Toward Gender-Equal Global Governance: The Role of Culture
By Suzan Karaman
The equality of men and women is a fundamental truth of human existence. A more effective and principled global order depends on translating this truth into reality. Yet doing so has been a formidable challenge. The Governance Befitting statement notes:
“The world the international community has committed itself to build—in which violence and corruption have given way to peace and good governance, for example, and where the equality of women and men has been infused into every facet of social life—has never yet existed. Progress toward the goals enshrined in global agendas therefore calls for a conscious orientation toward experimentation, search, innovation, and creativity.”
Governments strive to advance the status of women through a variety of laws and policies, including making education of the girl child mandatory, abolishing early marriage, and combating domestic and gender-based violence. All too often, though, implementation of such laws is lacking, due to cultural norms and practices. Transforming attitudes at the level of culture, then, will be critical in bringing the full expression of women’s capacities to the collective affairs of humankind.
In my home country of Turkey, glimmerings of this kind of cultural change have been seen around a spiritually-based educational process that encourages the participation of women in consultative spaces with men, explicitly affirms that the soul has no gender, and upholds the inherent equality of women and men.
Tangible outcomes of this process have varied according to local realities. To give some examples: boys who would previously not take part in household chores have started helping their mothers and sisters. Men who might otherwise have regarded gender-based violence as ordinary have taken action to prevent it. Language has begun to shift as the assumed superiority of boys is left behind, resulting in sexist comments becoming less common and less accepted. As consciousness of the importance of education—both moral and intellectual—grows, girls have been given greater opportunity to pursue formal training. Awareness of the harm of early marriage has grown and its prevalence declined. Women who did not have access to formal education have been assisted to read and write. Resources have been directed toward developing artistic and handicraft skills, enabling women to contribute more actively to the economic welfare of their families and villages.
Such outcomes, initial as many of them are, have sprung from an interrelated set of activities that seek to nurture new and more equal patterns of individual and collective life. Among these activities are classes that strive to nurture the moral qualities of children and young adolescents, empowering them to become protagonists in the betterment of their community, regardless of gender. Grassroots study groups provide a space for youth and adults to develop capacities to apply spiritual principles for the progress of their village or neighborhood—women and men taking part equally in expressing thoughts, identifying needs, solving problems, and taking decisions. Gatherings for reflection and consultation are creating opportunities for members of a community to discuss issues of concern, such as the forces impacting youth or the aspirations and priorities the community holds for itself.
As the focus on spiritual principles above suggests, the constructive role of religion in building a more gender-equal culture should not be overlooked. It must be stated plainly that narrow and self-serving interpretations of religious scriptures have often contributed to cultural norms that regard women as inferior.
Yet religion at its highest can and indeed must serve as a means to awaken and cultivate, at the grassroots level, the high-minded and noble attributes latent in every soul. Within such an environment, religious communities can come to function as communities of practice where spiritual principles and teachings are applied thoughtfully to the life of society, for the benefit of all.
By conducting collective gatherings for worship, for example, women as well as men unite in prayer to their Creator. Similarly, as the nobility of human beings is explored as an inherent and spiritual truth, the inhabitants of a locality start regarding each other as co-builders of a flourishing and supportive community.
Along with individuals and communities, institutions play a crucial role in creating a culture that fosters the equality of women and men. Governments have a responsibility to ensure security and justice for all their citizens. Setting laws, determining regulations, and enforcing them are all critical governmental responsibilities. Governments both contribute to the advancement of gender equality and depend on it.
Ultimately all three of these actors—the individual, the community, and institutions of society–will be needed, working in concert, to advance gender equality. If those efforts are to be transformative and lasting, their impact must reach to the realm of culture, in all its complexity and history. It is here, in modes of expression and patterns of thought, in conceptions of what is right, normal, and acceptable, that the principle of the equality of women and men takes on life and substance. Advancements made here at grassroots, in village fields and neighborhood shops, will build a foundation that can eventually benefit the nation and even the globe.
Suzan Karaman has served as the Director of the Office of External Affairs of the Bahá’í Community of Turkey for almost a decade. One of the major national discourses that the Office is currently focusing on is the equality of women and men.