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July 26, 2005 Setting aside the rather obvious considerations of bearing children and providing the amatory incentives, can we answer the question of whether women could build a civilization? In the past twenty years or so, I’ve been remotely aware of the argument that women have been discriminated against on a wholesale basis, and were it not for that, they would have played at least an equal role in the shaping of civilization. It seems highly unlikely to me that women could have been held down at all times in all places. It seems that some law of natural eminence would have pushed them to the fore at least some of the time in some of the places. But no, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In history, it’s hard to find more than half a dozen illustrious women rulers, who ruled in their own right, rather than as the wives of rulers. There were Hatshepsut, Semiramis, Zenobia, Empress Wu, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Victoria. The number of female scientists is even more distressing. I can think of Madame Curie, whom you always hear about, but before her time, no one. There were few distinguished female writers in former times; offhand, I can think of Sappho, Lady Murasaki, Anna Comnena, the Brontes, Mary Shelley and a few others, mostly of the nineteenth and twentieth century. But I could fill page after page with names of male rulers, scientists, writers, explorers and inventors. This is not something that I like. I wish it were otherwise. I wish women ruled the world. But I don’t think that it will come to pass. Sure, today there are more women who are becoming doctors and lawyers. More women are writing books and collecting prizes. But I don’t think that it will ever come to the point where women actually enjoy the upper hand or even participate equally in ruling. I don’t see women building an Interstate Highway System or raising great cities almost overnight. Where did cities like New York and Los Angeles come from? These were efforts in which women played no part at all, other than the ones I mentioned in my first paragraph. I don’t believe that this is all due to the fact that men can lift more than women. After all, most of the components in buildings and highways are much too heavy even for men to lift, but somehow they figure out a way to do it. Could women? Did women invent trains, ships, airplanes, cars, radio, television, computers? Did they discover electricity, nuclear power, electromagnetic waves, the genetic code? Men are a nuisance, mostly ungainly in appearance, coarse, aggressive, bluff and gruff. I don’t even like to deal with males at all. I always go to the store that has salesladies instead of salesmen. But I’ll have to admit that men are the ones who built the nations. You have to accept the world as it is, not as you’d like it to be. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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