Over the last two months, I have seen the inferiority of women in Northeast India. Women are often seen as weak, nonathletic and incapable. My own team of all girls has even experienced this first hand just in the way we are often spoken to by many of the local men. We had the opportunity to work in the jungle: sawing and stacking huge trees to sell for firewood. It was hard physical labor, but it was definitely doable by all the women. Usually, the women had always tagged along just to make the food for the men while they worked. Our teams encouraged the girls to participate in the physical labor and not confine to the standards of standing aside making the food. The girls grabbed the saws, and they sawed even faster than the men! They were so excited to work along side because they realized that they are STRONG. We witnessed their views of themselves change form inadequate to empowered.
