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| Breaching the elite club | | |
While three women claiming the top slots in All India Civil Services examination, results of which were declared on Monday have set a new precedence, a boy from Jammu and Kashmir becoming first Muslim Gujjar anywhere in the country to IAS has made a big difference. Looking at the results from gender angle, the club was breached long ago, but it will still come as something of a shock to men that the first three positions in the prestigious civil services examination this year have gone to women aspirants. This is no flash in the pan, of course. Women have been claiming their place in the top ranks for years. But the list of successful candidates released by the government last Monday reveals a spurt of women on top. Ten of the top 25 this year are women. Pound for pound, this is certain to indicate a higher scoring rate for women as fewer of them take the civil services examination than men. The alibi can’t any more be offered that women are slipping into these positions because men are opting for other, more lucrative, fields. The truth is women have invaded all territories in the erstwhile male domain, seamlessly making the transition from child-rearing, kitchen management and cross-generation culture-transmission. They are in the forces, they have cracked the glass ceiling in the corporate world, and they are surging ahead in the arts and the sciences. In short, wherever the opportunity arose, they rushed in to compete with and best the menfolk. In many cases — we can’t quantify as the data doesn’t exist — they have done this without entirely neglecting their traditional responsibilities. It used to be said that in areas calling for balance, for considered judgment, for regard to proportion, for eye to detail, in short for management and administration, men deliver better results. We now know this not to be the case, no matter how far we look. Perhaps one thing can still be said — that men are likely to do better when short bursts of energy expending are called for. But that’s about it. Much of the manifestation of female achievement has come in response to opportunity. And the window of opportunity has been enlarged on account of the spread of democracy, which in turn has widened the awareness of what women can do. And now, the realm of the possible appears limitless. Just look at the narrow field of administration and the civil services. In the colonial era, women did not enter the administrative field because they couldn’t. With the lifting of restrictions in independent India, women are making their mark in every field, now even national administration. This is especially to be applauded, and seen as progress in society. Until the other day, the top rungs of administration were seen as a rarefied field even for men. Gaining those precincts showered extraordinary prestige on the men who were gifted and hard-working enough to make the grade. Such yardsticks have been rendered without meaning. Successful men must now learn to share the hallowed space with successful women, who must now be treated as their equal. The time has certainly come to acknowledge that the women have what it takes. The time has truly passed for sniggers about women in Adam’s rib
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