As Women’s History Month wraps up, it’s high time for the United States to finally ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and change the shameful fact that we’re practically the only nation that has failed to do so.
Some people may think equality between women and men is “just a women’s issue” and that this is a time when we have to address “more important” matters. But in fact, the movement toward gender equity is central to the success of the global movement toward more democratic and egalitarian relations in both the so-called private and public spheres.
Societies where women’s and men’s roles are rigidly circumscribed, which are generally also rigidly male-dominated societies, are by and large societies where we see a generally authoritarian, top-down family and social structure.
For example, with the rise to power of Hitler in Germany and the imposition of a brutally authoritarian and very violent regime, there was a strong push to return women to their “traditional” roles in a male-dominated family. When Khomeini came to power in Iran and imposed severe theocratic control, one of his first acts was to repeal laws giving women some family rights. And right here in the United States, the people who believe in “holy wars” and theocratic rule also see the return to a “traditional” male-dominated, authoritarian, highly punitive family as a top priority.
Conversely, in the Nordic nations, strong emphasis on gender equality has gone along with both political and economic democracy, as well as with social priority given to activities stereotypically associated with women such as child care, health care and environmental housekeeping.
This should not surprise us, since the domination of one half of humanity by the other is a basic model for all forms of domination. Conversely, the equal valuing of the two halves of humanity teaches children from early on to value diversity, rather than seeing it as a reason for ranking superior” people over “inferior” ones. This is why those parts of our world where the movement to raise the status of women has been most successful are also more generally democratic.
Raising the status of women worldwide is essential if we are to move to a world of greater partnership and peace. It is high time the United States regain its place of leadership in the movement toward freedom, democracy, and equality – beginning with equality between the two halves of humanity: women and men.
Riane Eisler is President of the Center for Partnership Studies (www.partnershipway.org) and is best known as author of The Chalice and The Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations.
