THE ZAMBIAN OPEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH

PhD Academic Paper

WOMENS CHANGING POSITION AND ROLE IN SOCIETY: ANALYSIS OF THE ZAMBIAN SITUATION

MOSES PUMULO MUYUNDA

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. ... 4 Conceptual Framework of the Study 4 Traditional Perspectives of Womens Position 6 Theological perspectives of Womens Position .12 Sociological Perspectives of Womens Position 13 Women Participation in the Public Sector10 Conclusion ...16 Bibliography .18

WOMENS CHANGING POSITION AND ROLE IN SOCIETY INTRODUCTION Admittedly, societal expectations in regard to the position and roles of women in the family, industry, church and community level have relatively changed with time. In most cases, traditional roles have become more flexible by the day. Fathers are now assuming what used to be perceived as feminine roles -- spending considerable time with the babies at home while mothers go to work or school. However, some scholars still believe that although this kind of reversal in roles seems to be more common today, it is far from being pervasive (Smelser, 1981). The primary purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the social drivers of change in regard to peoples attitudes and perceptions towards the position and role of women in society. In an attempt to critically understand and analyze the significant relationship between social interaction and peoples behavioral responses towards womens defined position and roles in society, sociological theories of functionalism, conflict and symbolic interactionism will be reviewed. The subject, however, will be discussed from the Zambian context. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY The meanings of concepts, more often than not, change with time and usage. As such it is of critical significance to understand the usage of particular words in particular contexts and time periods. In this section, a number of concepts have been defined to set out the conceptual framework of this academic paper. As will be observed from the subsequent literature reviewed, different scholars define the different concepts related to the status and role of women in society in a much similar way. Position. The term position as used by most scholars refers to a rank or status occupied by a man or woman in a group, family, organization or society (Leslie, Larson and Benjamin, 1980). Besides, Ezewu (1983) argues that the position an individual occupies within the social

hierarchy and division of labor in a way affects how they behave and relate to people within the same group, family or organization. Nonetheless, this status or position, however, may either be ascribed by birth or achieved through education, innovation and entrepreneurship, knowledge acquisition and ability. In open societies that promote social mobility of both sexes on the basis of education, knowledge and hard work, women and men have equal chances of rising to higher statuses or positions in the work place (Leslie, etal 1983).

Role. A role, on the other hand, has been defined as the specific act performed by the individual occupying a particular position or having a particular status. It is associated with the responsibilities and functions of a particular position or status (Ezewu, 1983). From the above proposition definition, it can be deduced that a role is a function of a particular position. The role that an individual plays ensues directly from the act of exercising the responsibilities and expectations associated with that status or position. Smelser (1981) defines a status as a position in society, while roles are the way people behave in that position (p.64). It is possible for one individual to play several roles or occupy different positions depending on where they exercise their roles. The role one plays in the family, church, school and social groups may vary with the status ascribed or achieved. This is because roles and positions people occupy in society are socially structured in accordance with prevailing situations. In this case, they may rightly be defined as gender stratified roles. Thus, they are relative in nature.

Gender socialization. The process by which individuals become aware of the different roles structured for them by society is what is known as gender socialization. Gender socialization is a function of several factors among which include the family, school and the media. These agents of socialization play a significant part in influencing the perceptions of children in regard to their social roles at an early stage. 4

For example, girls may be advised to take home economics while boys are encouraged to do physics and chemistry. This is also true in regards to the kind of toys parents buy for their children; they kind of embody the social roles society expects them to play in the future (Giddens, 1988).

Gender stratification. This concept by Randall Collins is based on three basic assumptions: (a) men use their physical and economic power to dominate women (b) change in the distribution and use of economic and physical resources results into changes in the structure of domination (b) particular political ideologies are manipulated to help dominant groups to continue gaining power over other inferior and weaker groups (Ferrante, 1994:400). This theory sees the prevailing inequalities in the access of positions among men and women as a function of inequitable distribution of economic and physical resources. It also suggests that change in the structure of domination can only be achieved by initiating revolutionary changes in the way resources are used in society.

