Quote of the Day: “Where women and men cooperate in aspects of everyday life you do not have sexual abuse.”–Reeves Sanday

Reeves Sanday has spent decades in the field with some of the world’s least sexually aggressive societies, such as the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. Her work convinces her that if we want to reduce sexual violence, we must emulate matriarchies. “A matriarchal society isn’t the inverse of patriarchy, it’s egalitarian,” she says. “Where women and men cooperate in aspects of everyday life you do not have sexual abuse.” Similarly, the WHO report concludes that gender inequality is at the heart of sexual violence against women. “Sexual harassment is always about power,” says Cynthia Enloe, who studies gender and war at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. “The only way to eliminate it is to tackle inequality.” In her book The Big Push she argues that we continue to modernise patriarchal ideas rather than overthrowing them.

This quote comes from an online article in New Scientist dated 18 April 2018.  The article points out that there are high levels of sexual violence in societies where women are treated as property and men are caught up in competition for dominance over one another (think machismo)– and there are low levels of male parenting and high levels of violence in general.

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and FlashBuddy)