“To teach a woman is to teach a generation”Mahatma Gandhi Candidly speaking, there will always be the enslavement of women as long as the very structures of a male-dominated society are not dismantled. Basically, we live in a patriarchal society and there still exists the pervading mentality “boy, first prize, girl, second best” or “man to lead, woman to follow”. In fact, the institution of marriage is the chief vehicle for the perpetuation of women’s oppression; it is through the role of wife that the subjugation of women is maintained.

A woman is always doubly exploited: at home (unpaid labour) and in the field, factory or office. At the very dawn of the 21st century, some women still have to surrender submissively their monthly paypackets to their tyrannical husbands. Her social status is eventually determined firstly by that husband and secondly by the number of offspring she bears and rears.

In some sectors and quarters, there are still battered, bruised and broken women who suffer in silence for fear of being expelled from the marital roof {the greatest calamity that can befall a woman). Domestic hellish and devilish as well. Why then talk and hold brainstorming sessions on proportional representation – when our current Parliament is male-dominated, undemocratic and under-represented?

Women constitute over 50% of the whole electorate, but still, they are so unrepresented. Why have their seats been usurped for so long? Is the world of politics the monopoly of men? The feminine bulk is a force to be reckoned with. Gone are the days when women had to vote according to their husbands’ whims and fancies.

As a matter of fact, male lawmakers cannot decide and determine what is good or bad for their female counterparts, most specially on thorny issues like the Muslim Personal Law (MPL) or the Abortion Act. Let women (the silent majority) voice out their opinions to decide on their plight and might.

We have another anomaly in our legal system. Jurors, as well as lawyers and barristers, tend to be in practice too male, too middle-aged, too middle-class and too... middle-minded. Why does the jury system hardly include one or two women or sometimes none at all? Are women treated as second-class citizens in our country? Worse still, is industrial capitalism, which has fattened itself on the sweat and tears of women’s labour, considered as cheap labour. Export processing zone = suffering zone - without balance.

By way of conclusion, I would say that male supremacy is a very myth built for centuries on the biological weakness of women. Year in, year out, we have the same speeches, the same attitudes, the same promises.

What we strongly and urgently need is a change of heart, a change of social attitudes and, above all, a change of mentality. We must endeavour to unmask the very hypocrisy of male chauvinists.

It is only then that we shall have a more egalitarian society and women empowerment will thus become a reality. The very shackles of modern slavery will then be truly crushed down.

<B>Sookraj BISSESSUR</B>