Michelle Nhung Le

Posted on: 11/3/2022

From the Time’s Up movement, to the United Nation’s championing of gender parity by 2030 under its Sustainable Development Goals, to Hillary Clinton being the first woman to run for President of the United States, the world has seen a paradigm shift in the treatment of women. In retrospect, it would appear that women have been emancipated from the shackles of patriarchy – while the first feminist wave in the 1920s focused primary on women’s suffrage, the fourth feminist wave that the world is currently experiencing has expanded its reach to include bodily autonomy, body positivity and intersectional feminism. The mere fact that the focus of the feminist movement has been broadened appears to indicate that women’s status in contemporary society has been elevated in an unprecedented manner. Because of the aforementioned trends and observations, some may argue that women have never had it better, for reasons including a conspicuous shift in mindsets in terms of women’s roles in society, as well as the provision of more comprehensive legislative rights which have appeared to empower women. However, I would view this perspective to be rather quixotic, and instead argue that it is fallacious to claim that women have never had it better, due to reasons including the entrenchment of beliefs in society which has actually impeded and precluded further progress, and the reversal of women’s liberties and rights.

Some would contend that women have never had it better because of the shift in societal mindsets vis-a-vis the definition of women’s roles in society, which has engendered more favourable outcomes for women today. Compared to the past, women are arguably less restricted and are largely free to do as they please, without social or institutional barriers to obstruct them. The age-old shibboleth that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” no longer appears to hold true, especially with the evolution of societal attitudes, which has reasonably led to the conclusion that women have never had it better or easier, at least in that specific area of concern. Gone were the days when women were expected to confine themselves to the domestic sphere – in today’s world, women have been empowered to seek employment and join the workforce, which has seen a wave of female leaders in the corporate sphere. This is exemplified by the rising numbers of female employees, and even the numbers of female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of large corporations. Female leaders such as Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer of Facebook), Sharon Price John (CEO of Build-A-Bear), and Indra Nooyi (outgoing CEO of Pepsico) have become household names, and seem to have achieved what was impossible five decades ago, thereby appearing to provide evidence that women have never had it better in terms of possessing the ability to assert themselves in society. Moreover, the number of women in politics has also been on the rise – according to UN Women statistics, the number of female parliamentarians has risen from 11.3% in 1995 to 22.8% in 2016. In Nordic countries such as Iceland and Sweden, female representation in parliament stands at 48% and 44% respectively, placing these countries well above the world average of 23%. Western nations such as Canada and France have also implemented 50-50 gender cabinets, thus providing women with a voice in politics that was previously muted or non-existent. With such marked progress in two key spheres of human existence – the workplace and politics – there is good reason for us to hold the optimistic notion that women have truly never had it better, since their status in society today stands in stark contrast with where they were in the past.

Naturally, with increased representation in the political sphere, some have proffered the idea that women have never had it better because of the increase in legislative rights that have been accorded to them, which has only served to empower them and change their lives for the better. Many societies around the globe which had previously only granted these rights to men, leaving women fettered to the legal structures of patriarchy and discrimination, are now shrugging off the shackles of gender discrimination on a constitutional basis. A case in point would be Saudi Arabia, which granted women the right to drive earlier in 2018, as well as the right to join the political arena by canvassing for a seat in the Shura Council. Women in Saudi Arabia have now been granted rights which assist in liberating them by enabling them to fulfil basic, run-of-the-mill desires and political aspirations which they had never even dared to conceive of in the past, thus appearing to prove that they have never had it better. Similarly, Jordan recently repealed a law which recused males who were accused of rape if they married the women whom they assaulted. For women in developing countries like Jordan, this could be perceived as an extension of social rights through the construction of a society that provides women with more civil rights and liberties, rather than causing them to be constrained and subjugated by men. Hence, these instances of legislative change ostensibly prove that women have never had it better than in contemporary society, where they are seemingly treated as equals and provided with sufficient opportunities to achieve their ambitions.

However, this argument that women have never had it better because of increased legislative rights that have been extended to them is fundamentally flawed, in that these are basic human rights that ought to have been given to women right from the outset. In fact, even recognising these developments as a marker of significant progress is problematic, as it acknowledges the existence of the archaic mindset that led to their prolonged enforcement in the first place. Thus, while it may be true that the provision of these rights has elevated women’s status and place in society compared to the past, the argument still fails to consider that entrenched social attitudes might preclude the enforcement of these rights due to society’s firm and vehement resistance against these progressions.

