Love, Marriage, and Unequal Relations to Gender

Love, Marriage, and Unequal Relations to Gender
Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Due Date
One of the most explored areas of interest in gender studies is the construction of masculinity and femininity by men and women in a given culture, the interpretation of the existing ideology, and various ways in which attempts are made to either challenge or reinforce the paradigms in place in a process known as gender negotiation. Women who hold subordinate status in patriarchal systems have to negotiate for changes within the domestic space to improve their lives or that of their families. Gender negotiations are dynamic and occur at multiple levels within society. A common theme that has emerged in Caribbean Feminist works is the concept of love, marriage, and unequal relationship to gender. Most Caribbean countries including Barbados are characterized by the existence of hegemonic masculinity marked by men’s espousal and adherence to a strict masculine identity that largely ignores the inroads that women have made in education and labor participation. An analytical review of works by Patricia Mohammed, Rossi Granata, Mini Schipper, and Suzanne Leonard offers varying perspectives on how Caribbean women can approach gender negotiation in a society dominated by men.[Eudine Barriteau, "Women and Gender Relations in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean," In The Political Economy of Gender in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2001); 49.]
In “Gender Negotiations among Indians in Trinidad, 1917-1947,” Patricia Mohammed theorizes that women were able to recognize and utilize resources available to them to contest for privileges within a patriarchal Indian system, in a manner that significantly shifted gender relations among married couples in the community. The overriding argument in the book is that pressure of any kind, especially the one applied by women in their spheres of control eventually contributes to shifts in ideology and practice in gender relations regardless of the dominance exerted by men. One of the identified pressures that contributed to the gender renegotiation was the scarcity of women in the community given that there were more men in the Indian community. The scarcity of women in the community meant that the community could not effectively maintain the normative gender relations as the numerical scarcity of women demanded a better approach that could have been used to entice women into marriage.[Patricia Mohammed, Gender Negotiations among Indians in Trinidad 1917–1947 (Springer, 2002), 5.] [Patricia Mohammed, Gender Negotiations among Indians in Trinidad 1917–1947, 15]
The effectiveness of numerical scarcity as a pressure point that led to gender renegotiations was enhanced by the increasing participation of women in the labor force. Women were assigned tasks alongside their women and the resulting money was paid into their hands. Notably, the labor participation varied given that men were given harder tasks than women. Mohammed explains that the unequal expectation among the two gender groups exposed men to adverse outcomes because of working in the field and translated into higher life expectancy for women. While the higher life expectancy had a marked influence on gender relations later, the immediate consequence of women's participation in the labor market was a sense of independence from the existing gender relations where women were dependent on their husbands for sustenance. Some of the single women who arrived in Trinidad were recruited into the labor markets and the wages paid for their labor increased their feeling of independence as they could make choices on how to spend their earnings. The earned money increased the overall attractiveness of the single women to Indian men who were looking to start a family as their economic choices could prove their resourcefulness and thrift in handling money.[Ibid, 67] [Ibid, 87.]
Indian women's ability to renegotiate their gender relations can be explained by the concept of women empowerment. As a concept, women empowerment refers to the shift in agency experienced by a woman upon accessing economic resources within their immediate environment. In the context of Mohammed’s book, women became empowered once they were recruited into the labor market and received wages that they could control as single women. The Indians immigrating to Trinidad came from a culture that was heavily patriarchal and did not provide their women with the opportunity for decision-making. However, the colonial government encouraged the emigration of single unattached women to guarantee morality in the emigrated Indians. The single Indian women who immigrated to Trinidad were significantly empowered given that they were scarce and would receive earnings from their participation in the labor market. In Barbados, the renegotiation of gender relations can be achieved through women's empowerment as was the case for the Indian women who settled in Trinidad. Kabeer notes that women empowerment can be driven by the acquisition of the human resources that facilitate the participation of women in the economic sphere, but warns that the condition is insufficient for driving women empowerment on its own. The other conditions that contribute to women's empowerment include access to and the control of economic resources and the overall enhancement of their extra-familial social resources. Women in Barbados have been amassing human resources skills through education and have been playing an active role in the economic sphere of the country, but the extent to which such a condition has facilitated their empowerment remains a work in progress.[Georgia Taylor and Paola Pereznieto, "Review of Evaluation Approaches and Methods Used by Interventions on Women and Girls’ Economic Empowerment," Overseas Development Institute 14 (2014): 10.] [Patricia Mohammed, Gender Negotiations among Indians in Trinidad 1917–1947, 89.] [Naila Kabeer, "Paid Work, Women's Empowerment and Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of Social Change," (2008): 1.] [Georgia Taylor and Paola Pereznieto, "Review of Evaluation Approaches and Methods Used by Interventions on Women and Girls’ Economic Empowerment, 13.] [Naila Kabeer, "Between Affiliation and Autonomy: Navigating Pathways of Women's Empowerment and Gender Justice in Rural Bangladesh," Development and Change 42, no. 2 (2011): 518.]
