“I am 29 and I am tired of people telling me that I am not complete because I am not married!”
“I am 32 and I am fed up of not only my family, but also strangers and colleagues. They keep telling me how I will never know what it means to be a woman just because I am choosing not going to be a mother!”
Marriage and parenthood is a big deal for our society. Doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman, we all face such pressure. But being a patriarchal society, women have to bear most of the burden of society’s taunts and unsolicited advice.
So, here are some who chose to challenge the society’s idea of womanhood and carved their own path:
1. Oprah
Age: 67
Shattered the norm of marriage and decided to stay unmarried. She may not have been a biological mother. But, she carved her own path by adopting many young girls and giving them a better chance at life.
2. Kiran Mazumdar
Age: 68
Being a successful businesswoman, Kiran Mazumdar married John Shaw but chose not to have kids.
3. Sushmita Sen
Age: 45
Sushmita shattered social norms when she decided to adopt two daughters while being unmarried.
4. Tabu
Age: 50
“I do not think single is a bad word. There may have been a stigma attached to being single in the past, but not anymore. Your happiness comes from many things unconnected with the status of your relationship. On your own, you can deal with your aloneness, but with a wrong partner, what could follow would be worse than any kind of loneliness.”
5. Ekta Kapoor
Age: 46 (Single Mother)
One of the most successful names in the Indian entertainment industy, chose to stay single. Against the society’s norm, she refused to get married but but became mother through IVF.
6. Asha Parekh
Age: 78 (Single Woman)
While sharing there was no regret of getting married, “When I went out with the boys that my mother set me up with, I was completely put off by the whole premise of marriage. They were so fussy!”
7. Jennifer Aniston
Age: 52 (Single Woman)
Famous actor Jennifer Aniston was once quoted as saying, “Women don’t need to be married or become mothers to be complete”.
Do let us know what you think?
