Woman between Islam and Western Society

equal status with men. Obviously, we must search for the reasons elsewhere. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN In every period of history — even today in western developed countries — women have remained subordinate to men. The western upholders of the so-called women’s lib movement are still saying that this is not a natural division and that the difference should be attributed to artificial social conditioning. Recent research, however, has discredited this supposition. We reproduce below a report on this issue published in Daily Express: “It is a rough old world for women, as the feminists never cease to remind us. They blame centuries of social conditioning — a kind of conspiracy whereby men all over the world somehow contrive to keep women in a subordinate role. A much simpler, and more probable explanation is that universal male dominance stems not from social oppression but fundamental differences between the sexes.” This is the view put forward by Professor Steven Goldberg of New York in his book, The Inevitability of Patriarchy, which has earned him some shrill abuse from feminists in America (“Fascist Pig” and “Male Sadist” are two of the milder epithets), and has upset a few here, too, since he arrived to launch the British publication. “The feminists hate me,” Goldberg told me cheerfully, “I like to think their intense wrath stems from my inherent rightness. Putting it simply, I believe that the universality of male dominance in all societies cannot be explained by social conditioning.” But it can be explained by the male hormone testosterone which “programmes” the infant male for a life of greater aggression and dominance while he is still in the womb. That’s why little boys are clearly more aggressive than little girls even before they’ve had a chance to be socially conditioned. And in later life, same dominance means that men are far more ready to sacrifice holidays, health and family for the sake of their career. In truth the feminist case is none too strong. If it really were true that male dominance was due to social conditioning rather than innate male qualities, then surely somewhere in the world at some time a society would have evolved in which women were dominant. None has. And even in societies like those behind the Iron Curtain which boast of sexual equality, one sex is obviously “more equal” than the other. You can see it in Russia’s 62­strong council of ministers. Not one is a Woman. After a lifetime spent researching the diverse societies of the world that expert woman anthropologist, Margaret Mead, who is commonly thought to be on the feminist side, has declared: “All the claims so glibly made about societies ruled by women are nonsense. We have no reason to believe that