Gender and sex. The structuring of mens and womens positions and roles in society is a gender - oriented. It is essentially, therefore, to understand the meaning of both. Ferrante (1994) asserts that, whereas sex is a biological distinction, gender is a social distinction based on culturally concerned and learned ideas about appropriate appearance, behavior, and mental or emotional characteristics for males and females (Ibid). Thus, the positions or statuses assigned to women in society are relatively based on their perceived appearance, behavior and mental or emotional attributes. For this reason, they are be expected to vary from one culture to another.

Adult resocialization. Our concepts of gender identity and sexual attitudes are learned early in life. This mindset kind of inhibits our ability to learn and adjust to new ways of doing things. The process of unlearning the old behaviors, attitudes and stereotypes and the 5

replacement of the old ideas with new ones is known as adult resocialization (Leslie, Larson and Gorman, 1980). TRADITIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF WOMENS POSITION In traditional societies, however, status positions tended to be fixed (Smelser, 1981). In order to appreciate the role of women in modern society, it is important for us to understand the position and status of women in the traditional societies. In traditional societies, most families lived in the rural communities. Women primarily cultivated the land, did the cooking, and took good care of children at home while the men went to town, in some cases, to work on the mines and industries for the economic sustenance of the family. Among the primary factors that largely influenced the social roles of men and women in traditional societies, cultural and religious beliefs played a vital role in defining peoples perceptions towards the role and position of women in traditional societies. African traditional beliefs, for example, tended to patriarchal in nature --- stressing the dominant role of men over women in traditional society. In the Lozi traditional setting for example, culture emphasized the supreme position of the males and promoted a hierarchical power structure for the Lozi traditional society. In this traditional power structure, males had preeminence over women both in terms of sexual and economic decisions within the family and marriage system. In this case, men had excessive power over women and women had no right to resist male dominance. The Lozi cultural system regarded women as inferior to men; and therefore, had no right and access to decision making. This perception of the position of males and females in traditional societies was common among the tribal groupings of Zambia during the pre industrial era. THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF WOMENS POSITION IN SOCIETY The current position of women in Zambia could be attributed to the vestiges of two critical factors: traditional power and religious power structures. While traditional power structures have tended towards the exclusion of women from decision making at community level, religious

power structures on one hand have excluded women from exercising their leadership rights and privileges at church level. Probably, it may be helpful to lay a strong argument by analyzing the negative influence of other religious systems on the position of women in society in other parts of the world. Judaism has been known for being a male dominant religious system. The Talmud, for instance, states that it is better to burn the Torah than to teach it to a woman. In Judaism, women were excluded from accessing direct religious teaching. Their best place for thir learning was the home; that in one way also elevated the husband to a superior position of a teacher over his wife. It has also been argued that although creation stresses the equality of men and women in the sight of God, women are excluded from exercising leadership over men in both the Old and New Testament. While women are called to exercise a vital role in the Christian church, not one of them was called to be an apostle, a priest or a leader of a particular church; leadership of the church was entrusted to men (MacArthur, 1994). The negative influence of religious beliefs on how society perceives and treats women in the family, church, community and place of work may best be illustrated from what happened in Japan prior to the Second World War. Friedman (1992) gives an insight into the changing position of women in Japan and the role played by religious institutions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Samurai prior to World War II.

These three institutions were all highly discriminatory towards women. Confucianism stressed the preeminence of men over women, stating: "A woman is to obey her father as daughter, her husband as wife, and her son as aged mother." A basic tenant of Buddhism is that salvation is not possible for women, and the Samurai believed that "...A woman should look upon her husband as if he were heaven itself." An example of how society viewed women is shown by an excerpt from The Tale of Genji, an 11th century Japanese novel, written by a woman; she said: "If they [women] were not fundamentally evil, they would not have been born women at all." (Www.gol.com/friedman/writings/p1.html/15/11/11). And because women were socialized into low status stratification, very few women rose to high positions of power in Japan for fifty years until after World War II. This historical incident clearly exemplifies the incredible power

of religious orientation on gender stratification and gender socialization. It is clear from the literature reviewed that religion has a profound effect on gender socialization. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF WOMENS POSITION IN SOCIETY Prominent sociologists have attempted to explain the differences between the positions and roles of men and women using different theories. The most prominent theories are: structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict theories. From the vantage point of sociological theory, the functionalist and conflict theory present a perspective that is significant in explaining the changing role and position of women in modern society.

