Newsflash: Asian Countries and Women Leaders

Link to article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/world/asia/08iht-asiawomen.html

“This is still a man’s world, and you have to adapt to the men’s environment.” With these words, Dewi Fortuna Anwar, director for programs and research at an independent policy institute in Indonesia, encompasses the main plight of the woman in power. In this article from The New York Times “Family Vaults Women to Leadership in Asia,” reporter Seth Mydans looks at women in power in Asian countries and how that power both comes about and plays out. Although women in Asia have managed to gain positions of power in recent years more than any other region of the world, the article states that most of these women have gained these positions only through family connections and, furthermore, have not ruled any differently than their male relative predecessors. In reality, this article presents a legitimate concern for women in power and the privileges that they must have in order to reach such positions, though by questioning the missing female “different perspective,” (Mydans 1) the article is in fact also perpetuating some gender role labels.

Though many Asian countries—India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, for example—are more often thought of as places of female oppression rather than empowerment, they are all also places that have recently boasted female leaders. Some of these leaders include Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike (who became the world’s first female elected head of state in 1960) and Indira Gandhi in India in 1966. Today, two women are in power: : President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the Philippines and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh. Most of these women, however, have had some sort of previous family connection to power and politics that Mydans believes accounts for their access to such positions. Along with revealing this injustice, the article discusses what these women have done differently from their male counterparts—namely, nothing. Advancements in women’s rights, something that most would assume to be a prime focus for a female leader, are usually not present or ever addressed. There can be a myriad of different explanations for this, but Mydans attributes it to the tentative position these women find themselves in. There seems to be “a glass ceiling that holds back women from reaching the very top purely on their own merits, and a political context that may limit their room to maneuver as leaders” (Mydans 1). It all comes back to the same challenges that women in any workplace are facing—the pressure to “act like a man” in order to succeed.

Ariel Levy talks about this plight in Female Chauvinist Pigs when she says that “women who’ve wanted to be perceived as powerful have long found it more efficient to identify with men than to try and elevate the entire female sex to their level” (Levy 95). A woman leader is the ultimate personification of “powerful,” so it can probably be assumed that the pressure for them is even more substantial, especially in these highly patriarchal Asian countries. Dewi Fortuna Anwar recognizes this, saying that these women leaders “need to be more manly, [they] need to show that [they] don’t cry in public, [and that they] are tough enough to order the military around” (Mydans 1). Stereotypes and prejudices make it so that conventionally, a woman is seen as less strong-willed, less able in matters of state and war, than a man. In order to gain the image that she needs to retain control and power, she has to behave as a man would. The whole idea behind this is really that being a woman and having feminine qualities is inferior to being a man and/or having masculine qualities. In fact, when speaking of the two Asian female leaders in power today, Mydans himself says that, “both are known for their toughness and combativeness” (Mydans 1). He says this as if women shouldn’t be known for such qualities. In that way, even Mydans, who is pointing out the injustices in this situation, is falling into the traps of stereotypes and expectations. It is probably not a deliberate action, but simply a norm that has become unconscious. This is closely tied with the patriarchal system that rules society—both America’s own democratic society, and these Asian countries’ alternate societies.

Though it might seem as if women gaining power is a step forward in challenging the patriarchal society, in fact, “the rise of female leaders does not seem to reflect any change in the patriarchal nature of Asian societies. Rather, it demonstrates the power of a name and the persistence of political dynasties, whether they involve women or men” (Mydans 1). The reasoning behind the elections is, in this case, more important than the election itself. Both patriarchy and privilege play a part in this phenomenon. Without the privilege of a connected family, a women most likely will not have any chance to even try for a position of government power, and patriarchy keeps women who are elected from ruling the way they perhaps might want to as opposed to the way men before them have previously. Johnson in “Patriarchy, The System” talks about the “path of least resistance” which describes “to go along, and unless [you’re] willing to deal with greater resistance, that’s the choice [you’re] going to make” (Johnson 4). Women in power can’t afford to deal with the greater resistance because their positions are already tentative. If they were do deviate from the previous paths set by men, their gender would be blamed for the change and they would probably lose their power. If a change is made because of this, it might seem worth it, but women in power are no different from men in power: “they are just as egomaniacal, in many cases, or just as intent on holding on to their own power and to heck with the next bunch that comes along as anybody else” (Mydans 1).

Whether you believe that men and women are innately different are not, society does see these differences and does exploit them to the disadvantages of women. In Asia, women may be gaining positions of power, but because of the privilege required and the inability to deviate from “man’s” way of ruling, there really are very little strives being made. To change this, these women would have to take a path of resistance and risk their power, which isn’t something anyone has been willing to try yet. Until they do this, however, the patriarchal system will continue to win.