Are Women Frail?

Are Women Frail?

Nearly half of the population of the world are women. They are politely called “the fair sex”, “the gentler sex” and “the weaker sex”. They are considered frail and fragile.The two words are different from each other; the former is more negative in its sense than the latter. Frailty is a word with dual meaning: according to one definition, frailty means fragility and delicateness; the other meaning is moral weakness and being subjected to temptation easily. Fragile means something delicate and easily broken such as glass or something made of it. The question arises in our mind: are women really frail and fragile? If yes, then we will have to give reasons to support our opinions, and if no, then we will have to look for the purpose of the people that call them so.

Women are still regarded as second degree citizens in most of the countries in the world espacially the under-developed countries but honestly speaking, women do not enjoy the status of an individual even in the so-called modern world. Man still enjoys an upperhand over his female counterpart and most of the times, she has to submit to his sovereignity.

If we say women are fragile, we may be right because a woman’s physical strength is lesser than a man’s. So, she is vulnerable to external injuries and needs to be protected against it. But it does not mean that the menfolk should fall a victim to masculine pride and machismo. In this connection, first of all, men should protect women against their own selves because a great number of women are tormented by their own husbands and fathers. So, men’s first job is to tame themselves in a way by which they can guard the women against their anger and aggression, which is, of course, a part of their instinct. There are a lot of biological reasons which explain why men bully excessively and are provoked easily. In fact, they need to overcome this instinct in order to enjoy peaceful and relations with their wives and children.


Another basic thing is that man and woman are equal by birth but they are different from each other. So if we want to prove that they are equal, we will have to understand this difference. The problem arises because of our misconceptions about the difference between the two sexes. Women’s equality does not mean that men should consider women like themselves in every respect and have no regard for their being the opposite sex.A recent example is that of European countries where women remain standing in the buses because men do not vacate any seats for them to sit owing to the gender equality concept in their minds. Gender equality does not mean that a woman should compete with man in manual work. For example, if we say that a woman is equal to a man if she can carry the load of bricks or luggage like him, it will be a foolish argument on our part. Man’s body is stronger than a woman, so he can lift the heavy burden or can do any kind of a labour easily which a woman can do with difficulty. It is a natural difference. What is the point of being arrogant in it. For if we see logically, a woman can bear the children which a man cannot. No man can bring a child into the world without the help of a woman. On the other hand the woman is more creative than men. Men are mostly practical and pragmatic in their approach towards life which cannot bring about delicate and subtle ideas into their minds. I cannot say that they are not creative and sensitive, some of them are, but I am justified in my opinion because I am talking about the majority.

If we talk of the frailty of women which is the basis of their being so-called inferior sex, I will say that the whole idea is highly male chauvinistic. According to my observation, men are more likely to temptation than women and their sexual desire is stronger than women's. A great number of men are charmed by prostitutes who flaunt their beauty for selfish motives, turning their backs on their wives.

The women, in spite of their being the weaker sex are stronger than men in many respects. For instance, a mother is more brave and courageous when her child happens to be hurt by something in some way. At that time, no one can be put into comparison with her. A father can also try hard to help the child in the time of distress but his struggle is not comparable to that of the mother. We have seen many examples of fathers who killed their own children themselves but there is hardly any example in human history on the part of mothers. Men can commit any horrible crime like even raping their own daughters to satisfy their uncontrolled sexual impulses.

Then the oft-quoted example of women’s frailty is that Eve had driven Adam out of the paradise because of her female curiosity. It is said that she was tempted by the Satan and she, in her turn, tempts Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. But as we see stated in the worldwide famous Miltonic epic “Paradise Lost”, Adam is victimized by Eve’s temptation because of his love for her and he is afraid of being alone in paradise after Eve’s fall. That is also a selfish motive on his part by which he subjects his love for God to his love for his companion. So, it was all due to his own weakness and not only the cause of Eve which brought about his ruination.

To conclude, we should change the saying “frailty thy name is woman” like this: “frailty thy name is human being” which means that the thing which is called female weakness is, in fact, the weakness of the whole humankind. On the whole, woman’s frailties should be considered the frailties of the whole human race and the woman’s status should not be the status of a woman but a human being’s.