The Scene That Sparked a National Conversation
A powerful scene from the recent series B***ds of Bollywood has become a talking point across India's professional circles. A confident production designer, certain of her expertise and the evolving times, sees herself as an equal partner in filmmaking. When producer Freddy questions her work, her anger stems not from the questioning itself, but from being denied any discussion space. She gets summarily dismissed with a command to change the set's color.
Attempting to stand her ground, she shows Freddy her middle finger and declares she quits, refusing to work with a man who doesn't know how to communicate with women. The confrontation escalates to Freddy physically kicking her. When his assistant protests, "How can you kick a woman?", Freddy justifies himself with the patriarchal defense: "Wo kya hain na, Jeejeebhoy, main aurton par hath nahi uthata" (The thing is, Jeejeebhoy, I do not raise my hands on women).
The Reality Behind Rising Numbers
This idea of "not raising hands on women" often gets presented as a moral compass in our patriarchal society, used to distribute good character certificates to men. Meanwhile, official data reveals significant progress. According to a Press Information Bureau release on October 13, 2025, India's Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has surged from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 41.7% in 2023-24.
The government credits legal safety nets like the Maternity Benefit Act, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, and the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code for this remarkable growth. However, a critical question emerges: Can all women contributing to this increased LFPR actually access these legal protections?
The undeniable reality shows women working across both organized and unorganized sectors approach work differently. For many marginalized communities, work represents survival - putting food on the table and helping families escape precarious living conditions. It's an unavoidable necessity endured without question.
The Silent Kicks in Modern Workplaces
For other women, work embodies aspirations, desires, rebellion, and demands for respect and dignity. They enter workplaces like the unnamed production designer - as collaborators believing their opinions matter in a changing world. Yet they often confront a different reality.
Freddy's physical kick symbolizes the thousands of silent kicks women dodge or absorb daily in their professional lives. Even with legal protections and evolved vocabulary to describe harassment and discrimination, they frequently face dismissal under the rotting moral notion that a society claiming to "respect women" can do them no wrong.
Examples abound: the Kolkata professor losing her job over personal pictures, the unspoken maternity penalty, and meeting rooms functioning as old boys' clubs. Combined with "new boys" overlooking male privilege and some women promoting the "lean-in" mantra, this constitutes most workplaces' reality.
Women routinely face intrusive questions about life decisions - marriage, children, their demeanor - while expected to normalize interrupting female colleagues or thoughtless demeaning acts stemming from male privilege. They juggle gender roles and careers while being judged or sidelined, with gender-affirmative procedures often mocked and support systems made deliberately difficult to access.
As a society, we react strongly to visible violence like Freddy's kick but largely ignore silent violations disguised as "organisational needs." The morality dividend of recruiting more women cannot cloak the patriarchal microaggressions practiced in countless workplaces. While rising participation numbers deserve celebration, true gender equality remains miles away from achievement.
