Sunday 11 April 2010

In the quest of a balance life

Actually how a woman would lead her life is up to her. I believe in freedom of taking our own choices. There is an interesting article in the Jakarta Post regarding emancipation written by Dyna Rochmyaningsih, "Irony of an excessive women's emancipation".

Earlier this month, on the eve of International Women’s Day, a survey conducted by Reuters newswire posed the question “Is a woman’s place in the home?” Responses showed that one in four people believed a woman’s place was in the home.

Well, this information could be seen as good news, as it reveals that the majority of adults in the world believe women may not only be at home and can participate in many activities outside the
household.

Nowadays, women run companies, become professors and even head governments.

Many people now believe women should not be marginalized. Thanks to those who during the last century supported the idea of women’s emancipation women can now freely express their talents and interests in many areas.

Indeed, women should have equal rights. In fact, biologically, women make a larger contribution to the offspring than men. Normally, in the process of making new humans, two gametes are needed.
A woman will provide an egg cell (ovum) and the man gives sperm. It is important to note that the egg cell provides more material than the sperm.

The sperm cell only provides genetic material, while the egg provides not only genetic materials but also cytoplasm and mitochondria as the energy source for the new being.

Later, a woman makes another significant contribution to the offspring by providing it with a place
to develop (in the uterus), and shares her nutrients with it. After birth, she also gives the child important immunity through her breast milk.

In addition, through a new technology called cloning, we can even question the existence of men. As mentioned before, women provide egg cells which consist of cytoplasm and materials.

For cloning, all we need is an egg cell and genetic material. Today, we can get genetic materials not only from sperm cells but also from body cells. This could mean sperm is no longer essential.

In my view, these biological contributions are strong enough to support arguments for women’s equality. The survival of our species owes women much. But ironically, these contributions are now threatened by the modern phenomena of the role of women itself.

Every medicine has side effects. The achievement of positioning women as equal to men has not only had positive impacts on the freedom of women, but also negative impacts on their biological contribution to the species.

The survival of the species depends on the successful continuation of its genetic materials in the offspring. When a woman pays more attention to her personal career than her family — excessively in some cases — they risk their biological contribution.

Here are two examples: (1) postponing marriage to an older age because of personal career goals
will likely decrease the chances of having a healthy baby because the older a woman is when pregnant, the higher risk of her having a baby with chromosomal defects, (2) letting a baby sitter spend more time with a baby will negatively affect the mother-infant bond, the baby will grow up with someone else and might not have a close relationship with their mother.

These two examples will likely have negative impacts on the survival of offspring. If the prevalence of cases such as these increases the survival of the species will be threatened.

Excessive freedom among women in pursuing non-family-related goals decreases their ability to contribute to the survival of the species. We should be careful of this. It would be wise for women to find a balance between her personal and family life.

The author is a science writer.

It is indeed interesting as I was just thinking how dull it is if God only created the cloning of Adam and Eve. Through citizen journalism we can see how different responses from different heads. In the real life, a couple is usually also like yin and yang, the negative and positive side join together to make the one complete circle of life. We are interested to others because they are different from us. Yet, how women and men think do need a bridge to communicate.

Lately I thanked God that I don't have daughters. It will be more difficult for me to raise girls when I can't even finished my own struggle of self position in the emancipation. While supporting wholeheartedly the freedom of emancipation, I am also picking my own choice to stay at home. And while my heart is also asking me to go out and do something, the society expect me to stay attached at home. Controversy... That's how I was sometimes torn between two desires. I knew my own character, and also my husband's character. I was afraid of not being able to help the children grow up in character and faith if I take a full time job. I'm a bit perfectionist, it would risk my attention to the kids. They are slowing me down, aren't they? Yet, they are the greatest gift I've ever had...

Life these days is really a material thing, we do need more money to keep on going than perhaps in my era of childhood. Education became so expensive, knowledge is abundant but to help to get it instantly we do need money. Do we really need it instantly? May be not. May be we only need to have enough time to learn for life skills. I know that even if the gardener had planted a good seed, it won't always grow out beautifully. But, it is also for sure that without investing time and fertilizer the plant will not blossom as beautiful as the plant that was in a special treatment (yes, we do have God's special treatment, but He is also asking for our shares). Health issue is also very expensive these days, perhaps it is a sign to start a better and balancing life. If we can't do it, how can we transfer the knowledge to our children?

I'm still trying to grab the essence of emancipation and holding it to the best of our future generations.

1 comment:

Retty Hakim (a.k.a. Maria Margaretta Vivijanti) said...

On Saturday (April 17, 2010) the Jakarta Post published some of the readers' comments in their "Issues of the Day". They've chosen to start the comments with the sharp words from Rohn Felds from the United States, and then followed it with other arguments. These printed comments made me come back to the online link, and found more interesting comments there.

The most interesting one is that the writer did care to comment over the comments she received. This is an interactive example of a blog that is successfully applied by the Jakarta Post.

The writer said, "this article elaborated "eastern" view in science perspective". Being an Eastern woman I can see her point of view. And I think I can also see how she came to the conclusion that the survival of the species will be threatened. Look at Singapore, they are now encouraging educated women (or educated couples) to have more children. It was said as a way to improve the quality of their future generations. So, it is not the existence of the species but actually it is about the quality of the species. Yet, I also believe in God. And I think God is working in His own way to keep the procreation and its quality...we'll never know in advance (except may be for the cloning...sometimes people think they are more clever than God).

I always believe that the only thing that we (women) need is the freedom to choose our own decision without any social or cultural pressure to do a certain way of living.

I've said that this article is interesting. Now, I would say that it is really interesting as it presented us with various reactions and also various in-depth opinions that would enrich us as a woman (especially for young women) in deciding our future steps
on family, career, or both...