Traditional and contemporary status of women in the patriarchal belt

• Date: 22 March 2013
• Pages: 310-324
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-12-2012-0122
• Published date: 22 March 2013
• Author: Romie Frederick Littrell,Andy Bertsch

Traditional and contemporary

status of women in the

patriarchal belt

Romie Frederick Littrell

AUT Business School, Auckland, New Zealand, and

Andy Bertsch

Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota, USA

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to present a meta-analysis of available statistical data and literature for

gender-related practices concerning women in business and education across countries, comparing the

patriarchal belt and South Asian countries in the belt to the rest of the world. The purpose of

the project is to investigate the progress of enhancement of opportunities for women to engage in

non-agricultural work in the belt, and, as women’s participation in tertiary education is touted as an

impetus in enhancing women’s opportunities, investigate its effect.

Design/methodology/approach – The existence of a belt of countries from North Africa through

Bangladesh and rural China is well known, with societies demonstrating a consistent pattern of

restriction and suppression of women. No development of theory treating the patriarchal belt as a

whole has been published. The authors earmark this as a future endeavour. They employ ten years of

statistical summaries of percent of women in the non-agricultural labour force and ratios of women to

men in tertiary education provided by the United Nations in support of the UN Millennium

Development Goals to compare changes in these activities in countries in the patriarchal belt, South

Asia, and the rest of the world. The method is to carry out statistical comparisons of trends derived

from annual averages for the two measures.

Findings – The literature review indicates that for millennia in the p atriarchal belt societal

practices have institutionalised women’s lack of access to participation in the labour market and

generally from participating in much of public life. The analyses indicate that participation in

non-agricultural employment has decreased over the past decade in the belt compared to the

rest of the world. Opportunities for women to participate in tertiary education have on average

been increasing during this period for most countries of the world including those in the

patriarchal belt. However, this circumstance has not led to increased participation in the

non-agricultural work force.

Practical implications – The practical implications seen are that the UN Millennium Development

Goals (UNMDG) are important to improving the lot of individuals, some goals that purport to lead to

improvements in human and gender rights in regions such as the patriarchal belt may have no real

effect, and other,more useful goals ne ed to be investigated. Economically,the exclusion of women from

voluntary productive labour as detrimental to the development of a nation is seen.

Social implications – In the patriarchal belt societal practices institutionalise negative

discrimination concerning women, often codified in laws that prohibit women from participating in

much of public life or fully competing in the labour market. The evaluation of these conditions using

European and North American standards proposes that these women are abused and denied their

rights. Nonetheless, initiatives such as agreements on the UNMDG appear to have no effect, and other

solutions need to be pursued.

Originality/value – The originality and value of this paper is that it investigates the complete set

of patriarchal belt countries, across countries that include both Muslim and Hindu majorities.

It concludes that while religions tenets are employed to justify patriarchal practices, long-standing

tribal practices appear to be far more influential.

Keywords Patriarchal belt, South Asia, Women, Work, Education, Religion, Culture, Employment

Paper type Research paper

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

Equality, Diversityand Inc lusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 32 No. 3, 2013

pp. 310-324

rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI -12-2012-0122

310

EDI

32,3