Patriarchy and violence against women

PATRIARCHY AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her The Man-made World or Our Androcentric Culture (1911 ) presents the most comprehensive statement of her overall theory . In it she argues that we live in a patriarchy or what she calls an androcentric , male-centered society and that our culture in all its aspects reflects this androcentric bias . Gilman sees this bias as destructive because the male sensitivity is destructive . A woman-centered , or better a mother-centered , world would be very different , because it would express the positive , benign character pf women

's sensitivities . In this work , and in His Religion and Hers Gilman presents her most extreme statement of the radical differences between men and women . These differences she attributes to prehistoric roles assigned the two sexes . The male naturally fights , and naturally crows , triumphs over his rival and takes the prize - therefore , he was made male . Maleness means war (92 ) while the basic feminine impulse is to gather , to put together , to construct the basic masculine impulse to scatter , to disseminate , to destroy (114

A male-centered culture reflects these negative masculine concerns in nearly every area of expression . Some of Gilman 's most original contributions to feminist theory are contained in her discussion of the ideological warp impressed upon language , art , literature , sports education , government and religion by the androcentric perspective While public society is organized as a democracy , the man-made home remains despotism ' The male is esteemed the `head of the family it belongs to him he maintains it and the rest of the world is a wide hunting ground and battlefield wherein he competes with other males as of old (41

In the proprietary family ' of the patriarchate , women remain men 's property in the household they are little more than objects whose purpose is first and foremost . a means of pleasure to him (32 Every law and custom ' of the family relation ' is arranged from the masculine viewpoint (35 . From this same viewpoint . comes the requirement that the woman shall serve the man (35

A greater challenge occurs when campaigns to improve gender equality by promoting the well-being of the marginalized are conducted in sync with trade and development policies that favor the economically strong multinationals and compromise the welfare of the lowly locals particularly the helpless women and children . We ought to remember that sexism and patriarchy are all manifestations of a power struggle between the strong and the weak , the same kind of struggle linked to globalization and trade liberalization today . Patriarchy involves an imbalance of power between man and woman leading to unequal roles and benefits , a situation that can be seen in a larger context between the developing and the industrialized economies , as the latter 's efforts to spread globalization and to weaken the former 's trade laws also leads to unequal gains . Globalization 's capitalistic intent , although beneficial in several ways since it brings development to poorer states , may be cultural imperialism dressed in new clothes when the more powerful party uses...