If Women Ruled The World

If women ruled the world

I am not a fan of If women ran the world, there wouldn’t be any wars.  It’s just too trite.  It also negates the fact that there are women out there that can do terrible things. However, when I asked myself what makes the Middle East volatile, I thought about how the culture continues to subjugate women.

 I believe the two may go hand in hand.  The question to why women are treated like property is simple.  Men enjoy the power.  They have their interpretation of the Quran to back them.  However, other cultures had that same power over women as well as conquered and indigenous people and they have at least improved in the treat all people well department.

Let me be clear, I am not condemning all Muslims or their faith.  In the book The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad talked about the ebb and flow of how badly women are treated in Afghanistan regimes (such as the Taliban).  The more brutal of people in power, the more women are treated like property.

Why? 

What is it that cultures that treat women like property fear?  I don’t think they can identify their fear, but it must be there.  Do they fear losing control?  Are they afraid of progress?  That women will prove themselves to be smarter?

Is our progress due to the move toward equality of women in our culture?  The comparison makes me say yes.  Some cultures love of violence also makes me say yes.  Why exactly, I have yet to work out.  I suspect that industrialization forged new roles for women that empowered them and left men no choice but to treat women differently.  Then birth control gave women the opportunity to more fully step away from subservience. 

My main point is that female intellect not infused into the decision making process stops cultures from finding nonviolent options.  A female candidiate for president would not keep us out of war or force us into a war.  However, if women ran a few of the Muslim cultures……

Other thoughts:

Women at first were taught to read and write to be able to make future generations good citizens.

They were also taught to be more desirable to high class men-  people did not have arranged marriages.

Industrialization made print materials readily available and more difficult to be illiterate. (Knowledge is power).