The Tension between Culture & Feminism

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” - (Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

The idea of women being subordinated by men is widespread and rooted in cultural beliefs and traditions across the globe. Most cultures are structured in a way that men are superior to women and therefore conflict with the concept of feminism. But the real problem lies in the invisibility of gender discrimination and its character of taking place in the private sphere. Cultural practices mainly take place among families and close relatives which makes it difficult to fight and sometimes even detect gender inequality due to problems concerning reputation and disrespect to family members.

To visualise this point, take an example of a primary school girl who was exempted from swimming lessons just because her parents couldn't stand the idea of her young daughter wearing a swimsuit in front of her male classmates. Now, this issue particularly is way more common than it seems to be and seen in a large number of Indian schools too. It's a clear example in which culture and feminism are opposing each other. 

The more a culture requires or expects women to stay within the boundaries of the domestic sphere, the lesser opportunity they have of achieving equality with men. 

Going back to the example of the little girl and how the parents tackled the issue, it's clear that the conflict resolution led to a very unsatisfying outcome by deciding to exempt just one student for swimming lessons when her peers attended it. It also shows the difficulty to deal with the kind of tensions in practice. Neither the justification of gender equality by culture nor the justification of cultural intolerance by the norm of gender equality is a defensible approach of action. An alternative would have been to sit together with the girl and her parents to jointly think of a special swimming suit that satisfied the needs of both the parties involved. This is exactly what cultural feminism aims at and as advocates for the same, it's detrimental at this stage to look at feminism through a cultural lens.

While a radical feminist might critique the traditional family as being an institution of patriarchy, a cultural feminist might work to transform the family by focusing on the nurturing, caring, and change that a woman-centred family can provide in life. 

There are too many examples around the world that reveal the domestic structures of cultural oppression among women. However, the real question is - How should one take a position when women’s rights are systematically violated in the name of culture? How should the tension between the tolerance of cultural practices and the universal demand for gender equality be balanced?