¶ … intimidation and the choices that successful women have in finding their partners.
There was a time when women were thought of as a second class citizen. Only men worked in offices, fought in wars, ruled countries etc., men were responsible for providing the basic needs of the family. On the other hand women did all the work at home such as laundry, cleaning dishes, cooking food etc. Women were not allowed to have a corporate career. However as the time passed, the concept of equal rights picked up. Feminists' movements and human rights activist have allowed women to redefine the purpose of living. The term "It's a Man's World" does not apply any more in the Western countries. Standards have changed along with the changing society.
The immediate questions that comes to mind after discussing the transformation of the society is that how have men responded to that change? Are they fine with the changing role of their female counterparts? Do they like to be the dominant partner in a relationship? Are they intimidated by successful women?
These questions have significance for people belonging to different walks of life. Many women are going through a tough phase because they are unable to find a mate because of their powerful positions in the society or high socio economic status. This is a generalization, but it can be easily said that successful corporate women have more problems in searching for a life partner than other women do.
It is important to clarify first about the definition of a successful woman. There are many different definitions of a successful woman. Broadly, a successful woman is one who is financially well off and independent, highly educated, strong willed, strongly opinioned, highly confident, and imposing. In most of the cases, women with these characteristics find extremely hard to form relationships.
Men from the early stages are taught that they are supposed to be the main man or the head of the family. In a way they are conditioned to take on the responsibility after a certain age. However the successful women can become...
Men don't like being taken over by a woman as the head of the family, as this is a role which is conditioned in his mindset. A man spends most of his time planning in his teen ages regarding his role as the head of the family and suddenly if a woman steps in and becomes the main provider in the family; it attacks the self-esteem and essence of a man. Men naturally have a tendency to have more sense of power and pride than woman; they wish to be the sole provider and the head of the family. The shift in the family position does not go along well with men which causes intimidation.
Women having a powerful position or a high status in the society have an extremely difficult time finding men who do not have an issue with their status and are not intimidated by them. There are a lot of things that come with power; it gives the confidence to a woman to stand for her rights, dictate terms, dominate others etc. Hence there is a complete shift of attitude that comes along with a high status or a powerful position. Men do not like giving away their sense of superiority to women. All these traits and the attitude are not what men are trained to handle. Men are brought up in a certain way which conditions them in believing that they are superior to women. Religion, history and even society had portrayed men as the dominating partners and having superiority over women. Therefore, when they meet a woman who has a strong and dominating personality, men feel insecure about coping up with the shift in the paradigm of superiority.
Men have an innate drive for taking control in a relationship. There are a number of means though which men take a strong dominating step in taking a firm and superior position in a relationship. If a man is a head of a family and is the sole earner in the family, he can easily dictate terms on his wife or partner. He earns that control by knowing that he has the power to control the comforts of his partner such as clothes, car and even the lifestyle. When there is…
