SOCIAL MOBILIZATION AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

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SOCIAL MOBILIZATION AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
A STUDY IN SELECTED AREAS OF AJK (Page 2)

Written by Abid Ghafoor Chaudhry

INTRODUCTION

Almost all societies of the past have been patriarchal, meaning in effect that women have had second-class status. If we go back to early Greek civilization, it can be seen that the power the Greek husband and over his wife was no less than what he had over his children. If they had no children, he could divorce her. During his lifetime, the dowry of the wife became the husband's property and he had the rights to any separate earning she might have acquired. She was under his jurisdiction almost entirely and could not leave the house without his permission. BY contrast the early Roman wife was both honored and subordinated. She was highly respected, and yet she was given no tangible legal rights. In Chinese life, the women had always been regarded as inferior to man and she had no rights what so ever. Women continued to be treated in many respects as second class persons during 18th century. They received very little formal education because it was commonly believed that girls were unfit in brain and character and could not study seriously. It was argued that girls should be taught how to run a household and if suitable, how to display the graces of a lady.

Bell (1979) discuss that in 1792, the first comprehensive attack on marriage as it then existed and the way in which it subjugated women was made by Mary Wollstoncraft in a book called "A Vindication of the Rights of women". Actually, she did not want to do away with marriage but rather to correct some of the inequalities that existed. She argued that women should have increased social and economic rights as well as greater education, so that during life they would not have to be submissive, but rather equal to their husbands.

Different conflict theorists like Chafetz (1984), Collins (1985) and Sanday (1981) argued that men can enjoy superior status only if women have inferior status, and the existing gender role patterns allow them to maintain their political, social and economic privileges.

Brydon (1988) discusses that the underlying source of sexual inequality in the view of conflict theorists is the economic inequality between men and women. Wealth is a prime source of social status, moreover, it can be converted into power and prestige as well. It follows that if men make a greater economic contribution to the family and the society than women, they are likely to have superior social status both in power and prestige.

The advent of industrialization, urbanization and the nuclear family is argued to have upset this essential complimentarity of gender relations. The removal of production from the household leads to a spatial divide between remunerated labor and domestic work. Women continue to perform key functions such as housework and childcare in the home, yet men perform their earning activities away from the household. Since capitalism tends to define "work" only as that which is remunerated, women's, unpaid labor becomes progressively under valued. The home based nature of domestic work and childcare also means that women become less visible to other household members. Male control of the wages leads to a situation where women lose power in family decision-making, their economic dependence is increased and female subordination becomes ever more entrenched.