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The Protracted Struggle for Gender Equality -- The solutions lie with the men



The long struggle for Gender Equality!

For gender or women justice campaigners,  just know that the struggle started long --long before and one wonders when it will end! So what is not working? step back and reflect.

I stumbled on a phenomenal lady of the 17th century, Olympe de Gouges, 7 May 1748 – 3 November 1793). Born Marie Gouze,  she was a French playwright and political activist whose feminist and abolitionist writings reached a large audience in those days.

She stepped into the space of men, long before the days when the likes of  Napoleon thought women should be trained to be good housewives. She demanded for rights of women alongside the rights of men.

In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. She was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror (1793_1794) for attacking the regime of the Revolutionary government and for her association with the Girondists.

What shocks me in the present time, is that women are still fighting the injustices that Olympe experienced that time, 270 years ago!. She was forced into marriage against her will, to a man she did not love and got a child before the man died. The trauma of that experience pitted her against the  marriage institution, which she called the "the tomb of trust and love". She refused marriage proposals even when they were offered.

Notable is her resilience. She goes into the city and mingles with writers, politicians, etc, she wrote and staged plays, campaigned against slavery, violence and injustices --- and she was attacked, because  a woman's proper place was not in the theatre!!

It is reported that, the influential Abraham-Joseph Bénard remarked "Mme de Gouges is one of those women to whom one feels like giving razor blades as a present, who through their pretensions lose the charming qualities of their sex... Every woman author is in a false position, regardless of her talent".!!!!!! haven't we seen similar in this century??

She was not deterred by her enemies, she continued campaigning for human rights. In 1791, in response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, she wrote the ''Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen". This was followed by her "Social Contract," named after a famous work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, proposing marriage based upon gender equality. (those who studied history, you will remember the role of Jean - Jacques in the French revolution - still wondering how relevant that revolution was to my education :-))

She opposed capital punishment, violence and she advocated for a constitutional monarchy -- and no one could take it! In summary, she was arrested on trumped up charges and executed for her beliefs.

First forward, I realise that the issues she stood for still plague us today-- girls forced into marriage, rape, defilement, modern day slavery, violence etc. What happened to the declaration of the rights of woman and the female citizen? Yes, steps have been taken where women are in top positions (and I can write without fear of being threatened-- just  may be?), but is it genuine that the two sexes are working equitably and sharing development benefits? how about the sexual harassment cases at the UN conferences? how about the sexually assaulted women who report and get ignored? how about the poor women in the villages who become homeless when they separate with husbands? how about girls dropping out of school due to poverty and the burden of caring for families? How about women who are paid less?-- The list is endless

Until the men become part of the solution, we shall keep chasing out tails on gender equality issues. Feminists can talk forever but we need men on board to analyse the power imbalance between the sexes, the cost benefit analysis of balanced decisions and the role each of us plays for better families, societies and world solutions. Until we sit on the same table without bias and jointly search for solutions, the Olympe's of this world will have died in vain.



source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Woman_and_of_the_Female_Citizen

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