Of glass ceilings and nike shoes

Unbelievable.

This is the 21st century, not Zaman Jahilliyah when men used to dominate and a woman's role was to be the whore in the bedroom and the maid in the kitchen.

But this kind of mentality is still evident today.

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about the future of the country. I'm talking about democracy. I'm talking about gender equality.

We had a sports fraternity meeting today. Rumah Merah. We had to choose a leader. Out of the 4, Sally had 70++ votes, and another guy had about 60 votes.

We were all happy that Sally, who used to be the Terengganu's state player, was involved in BUSA (British University Sports Association, I think), was IPBA's olahragawati of the year etc, won.

Obviously you'd imagine that the one with the highest votes would win.

But no, some guy came up (I think his name was Faiz or something I need to know what his name is) and gave the suggestion that the leader should be a guy.

The surprising thing is, the rest of the group agreed. About 60% of this group were women.

And so, instead of being the leader, Sal was demoted to hold the post as the assistant. It doesn't matter if she's got more experience, it doesn't matter that she's proven herself to be damn good at what she does. She's not a man, and therefore, should not be leader.

Even the lecturers didn't say a word against it.

What kind of sexist MCP mentality is this?!

Does this mean that there will never be a female Prime Minister in Malaysia? That no matter how much calibre a woman has, there will always be a glass ceiling above her, and she will never be given what is due to her simply because she is a woman? Could it be that in addition to other things like sexist men like Faiz holding us back, we are our own worst enemy?

These are people who are going to be teachers. Is this the mentality that we want our kids to be taught through a hidden curriculum? That no matter what, males reign supreme, and women should only assist him in doing what he has to do, hold secretarial posts and be AJK makanan dan minuman? Would you want your daughters to grow up thinking that they have to depend on men? Would you want them to limit themselves and not strive to be the best they can be, because it's pointless. There's always the glass ceiling at the end of the day.

It's just wrong. And its so frustrating that after so many years, after Emmeline Pankhurst, Bettie Friedan, and the sufferages, this kind of mentality still stains the way we measure a person's worth and capabilities.

I am not against having a guy as a leader. If he had won the most votes, then fair enough. But for someone to actually have the audacity to say that it would be 'better for the future of the club' that a guy should be a leader instead of a girl, well that borders on insult.

This masochism is one this that I will NEVER miss about my country.