"Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age. As students, women are probably treated with more equality than we ever will be again. The school is only too glad to get the tuitions we pay. But later come the important 'radicalizing' stages in a woman's life. The first is when she enters the labor force and discovers that men by and large, still control the workplace. The second is when she marries and learns that marriage is not yet a completely equal partnership. The third is when she has children and finds out who is the principal child-rearer. And the fourth is when she ages, which still involves greater penalties for women than for men."-- Gloria Steinem (quoted in the book: "
May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India by Elisabeth Bumiller.)
As an over-confident, self-righteous college student (I write this as if I've changed), I espoused an quixotic argument that the study of feminism was meaningless. While I didn't have the words for it at the time, through the haze of my polemic, the idea of mainstreaming drifts to the forefront of memory. I guess I thought that studying it in such a defined category really didn't do a whole lot of good. That the world needed action. And I thought action meant work, outside the home. My poor roommate and best friend was forced to listen to my ranting as she earned her degree in feminism.
As Lenin aptly put, "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement." Now I find myself reading as much as I can about theories of feminism and women's rights. And simultaneously eating my words. I guess in part because it's my job. But the chicken or the egg? I sought the job because women's rights interests me, I'm interested in women's rights because it's my job.
And it is so interesting. I work on a holistic gender empowerment project in Senegal. It is a new component to a community empowerment program the organization has been successfully implementing in rural communities for years. Participants in these nonformal education classes will now learn about gender, in addition to human rights and general life skills.
Gender is culturally influenced. In Senegal, the categories of gender seem more calcified and rigid than in the United States. Indeed, Western women are referred to as the Third Gender because we don't fit into their predefined categories. In Senegal, women are very much relegated to the private sphere, or the reproductive activities in a society. They cook, they clean, they take care of children and elderly, they take care of the sick and any other domestic necessities. They mainly stay at home. The men are the "productive" members.
Besides work, there are other practices that I believe limit the freedoms of women. Polygomy is practiced by 20% of the population (family.jrank.org). Men can have as many as 4 wives. Of course, the reverse is not true. 25% of the total population practices Female Genital Cutting. Unfortunately the rate is as high as 80-90% among practicing groups. The national rate is low due to the Wolofs, whom make up 40% of the population but do not practice (DHS). Close to 90% of women marry before the age of 18 (DHS).
Having come from a different background, I have to admit that certain aspects of these gender roles do nothing less than infuriate me. I sometimes find myself swallowing my anger. But in part this experience is helping me to reflect on my own culture and America's oppression of women.
We have gender roles that are just as limiting. While "liberated" women now have the ability to work outside the home, we also must do the majority of the domestic work. I remember in August, having returned from Jordan, watching American comericals for the first time in a year. Every single domestic product from laundry detergent, to dish soap to diapers was geared towards women. I never once saw a man mopping with Mr. Clean.
While America doesn't expect women to cover their faces, we do something quite the opposite, but I think just as sick. Our expectations of beauty for women are so high and pressured that one in 200 American women suffers from anorexia and two to three in 100 American women suffers from bulimia (an estimated 10-15% of people with anorexia and bulimia are males) (South Carolina Department of Mental Health). This is just one example of a culture that is highly obsessed and demanding of the way a woman looks. While I think there is pressure for men to look good too, I challenge anyone to argue this pressure is equal.
This might be true the world over. I know some say it's simply biology. I can't quite aptly comment on that. But I do know that expectations of beauty are different. For example, I recently shaved my head. Not to make a point but because it just looks so much more comfortable and easy. And it is. It took me six months to build up the courage to go bald. I was worried about other people's reactions. In Senegal though, people love it. Men constantly compliment me on my new look. I hear Rafetna (Wolof) and Joli (French) (both words for pretty), regularly. I know that most men's reactions in the US would be more likely to wonder if I'm a lesbian. As well, a skinny woman here is far less desirable that a voluptuous woman. I have to admit, I find these expectations of beauty liberating.
Regardless of differences in expectations, I truly believe women are the most oppressed minority in the world. People think change has come and gone and we're now empowered. Let's move on to the developing countries who still need the revolution. This, of course, is crap. Unfortunately I find myself at a loss to support my assessments and observations with theory. So I've decided to dedicate my blog for the remainder of my year in Senegal to the subject of gender. It will only help with my work and will motivate me to read books and journals I should have long ago familarized myself with.
