Can You Tell A Woman’s Career By Her Looks?

I once came across a video where a mixed group of people had gathered in a room. They were shown a picture of a rather delicate and petite beautiful girl and then they were asked to guess her profession. They were also given options to pick from; these were singer, mountaineer, dancer, and author. Everyone opted for something like dancer, an author or singer, but no one opted for mountaineer. Then the girl was invited to the room and on seeing everyone’s answers she laughed and introduced herself as a mountaineer. She told the group that just because she does not look athletic does not mean that she cannot choose sport as a career.

How often are we met with similar situations? How often do we look at well-dressed or good looking women without giving a deep thought to the fact that “she” must be a highly placed professional too?

Why don’t we choose to together break the shackles of the “stereotype career” and support these women for getting into fields which were solely dominated by men earlier.

Instead of losing sight of the goal, we tend to define women, (all women), from the quintessential homemaker to the working woman by their looks, not by their ambitions and passion.

Tashi and Nungshi Malik, the first twins to climb Mt. Everest are often mistaken as fashion models. When people look at them they don’t see that these girls were the first siblings to scramble up the highest mountains of the seven continents (Seven Summits). Apart from this they also have credentials of reaching the North and South Pole and are the youngest people to complete the Explorers Grand Slam. The twins say that they followed the path that gave them contentment and many times thought of giving up their dream due to personal and financial reasons, but did not.

But it doesn’t end there. So many times we come across news headlines that boast of what a woman in position wore or what accessory she carried.

When Merin Joseph, a petite young girl was appointed as the ACP of Kochi Rural her picture went viral on Facebook for being too attractive. Her picture had some 10,000 likes and many users commented that they would not mind getting arrested by “this beautiful cop.”

Merin had always dreamt of a dynamic career since childhood. Similarly, Dr Ruveda Salam from Kupwara district, Kashmir is not only beautiful but also intelligent. She made history when she became the first woman to qualify for the Union Public Service Commission examination in the year 2013. When she was studying for medicine and cleared the Kashmir State Administrative Service exam; instead of opting for post-graduation in medicine she started preparing for UPSC. She says that when girls see her in uniform they admire her and want to be like her.  

By taking up jobs / careers which were always thought to be male oriented, these girls have proved that women are more than just being labelled as mothers, home makers and good wives. Not only this, they have shown that they can be at par with their male counterparts by facing challenges and working hard to achieving success and recognition in their chosen fields.

By Shubhra Rastogi

Image source