“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own”
― Audre Lorde
This is 2020 and a 12-year-old Meera peeps outside her window for hours day after another. She sat through the morning sun and waited for the moon to set in and oh! She sighed as the autumn leaves fell on her window as she flipped through the pages of a book of Bengali poems, yesterday it was ‘Abhilash’ by Rabindranath Tagore and today it was ‘The fruit of the tree of knowledge’ by Kamini Roy. She wrote, “ The Male desire to rule is the primary, if not the only, stumbling block to women’s enlightenment. They are extremely suspicious of women’s emancipation. Why? The same old fear- the lest they become like us”
Meera thought to herself, what is enlightenment?
Women of Yesterday
Enlightenment in 16th-century Europe was one of many outcomes of 30 years war from 1618 to 1648, as a result, many authors like Hugo and John Comenius went ahead against tradition to question some of the most rational questions of time. However, there’s not much reference to the role of women in the period of enlightenment. The status of women during the period of enlightenment is highly debated in academia and many of their works remain rather unpublished to date, which makes it difficult to understand 16th century Europe from the eyes of a woman. Enlightenment brought with itself ideals of tolerance, liberty and progress, but these ideals remained rather secluded to middle and upper-class women who were able to discuss issues like politics, equality and sexuality in salons, coffee houses and debating societies. Among enlightened philosophers was John Locke who believed that the notion of male superiority was created by men and on the contrary Rousseau believed that women were subordinate to men and women must obey men. It is surprising to note such contrasting belief systems, that also highlight the fact that maybe, we’ve come far from where we were centuries ago but often we see more of Rousseau than Locke even in 21st century.
Tracing The Legacy Of Women Issues In Mid-19th Century India
Modern Europe saw the rise of some of the most renowned feminists, however, we see flashes of feminism in India primarily beginning from the mid-19th century, this was the time of reform movement centred around Indian freedom struggle when social reformers like Savitribai Phule, Kamini Roy, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Behramji Malabari among others talked of issues surrounding rights of women and social injustice. There was much hue and cry over the abolition of Sati but reformers like Ram Mohan Roy held their ground and even went ahead and said that “Sati was murder according to every shastra”.Issues like age of consent were debated in middle and upper-middle-class quarters, but such regulations did not reach the masses, it is astonishing to know that the practice of child marriage and crime against minor girls and children are on a rise even after over a hundred years of increasing the age of consent. Where did we go wrong? Before we try and analyse the answer let us look at some revolutionary women who changed the course of history for all women.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Late 18th century saw the first feminist philosopher in history, Mary Wollstonecraft, she was among the first women to openly publish under her name, she is widely known for the book, A vindication of the rights of women, it was a philosophical text for the education of women. She famously said “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves” what she meant by this was that seeking the rights for women does not in any regard mean taking away rights of men, the essential purpose of all rights of women is not to control men, rather have the right over herself, her soul, her being, the very right that women over the world are still fighting for. For years altogether she wrote about how systematic patriarchy blinds women in the garb of obedience and how important it is for a woman to be strengthening their minds to become rational human beings.
Kamini Roy
Kamini Roy was born at a time when national freedom struggle was gaining ground but there was rather a lack of women participation in public life, born in a small village in present-day Bangladesh, Roy spearheaded the suffragette movement in India, after a long struggle, the Bengal legislative granted limited suffragette to women in 1925, she was among the first girls to attend school in British India. As a young woman she enjoyed writing and poetry, she quotes “why should a woman be confined to the home and denied her rightful place in society?” This was a revolutionary message for the time as it portrayed the zeal within young women who actively wished to participate in public life, who wanted nothing less than emancipation.
