Feminism Modifies the Whole World

Written by : Salsadila Sindya Dewantari.

This article has submitted for UNS International Essay Competition.

Patriarchal culture is something that we should omit from this world. This culture caused women to still be seen as second class humans. Even in some places, they are considered as a property, not humans anymore. They are expected to say yes to their husbands and their husbands never accept no as an answer as husbands see them as a slave. Furthermore, they must not have an opinion, voice, and also opportunities to develop themselves. Worse, their lives have no meaning. They are able to be killed if men see them as 'useless pricks'. Even in some places, until now, they still force their daughter to get married at such a young age. They never care about some problems that may occur later. In addition, they also believe that women are created to be their sexual slaves and also servants. This problem caused a movement, which is called feminism, which is fighting for gender equality. 

Here, I would like to explain about how feminism has modified the whole world. However, before jumping to that, I would like to explain about Patriarchy first.

A. Patriarchy.

1. Patriarchy and the practice of Patriarchal Culture. 

Patriarchy is a social organisation marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line (Merriam Webster, 1632). Simply, Patriarchy is a system which is marked man as the only one who has power in society. In a family, father has a higher social class than mother and also kids. 

Then the son has more privilege than the daughter. Man is more special than woman. It can be seen in the workplace, in which men always have more salary than women, even though they have the same rules. Then, from an educational perspective, when a woman decides to pursue her dreams to finish her master degree, they will be considered as a woman who has rejected her nature (it actually happened to my mother). There is no room for women to improve themselves in this culture. 

They are just considered as a 'thing' which only have 3 tasks that are called dapur, sumur, kasur, in Javanese language. It means a woman is only able to cook for her husband, clean the household, and become a sexual slave for her husband. It is actually true that in some cases, like running, men are greater than women. Men are having bigger muscle mass than women so that they can run faster. Nonetheless, it can't be a reason to practice Patriarchy. 

It has actually caused a loss to women, as this patriarchy caused women to become a second class person in this society and they are also seen as clueless people who have not had a choice for their own life.

This Patriarchy System caused a practice of Patriarchal Culture in society which we can't be denied. There are some countries which still practice this country, like India, Peru, and some people in Indonesia too. Couple days ago, I saw a video from Hanifa, one of the YouTuber story tellers. In that video, she talked about Jassi Sidhu, an Indian who has become a victim of an honour killing culture in India. She was killed by her mom and uncle, Surjit Singh. Jassi Sidhu is an Indian who was born and lived in Canada.