plant. On the other hand, most of the girls said they wanted to be independent, they wanted to stand on their own feet, they wanted to work in a big company and such very generic things. On the face of it, it appeared that while the guys had joined this company because they knew or rather hoped that they would be able to find their passion, realize their potential and fulfill their dreams, the girls had joined because they were getting a salary which would make them independent and provide them with a sense of security. In other words, for the girls, it is not the core of the company that mattered, it did not matter if they worked in a place with the highest standards of technology and engineering processes, any company which met their standards of money and fame would have done.

I am not trying to say that the girls are not interested in the work. They would surely do a very good job and might go high on the merit scale once they join in. Being a good worker is not gender dependent, all of us can be equally good or bad.

What I am pondering is – are we bringing up girls with the right dreams? There was a time when nobody asked a girl what she wanted to be when she grew up. A time when all that a girl dreamt of was her wedding clothes and jewellery, maybe a wealthy and loving husband and as she grew older, she dreamt of producing beautiful daughters who could be easily married off and obedient sons and daughters-in law.

I thought those days were over. I thought now we ask girls what they want to be when they grow up. And I thought they are chasing their dreams when they enter engineering colleges, medical colleges, fashion design colleges, arts colleges and so on. But are we missing something? Are we focusing on only the money aspect, as though the only objective of all this study is to be economically independent? As though being economically independent by itself such a huge achievement for a woman that everything else pales in comparison. Aren’t we fascinated by the journey of a piece of metal to become a car? Aren’t we awed by the transformation of a paper drawing to a fantastic building? Doesn’t the cutting open of the abdomen to bring out a bawling infant overwhelm is? Don’t we think that the mixing and compounding of chemicals that bring to us the polluting yet so useful plastic bottles, is a wonderful thing? Isn’t the dynamics of world economics interesting?

I am sure the Da-Vincis, the Newtons, the Copernicus’s of the world would have discovered nothing, the Edisons, the Graham Bells would have invented nothing, the Shakespeares &  Dicken’s would have written nothing, the Van Goghs & Picassos would have painted nothing, if they would have looked at being only economically independent. The world would have been so much deficient without their brilliant contribution.

I think it’s time we throw this economic independence thing for females out the window. Being economically independent is basic to a person, be it a male, a female or the third gender. That’s not something big to work towards.

To love what we do is important, and more important is to figure out what we love to do and have the passion to live it. Let’s work with our little girls and help them to build their dreams. When we respect their dreams, they will develop confidence, and will easily muster up the grit and guts to work towards achieving their dreams. And the world at large will be a richer place.