20th-Century Position Of Women
20th century was a period of decolonisation and formation of national boundaries. Ideas of sovereignty, republic, democracy were gaining ground, but rights of women remained at the periphery of nation-building. Hence, it is not surprising to know that most countries over the world, more or less, have ensured political rights but despite that remain the second gender, in the light of growing crimes against women it is natural to remember words said by Dr Ambedkar, he said “ political rights mean nothing in the absence of socio-economic rights” perhaps what he meant this was that political rights will only take an individual so far but real emancipation comes from social and economic rights. The example of this can very well be understood in the context of India. Even after over 70 years of independence women membership in the lower house remains at 12%, whereas Rwanda, a small country in Africa has 62% of women representatives. We will now look at how Rwanda achieved these feet.
Women of Impact – Rwanda
It is imperative to ignore how a small country like Rwanda can increase its women participation in a world where three nations; Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu have no women in their central legislation. A country like the U.S; the world biggest superpower has just 23% representation of women in the lower house. Whereas countries where there have been improvements in numbers of female legislators, they have had a long history of women’s inclusion in public life. One of the reasons for the high number of women legislators is rooted in the re-constitution of the Rwandan constitution post-genocide in 2003. The new constitution allowed leaders to include progressive measures like gender equality, mandating a minimum 30% quota for women in parliament. It is now documented that countries where there is a significant reservation of seats for women in parliament, there has been a jump in numbers, Nepal has 33% quota whereas Djibouti has over 15% women parliamentarians. Another reason for a growing women representation lies in the fact that Rwanda has a proportional electoral system where a percentage of government seats held by a party is roughly equal to the percentage of voters who support the party. Women’s caucus in Rwanda developed a strategy to increase participation of women, they had veteran lawmakers run for open seats whereas reserved seats were ushered by newcomers. The passing of the anti-violence legislation is among one of their biggest achievements.
Status of Women in the 21st Century
Women form almost 50% of the world population, any significant growth cannot be realised without the participation of women as a global citizen but before we focus on that, the world needs to give the status of a human being to a woman. The moment women are considered human beings and not just a commodity, probably half the race will be won. The other has to be won by working on multiple levels, ranging from strong legislation for crimes towards women to gender sensitisation in primary, secondary and high schools. The concept of consent is gaining ground and ever more important, especially in a world where most crimes against women are committed by a known entity. This only strengthens the notion that sensitisation at school might be the first step in the right direction but there has to be ensured gender sensitisation of parents right after the birth of a child. State and non-state actors, media, celebrities across the world and people like us who are part of society must do our bit in ensuring that women are given their due status in society not because they are women but rather because they are human beings.
What Will The Woman Of Tomorrow Want?
For every 1000 baby boys, we have 940 girls. For starters, women of tomorrow must want to bridge this ratio. Women of tomorrow will want to not only be born and be granted the rights that already exist for them but also occupy more and more public spaces, women of tomorrow will want to be writers, a politician, scientist, musician, painter, journalist, a homemaker, teacher, work in an MNC but all by her choice, and not by compulsion. She will want to occupy not just public space but also live a life without the fear of harassment, she will want to take a sanitary napkin to the washroom without the fear of a male guardian knowing that she is on her period. Women of tomorrow will always be like the woman of today and yesterday, their demands might change over time but at the heart of it, she just wants to live a life of dignity, she only wishes to a life she chose for herself.
As for Meera, let’s just hope she gains the true meaning of enlightenment in a few years, and let us make sure it remains only a few.
A good read and a well researched article. The plight of women explained beautifully in words. We need more such articles and more such writers like you who are bold and explicit in their content.
Thank you so much
A wise comparison of the past,present and the future and an interesting case study of Rwanda. Very informative. Feminism is the future. Let’s just hope we see more of Locke than Rousseau in future.
Thank you so much.
While reading an article like this., you get a glimpse of all the prejudice..,which if you look deep enough, you will notice it’s presence everywhere. And you realise, how much more we can do to play our part. And the first step would be .,to help the 12 year old Meera to become someone like Kamini Roy from 19th century or the Author of this article from 21st century.
Thank you so much