Gender equality raises happiness, well-being

Men's contribution to society has been immense since the early days. Yet, the increase in stress and pressures of society are leading them to lose their bond with their family and themselves living an incomplete life. In the name of culture and carrying the legacy, we see increased sadness among men.

The definition of masculinity has been misinterpreted as aggression, hostility, and dominance. How healthy is this for the entire men's fraternity and how they are losing their values is alarming? Of all the years with some assumptions, men have been kept away from giving emotions of love, care, and compassion and labelling them with strength. This has led them to lead a mechanical life of struggling and earning and not being able to lead a prosperous and harmonious life. The increased substance abuse and alcoholism among men are doing nothing but damaging their own values of humanity and cultural norms.

Ratan Tata, the perfect epitome of an entrepreneur and compassion in his heart, is always admired for his qualities of Leadership.

The bitter truth of grooming our men's fraternity to be independent has not only created barriers of all ages, the perspectives of women were never taken while constituting any rule, policies, etc. It has been assumed by our male fraternity about all the factors pertaining to happiness, safety, growth, etc. Yet it is in progress; is this because of low moral grounds of saying something and executing something or by mere assumptions of not considering their views in interactions?

Internalised Stereotypes

Men who do take parental leave can face backlash and be seen as weak, lacking work commitment – Thekla Morgenroth.

Are we still struggling with the primitive barriers to keep men away from taking breaks to enjoy their fatherhood?

According to BBC, more than 58% men admitted that they were afraid to take leave. Where are we heading by creating such hindrances? They were not only afraid to have a setback in their careers but also not to get caught in the backlash. Time for an equal Society to raise the Happiness Index and High Moral Grounds. Across the globe there is a question discussed everywhere and that is – "The How and Why Women in Corporate are not reaching to Top Positions."

We still lack in equality of granting paternity leave and then discussing the issue of inequality. When we talk of equality, we scale up the happiness index among people. The equality of leave, opportunities and pay. Any disbalance creates inequality. The maternity leave increases the absence and in many organisations dues to unawareness they don't consider this period as in presence and is not even counted in performance appraisal even if they complete the performance cycle. According to Gender Policy Report- University of Minnesota, "Gender Equality was shown to significantly improve Life Satisfaction."

Global Data and Facts

Despite the reservation of critics, the equality will take us to better quality of life and satisfaction. Understanding the graph clearly depicts the life satisfaction of men.

Today we see lots of apprehensions of men against equality rights of woman and have resulted in creating hatred communities against woman and looking for opportunities to objectify them.

How and when it has started is a difficult thing to comment- yet the future does not look great, especially now when India is turning to be the "Super Power." It's high time to clear the moral grounds and should have moral values complied by both genders equally with equal responsibility. To be happier, we have to follow gender equality and come over the stereotypical barriers of Paternity Leave.

(Writer is an economist and columnist. She is also associated with BRICS Research Conference to do research on economic affairs in India and global economy; [email protected])