WHILE the notion of gender equality largely serves the cause of the majority of women in society, it surely burdens a few who struggle to strike an ideal work-life balance simply because of the self-inflicted pressure of being ‘equal’. Given a chance, such women would opt out of this race to attain ‘empowerment’ as defined by a certain school of thought.

The burden of attending to the demands of work life, raising children, and taking care of everything domestic can be exhausting, and it often is. The actual freedom is one’s ability to do what one wants to, not what a certain segment of society wants one to.

The twisted sense of freedom is spoiling the lives of many women. It is not uncommon in family gatherings to hear stories of exhaustion being shared among working women.

By their own account, most of them started off in search of empowerment, but then gradually their income became so indispensable to the household that they just had to go with the flow.

It is like being shifted from one cage to another, one frustrated working woman told me recently. We need to give due weightage to such stories.

On their part, such women would do a lot of good if they could revisit their understanding of freedom and equality.

Faraz Naseem
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2025