![]() Women Find Their VoiceChitra Narayanan OWN IT: LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM WOMEN WHO DO By Aparna Jain Collins Business, India, 2016, pp. 313, Rs. 399.00 WALKING TOWARDS OURSELVES: INDIAN WOMEN TELL THEIR STORIES Edited by Catriona Mitchell Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2016, pp. 255, Rs. 399.00 VOLUME XL NUMBER 7 July 2016 It’s undeniably challenging being a woman in India but the good news is that women are now speaking out.
I
f you look at the number of books that
are publishing the narratives of women,
that’s a story in itself. Suddenly, the
voiceless gender is speaking out—boldly, aggressively,
honestly. What’s more, the second
sex is getting heard—if the plethora of
women centric books hitting the stores is any
yardstick.
Aparna Jain’s Own It tells the stories of
women at the workplace and the persisting
glass ceiling, while Walking Towards Ourselves
is a collection of intensely personal accounts
of women who have constantly faced challenges
on account of their gender, colour or
community. One is a business book, focusing
on the issues confronting career women
in organizations, while the other has a more
sweeping canvas capturing a rich tapestry of
real life experiences of women living in India.
What both these books show is that it is
undeniably challenging being a woman in
India, whether at the office, within the confines
of home or on the streets. There may
be 623 million women living in this country,
as Namita Gokhale points out in the foreword
to Walking Towards Ourselves, but despite
the scale and size, they remain the second
sex, often marginalized and discriminated
against.
Of the two books, Walking Towards Ourselves, is the better written book—there is
some very fine writing here, evocative, poetic
almost in places as women bare their
souls, share their fears, their dreams. Crafted
beautifully each story is a compelling
read. Tishani Doshi’s ‘Tick Tock’ captures the
inner quandary of a woman who decides that
babies aren’t for her, especially as society loses
no occasion to keep reminding her of her
womanly duties. Told with wry self deprecating
humour, it’s a gently reflective piece
and moves you, especially the bits when the
writer has to face her husband’s child from
an earlier marriage and is wracked by jealousy.
‘Dark Beauty’, Rosalyn D’ Mello’s account
of the prejudices she faces on account
of her skin colour and how it affects her sense
of desirability, and finally how she learns to
appreciate herself, is a poignant story.
What makes this collection of stories very
interesting is the different tones of the women
writing here. There is the rebellious nonconformist
voice of Mitali Saran, who chooses
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