When the modern daughter-in-law, who left her job and took care of the house, was asked ‘How much does the boy earn?’ So the whole truth of society’s thinking was exposed.

In today’s modern and rapidly changing era, where on one hand women are touching the heights of the corporate world and are making their mark in every field, on the other hand, how deep are the roots of conservative thinking and old mentality in a large section of our society, this can be gauged from a sharp and thought-provoking debate that went viral on social media recently. When an educated and self-reliant woman took a personal decision of her own free will to leave her corporate job and take care of her home and family, she faced such strange and veiled taunts from the society that it has given rise to a new debate all over the internet. During this entire incident, the question was asked to the woman in the traditional mindset that ‘How much does your son, i.e. husband, earn?’ So this one small question completely exposed the double thinking of the society in which even today, the earnings of her male partner are considered as the measure of her social status and success rather than her own abilities and her personal decisions. In today’s detailed and deeply analyzed article, we will discuss in detail every aspect of this viral social issue and know why even today our mentality has not completely come out of the patriarchal structure.

At some point in life, every person has to take some tough and personal decisions to strike a balance between his career and his family life, and a similar decision was taken by a woman who said goodbye to her good job and chose to become a full-time homemaker. She thought it was her own personal decision that would provide peace of mind and better care to her family, but she had no idea that society would take her decision as an opportunity to question her instead of seeing it as a personal freedom. As soon as the neighborhood and relatives came to know that he had left his job, people started feeling less sympathy and more curiosity and taunts about his so-called ‘waste’. People were unable to digest how an educated woman could voluntarily stay out of the corporate race, and from here began a series of veiled questions and taunts that shook her mental peace.

During this entire social upheaval, the limit was crossed when during a family function people started asking the woman directly and indirectly that since you have left the job, now tell me how much your husband i.e. son earns in a month while you are sitting at home and resting. This one small and very poisonous question ruined the entire self-respect and personal decision of that woman, which she had earned through her hard work and wisdom, because for these contractors of the society, a woman’s existence matters only as long as she is either earning four paisa herself or her husband’s salary graph is very high. This question was the biggest and bitterest proof of the fact that even today in our society, a woman is not accepted as an independent and complete unit, rather she is always judged by linking her to some man’s earnings or his identity. When the woman shared this incident on social media, this post instantly became a big viral debate and thousands of people reacted to it and strongly criticized this patriarchal thinking.

In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, being a homemaker or managing a house is not a crime, but sometimes it is a very important and wise step for the mental and physical health of the family, which people are not able to understand due to their narrow mindedness. When a man leaves his job or changes his profession, the society silently accepts it as his own choice, but when a woman does this, the dirty mentality of linking it to her husband’s financial condition or his helplessness is still alive. People need to understand that running a household, raising children and keeping a family together is no less difficult than any full-time corporate job, and the mental labor involved cannot be weighed in the scale of one’s salary. Such insensitive questions break the self-confidence of women and send a message to the society that a woman’s personal identity or will has no value.

This viral incident is not just the story of a single woman, but it is a mirror of the double character of our entire society which talks big about women empowerment and modernity, but from inside still nurtures the same old and rotten thinking. Now the time has come that we should bury forever this dirty habit of peeping into the personal decisions of others and weighing their lives according to our narrow standards. Asking a woman how much her husband earns is an insult to her dignity and shows that we judge people not by their humanity or capabilities but by their bank balance. It is to be hoped that through such open debates, people’s eyes will be opened and a positive thinking will develop in the society where every person – be it man or woman – will get the freedom to take their own life decisions without any social pressure.