How many times have we come across hoardings of women dressed as Doctors, Army Officers, Engineers, Lawyers etc as poster-girls of women empowerment? How many times have we pointed out the likes of Kiran Bedi, Kalpana Chawla, Indra Nooyi, Sudha Murthy, Mithali Raj, Sania Mirza as role models to our girls? How many times have we come across posts on social media where two pictures are juxtaposed against one another- one of a group of women in a nightclub vs one of a group of women in uniform- telling us to pick the latter over the former? Is this what we mean when we say we want to “empower” our women? In our society, a woman is “inspirational” only if she is either a financially independent, headstrong female shattering her way through patriarchal shackles or if she is a multitasking homemaker keeping an impeccable home and hearth, with a smile in place, no less. Both these versions of “ideal” women are -needless to say - morally stoic and upright with no vices whatsoever. Our “wo