The
relationship between males and females has maintained a particular type
of power formalization for thousands of years. The reason why the power
pattern still operates smoothly is that, the ones who are oppressed
still hold an attitude of tolerance toward the inequality. Certainly
they fear the oppressors』 repression, knowing well the high and obvious
price of resistance. However, I believe knowledge of the widespread
inequality of the sexes would help women unite and work toward changing
their condition.
During the history of human
development, the agricultural and industrial revolutions are the two
truly outstanding events which have brought new standards of knowledge
and technology. Although human beings have gone through those two
quantum leaps, there is still little progress in the basic constitution
of our society, the gender system and the unequal status of the female.
In other words, sexism still exists all over the world. Many countries
such as India, Africa, etc., have all practiced girl infanticide because
most of them consider that boys are better than girls because boys can
do more things to earn a living. Women are then relegated to staying at
home, raising children, and waiting upon husbands. In China, it is a
tradition that every girl must be good at needlework and, while she gets
married, she must engrave the 「three obedience and four virtues」 on her
mind in order to be a desirable wife. Such conditions may have improved
somewhat in the modern age, yet women are still considered the second
sex, suffering great inequalities and heavy burdens of housework.
Likewise in Shirley Jackson』s The Lottery,
when villagers gather in the square, the activities of men and women are
distinctly different: The men folk talk about taxes, planting, and so
forth, but the women have to "come shortly after their men folk and
their conversations are to exchange gossips one another." Furthermore,
the women』s garments tell us that their jobs are obviously limited to
housekeeping, rearing little kids, cleaning dishes, and so on. Then as
the lottery proceeds, the women are always the last ones to draw the lot
and a married woman is not allowed to join her own family but must draw
with her husband's family. The most unfair thing is that while the
woman may be pushed behind in the drawing, she is never allowed such
tardiness when it comes to her stoning if she happens to draw the
unlucky lot.
As a country moves toward
democracy, it is inevitable that the spirit of equality would also enter
the family, thus causing a revolution in the intimate sphere. The final
ideal world of gender equality is not that women should be 「like」 men in
every way, but that men and women can share the same opportunities and
shoulder the same responsibilities, as well as choose and establish
their own life styles according to their particular personalities,
talents, values, and hard work.