Despite a number of you accepting the notion that in your cultures women's roles are confined to traditional participation in the family business, very little has paid attention to the 'invisible matriarch' and the influence along the 3 key dimensions: ownership, business management, family! This paper may offer a route to re-construct traditional notions of the role of women through investigating their perceptions rather than that attitude by others.
Hello Ed,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read in regards to invisible matriarchies and the role of women within this particular Nigerian rural community. I found this to be extremely interesting and can note some similarity amongst these brave women and the women of rural Pakistani villages. I found the definition of women quite interesting and how there is no local word for transgender women. This is quite interesting and reminds me of a documentary I watched on Pakistani transgenders and their place in society. In Pakistan there is a large transgender community and although the government has formally stated that they recognize them the law is not exactly implemented. Trasngenders in Pakistan are not even allowed to have an ID card and are not even allowed to have respectable jobs and education, which is why they reluctantly force themselves into prostitution and lead miserable lives where they are wrongly demeaned and considered a social stigma.
I found this concept of invisible matriarchies extremely interesting and in this way we can probably concur that every woman is a queen in her own home no matter how much she is demoralized by her male peers. I noticed in the recommendation they mention governments should be fair in providing an environment for cultural repositioning through ‘good governance’. These government policies should recognize gender equality and allow gender equitable cultural practices. This will promote a form of cultural repositioning. From what I read I think this is quite a naïve recommendation and would be a policy that is easier said than done. This is because in an excerpt provided on page 10 a male interviewee mentions how patriarchy has been embedded within their society for generations. This interviewee talks of how men ‘suffer a lot’ to provide for the family and how his mother’s generation was more peaceful because she accepted this form of patriarchy. Well how can someone so stringent in these backwards patriarchal beliefs even abide by laws placed by a government to give women more freedom? In this article it speaks of women and how they farm and play a large roll in mat weaving, yet this interviewee thinks only what he is doing is feeding his family.
I think before governments can contribute towards a cultural shift they must make education for girls mandatory in these rural areas. I noticed in the authors research only one man and one woman had a bachelors degree and the others were mostly illiterate. I do personally believe that education can allow people to see that some forms of culture are just not acceptable anymore in order to survive in the world. I think education and not culture are the answer to problems in rural areas such as Africa and Pakistan. I believe if governments were to make education mandatory till at least grade 12 for girls and men they would be simultaneously contributing towards a cultural shift. I think education will enable a freer society where women and their entrepreneurial endeavours can be recognized