Some Ladies Are Dumping Feminism

“The Monstrous Regiment of Women” is a must watch documentary that is impacting women in the western hemisphere. It depicts prominent ladies that have decided to tow a different line on the gender question. These are not simple women, but ladies of international repute. They include Sharon Adams, a university of Edinburgh historian, Jane Chancy, leader of “Ladies against Feminism”, Dana Feliciano, author, “Buried Treasure” books, and “Domestic Tranquillity” author, F. Carolyn Graglia, among others.

These ladies have thoroughly analysed the feminist agenda and summed it as an attempt, “to make women believe they are victims of an oppressive patriarchal society”. According to them, “feminists tell women not to submit to a husband, avoid having children, listen to their 'inner voice' and chase a career”. The documentary claims, “This doctrine has been proven wrong because it has led to disastrous consequences for American women, pushing many of them into a frustrating, isolated existence.”

As they take this sober opinion in the Azunguland, is it not proper for us, Africans to go back to the drawing board and revise our gender gospel? We need to take a sober opinion of the whole question because since the gender commandos landed on our land, no clear visible benefit has been harvested by Malawians. While we acknowledge that violence must be eliminated from our homes and societies, the gender activists are not a solution but part of the problem.

They sow seeds of insubordination to the husbands. We need not forget that most of these activists are single ladies who have graduated from marriages (I don't want to use the word “marriage failures”). It is also important to note that victims of domestic violence are spread across the whole gender divide. Men have also been victims but little or nothing has been said about their plight.

The majority of faithfully married women value marriage and the role of men in a society. But they are being misled by feminists who are trying to make them believe that marriage is an oppressive yoke that women must be liberated from, child bearing is spoken of as a crippling curse and motherhood as backwardness. Before we begin to copy or import cultures into our society, we need to properly scrutinize its long term implication.

Western societies are not a good cultural model. A culture that has women, who do not submit to their husbands, should not be touted as a model to be copied. We need not forget that child bearing is a noble aspect of woman hood. Any doctrine that encourages women to avoid bearing children is depriving women of their woman hood. Russia is now encouraging parents to repopulate their land by bearing more children, and so is Uganda.

We need to balance our gender messages so as to send positive signals in the larger society; otherwise people will continue resisting feminism because of its negative impact. Men and women complement each other and should never be square off against each other. As a nation we need to tackle the gender issue in a Malawian way, using Malawian methods and Malawian weapons. Let's draw a lesson from “The Monstrous Regiment of Women”