Is ‘Superwoman’ A Compliment Or A Patriarchal Expectation?!

I came across this line recently in a Tanishq advertisement (ad) and it immediately caught my attention. The ad basically demonstrates a woman as “superwoman” as she does all the professional and personal work simultaneously, she manages the social circles along with the family, she manages everything with a smile. The actual twist comes at the end when the same superwoman says that before a superwoman, I am a human first; I get tired also, I fail also and at times I am helpless too.

No, we are not superwomen, stop expecting us to be

I feel all working women will relate to the subject line. We women are expected to be superwomen, but we are normal humans. How come a man working 9 to 5 comes home tired but a woman coming back home after work is expected to do the household chores, manage the children and other stuff too?

There is a beautiful video shared by Jaya Kishori Ji, a motivational and spiritual speaker, wherein she says, “ki hum chahte hain hamari betiyan chaand par jayein par jaane se pehle 4 paranthe or 2 cup chai banakar jaaye (we wish for our daughters to go to moon, but before going we want them to cook 4 paranthas and 2 cups of chai),” why this is so? Why are the expectations so different?

Calling someone a superwoman is kind of putting an invisible pressure on the woman. Society needs to understand that she is a human first like others, she has her own set of challenges which society tends to ignore always. It’s always the society that has been telling women what should be done and what shouldn’t.

Let’s normalize seeing a woman as a human being and not a superwoman.

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