Equality of Women and Men

Reynaldo Pareja

• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781643674094
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

We are witnessing today women being elected as presidents or prime ministers, women that have been awarded Nobel prizes, that perform exceedingly in sports winning Olympic medals, women that excel in art, that have defended the rights of the oppressed, that have gone to space, that are active in politics and are CEOs of businesses and corporations. Women today are found in the most di¬ cult jobs such as urgency paramedics, workers in heavy machinery factories, and in the construction of skyscrapers; they are in research laboratories or as members of toxic materials management teams. is was not the scenario 175 years ago. On the contrary, women since the cave times until the dawn of the twentieth century have been oppressed by the fact they were born as women. Social, cultural, economic, and political roles defined by men in those times obliged women to stay at home raising children, without being allowed to aspire to play a significant role in the development of the economic, civic and religious life of their communities. The explosion of women participating today in the social, political, and economic arenas of the advanced countries might give the impression that this was their situation in the past. Not true. is modern movement of women engaged in a tenacious struggle for equality with men has given them unquestionable victories, and a powerful consciousness of their role in the unfolding of a new and powerful history. Their victories, in many occasions, were acquired in open confrontation with men who did not want to accept they had inherent rights. It has been a slow process that has demanded extraordinary e ort from women all over the world. We are just beginning to witness the potential that women have, and we can foresee the brilliant future they are going to create for humanity. Appreciating, defending, and promoting this evolution is an invitation to participate with them in this extraordinary journey destined to be a magnificent stage of evolution for the benefitof all of humanity.

CHAPTER 1

Origins of Inequality between Men and Women

Women’s role within the family, the tribe, and the village had its origins at the very dawn of the appearance of humans. Anthropologists established that this occurred when our distant ancestors appeared at the onset of the Paleolithic Period (also called Old Stone Age). It was characterized by the incipient human referred to as ‘Homo’ using rudimentary chipped stone tools near the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). The Neolithic Period, also called New Stone Age, was the stage of cultural evolution or technological development among prehistoric humans. It was characterized by stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, by dependence on domesticated plants or animals, by the settlement in permanent villages, and the appearance of such crafts as pottery and weaving. (1)

At this early stage of human development, the roles assumed by either men or women were not pre-defined roles nor were they the product of theoreticians elaborating an abstract concept of what she/ he should do within the family unit; humans were basically living in the hunting stage. The role of the man and the woman developed gradually and sprung from practical, everyday chores and tasks that had to be done, rather than a deliberate decision of men to place women in less than equal status and relationship to him. Her role within the early social unit started and developed out of her biological-motherhood, her abilities to do certain types of chores more efficient than men did, and the survival needs of the family, the clan, and the tribe.

A closer look at how this process occurred will show the natural origin of that role, and how later it became structured as a complete subordination to male’s authority and physical power.

Role definition by biological maternity

Before language was developed, concepts were expressed, and social organization was developed, women were conceiving, giving birth to children, and were breastfeeding mothers. This biological role has been exercised by them ever since the human race appeared on Earth, regardless of the evolutionary theory one prefers. Women from the very beginning appeared endowed with a reproductive system that could mold, shape, and give life to another human being inside of them until the baby was mature enough to be born. While the baby developed inside the woman’s womb, he/she did not have to worry about changes in the outside temperature, nor food since it received the nutrients required for its uterine growth directly through the umbilical cord. His ambience temperature was constant, his lighting conditions were superb, his protection from the outside world was a given.

During the Old Stone Age, before full time agriculture and domestication of animals became the stable way of obtaining food, men specialized as hunters. According to some of the most renowned anthropologists, this phase of evolution occurred at about the end of the Mesolithic and beginnings of the Neolithic a period, some 10,000 years ago. (2) This task required very fast running after a prey, circling it, killing it, and carrying it back to the tribe. These steps required a level physical strength that women could not exercise while pregnant. Physical exertion of that type would easily make her have a miscarriage or a forced birth in the field putting the baby and her at high risk. Women, in the context of motherhood that started at a rather early reproductive age, developed very rapidly, far more intensely than men. She developed an intuitive knowledge of the care she had to give the fetus and herself for the baby to be born wholesome, in good health and with the potential to survive. It did not take long for the family unit and the tribe to learn that strenuous physical effort, while pregnant, placed her and the baby at risk, even forced a miscarriage.

Additionally, there was another powerful reason to stay behind while the men were out hunting. Women who gave birth to a child that lived (maternity mortality was very high then) had the additional task of taking care of the infant child who depended entirely on her care to survive. This task was multiplied as more children were born; her reproductive cycle would have allowed abut an average of 8 pregnancies with medium averages of successful deliveries. As we are well aware today, every newborn demand two full years of complete dedication of the mother or an adult to survive. This intense care could not be given to any one child if she was out accompanying her mate in the hunting.

It was thus, a natural consequence for a woman to stay at whatever type of dwelling the family owned or shared (cave, hut, or hovel) and wait for her mate to come back from hunting, which could have lasted for a week or more. When the men did come back, she participated in the preparation of the animals hunted: skinning them, cutting them up, cooking portions, and setting the hide to dry. As soon as the group learned how to preserve the meat by dehydration to last longer, she either was in charge of that endeavor or contributed to that task.

