Given the question ‘List the ways in which it would be better if women dominated social and political life” our group failed to do this. Not because women wouldn’t effectively run society and not because men ineffectively run society but our final conclusion was that for an ideal society, equality is key. We flipped the coin and imagined a matriarchal world but still developed the same problems that exist today. The main problem with our social and political life being run by men is that this is sexist. If a woman ran our social and political life then this would still be sexist. Therefore, our political and social life should be run by both male and female together.
However, is this possible? Is it possible for men and women to actually be equal and lead together? If it is possible, then why isn’t it occurring today? Does there always have to be one sex above the other for society to function or can it work effectively together? A major factor to why there are so many problems in our society is because equality does not exist, whether this is equality in gender, race, religion, age etc.
One question we discussed was that if we had lived in a matriarchal society throughout history then would our world today look completely different or would we again be facing the same problems? Would everyone be living in peaceful harmony or would men be fighting for their rights to have more to look forward to in life than just being a ‘house husband’? Furthermore, is it possible for women to receive full equal rights? Some argue yes; we live in a world today where women have the choice to go to work or stay at home, they have the vote, they can earn their own wage, they have rights for their career, their marriages, their own bodies and therefore we’re living in the most equal world we have ever lived in. However, others argue that it is impossible that women will ever have full equal rights for the simple fact that they are the sex that have children. If women decided to focus on a career instead of have children (though arguably they can do both) then society would cease to exist. It is tradition and it is engrained that women will have the children and stay at home with them. Yes, there are an incredible amount of stay-at-home fathers nowadays, yet the percentage of this is tiny compared to stay-at-home mothers.
We then focused our attention on sexism within the church. We came to the conclusion that sexism within Christianity can be eradicated. The two main problems to why sexism exists are tradition and difficult biblical passages. By researching into the context of why what was said was said in the bible, then many believe women can access full leadership potential. If women are then seen in leadership roles then tradition will slowly ebb away. However, this does pose a dilemma for many in the church. If a woman were to be a priest because the bible just needs to be looked at in context then why can’t a homosexual become a priest because again, what was said may just have been said in the context of that day? Ultimately, women are slowly becoming more equal within the church, though very slowly.
To summarise, a world led by women would not necessarily be better than our world led by men. Our social and political life would be better if women and men lead equally.
Great stuff again Chloe - I very much enjoy reading your posts. You clearly understand complex ideas and concepts very well. Two things you could work on. First you could refer to more authors that you have read - either summarizing their views or quoting from them. I think you have read people but you don't mention it. Second you tend to ask a lot of questions in the posts - this is a good rhetorical device but you should avoid it too much. But overall excellent posts - well done.
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