The Conflict Theory Perspective The conflict theorists see the roles of men and women as being in a constant state of disequilibrium due to competing interests over scarce resources between the weak/subordinate (women) and strong/dominant (men) groups in society. The earliest scholar to apply the conflict theory to gender socialization in the place of work was Randall Collins. In his proposition, he believed that sexual inequalities in society were a resultant effect of conflicting interests between dominant groups (men) and the subordinate groups (women); and that men occupied superior status, only because women occupied inferior positions in society. Thus, the prevailing sex role patterns were structured to maintain the economic, political and social inequalities between the sexes (Smelser, 1981). According to this view, the current social and economic inequalities that inhibit womens social mobility to high status occupations are intended to further and maintain male dominance oriented power structures in society. In order to protect their superiority, men are always creating ideologies and policies that exclude women from competing at the same level with them in the family, work place and community level (Ibid). The conflict theoretical perspective assumes that the existing difference in responsibilities, power and prestige between men and women is consequently

designed to rob the woman of a sense of worth and autonomy to exercise her decision- making capacity and promote dependency on the man at home and in the work place. Studies conducted in this regard indicate that the more money a woman has, the more power she has and the more she participates in decision making processes at home and in the work place (Inciardi and Rothman, 1990). The Functionalist Perspective On the other hand, the functionalist perspective sees the role of women as an integral part of the functions of society. Unlike the conflict theorists, functionalists primarily focus on the division of labor to avoid role conflicts. The first researcher to apply this theory to the place of work was Emily Durkheim. This theory makes a very significant contribution to the social mobility of women to high status occupations. It isolates the job as an important factor of determining a womans prestige and position within the job market. Through hard work, education and skill acquisition, a woman can move from a low to a high degree of job specialization and increase the chances of promotion to a higher position (Rothman, 1990). In order for society to function properly, there must be a balance in the distribution of opportunities and resources between men and women. This will call for adult re-socialization or unlearning of existing behaviors, attitudes and belief systems and their replacement with new ones (Leslie, Larson and Gorman, 1980). The functionalist perspective, therefore, sees infinite possibilities of change in womens positions and roles in society and seeks to initiate changes in the use and distribution of resources to create a level playing field for men and women in social, economic and political institutions; with the view of avoiding conflict and disorder in society.

The Symbolic Interactionism Perspective Due to forces of globalization and urbanization, the interactive processes of people have become more complex in nature. As such, it has become necessary to learn new coping behaviors in an effort to get integrated into the global scheme of life. This open interaction and cross cultural influence has 9

made it necessary for people to learn new ways of coping with the new challenges of life through adult resocialization. And one aspect of life that has been dramatically affected is our attitude towards domestic chores and our perception of womens position in society. WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR One of the key indicators of womens social mobility in society is the increase in the number of women moving into upper level positions in the public sector. This is so because the government is the major employer and job - security provider in Zambia. According to the 2001 Economic Report released by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, there were 57, 760 employees in the public sector in the year 2000, and only 19, 989 were female employees; representing about 34.6 % of the total workforce in the public sector. A further breakdown of those employed indicates that the majority of female employees occupied the lower positions and were in stereotyped jobs such as teaching, secretarial, nursing and clerical positions. The report also revealed that over 65 percent of women worked on farms where they were primarily involved in the production of traditional food crops as small scale farmers (GRZ, 2002:148). If the 2001 economic data were anything to go by, it would be concluded that the social mobility of women into upper level positions in Zambia deserves serious attention.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ezewu, E (1983). Sociology of Education. Longman Publishing House. Ferrante, Joan (1994). Sociology: A Global Perspective. New York: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Giddens, Anthony (1998). Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Inciardi, James A and Rothman, Robert A. (1990). Sociology: Principles and Applications. Washington, DC: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers. Jay, David and Jay, Julia (1991). Collins Dictionary of Sociology. Glasgow: Harper Collins Publishers. Leslie, Gerald R, Larson Richard F and Gorman, Benjamin L. (1980). Introductory Sociology: Order and Change in Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rose, Peter I, Glazer, Penina M, and Glazer, Myron Peretz (1990). Sociology: Understanding Society. Massachusetts: Prentice Hall Inc. Smelser, Neil J. (1981). Sociology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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