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The Position of Women: Appearance and Reality

1967; George Washington University; Volume: 40; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3316943

1534-1518

Ernestine Friedl,

Gender Politics and Representation

The purpose of this paper is to describe the ways in which the appearances of prestige can obscure the realities of power. More specifically, the substance of this discussion is an analysis of the position of women in the social structure of a Greek village community. As the first sentence indicates, I believe the elements of Greek culture and society that lead most observers to consider it strongly male-centered do, indeed, exist but that they may mislead the observer into a polarized view of the relative power of men and women in Greek society. The problem is not unique to Greece. It is possible to argue that male activities have more prestige than those of females in all societies, and if this is true, the discovery of the relative social power of men and women may require more careful investigation in each case than is usually given to the question. One of the factors of this investigation which, so far as I know, has been generally neglected, is the distinction between the public and the private sector as far as the actual importance of each in the power-structure of the community is concerned. From the standpoint of the ceremonial mores of the community, there may be many cultures in which male activity is accorded pre-eminence in the public sector. But if a careful analysis of the life of the community shows that, pragmatically the family is the most significant social unit, then the private, and not the public sector, is the sphere in which the relative attribution of power to males and females is of the greatest real importance. If, as I hope to show, the women in a Greek village hold a position of real power in the life of the family, and, as I have shown earlier, the life of the family is the most significant structural and cultural element of the Greek village,2 then there is unmistakable need for a reassessment of the role of the Greek woman in village life.