The entrenchment of patriarchal beliefs, which is exemplified through religious practices that continue to subjugate women to the most abominable and inhumane conditions as well as the unconscious biases which pervade several societies, continues to play a ubiquitous role in preventing women from being truly empowered, since the way that they have been treated has not truly changed, or improved significantly compared to the past. Countries like Pakistan are still steeped in deep observation of religious practices, where acts such as honour killings continue to occur despite the government outlawing them. In theory, it might appear that women have never had it better, but the truth of the matter is that religious practices such as these which seek to shame women for bringing dishonour to their families for the simplest things such as “dressing inappropriately” continue to exist and relegate women to demeaning positions in society. Harmful practices such as female genital mutilation in countries such as Egypt, while outlawed in many countries, continue to occur because of the entrenchment of beliefs and the innate, inexplicable desire to maintain the status quo by ensuring that women continue conforming to traditional roles and expectations. These ingrained prejudices and beliefs are not limited to the developing world; in fact, unconscious biases continue to pervade the developed world too, and thus preclude women from truly having it better. For instance, women who assert themselves in the workplace by raising their opinions during board meetings are viewed as “bossy” and “domineering”, whilst men who do the same are viewed as “confident” and “capable”. A 2016 study by the Pew Research Center revealed that these unconscious yet deeply ingrained biases against women ultimately cost them promotions and impede career advancements in spite of legislative policies which forbid gender-based discrimination. Thus, many individuals are unable to recognise their prejudices in the first place because the entrenchment of archaic values and beliefs has conditioned them to think and act in ways that are unfavourable to women. This makes it extremely difficult to make the unabridged claim that women have never had it better, when significant progress has failed to be made.

Furthermore, it would be an overstatement to claim that women have never had it better because of the regression of progress. In certain societies, women, in fact, used to have it better, and instead are now experiencing even greater marginalisation through restrictions introduced in contemporary times due to socio-political developments or increased expectations that have been thrust upon them as a result of the mistaken assumption that enough has been done in the name of gender equality. A case in point would be the increased constraints foisted on women in Afghanistan in recent times. Prior to the takeover by the Taliban, women used to be able to exercise greater liberties and rights. This was illustrated visually by photographs taken of everyday men and women in the 1960s by Dr Bill Podlich, an American university professor who worked in Afghanistan for two years under a stint with UNESCO. In the pictures, women were spotted donning short skirts and trendy blouses, and primary school-aged girls attended classes alongside their male classmates. When contrasted with the present, the landscape in Afghanistan appears foreign and almost unrecognisable. In today’s world, women in Afghanistan are required to be clad in burqas at all times as the exposure of skin is deemed “sinful” and a “moral transgression”, and girls are frequently deprived of an education. This indicates a regression of women’s status in society, where political conflict and the manifestation of even more backward beliefs has resulted in a rollback of progress. Similarly, women in several modern societies are currently suffering from the “double burden” of having to simultaneously work to support their families and care for their children as their primary caregivers. This is the case in China, where the modern, educated woman is made to juggle between career and family. One would expect that economic empowerment initiatives which have been advocated since Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution would liberate women and enable them to “have it better”, yet this is simply not the case, as women are now not only expected to care for their children and elderly parents as they did in the past, but also earn an income to support the household financially, alongside their husbands. Here, we see the danger of partial measures: as society looks at gender equality as a job well done, not enough is being done to continue to push the needle for women further forward and this has led to a backsliding that only damages their cause further. Thus, the regression of women’s rights and increased expectations on women in society illustrates how women currently suffer even more than they used to in the past, thereby refuting the claiming that women have never had it better today, since they used to have it better.

From there, we can clearly observer that to assert that women have never had it better would be exaggerated, considering the word “never” insinuates a sense of absolutism. It fails to consider the prodigious number of struggles that women continue to face, both because of the continuity of practices which stem from gender-based beliefs imbued in our societies, and the increased burden that women are made to shoulder. While it may be true that women have experienced empowerment in some ways, particularly in the developed world, the continued communal suffering of women outweighs the liberation that they have received. This ultimately proves that it is fallacious to claim that women have never had it better, especially since there is so much more to accomplish.

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