Taming of the shrews

Even in politics, the men in charge prefer women who embody traditional femininity.

The collective indignity bestowed on political women, from Shailaja Acharya to Sumana Shrestha, by political patriarchs needs immediate redress. In today’s time, when power has ceased to be a zero-sum game and good leadership is synonymous with collaboration, the traditionally inclined old men clumsily spewing patriarchal narratives make civilised citizens extremely uncomfortable. Political women with independent political personhood have always been problematic to traditional men. Sahana’s grit, Shailaja’s impatience, Binda’s blatant feminism and Sumana’s formidability seem to have threatened those with the traditional bent of mind. At least two generations of strong, opinionated women have been sidelined or ousted because they did not fit into the mould of patriarchal party politics. It almost seems like the traditional men view them as political “shrews” who, like in the famous Shakespearean play The Taming of the Shrews , need to be “tamed”, cut to a size that is desirable to political patriarchy.