Feminine feminist

While travelling in our diverse country over the last eight years, I have met women from Kargil to Kanyakumari, Shillong to Kutch. As an anthropologist and artist, I continue to question the idea of how feminism and femininity could co-exist, and how culture and nature come to a harmonious balance.

Feminism advocates gender equality, ensuring that women have the same rights, opportunities and autonomy as men. Femininity — often associated with traits such as softness, grace and beauty — can be seen as a powerful expression of identity.

Being a feminist while embracing femininity means rejecting the idea that traditionally feminine traits make a person weak or less capable. Instead, it means reclaiming those qualities as sources of strength.

Historically, femininity has been used to justify the oppression of women, with qualities like emotional sensitivity or nurturing being framed as inferior to traditionally masculine traits like assertiveness and rationality. Feminism challenges these stereotypes, arguing that strength is not exclusive to masculinity and that emotional intelligence, compassion and cooperation are just as valuable.

Most craft clusters I visited had a crucial contribution by the women of the household or village. Here are women from the metalsmiths’ community near Turtuk (Ladakh), clay potters near Shillong (Meghalaya), and Mata Ni Pachedi near Ahmedabad. They continue to be nurturers and are equal stakeholders of the ecosystem. They inspire me, and this Women’s Day, I invite you to embrace the duality of feminism and femininity.

— Sayali Goyal is a visual artist, researching in anthropology at University of London