Exploring the role of women in cultures globally
Mosua Tribe, China
On International Women’s Day, we are reflecting on the increasing global role of women as societal influencers. Traditionally, Western cultures have been power-led, with formal political and social structures based around rule by law and formal power structures. As society is shifting towards a model whereby we choose our thought leaders based on synergies with our values (rather than who is elected to office), women are increasingly able to influence thought and effect change. While we wait patiently for Although the US to benefit from a female head of state, a glance through last year’s Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women shows the global importance of female figure heads from a variety of sectors, as disrupters and perception-shifters: from Angela Merkel’s crusade against Anti-Immigrant sentiment in Europe to Taylor Swift’s war on patriarchal music moguls and private equity firms over song ownership rights. The rising presence of Greta Thornberg, embodies the persuasive power of strength of female conviction.
This notion of woman as influencer is best summed up by Nancy Pelosi, the current US Speaker of the House (the first woman to hold the role):
‘I WOULD MAKE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN POWER AND INFLUENCE.
SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO POWER REALLY BUT THEY HAVE TREMENDOUS INFLUENCE.
YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE.’
Some may argue women have always ruled by the backdoor, and been able to influence and effect change, even when formal power structures mean they lack, or are denied, conventional power. This goes beyond the old cliché of ‘behind every great man is a great woman’, indeed, women for centuries have ruled in their own ways. Traditional Italian culture for instance, sees men as the head of their families in terms of conventional power but women as the ‘soul’ of the family, responsible for the social cohesion of the family unit, afforded huge respect, and nowadays statistically more likely to receive an education than their male counterparts. Similarly, in Japan the conventional (and outwardly submissive) role of courtesan, holds with it the power to advise and guide the decision-making of the men in power.
Italian nonna
We’re delighted to discover there are some surviving matriarchal societies, where women hold all positions of power. The Mosuo people of China is both matriarchal and matrilineal (i.e. property is passed down through the female line). The BriBri people in Costa Rica take it one stage further, with women revered and the only one’s able to prepare the sacred cacao drink used in rituals. Often the very thing which is seen to hold women back in patriarchal societies, the fact women are child-bearers, is what gives them power in indigenous matriarchal societies. For instance, the Minangkabau in Indonesia believe that the mother is the most important person in society and the Khasi in India believe that women should have all positions of power, as well as ensuring mothers and mothers-in-law are the only ones allowed to look after children (in addition on marriage the husband takes the wife’s name). These ancient cultures look back to a time when women’s role as potential powerhouse was not questioned (patriarchal cultures are, it turns out, a fairly recent phenomenon). Ancient Greek history teems with fierce female warriors and wise and successful rulers, after all.
When considering the role of women in society now and through the ages, one thing is apparent: regardless of circumstance or societal structure they find themselves in, women continue to provide be the foundation of any culture and will continue to influence and shape society in whatever way they can.
