The Second Cornerstone: Gender Relations
How society constructs the roles and relations of women and men is central to the construction of every social institution, from the family to religion to politics and economics as well as to the society’s guiding systems of values.
Two Halves of Humanity
How a society constructs the roles and relations of the two halves of humanity – women and men – is central to the construction of every social institution, from the family and religion to politics and economics as well as to the society's guiding systems of values. It is even central to a nation's general quality of life. For example, Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life – a study based on statistics from 89 nations by the Center for Partnership Studies (www.partnershipway.org) – found that the status of women can be a better predictor of general quality of life than even GDP or GNP, the conventional measures of a nation's economic health.
One reason for this is that, despite myriads of philosophical and religious pronouncements that values such as caring, compassion, and nonviolence should govern human relations, in practice these values remain subordinate and excluded from social governance as long as the half of humanity with which they are primarily associated – the female half – remains subordinate and excluded from social governance.
This is not a matter of women against men or of something inherent in women rather than men. Stereotypically feminine traits, such as caring and nonviolence, can be found in both women and men. Stereotypical women's work, such as taking care of children and maintaining a clean and healthy home environment, can also be performed by both women and men. However, in societies adhering closely to the dominator model these traits and activities are considered appropriate only for women and inappropriate for "real men."
Sign of Hope
A sign of hope is that there is today strong movement towards real partnership in all spheres of life between women and men, along with a blurring of rigid gender stereotypes. Men are nurturing babies and women are entering positions of leadership. But this movement is still slow and localized, and is in some cultures and subcultures fiercely opposed; for example, by so-called religious fundamentalist leaders.
What is needed is for the world's progressive leaders to give policy and fiscal priority to a global campaign for equitable and nonviolent gender relations. Giving priority to such so-called "women's issues" has enormous implications for the environment, peace, population, economic equity, and political democracy.
We cannot really talk of representative democracy as long as women still hold a small minority of political positions. We cannot realistically expect to end the arms build-ups that are today bankrupting our world as well as the terrorism and aggressive warfare that in our age of nuclear and chemical warfare threaten our species' survival as long as long as boys and men continue to be socialized to equate "real masculinity" with violence and control - be it through "heroic" epics or war toys or violent and brutal television shows. Nor can we realistically expect an end to racism, anti-Semitism, and other ugly isms as long as people learn early on to equate difference – beginning with the fundamental difference between female and male – with superiority or inferiority, with dominating or being dominated.
