It's a dog eat dog world, and women in the city seem to have jumped on to that bandwagon. Financial empowerment seems to have emancipated many not just from inequality, but also from the sensitivity they've been associated with. The downside, of course, is the dwindling interpersonal skill of the fairer sex, forcing the debatable question — 'Is the feminist streak in women causing relationship problems?
Even the much talked about (and analysed!) Karan Johar movie 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' on extra-marital affairs fails to make clear whether it's Shah Rukh Khan's inability to accept the professional success of his wife Preity Zinta or the latter's career ambitions that are responsible for the death of their marriage.
Ad and filmmaker Arti Surendranath is clear that it's the lack of acceptance by men that women are coming into their own that is causing the rift. "If a man comes home after a hard day's work and behaves temperamental, no one says anything. But a working woman, who's had to deal with similar situations at the office, is expected to be nice and do the house work!" she says.
If women are getting more aggressive, she says, it's only because they want to be heard. "Men still want their wives to shut-up and listen to them," she explains, adding that as women become more successful, the hurdles also increase.
Psychotherapist and working mother Dr Varkha Chulani, on the other hand, feels that financial independence has lead to a 'care-a-damn' attitude in women. "We can flash big bucks now, so many of us have become callous." Interestingly, she says there's no need for both sexes to be equal. "We have to accept that we're different from men, with different strengths and weaknesses. So let's just be ourselves," she insists.
But can we actually equate liberation to feminism? Men probably do, as TV actor Rakshanda Khan says, "Men have a problem with anything they perceive as a threat. And the fact that women are now entering their domain is probably making them insecure."
Of course, she does admit that with the growing responsibilities of work and home, one of the two is suffering. "But as far as tolerance goes, I think both sexes are suffering the lack of it, more so now than ever!"
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