Switched genders? What now.

By Sayali

This week, I went around my school and asked a bunch of my peers a question- “If you were the opposite gender, what privilege would you now have and would like to use?” 

Let's go through the responses together.

The number 1 response from boys was, drum roll please, alimony and maternity leave.

To this, I would like to explain a few things. First, alimony is gender neutral. It depends on eight factors, stated by the Supreme Court in its judgement in ‘Rajnesh v. Neha (Supra) dated 10 December 2024. These factors are-

Status of the parties, social and financial.

Reasonable needs of the wife and the dependent children.

Parties’ individual qualifications and employment statuses.

Independent income or assets owned by the applicant.

The standard of life enjoyed by the wife in the matrimonial home.

Any employment sacrifices made for the family responsibilities.

Reasonable litigation costs for a non-working wife.

The financial capacity of the husband, his income, maintenance obligations, and liabilities.

And, in the case of paternity leave, this would be a fun time to find out that paternity leave exists. While it has no laws mandating its existence, government employees are entitled to up to 15 days of paternity leave. The private sector has been stepping up accordingly.

Now, we’ll go through certain privileges that my peers pointed out that women have. These include the ladies' compartment in the metro, and reservations for single girl children. Women are also considered for custodial rights and are often given lighter criminal sentences.

Now, for the women's compartment, I ask: What do you think prompted the need to create a women's compartment?

Harassment, women being made to feel uncomfortable, molestation, unnecessary touching, and general creepy behavior?

Yeah, it's not fun to think about, is it?

Single girl child reservations were introduced with a noble goal in mind: to take a step towards gender equality. It was designed to make families see that there is value in having a girl child. It was designed to ease financial burdens and attempted to reduce femicide.

In the case of custodial rights, I agree. Women are more likely to be awarded custodial rights. This may be seen as progressive, but the reasoning behind it will make you think otherwise. This bias stems from the belief that women are meant to be primary caregivers. It’s due to similar reasons that women are given lighter criminal sentences.

Misogyny backfiring is not privilege.

Now, for the genuinely concerning ones. An alarming number of men responded in the form of - assault other men, falsely report other men, and harass other men. 

Most of the responses I got from girls were more or less regarding safety and support. The responses included being able to stay out late at night, wearing clothes that they like, getting the same support as boys in sports, and not having to constantly care about their social reputation, having the freedom to be heard without screaming.

While a lot of these points were valid and brought forward the need for people to be educated on their rights (like in cases of alimony and paternity leave), the ones that viewed violence as a first instinct scared me. 

It's making me ask the same question again and again. Why was their first instinct to reach for violence while most of the girls’ was to hope for safety?