While Mohammed emphasizes the importance of resources in women's contestation for status, she stresses that the renegotiations of the gender relations among members of the community were largely successful as it was based on a commitment from married couples to the survival of their ethnic communities. That is, Indian men were open to the renegotiation of gender roles in marriage as the establishment of a patriarchal system is usually sanctioned by women as it is structured to facilitate the protection of gender identities. Mohammed notes that “The struggle in Trinidad between Indian men and women cannot be viewed simply as a struggle of one sex to gain ascendancy over the other when the circumstances permit, but must also be regarded in terms of the concern both feel about the survival and growth of their ethnic community.” Regarding this, the settlement of Indians to a new environment that lacked the social organization that had been established by the historical conditions of their Indian subcontinent meant that some aspects of the community ideologies surrounding masculinity and femininity had to be reviewed. Consequently, single empowered women gained more agency in the contestation of the privileges and status that would be accorded to them in the evolved gender relations. Because of this, women in Barbados have to unpack the functions of the existing gender relations and determine where pressure can be exacted to negotiate the relations.[Patricia Mohammed, Gender Negotiations among Indians in Trinidad 1917–1947, 200] [Ibid, 265] [Ibid, 266]
With time, love has emerged as a dominant element in Western marriage discourse. However, the utility of love concerning marriage and shaping gender relations remains underexplored. In the book “Looking for Love in the Legal Discourse of Marriage,” Renata Grossi posits that the increased prominence of love in marriage discourse gives it the legitimacy essential for its inclusion in law. The argument is grounded on the increased emphasis placed on love in contemporary society. From its outset during the Romantic period, love was considered to be a radical and liberating force; an idea that has been embraced beyond the Western culture to the extent that it is now considered a saturated message by some people. Grossi notes that love has increased in prominence to the extent that some people consider it an existential goal whose realization can impart meaning and happiness. The prominence of love has been guaranteed by its appearance as one of the common themes in mass culture. When reviewing it in terms of gender relations; love becomes an essential element given its linkage to freedom and liberty, whereby there is the realization that only individuals who are accountable, free, and active can enjoy love. In line with this, Grossi notes that love is considered to be beyond all extrinsic factors as it has its social laws that are beyond existing social conventions.[Renata Grossi, Looking for Love in the Legal Discourse of Marriage, (ANU Press, 2014); 11.] [Ibid, 12] [Ibid, 14]
One of the key influences of love as expressed by Grossi in the book is the influence of love on the institution of marriage. In most societies, including Barbados, the traditional conceptualization of marriage that is based on patriarchy, religion, and tradition remains but love has been inserted as the foundation for marriage with a dominant view that it is the only thing that remains once the other reasons for marrying become irrelevant. Over time, marriage has become disconnected from family obligations, economic needs, and religious obligations and realigned itself with the pursuit of love. The importance of love in married couples has not only been a goal for married heterosexual couples but has also been adopted as the overwhelming goal for same-sex couples. Grossi notes that the pinnacle of influence of love on marriage can be discerned from the consideration of a legal case in an Australian court where the Court invalidated the traditional views that marriage requires sexual capacity and activity to remain valid, as well as the assertion that the defining reason for marriage is procreation. In so doing, the court asserted the importance of love in the definition of marriage.[Renata Grossi, Looking for Love in the Legal Discourse of Marriage, 28.]
Notably, the discourse of law, love, and marriage does offer a potential avenue that feminists in Barbados can use to renegotiate the position of women in the heavily patriarchal society. In her work, Grossi notes that increased legal relevance of love in marriage can lead to equal status in marriage given that it changes the importance placed on sex in marriage. The rise of romantic marriage diminished the importance placed on sex in marriage, as the view that sex has to be consummated with the purpose of procreation changed to consideration of sex as a means of achieving mutual satisfaction and expressing love. Just like in other heavily patriarchal communities, women in Barbados face negative outcomes in form of harm from men keen to exert their influence on them. In a study, Jones and her colleague note that domestic violence remains one of the most persistent challenges in Barbados, whereby a third of the women in the country experience a form of domestic violence in their lifetime. The authors theorized the high level of domestic violence that women face stems from the existing gender relations that promote the view that women are the property of their husbands. The argument presented by Grossi in her book points out the potential utility of love in legal marriage discourses. With the consideration that love is a central reason for marriage, Barbados women would have a tool that they can effectively use to renegotiate their interactions with the men in their lives. The utility of the approach would be potentially effective, as the law would protect women from the traditional expectation of marriage as a tool for procreation.[Ibid, 45] [Adele Jones, Ena Trotman Jemmott, Hazel Da Breo, Tyrone Buckmire, Denise Tannis, Lee Rose, Francia Best, Debra Joseph, and Christian Moller. "Twenty-one Lessons: Preventing Domestic Violence in the Caribbean," (2017): 2.] [Renata Grossi, Looking for Love in the Legal Discourse of Marriage, 66.]
While the consideration of love in legal discourse in marriage does offer a potential solution for renegotiating gender relations in couples, Grossi questions the approach as it relates to same-sex couples. Grossi contends that the concept of love is largely tied to heterosexual relationships given that love mainly describes the union of two soul mates. That is, the Australian Court's failure to question the contemporary understanding of love creates a circularity whereby the inclusion of love...