Our society assumes that as soon as a girl gets married, she should start her journey to motherhood.
It doesn’t care about the girl’s dreams and believes being a wife and mother are the only sole reasons for women to exist.
And even the most successful women are not spared from these pressures.
Deepika Padukone, well known for her successful work in Bollywood and modeling, married Ranveer Singh in November last year. Immediately after the wedding, we have seen their fans wanting them to embrace parenthood and for Deepika to become a mom.
So much is the stress that recently Deepika came out to openly talk about the pressure newlywed women face when it comes to motherhood and pregnancy.
In an interview, she said:
“Pregnancy will happen at some point in my life. It is unfair to put women and a couple through that pressure.”
She further added,
“I guess the day we stop asking the questions (related to pregnancy) is when we will bring about change.”
We couldn’t agree more with her.
We have seen women succeed in all fields – becoming CEO of big corporates, leading Space missions, innovating in Pharma and much more.
But what has not changed is the fact that they are always pressurized to get married and have kids before they “cross the age”.
As per a survey done by Ipsos Global Trends, more Indian women are seeking careers and work outside the home. Parijat Chakraborty, the executive director at Ipsos Public Affairs, a public opinion research firm shared:
“But society sees them more as accomplished mothers and wives in a primary role, relegating other roles to secondary positions.
Indian women cannot be seen shirking from domestic duties and winning accolades at work—at the cost of neglecting the primary role that society has deemed on them.”
Even the progressive men in media have not shied away from pressing these thoughts to the most successful of women.
During an interview in 2016, Sardesai asked Mirza about her plans to settle down and motherhood.
But Mirza’s fitting reply mad us really proud. She replied,
“You sound disappointed that I’m not choosing motherhood over being number one in the world at this point of time.
But I’ll answer your question anyway, that’s the question
I face all the time as a woman, that all women have to face — the first is marriage and then it’s motherhood.
Unfortunately, that’s when we’re settled, and no matter how many Wimbledons we win or number ones in the world we become, we don’t become settled.
But eventually, it will happen, not right now. And when it does happen I’ll be the first one to tell everybody when I plan to do that.”
At IForHer, we stand for women who want to make choices on their own terms. We believe that every woman should have the right to decide her priorities – be it her career, marriage, motherhood, family or even traveling solo.
We hope all our uncles and aunties are listening to what these strong women have to say.
What do you think? Do let us know your thoughts here.