While hunting was almost exclusively done by males, modern anthropologists, such as Kuhn and his wife, and anthropologist Mary Stiner have revised the generally accepted idea of the 20 Century that this was the major source of food for the family. The cited anthropologists propose a theory that says Neanderthals engaged in coed hunting. They argue that meat from the kill came in irregularly and infrequently, and could not be stored adequately. (3) In parallel fashion, James Adovasio, director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie, Pennsylvania and one of three authors of the book, The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory, postulates that in present-day hunter-gatherer societies, the women collect and process most of the plants, trap small game, and sew most of the clothes. (4) Extrapolating this affirmation backwards into ancient times, it is feasible to affirm that such might have been the pattern of our primitive ancestors’ family organization in terms of food source responsibility.

In present day Botswana, Africa the Kung Bushmen may hunt strenuously for a week, and rest the other three weeks. On the other hand, women in this country gather diverse types of food that sustains the tribe of this present-day Stone Age culture. Modern anthropologists estimate that hunting done by these men provides twenty percent of the nourishment, but women regularly produce eighty percent of the tribe’s total food consumption. These conclusions could then be projected backward to the hunting/ gathering societies of prehistoric cultures. Women in those ancient times must not have relied exclusively on the men for food. Through teeth analysis it has been discovered that grain, nuts and fruits were the major foods, not meat, which contributes to the conclusion that women may have been a significant source of the food obtained for the survival of the children and women themselves. (5)

So, it became a custom that women stayed home, and did chores that did not required such strenuous physical exertion, especially while pregnant. She naturally gathered the nearby fruits, nuts and vegetables to complement the feeding of the children and herself, and reserved some for her mate. She also collected artifacts for the cave or the hut. She kept the family’s possessions organized. She distributed the home space to suit her labor such as cooking, feeding the children, creating space for sleeping, for family gatherings, and for storage.

Women’s role defined by division of labor

The start of the Neolithic Period did not occur evenly in the world of that age. Different parts of the world achieved the Neolithic stage at different times. It is generally thought to have occurred sometime about 10,000 bCE. (6)

When the nomad tribes settled down in one spot and engaged in agriculture two basic chores were required: one of sowing and the other of plowing. A woman could take care of the house garden, which avoided having to travel long distances. Planting the house garden did not demand excessive physical effort; it was basically making holes with a stick where she would place the seeds. She thus became naturally the specialist in putting together, taking care, and harvesting the family garden. On the other hand, plowing a field was quite another endeavor. Normally the plots were large enough as to obtain sufficient produce. This meant that they were probably located far from the house, which implied walking a fair long distance sometimes through rough terrain. The extra effort was required by the plowing, which demanded the use of a lot of force to either push the plow or to maintain it under control while the ox did the pulling. This task was too taxing on a woman, especially if she was pregnant, because it could easily provoke a miscarriage. Men, generally having greater strength and no pregnancies to deal with, took over the plowing as they had done with taking over the chore of hunting.

Regardless of this labor specialization of men, studies of the roles of women in different types of agricultural communities show a remarkably consistent pattern. Horticultural societies, in which hoes or digging sticks are used for making holes to plant roots or seeds, women usually undertook this task, and this would have been the earliest pattern of development. Only in societies where plough agriculture is practiced and animals are kept on a significant scale, do we find most of the agricultural work done by men. Anthropologists conclude this is true of present-day parallel societies too. (7)

As more land came under cultivation with usage of the plough, farming became more labor intensive and larger in scope. Women would have contributed with more children to fill the increase labor demand. As women spent more time pregnant and caring for their children, they had less time for farming activities, and so by default men took over many of those tasks. Women no longer contributed as much to the economic structure of the household, and consequently their rights and status were lessened. Women’s economic contributions have always been critical factors in maintaining their equality, an important leitmotif throughout the history of women.

In conjunction with these significant changes in the economic structure of society, it is worth noting that a transition from matrilocal and matrilineal descent to patrilocal and patrilineal descent took place. There seems to be a very strong ethnographic correlation between male-dominated farming and patrilineal descent and patrilocal residence. Individual land ownership is less common amongst hoe agriculturalists, where matrilineal and matrilocal residence was more important. On the other hand, a male farmer who had a significant amount of land would teach his sons the necessary skills to assist him and carry on after his demise. In a matrilineal system, it is the male’s sisters’ sons rather than his own sons that inherited these herds, land, and equipment after his death. (8)

Women in their roles of gathering, preserving, and storing food stuffs would undoubtedly have invented weaving and pott...

Table of contents

• Equality of Women & Men
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Origins of Inequality between Men and Women
• Chapter 2: Inequality of men and women– historical manifestations
• Chapter 3: Redefining women’s creation story
• Chapter 4: Women’s New Era
• Chapter 5: Women’s Brilliant Future
• Bibliography
• Endnotes