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At the core of this blog is the document, “Advancing Towards the Equality of Women and Men.” Below is the first part of the document:
Establishing the equality of women and men in society is a matter of vital importance to human advancement and one which has occupied the minds and driven the efforts of many people. Undoubtedly great advances have been made over the years in promoting this principle through the contributions of feminist thought and numerous individuals and groups acting in different social spaces around the world. Yet, despite these efforts to accord women full equality with men, numerous challenges still exist.
In this document the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity draws attention to a few of these challenges and examines them in the light of certain principles and aims that can potentially shape our responses to them. The thoughts offered here are a result of the endeavors of the Bahá’í community, since its inception, to put into practice the principle of the equality of women and men in its activities worldwide and the Institute’s decade-long efforts to generate learning and gain insights about issues of global concern in collaboration with others.
The purpose of this working document is to invite dialogue and reflection on the challenges that face everyone who is actively contributing to the cause of the equality of women and men, as a means of advancing collective efforts toward the realization of this goal. The ideas conveyed here presume that the equality of men and women is a fundamental truth about human reality and not just a desired condition to be achieved for the good of society. The reality of the human being is his or her soul; and the soul, we firmly believe, has no sex. Men and women exhibit physical differences that undeniably influence some aspects of how they experience the world. Yet, in their essence, in their qualities and potentialities, in those aspects that make human beings human, men and women are without distinction. Neither can claim superiority over the other. “Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God.” It is therefore imperative that the equality that already exists as a spiritual truth be expressed in practice.
Why is the distinction between a gender equality as a fundamental truth rather than a condition to be attained for the good of society an important distinction? How do you go about promoting this fundamental truth? How can we ensure the differences in the way men and women experience the world don’t overshadow the ways in which men and women are equal?
Don’t be shy, share your thoughts!
engendering equality 
Gender equality as a truth is more pervasive in, and central to, our thinking than a condition to serve the good of society. As such, it is a “self-evident” truth that warrants far more consideration than a bullet-point on the long list of fads whose worth depend on various interpretations of the best means and ends that relate to “the good of society.” Affirming gender equality as a fundamental truth contributes to consolidating the thoughts of participants in this discourse, as opposed to allowing for participants to enter the discussion with potentially incompatible worldviews. For example, a physicist urgently interested in her field benefiting from the unique insights of both genders and a public health worker longing to decrease instances of domestic abuse in his city will have difficulty benefiting from each others’ insights if their conversation is at the level of application towards the good of society in the ways with which they are each familiar.
I don’t claim to adequately or appropriately promote this fundamental truth, but I hope to so in the context of a science classroom. Traditionally, in the United States at least, male students are called on more frequently by teachers (regardless of the teacher’s gender) than their female classmates. One of the small ways I hope to promote the truth of gender equality is to be conscious of the reasons for, and possible implications of, the amount of time I spend with each of my students.
I’m very interested to see others’ thoughts regarding the last question. At least in the United States, a large portion of discourse regarding women and men is trivial and casts their relationship as comically antagonistic. Often the thoughts relayed are based on actual differences in social and/or internal experiences. However, given that and the strong relationships between language and thought and between thought and action, perhaps we need informal and potent ways to discuss the equality of women and men. Any ideas?
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If equality is a truth, not just a goal, then it is one of the laws of the universe, impacting us whether we want it to or not. The physical laws of the universe operate upon us no matter what we do. As we grow in our understanding of them, we can use them to accomplish seemingly miraculous things (flying, curing disease, etc.) In the same way, we must grow in our understanding of the “law” of equality. Because from the example of the physical world we can see that ignorance of the law leads to disaster. If you try to fly without taking into account the various laws of aerodynamics, you will plummet. If you try to run a family or a society without taking into account the various realities of human life (such as gender equality), your family or society is headed for trouble. I can offer examples from my own experience of families where the opinions of the mother were undervalued, and consequently the family decreased in prosperity or safety. Where the girl children were not adequately educated; and then one day those undereducated women had to support the family. I’m sure everyone has seen examples of what I’m trying to describe. So my point is this, that when you are aspiring to achieve a goal, presumably you do so because you think something will be improved thereby. But what we are trying to do is to live in accordance with reality, which can change everything.
Equality of men and women issue is sometimes being misunderstood the meaning of “equality” is becoming a debatable issue being associated by comparison of intellectual, physical and social capacity between man and woman, creating another division to the community, creating activist such as ‘anti’ and ‘pro’, feminist, etc. etc and thereby people create laws over it. Most often is always the issue of men overpowering women is being highlighted, and the understanding and patience of men over women is not being recognized.
Educating women is the greatest step in raising its standard. But Spirituality is essential on perfecting the union of both gender.
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When we say women are “advancing towards” being equal, it implies we are not currently equal. By implying women are not currently equal, we are reinforcing the stereotype that women are somehow less than men.
