The Equality of Women and Men

The Equality of Women and Men

The Current World Crisis:

November 25^th is the United Nations Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This day is followed by sixteen days of action by the “White Ribbon Campaign” which is a campaign to raise awareness of the issue of violence against women by having men wear white ribbon symbols on their shirts.

The statistics of violence against women provided by various national and international government agencies and private organizations reveal an alarming reality of this gross injustice against half our world’s population. As an example of the extensive depressing statistics, a recent report from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stated that 70% of women worldwide have experienced abuse in their lives. In Canada it is reported that 51% of women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of sixteen. What is more alarming is that these statistics grossly under report the extent of violence against women as it is estimated that between 55% and 95% of women in many cultures throughout the world do not report the abuse they have suffered. Sadly the perpetrators of violence against women are often their male spouses, intimate partners and family members.

Violence against women is pervasive throughout our global society; it occurs in all ethnic, racial, religious, age, social and economic groups. The subordination of women is a universal fact that leads to greater and lesser degrees of the subjugation of women (bondage, subjection, control) and violence against women (physical, psychological, spiritual abuse).

According to a recent United Nations Fact Sheet on violence against women, “The roots of violence against women lie in historically unequal power relations between men and women and persistent discrimination against women.” Given these root causes, the question is not only one of eliminating violence against women but also how do we achieve gender equality and therefore end these inequities.

The Causes:

To better understand what is needed to achieve gender equality it is necessary to further analyze the causes of violence against women.

Social Anthropologist, Sherry B. Ortner, in her report “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” describes the relationship between males and females. Males are more closely associated with, shaping and dominating culture and females are biologically (procreation), socially (primary domestic role) and psychologically (psychic structure – nurturing, etc.) more aligned with nature. As culture transcends and controls nature, therefore it is natural for men to devalue women and for women to devalue themselves.

Moojan Momen, in his paper “In all the Ways that Matter, Women Don’t Count” states that our social structure is a patriarchy in which men rule and power is the dominating value. This has evolved historically as power was valued and strong males were required when tribes/cultures/societies came in contact with each other and clashed over scarce resources (land, food, etc.)

A basic characteristic of a patriarchy is that the group in power subjugates the other groups in the society in order to maintain power, therefore, the less powerful women and their feminine attributes are devalued.

An alternative to the patriarchal society is the matrifocal society where women are the focus of the social group. The following table outlines the characteristics of these two societies:

Comparison of Characteristics of Patriarchal and Matrifocal Societies
Patriarchal Society	Matrifocal Society
Values: Power	Values: Nurturing
Authority	Life-giving
Control	Compassion
Victory	Sensitivity
Ownership	Spontaneity
Law	Creativity
Courage	Working with others
Strength	Giving support to others
Primary Interactions: power struggles and competition	Primary Interactions: mutual and co-operative
Results: victory and defeat: winners take all	Results: Victory and success are judged by the degree to which the condition of all is bettered.
The ends justify the means	The means are as important as the ends
Epitomized by: tradition, institutions, civilization, control over the natural world	Epitomized by: the natural world
Tends towards centralization of authority as this achieves more power	Tends towards decentralization as the mutuality and consultative decision-making that it favours best occurs in small, autonomous communities

Both of the above analyses demonstrate the historic and cultural roots of men’s dominance over women and confirm the root cause presented by the United Nations as the unequal power relationships between men and women.

Not directly addressed above is another serious, significant and pervasive cause of the subordination and abuse of women which is the religious traditions that have been misinterpreted and used by men as God given authority to subjugate women. Everything from the language used to some religious interpretations, dogmas, rites and practices are discriminatory and in many instances lead to violence against women including such practices as beatings, genital mutilation, and honor killings.

The Current Solutions:

There are numerous local, national and international initiatives underway to address the destructive prejudice against women. These actions can be generally categorized as follows:

Adaptive actions which predominantly occur at the local level such as legal aid, transition houses, and women’s support groups, help ameliorate the effects of abuse against individual women, however, as critically important that these services are, the systemic causes of abuse against women and the achievement of equality with men are not directly addressed.

Well-meaning campaigns such as the White Ribbon Campaign and the UN Secretary-General’s Campaign to identify male leaders as role models for better treatment of women help to raise the awareness of this critical global issue but, again the underlying causes are not directly addressed.

Many groups are working to empower women through education and other means so that women will occupy up to 50% of the power positions in society – politics, law, business, professionals, etc. Becoming equal partners in the power structure will achieve equality and end violence against women. However, this worthwhile action leaves the current patriarchal power structure in place with the same values. Women are co-opted by the existing patriarchal system and feminine values remain subordinated. Furthermore, women are seen by men as new competitors for power with additional skills and unique capabilities (e.g. sexuality, etc.). The economic empowerment of women is seen by men as a threat because society will judge the men as incapable and not in-charge as ‘head of the household.’ Economic improvement of women or of a society does not correlate to reduced violence against women.

Efforts by governments and other organizations are also being made nationally and internationally to regulate equality and eliminate violence against women through the rule of law. However, as of 2006 only 89 out of the 192 United Nations member states had some form of legislation prohibiting domestic violence. Even where there are laws, the reality is that violence against women is either covered up or tacitly condoned. Economics Nobel Laureate Oliver Williamson states that “norms and practices that evolve within society are so powerful that they take precedence over regulation.” Culture takes precedence over the rule of law and discriminatory religious dogmas and traditions take precedence over the rule of law.

