on it pick up your phones
and look at all the apps you have on it
now Google the founders of all these
apps I’m pretty sure more than 90% of
them if not all have been founded by men
where are the women entrepreneurs what
has literally a breached out of the
resume did pick such as Facebook flip
card Amazon cinder Pinterest which are
they even larger female based why have
all of them we founded by many wise Oh
in Hill in India why are women
entrepreneurs to a large extent limited
to the food and fashion industry why are
there such few women drivers in India
and a sport like chess which can be
played both by men as well as women why
are there such few women in the
professional level playing chess anyone
whenever there any statistics which show
that men have been doing more men have
whenever there are initiatives will show
that men have been more successful than
women in any particular field the
immediate reaction of people is to blame
it on the lack of opportunities which
women get but and that’s completely true
women do get much lesser opportunities
than men but even when men and women
receive the same opportunity in many
cases men are more successful the men
the women who study in college Stanford
I am IITs they often have the same
opportunity as men who study in Harvard
I am I attend these kind of – tedious
institutions but when was the last time
you heard of a woman from any of these
such teachers colleges starting a harbor
or charting or Facebook or snapchat I’m
pretty sure every girl in this
auditorium uses Vika pedia and Wikipedia
is a pretty open platform anyone can
just go and read write an article on a
top contributor
article but according to studies only 9%
of the articles on Wikipedia have been
contributed by women
so you know the problem is not just lack
of opportunities the problem is not just
discrimination more often the problem is
differentiate treatment of genders
parents and society often treat their
genders retrieve their children and keep
the teach the children very differently
right from the big male right from day
one
but not only day one rights of our one
we are not treated as individuals
repeated as boys and girls when I was
one hour old I was wrapped in a blue
blanket it doesn’t fit me anymore but my
sister she was wrapped in a pink blanket
when we were one hour old we didn’t
decide the color of a blanket the
hospital decided it look at the photo I
wrote from the first birthday party you
had I’m pretty sure the gender would
determine the theme of your birthday
party when I had my first birthday party
it was a car team birthday party back
then
what we had was popular whereas my
sister she had a Barbie theme birthday
party when we bought one year old feed
and decided theme of her birthday
parties our parents decided it and fed
it’s also often encourage their children
to do more outdoorsy kind of activities
and think God is there women the church
I have to do more of those homely
activities and society reinforces all of
these stereotypes in every stage of our
lives which is the most popular
television commercial in India in the
last couple of decades washing powder
nilma
and who are the four ladies that come
upon it Jaya Rika hey Maya Sushma and in
those commercials
women drooling over detergents where are
the commotion like thumbs up you know
taster Thunder courage bravery and all
that and even though there’s no
connection with bravery and thumbs up
you all do often see someone like in
Akshay Kumar or Salman Khan portraying
themselves as a hyper masculine kind of
people jumping from buildings or cars to
buy a 10 rupee thumbs-up so once again
society is promoting meant to be brave
and courageous whereas women do all the
household stuff you know yesterday was
Valentine’s Day and it’s very common to
see guys asking girls out on dates or
proposing to girls for marriages but
even to date there is still a social
stigma which prevents women from asking
guys out for dates or for marriages I
don’t remember the last time either a on
TV or as well as a real life I saw a
girl going down on our knees asking a
guy out like William IV I don’t just we
don’t see that happening
once again Society is promoting guys to
take the initiative whereas women to
remain passive you know in 10 days time
the Oscars are going to take place and I
remember clearly last yahoos watching
Leo give a spinning speech for winning
the best male director of business best
male actor award and it was then when I
realized that the Oscars doesn’t have a
separate award for the best male
director and best female director the
Oscars doesn’t have a separate award for
best male screenwriter and best female
screenwriter but the Oscars shall
separate award for best male actor and
best female actor the oscars had a
separate award for Best Supporting Actor
male and Best Supporting Actor female
why because even the Oscars the most
prestigious film fraternity in the world
believes that
and women should portray different roles
in society even the Oscars believes in
stereotype and you know these kinds of
messages if repeated often enough
becomes a part of us these kinds of
messages is repaired or often enough
makes us who we are who are the after
all we are just a product of our
experiences what we experience is what
we become and this is why the same women
and men who may go to Harvard and
Stanford and getting the Equal
Opportunity but still you see some of
the men getting more entrepreneurial
initiative this is by even though me and
my sister has an equal opportunity to
drive a car for some reason I take that
proactive measure to learn how to drive
a car but my sisters cool with not doing
it this is why even though who me even
though a lady who may wake up at 6 a.m.
to take care of her children and make
breakfast at 6 a.m. for our babies may
not take the same initiative to start an
app or to contribute an article on
Wikipedia the problem is not just equal
opportunity more often the problem is
gender stereotype society and parents
often treat us equally yet differently
only when society invaders treat us
equally as well as identically with the
genitals get their fair place in society
I propose presence of society to
implement a gender neutral societies in
which we are fitted as individuals
rather than coils and girls that is the
only long-terms way to reach equality
but what do we do you always take the
easy way out instead of fighting against
gender stereotype we push statistics on
Facebook about dowry we may close about
equal wages for women and women we
reserved seats for women in colleges
like IIT Zions and everywhere we always
try to we have a tendency to fight
against
symptoms of the problem rather than the
problem itself since the symptoms are
more easily visible in the short run you
can fix the symptoms but in the long run
unless you treat the problems the
symptoms will keep showing in some way
or the other
the core problem we have today is gender
stereotyping and the symptoms are
unequal wages for women unemployment
amongst women or illiteracy amongst
women and we have to treat the core
problem which is gender stereotype in
the next five to ten years many of you
are going to have children I know it’s a
pretty scary thought
and I want to ask you will you name your
child according to good gender he or she
is strong Oh will you give your child a
gender-neutral name will you wrap your
child in a blanket according to which
gender is strong or baby not care about
it will you ask your children to play
with toys according to which gender they
belong to okay by then they’ll probably
be having an iPhone 12s in which still
have tinder pro for babies will you
treat your children with equality or
will you merely just give them equal
opportunity will you ask your daughters
to whisper every time she has a period
it is no coincidence that India’s
largest sanitary napkin brand one of the
world goddess and again have been brands
because you have to realize that what
has been happening for thousands of
years will not get solved in one
generation changing the way individual
things is that evolutionary process not
a revolutionary process gender
stereotypes have been existing for
thousands of years and what’s going on
for thousands of years will not get
solved in a single generation but that
is no excuse for us to take gender
stereotype casually that is no excuse
for us to take gender stereotype lightly
and that is no excuse for us to not give
our best to fight against gender
stereotype as you leave this auditorium
today I want you to start thinking
freely to start thinking about things
which you’ve never thought of before to
start thinking for yourself rather than
what society is asked you to think I
wanted to ask yourself random like
thought-provoking and even wacky
questions I start wondering about things
that you’ve never wondered about before
like have you thought about what
percentage of animals are gay have you
thought about that do plants dream when
they sleep do plants sleep at all
what do female monkeys how do they deal
with their periods do animals have
periods I want to start thinking about
things that you’ve never thought of
before but most importantly I want you
to think without barriers I want you to
think without stereotype I want you to
think without boundaries and I want you
to think about things which are not
common I want to end my talk today with
a quote from my book cell phenomics what
is common is not necessarily normal and
what is uncommon is not necessarily of
normal thank you you