In fact, women ARE equal. We don’t need to advance towards anything. What women need to do is to embrace our equality and our power, and not be a victim.
As long as women sit around and talk about not being equal and how we need to advance towards equality, it will just reinforce perceptions that women are weak, unempowered, and childish.
Women need to own their own power and equality and diplomatically force men to accommodate the new reality of their equality … it is a new reality which has been proclaimed by the Manifestation of God for this Day. Did Tahareh sit around and gently wait to “advance towards the equality of women”? No! She threw off her veil in the most dramatic and challenging way possible!
This distinction is introduced in the part of the text that discusses purpose – “to invite dialogue and reflection on the challenges that face everyone who is actively contributing to the cause of the equality of women and men, as a means of advancing collective efforts toward the realization of this goal.” This document serves as a connection between discourse and action. The whole body of the text presumes that the equality of men and women is a fundamental truth. Presenting the equality of women and men at the level of principle or fundamental truth perhaps elevates our discourse out of relativistic approaches that might seek to explain away inequality through recourse to different social norms. Any time we recognize a lack of equality, we can ask, “Why is there a disconnect between our social reality and this fundamental truth?”
Also, something about this distinction suggests that we should not conceive of “the good of society” as a goal forever off in the future. The text makes clear that challenges still exist to establishing the equality of men and women in this world. However, we must also understand that “the betterment of the world can be achieved through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct.” The actions of individuals and institutions serve to construct the kind of society in which we live. So our efforts at this moment to advance the equality of women and men – making social reality more accurately reflect this abiding truth – serve to transform that social reality.
Loved the suggestion to reflect on the amount of time spent with students, and the reasons for disparity there. I would like to incorporate these types of questions into our regular reflections on the spiritual education of children in our neighborhood. Simple questions like these – how many boy- and girl-children participate in the class? Perhaps asking why the numbers are different. Who do we spend more time accompanying? Why?
In a similar way, in the office – how do I treat men and women – especially around technology – which is both my area of work and a heavily gendered profession. Do I recognize that both the women and men in my office have “qualities and potentialities” that allow them to use communication technology to contribute to a discourse on sustainability at our campus? Also in conversation these friends at work – allowing this fundamental truth to be a subject of conversation.
Language is important, and how we use language to frame an issue is extremely important. When the headline screams, “Advancing towards the equality of women and men,” it sends a message that we are on a path towards equality, not that we are already inherently equal.
I agree, Maria, language is important. You are also right that the equality of women and men is a fundamental truth. The title of the document is referring to all of humanity advancing towards the recognition of this fundamental truth in practice. We don’t have that yet, in our current social order, women and men are not equal. It is time that this truth was reflected in action.
I agree with you, language is also important as it is a vital means of communication. We understand that both genders are equal, however in some cases it not being practiced in our daily living, due to factors such as culture, upbringing, prejudism and etc that is why we need to “engender” or to uplift further ” advancing” (on a higher understanding) the equality of women AND men ( not women over men or vice versa).
For example, at a circumstance where there are que (bank, grocery store, etc). It was tought that a gentleman’s gesture is to let the lady first, but since women and men are equal, we would not mind the act of generousity?
I agree with you, language is also important as it is a vital means of communication. We understand that both genders are equal, however in some cases it not being practiced in our daily living, due to factors such as culture, upbringing, prejudism and etc that is why we need to “engender” or to uplift further ” advancing” (on a higher understanding) the equality of women AND men ( not women over men or vice versa).
For example, at a circumstance where there are que (bank, grocery store, etc). It was tought that a gentleman’s gesture is to let the lady first, but since women and men are equal, we would not mind the act of generousity?
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For some reason, lately i am coming across men, both online and in real life, who are exquisitely displaying the virtue of self reflection and being accountable for their thoughts, beliefs and actions related to the realization of the equality of women and men in the world. I find this incredibly encouraging and a real sign of humanity’s progress. There is definitely a planetary shift happening and I would just like to express my gratitude for the work that both women and men are doing in this context.
I love this idea that gender equality is a fundamental reality and a “law” of the universe. Exactly! In an atmosphere where gender equality is not recognized or valued, the potential for oppression is much greater. When the people in power are blind to this “law” in its true form then all sorts of oppression can happen right under their noses with no consequences or justice. Even if these people in power are not directly perpetrating this gender oppression, they are enabling it by their blindness. I think this is a lesser-known and lesser talked about aspect of oppression and gender inequality.
In this light, I say kudos to those, such as Leif above, who strive to be aware of more subtle blindnesses of occurrences of gender inequality that could be occurring in everyday situations. When this is happening we are truly making progress.
Thank you to “engendering equality” and Raech for your thoughtful comments about language.
I’d like to suggest that the title of this document be changed to reflect what “engendering equality” noted above. How about something like, “Advancing towards the recognition of the equality of women and men, in word and deed.”
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