Efforts at religious empowerment of women are also considered essential to achieving equality and ending abuse. But this has led to a further fracturing of religious traditions; fundamentalist backlash; and contributed to the abandonment of religion as a moral force in society.

Sherry B. Ortner demonstrates in her paper “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” that: “the whole scheme (of devaluing women because of their association with nature) is a construct of culture rather than a fact of nature. Woman is not “in reality” any closer to (or further from) nature than man – both have consciousness, both are mortal.” She concludes that both social institutions and cultural assumptions must be changed. “Efforts directed solely at changing the social institutions – through setting quotas on hiring, for example, or through passing equal-pay-for-equal-work laws – cannot have far-reaching effects if cultural language and imagery continue to purvey a relatively devalued view of women. Efforts directed solely at changing cultural assumptions – through male and female consciousness-raising groups, for example, or through revision of educational materials and mass-media imagery – cannot be successful unless the institutional base of the society is changed to support and reinforce the changed cultural view. Ultimately, both men and women must be equally involved in projects of creativity and transcendence.”

Another solution proposed by more radical groups is to overthrow the prevailing Patriarchal Structure. However, this simply reinstates an alternative power-based structure. As Moojan Momen explains “… if there are two groups, A and B, the first of which holds power as its supreme value and the second of which does not, then Group B loses whatever it does. If it sticks to its values and refuses to compete for power with Group A, it is subjugated and A’s values are imposed upon it. If B does compete with A, then this can only be through striving for power. In this case, B also adopts power as a value and, therefore, loses its own values. Either way, A succeeds in asserting its values upon B.”

In conclusion, all of these solutions either individually or taken together will not resolve the subordination of women as they do not fully address all the underlying causes of inequality and therefore they will not eliminate violence against women.

The Bahá’í Solution:

Following is an individual opinion of how the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith which are founded upon the authenticated revelation of Bahá’u'lláh, its Prophet-Founder, resolve this endemic injustice facing humanity. This solution is based upon the following basic premises:

• Society’s ideological, social/cultural, political, judicial, economic, and scientific/technological systems are not separate/independent or even inter-related compartments of life and society – they are intimately integrated, interdependent components of civilization. Therefore, a solution is needed that will influence, inform and change all of these components. As stated by Sherry B. Ortner, one system cannot be changed independently of another.
• The predominant religious/ideological beliefs and values of a society are the foundation of and shape all the other components of the society. Ideology determines peoples’ values, engages their hearts, minds and spirits and motivates people to act according to their deeply held beliefs and values. The predominant ideology of the world today is materialism and it is evident that everything is sacrificed towards economic ends. No permanent solution will be found to the subordination of women until the predominant power-driven, materialistic beliefs and values of society are replaced.
• The Bahá’í Faith is an ideology, a religion, a belief system Divinely revealed for the purpose to “safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men.” It is not an end in itself; it is a tool, an instrument for the wellbeing of all of humanity. It contains all of the necessary principles, teachings, structures, and most importantly, the moral/spiritual authority to transform all the components of society to achieve world peace.

While contributing to the betterment of the current global society in a multitude of ways at local, national and international levels, Bahá’ís are building an alternative civilization – a new world order – based upon fundamental universal, unifying principles including the “Equality of Women and Men” as one of the central principles of the Faith. By unequivocally proclaiming this principle and all that it means, all the social, cultural, moral, economic and religious dogmatic reasons to subjugate and harm women are invalidated. Bahá’ís are creating a united world civilization in which the masculine and feminine attributes and values will be more evenly balanced. This will be accomplished by:

• Raising the consciousness of the equality of men and women and all that this implies.
• Encouraging and welcoming women into full partnership with men in all fields of human endeavor.
• Creating unity and equality in the family founded upon the declaration “We will all verily abide by the Will of God” rather than the obedience of the wife to her husband.
• Universal education with priority given to girls and women as they are the first educators of their children.
• Recognizing true liberty/victory is achieved through submission to the Will of God.
• Replacing the primary values of power and material wealth with service and virtue.
• Replacing Competition to beat others with vying with others to achieve excellence.
• Setting the common good above private interest.
• Working for the betterment of the world rather than the acquisition of wealth and power.
• The creation of a divinely guided administrative order that places power and authority in elected institutions rather than appointed or elected individuals including the elimination of a clergy.
• Having a non-competitive, non-partisan democratic electoral process that facilitates the election of people based on their qualities of character irrespective of gender.
• Avoiding partisan politics and any other activity that will divert the Faith from its ultimate goal of the peace and well-being of all of humanity therefore avoiding the involvement of the Faith in the subversive acquisition of power.

These are but a few of the salient directions found in the volumes of the Bahá’í Teachings. There is much, much more guidance for building this new world order. These teachings are not a collection of ideas from people, they are the Revelation of Bahá’u'lláh, the Divine Source of guidance for this age of human evolution. The key to the success of the Bahá’í solution to achieve the equality of women and men is that it engages our minds, attracts our hearts, quickens our spirits and transforms us individually and collectively. In closing, following is a quotation from the Bahá’í Sacred Writings regarding the equality of women and men:

And among the teachings of Bahá’u'lláh is the equality of women and men. The world of humanity has two wings — one is women and the other men. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly.

Don Brown, Sooke, B.C., Canada

(References to quoted sources provided upon request.)