Empower Your Mothers: Five Ways You Can Make A Difference

One of the worst experiences that a child might have to witness is their mother’s oppression at the hands of the family or the society. Whether it is through domestic violence, verbal abuse, restrictions or prohibitions to chase their dreams, our mothers are oppressed in multiple ways.

Oppression not only destroys the lives of the women facing it but of their children. It impacts their mental and physical health severely. The best thing that the child as a grown-up adults can do to heal these wounds is to empower themselves and their mothers. Not only should mothers give feminist upbringings to their daughters but daughters too should make their mothers feminists.

So here are 5 ways how you can empower your mothers:

Contribute to housework

Ever since the sun rises from the horizon, mothers confine themselves in the kitchen preparing various types of meals for the entire family. They walk out of the kitchen only to do other housework like cleaning and washing. Rarely do mothers get the time to relax and do something for themselves? So as daughters, you can reduce the burden of housework by sharing the load. You should also push the men in the house to share the workload. Encourage your mothers to imagine there is a life beyond the threshold of the house.

Ask your mother to eat along with the family

In Indian households, women are not allowed to sit at the dining table with other family members. Rather, they are expected to serve the family and wait until they finish. The last roti, mostly uncooked or overly cooked, is left in the share of the mothers. But this has to change. Dear daughters, make space for your mothers on the dining table and help her have a good meal with the family. In most cases, mothers are reluctant to do so because of their conditioning. It is your duty to push for this change.

Encourage Your Mother To Callout Injustice

We have seen our mothers putting up with injustice in their marital homes. They do not retaliate for the sake of their children. They don’t want their children to grow up without their fathers’ names. But dear daughters, encourage your mothers to call out the wrong irrespective of who is the perpetrator. Support them make them realise that their individualities and self-respect matter. She has to be a role model for her daughter so she has to call out discrimination and injustice of any kind. 

A still from the film Thappad starring Taapsee Pannu.

She Should Take Charge Of her Money

No matter how rich and privileged a family is, women are always expected to seek permission before spending the money. It is assumed that women cannot take financial decisions. But dear daughters, help your mothers understand that they have the right to make financial decisions. They have equal ownership over the family money and hence equal right to decide how it should be used. They are part of the family, not an outsider.

Make your mothers opinionated

A ">mother's opinions matter only when they are about the kitchen. Opinions in other matters are shunned because it is assumed that mothers are not knowledgeable or experienced enough. Dear daughters, it is your duty to encourage your mothers to speak their minds. Help them find hours to read books and news and formulate opinions. Encourage them to speak among men without any hesitation and stand by their rights to agree and disagree.

The views expressed are the author's own.