Dad... Daddy... Papa... Grandpa... and the host of Indian names that identify these blue-ribbon men in our lives; swaddling them in love, warm-fuzzies and memories of child-awe.

Memories of when he swung you up so high you could touch the sky and then upside-downded you to earth so effortlessly without letting you fall; or when he opened that jar of sweets that was oh-so-tight it hurt your elbow from trying; or when he showed you how to touch a snail to make it slink back into its shell; or when he taught you how to polish your shoes for school and make them shine brighter than everyone else’s; or when he drove so fast to catch the bus because you were dawdling over your morning milk – again.

And how he championed you onward, upward, forward to be everything you wanted and more. The star-bright future he foretold you’d have, if you did what needed to be done to make it happen.The little ways in which he helped you make it there – helping you learn to read, listening to your stories, adding, expanding, launching your dreams into outer-space; supernovas ribboning across the universe.

And now...the man you’ve married, or your brother all grown up, also fathers, doing the same things, teaching the same lessons, building and crafting the same dreams with their children. Every generation evolves into a bigger and brighter version of the one that came before it, perfecting the flaws, enhancing the beauty.

Today, we want to applaud fathers who have inspired, supported, convinced and motivated their wives to return to the professions that fulfilled them before they left to care for their families.

Fathers that get how meaningful and important a woman’s education and ensuing career is to her; how stimulating – intellectually and emotionally, in addition to the work that she manages at home. With every new wave of children being born, fathers are inching, stepping, striding forward to don the mantle of parenthood like pros. No longer are they scared or unsure of holding and rocking their newborns, changing their diapers, monitoring their feed schedules, dressing or undressing them, massaging, bathing, walking, talking, teaching, loving and caring for them.

And women are heaving collective, colossal sighs of relief that they have been blessed with partners who are real partners.

Men in their lives who have shown them that marriage and parenthood and career can all be juggled together, hand in hand. These men, the ones who look at life through that big-picture lens, truly value and appreciate their wives holistically – for the work that they do at home and the contributions that they make outside of it – because that is why they married them, to share life as equals.

They are ecstatic when their wives choose to champion their careers because they can see them blossom when they do.

A woman who isn’t pursuing all her ambitions, those related to family and those related to her work, functions at half-life. She can wilt, lose interest in daily life activities, and very often become despondent and insecure.

Whereas, a woman who knows that she can manage both and is given the wings to do both, grows more attractive and engaging to her partner, more in-touch and connected to her children, and less frustrated and irritable with other family and friends.