Certain South African cultures have in the past downgraded women as if they were inferior human beings or persons.Infact and old Jewish definition for a woman was "ish·shah" which means a female male. Nothing to do with sex reassignment surgery or transsexual men that alter female anatomical traits. No just literally meaning adult human females that's all.
South Africa's ethnic and cultural diversity has long held the believe that women are less important than men and less deserving of power or authority than men. If you take the family headship arrangement for example in rural areas of South Africa,then women is almost always seen walking a few paces behind the man.
In ultra-conservative Afrikaners or Boers society, the biblical notion that a women's contributions to their society should normally be approved by or be on behalf of Afrikaner men. I think the Bible speaks of "a capable wife" which outlines and emphasizes her value to the household and the community. It probably must be how certain Afrikaners came to have that idea of theirs!
However has the modern push for strong willed females, empowered women in South Africa a little too much,devalue the dignity men should accord woman,the security given to women and the true appreciation for women just a little to much in their favour?
From miniskirt marching in downtown Johannesburg against discrimination,rape and murder and the corrective rape of lesbians,to gay pride marches and liberal laws championing sexual diversity.
Most women today will agree that they hate the "John Wayne stereotype" view of women such as "You're awfully pretty when you get mad" or "Don't worry your pretty little head, Bernie, these trips are quite safe you know it seems to you.
It looks like some South African women in leadership roles and high level careers often try to get there by using the tactics and approach of the men, when in the past they may have needed only their more gender specific abilities(not talking body parts, seduction or being a timotei shampoo android either) to do so.
Which do you rather prefer these days: the Florence Nightingale or Emily Pankhurst types or Women from the Apprentice?
In South Africa more women than ever have to work outside the home environment to help support their family or are times the sole support of their family. And what these women have to do to earn a living are rarely and hardly glamorous. Glossy magazines or television soap operas may depict women as executives that sit in plush offices, but the reality of the matter is usually very a different story.
The vast majority of the world’s women have to work long hour shifts for scant material reward. On the whole of the African continent more than 75% of women work on farmland, cultivating crops,growing food, tending small family plots, or caring for livestock. In Asia it's between 60 and 65% and in South America it's 30% plus of the women.
Discrimination against women means even though they do get paid,women generally earn less than men even in highly developed countries like America and in Europe just because they are women.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said:"Study after study has shown that there is no effective development strategy in which women do not play a central role. When women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier and better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is also true of communities and, in the long run, of whole countries."
Some of us are not put off by independent, strong willed women because they often give the impression that they only want a partner where in reality they need you to mow the lawn!
It sometimes its about what attitudes do you dress women in? Far too many of us guys get lost in the game of the "one has to be weaker,for the other to be stronger".
Just because women may like to think of themselves as fair, decent, reasonable type, many of them don't act like that, and I find that many aren't too willing to be honest with someone when describing it either.
So perhaps its appropriate to ask: What attitudes do you think you dress those qualities with? Attitude makes a huge difference.
Have strong willed South African woman become the type that belittles people who are vulnerable as well as weak and treat others like a doormat? A woman that is strong willed inspires,and yet is submissive when the situation calls for it.
And the same applies for men. Being strong willed is not a bad thing unless it is mis-used.Maybe that's the ida behind men supposedly discovering their feminine sides.
Is there a difference between being strong willed and being selfish? Relationships between men and women are about compromise, if a women describes herself as strong willed is that indicative of her unwillingness to give in when in a relationship or not.
Should a women go nuts when a men say "no" to them and turn them down?Or do strong willed women prefer a "harem eunuch" type men and in so doing we demean all other men by becoming that kind of man?
Despite all their hard work in so many areas,many women rarely get credit for what they do.So too many strong willed women in South Africa lately or not?
References:
1.Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
2.Women and the World Economic Crisis.
3.Women and Health.
4.Barney Frank: Gender Bias Against ‘Strong-willed Women’.
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