Myths :

1    Procreation is the most impotant part of a woman's life
2    Women are physically, physiologically and psychologically tuned to rear and care for children
3    Girls should be married at an early age, otherwose they are unable to adjust in the society and are a burden to the family
4    Girls must choose simpler careers as they have a lot of reproductive responsibility

Facts :

There is no doubt that pregnancy and childbirth are creative and satisfying aspects of womanhood. It is also true that women physically and mentally take upon themselves the responsibility of child care. However, there is much more to a woman's life than procreative activity. Gender roles reinforced through childhood, the role-model girls follow often decide how much the women take up as their job. Very often a disproportionate amount of responsibility is pushed on to women in the name of their being tuned by Nature to do so. It is being increasingly recognised that men have an equal part to play in child-reating and Nature in no way has endowed them with less instinct of care. Likewise there are important roles, other than childbearing that a woman can play in the society.

Legally girls can marry after eighteen years of age. Marriage before this age can lead to health problems as the girl is neither biologically or emotionally mature enough to handle sex and childbirth. Although menses may be initiated at the age of eleven to fourteen years, the cyclicity of the ovarian cycle is achieved only after two to three years and the womb is strong and mature enough to carry the foetus a couple of years later. Ideally, girls should bear children only after twenty-one years of age. Marrying girls at an early age leaves them vulnerable to not only health problems but to social issues in a male-dominated society. Denying girls the time for education or for learning of skills that can give them desired employment makes them dependent and a burden on the family. On the other hand, empowering girls to be self-sufficient makes them an asset to the family and the society.

Women today can choose a variety of careers; however, in most situations they do face subtle discrimination due to their family commitments. In fact, most working women, rural as well as urban, stretch their mental and physical resources to utmost to prove their abilities in the male-dominated society. This overbuden often reflects as health problems, specially as age catches up. At times women face unrecognised morbidity and even define lack of illness as good health.

Several studies have demonstrated that such socio-economic problems are not solved by confining women to lighter professions but are resolved by empowering women to solve their own problems. When women occupy decision-making positions at various levels, at home, in the community, at work, in choosing their partner and most important in planning and spacing  childbirth, a number of health issues do get taken care of. If women are recognised as individuals with qualities different from men, sharing equal responsibility and power in the society may not be a distant dream. It is surely a dream of all adolescent girls awaiting fulfillment.