Is the term ‘superwoman’ a compliment or An expectation?

The recent Tanshiq advertisement which shows a housewife juggling both her house work, office work and at the same time handling the work of her kids, husband, in-laws which includes cooking, driving her kids to school and extra curricular activities etc makes one thing or imagine that hey this is no ordinary woman but a […]

by Bhavani Sundaram - March 9, 2024, 4:29 am

The recent Tanshiq advertisement which shows a housewife juggling both her house work, office work and at the same time handling the work of her kids, husband, in-laws which includes cooking, driving her kids to school and extra curricular activities etc makes one thing or imagine that hey this is no ordinary woman but a “Superwoman” who is above all.
Does it really happen that an ordinary woman can in minutes become a superwoman just because she is able to multi-task her work in such a way that everyone around her is happy and have no complaints…. Do we take this woman for granted and feel that having such a woman around all our work and problems will be completed in time and we can relax knowing she is there behind the scenes.

This is the scenario in majority of the houses even today in the 20th century. A woman is seen as a superwoman with a magic wand which she just has to wave around and all work is done in minutes- food is cooked, house is cleaned, clothes are washed and ironed, kids and husbands lunch all packed, breakfast, lunch and dinner all laid out on the table.
In most of the cases women never get what they wish for but they must get everything done …their wishes and aspirations go unseen and unheard because society wants to see them as superwomen who has everything in their control.
The problem lies in our thinking and we have very high expectations from women than from men. Women today are burdened by multiple tasks both at home and office, times maybe changing with the men giving a helping hand at home but the benchmark for a women is higher.

Society feels that by calling a woman a “superwoman” they are giving her a compliment but that is only when it is not an expectation. What we fail to see and realize is that though she may like and enjoy the title “superwoman” she at the same times wants the world to see and acknowledge that she is first a “human” and prone to exhaustion and stress like everyone else around her.
It is time to pause and remove the tagline “superwoman” because after all you are human too.

This topic is of relevance today as once again Women’s Week Begins and its time we begin to think of the Women as a normal human being and not as some Superwoman because in the end we are all human.
Remember Feminism isnt about making women stronger…women are already strong. It is about changing the way the world perceives  that strength.