Despite moving into a technology filled and diverse 21st century, some stereotypes still prevail in the world. One of those stereotypes, still taught to young children, is girls are weak while boys are strong. To small children, it might not make much of a difference. But the psychology is dispiriting, resulting in lesser self confidence and more insecurities in young women. Such messages indicating women are not as strong as men and their bodies are sexual objects lead to women isolating and withdrawing themselves from the community to protect themselves.

But, this has not always been the case. Spartan women, considered to be the alpha women of the Greek civilization, wielded the most power, were strong both mentally and physically and were well educated in arts, music, war, philosophy and much more. At present, there are many examples of women showing true Spartan power. For example, investing her entire life savings worth $ 5,000 into her only business idea, Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, transformed from a frustrated consumer to a fearless entrepreneur. Today, she is one of the world’s youngest self made millionaires running a $ 250 million enterprise.

The Dravidians also believed in equality between men and women. While men were responsible for protecting the society and the women, the women had rights to choose their mates, involve in the society and enjoyed much greater freedom. The Indian society became patriarchal over a period of time post the clash of the Dravidians and Aryans civilizations. The hegemonic myth that girls are vulnerable and weak, while boys are strong and independent formed strong and deep roots at this point in time.

Since then, women have had to fight tooth and nail for every right, recognition and achievement. The tech world is a prominent example of discrimination against women based on the ideology that women are genetically weak. A former Google employee emphasized a similar ideology in a memo titled Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber detailing the anti diversity and gender stereotypes within the tech world. According to the memo, women have biological issues that have prevented them from being as successful in the tech industry as men and are therefore less interested in high stress jobs because they are more anxious.

While the memo received widespread criticism, statistical data suggests women haven’t infiltrated the tech world or the startup ecosystem equally. Only 14% of business enterprises in India are run by women entrepreneurs despite the innumerable initiatives taken by women to venture beyond their domestic walls to enter the corporate world. Although there have been multiple role models who have broken barriers and brought down walls to emerge as successful businesswomen, the representation of women in the top roles still remains alarmingly low.

Despite the harsh criticism and prejudice, numerous women have defied convention and broken stereotypes to forge new paths and cover areas once considered to be taboo. Aditi Gupta launched Menstrupedia to educate girls about menstruation through comics. Richa Kar opened an entire ecommerce sector, allowing women to browse through lingerie online, after noticing a huge gap in the online retail industry. Globally, industrialist like Indra Nooyi, Meg Whitman, Michelle Obama, Sudha Murthy, Marissa Mayer, Ivanka Trump and Sheryl Sandberg have proven time and again that women can take on more than their male counterparts.

In this patriarchal society, the bro culture is gradually being replaced by strong, confident and tough female business leaders. There is light at the end of the long male dominated tunnel. But there is an urgent need for independent and powerful female role models in the world right now. In an industry that faces a 50 – 50 chance of failure, strong female role models will help to create a world that relies less on labels that reinforce division but rather promote equality. At the end of the day, the qualities that make a great woman are many of the same qualities that make a great man but the difficulties they face and conquer make her a great role model.