A Brief Historical Overview of Changing Gender Relations

Maria van Driel discusses some of the changes that have taken place within human society over thousands of years.

Patriarchy has not always been the norm governing human relationships. Historically, before that matriarchy – female dominance – existed. The traditional family as we generally know it, has not always existed. What is clear is that gender relations and society have changed over time.

Hunters and gatherers

Early human life on earth was based on hunting and gathering societies. While there was a sexual division of labour, women gathered food and nuts while men hunted. This was based on the fact that women bore children, which impacted on their mobility. However, hunting was not the domain of male only, many women also hunted though there were times when they could not, just as their were times when men could not hunt. Thus, the sexual division of labour did not automatically lead to patriarchy. The important aspect during this period was that everyone worked so as to survive because humans did not have control over their environments. During this period the work of women was valued as was that of men. There were no social classes and this was a most egalitarian society.

During this period, it is believed that there was sexual freedom sometimes referred to as ‘sexual promiscuity’. There was group marriage, which was generational, or based on age groups. Everyone was the wife or husband of everyone else. Paternity could not be established and lineage was based on the mother or MOTHER RIGHT. There was no traditional ‘family’ and all children were cared for by the group or the community. Women were free, honoured and respected, and their work was valued.

Agriculture discovered

Women’s discovery of agriculture in Africa thousands of years ago was a major breakthrough in human existence. This meant that human beings did not have to move from one place to another to find food and it led to more stable settlements. The discovery of agriculture enabled humans to produce beyond just their immediate needs. This was called a surplus. Besides the food security and more stable settlements, this enabled the development of human civilisations to occur over time. At this stage women controlled production and lineage was based on women – matriarchy. Private ownership did not exist, instead it resided with the community.

The surplus produced meant that not everyone needed to be engaged in work or in agriculture. The question that arose was how would the surplus product be controlled and distributed equitably.

Social classes arise

It is only much later, with time that agriculture assisted with pastoralism and the domestication of animals which enabled humans to have more control over their environment and to increase their surplus. This surplus led to the emergence of different social classes. The surplus produced released some people from daily chores to pursue other activities. Control of the surplus was therefore very important. This division of labour between those who did manual and other work led to social classes and inequality as evidenced by the emergence of chiefs, teachers and priests. These people shared in the surplus that was produced although they did not directly produce it, but assisted in other forms of relevant work. With time, the gender division and ‘women’s work’ was differentiated from that of ‘men’s work’.

The pairing family

During this period sexual relationships changed and started residing in the ‘pairing’ of a male and a female in conjugal relationships. (This did not mean that homosexual behaviour did not occur.) A process of continuous exclusion of who participated in sexual relationships took place. The nearer the family or blood ties, the more this was excluded until even more remote relatives were excluded. This seemed to have been cross-cultural. For example, incest became taboo in all cultures and this was probably due to human experiences of deformity and so forth.

With time the group marriage became impossible and there was an imperative to find women from ‘outside the clan or tribe’. This gave rise to the purchase of women and their capturing and kidnapping. Marriages of convenience were arranged and could be dissolved by mutual consent, and both parties left with their possessions.

It was the pairing family that brought about the rise of father right. Before this, the father ’s property was inherited by his family or clan, not his children. Up till then the children of the deceased man belonged to the woman. As private wealth increased, the gender division of labour deepened and the man became more important. The only way the father ’s children could inherit was to overthrow mother right, and the matriarchal law of inheritance in favour of male descent and male inheritance. Paternity therefore became important.

According to Frederick Engels, the overthrow of the mother resulted in the defeat of the female sex. The men take command of the home and the women were degraded, relegated to servitude, became slaves of lust and instruments to produce children. Patriarchy then asserted itself within the society, in all its forms and values.

The monogamous family

The monogamous family then came into being based on patriarchy and the supremacy of the male. Paternity and male inheritance became the norm. Marriage then became an important instrument to control women and their child-bearing capacities. Marriages were arranged based on convenience and increasing wealth and power. Marriage became binding and could not easily be dissolved, (only men could dissolve it). Conjugal fidelity, monogamy or having one partner existed for women, while it was permissible for men to live under ‘the old sexual ways’. In this way paternity was ensured and the father ’s property was passed on to his children. The family then increasingly became the basic unit through which women and children were controlled and through which patriarchy exercised its power.

Up till this point adultery was unknown as people had sexual freedom. It is clear then that “adultery” has not always existed and that it was socially constructed to conform with the changing gender relations. But again, double standards existed for men and women. While the husband has access to other women – slave women, young women taken as booty and even prostitutes – the wife had to remain the mother of his legitimate heirs. Monogamy was for women while men had access to relationships and sex outside marriage, and this led to the subjugation of women by men. The struggle between men and women that then developed was previously unknown in history.

Women’s rights and patriarchy

While patriarchy has survived for many years, it is clearly not absolute and is able to co-exist with women’s basic rights as we have seen with the South African Constitution and its guarantees of women’s basic rights. This is not unique as there are certain practices that still occur and reflect our human past. For instance, the concept of the extended family within many cultures, including Africa, is a remnant of previous ways in which society was organised. There are still traditional matriarchal societies or female lineage that exist in parts of Africa. The Rain Queen, the late Modjadji, from Limpopo was an example of matriarchy. Even today, her successor is allowed to marry and is not able to have relations with any man of her choice without having to wed him.

Conclusion

Gender relations have changed over time and human beings are therefore not stuck to any specific prescription of what they should be. It is up to women and men to decide what constitutes egalitarian gender relations and it is important that these gender relations enable all humans to reach their full potential. On the other hand, we do not have to wait for society to change in order to change gender relations. As human beings we do not need a one to one relationship between our social awareness and the society in which we live. We have the capacity to change and to build egalitarian gender relations as we struggle to change the neoliberal society in which we live. We can begin by changing gender relations in all aspects of our lives the home, the workplace, in our social relations and in our progressive civil society and social movement organisations.

Maria van Driel is a member of the Editorial Collective.