澳门六合彩

鈥淲hat you do to your women you do to your nation state. And so, if you decide to curse your women, we argue that you will curse your nation state as well,鈥� said Valerie Hudson, University Distinguished Professor and Holder of the George H.W. Bush Chair at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, at the听launch听辞蹿听The First Political Order. Co-authored by Hudson, Donna Lee Bowen, Professor Emerita at Brigham Young University, and P. Lynne Nielson, Professor of statistics at Brigham Young University,听The First Political Order听is the culmination of听听on the linkages between the status of women and the status of nation-state security.

The first political order in any society is the sexual political order established between men and women, said Hudson. Whether society considers the two groups equal, whether it resolves conflicts between the groups peacefully or by force, and whether resources are equally distributed between them have far-reaching consequences for peace and security. 鈥淎nd we argue, along with many, many other scholars, that the character of that first order molds the society, its governance, and its behavior,鈥� said Hudson.

Women鈥檚 disempowerment underlies instability and conflict

The sexual political order in a nation begins at the household level with issues like women鈥檚 property and inheritance rights and how society views domestic violence and femicide, said Hudson. These issues form a series of 鈥渋nterlocking mechanisms鈥� designed to subordinate women. Control over access to resources ends up in the hands of men while women are disenfranchised from property and inheritance rights, said Hudson. Family becomes defined by the male line so that听. This results in son preference and the devaluation of women鈥檚 lives, including early marriage for girls.

鈥淎nd as such, all of these things begin to influence family and personal status laws, and these begin to be deeply inequitable, favoring men over women,鈥� said Hudson. If women鈥檚 labor is considered valuable, polygeny and bride price result. If it is not deemed valuable, then dowry and sex ratio alteration arise instead. These mechanisms work like 鈥渁 series of interlocking magnetic beads. If you have one, you鈥檙e liable to have more than one. If you have three or four, you鈥檙e liable to have five or six of them,鈥� said Hudson. The authors refer to this system of interlocking pattern of institutions, processes, and norms that enforce it as the 鈥淧atrilineal/Fraternal Syndrome.鈥�

The Syndrome affects not only women, but society as a whole. The subordination of women and political instability are deeply connected, said Mark Weiner, Professor of Law and Sidney I. Reitman Scholar at Rutgers Law School. 鈥淚t鈥檚 deep in that female subordination beginning at the household level is not simply a consequence of bad political order, but rather,听.鈥� This is because 鈥渢he home is a boot camp,鈥� said Bowen. 鈥淭here is no better training ground for political violence and instability than lived domestic terror, lived domestic corruption and exploitation, lived domestic autocracy.鈥� By raising our children in Syndrome practices, we prove that women鈥檚 disempowerment works in perpetuating the Syndrome, setting up future generations to follow in that pathway, she said.听

Gender equality is critical to national security

After evaluating data based on nine dimensions of nation-state outcomes, the authors found that nations that highly encode the Syndrome also experience more instability, violence, and corruption. For example, a nation that encodes the syndrome has 2.13 times the chance of being a fragile state, said Nielsen. Such nations also have 鈥�3.53 times the chance of having a government that is more autocratic, less effective, and more corrupt.鈥�

These findings have听听and development. 鈥淚f we can disrupt the weak points of this syndrome, we may have found a way to cut out the roots of instability, conflict, and ineffective governance,鈥� said Bowen. 鈥淥nly by adopting women, peace, and security lenses can we see these linkages and make our foreign policy and security policies more effective,鈥� she said. For example, achieving democracy in a nation requires breaking the Patrilineal/Fraternal Syndrome. The subordination of women through the first political order is 鈥渘ot good ground for the export of democracy,鈥� said Hudson. The United States would be more likely to succeed in exporting democracy to nations that have transitioned away from the Syndrome.

Such considerations have largely been missing in the United States鈥� approach to development and foreign policy, said Hudson. But 鈥渋f the U.S. isn鈥檛 tracking the situation of women, how鈥檚 it going to effectively anticipate instability in other countries?鈥� she asked. 鈥淗ow will the U.S. know that ending child marriage worldwide would probably do more for world peace than any other investment?鈥� One day, the idea that foreign policy could ignore the situation of women will be laughably na茂ve, said Hudson.

A combined approach in policymaking

Measures aimed at gender equality, like the听听as well as policies promoting sexual and reproductive health, are not immediately captured in the framework of the Patrilineal/Fraternal Syndrome, said Jeni Klugman, Managing Director of the Institute for Women, Peace, and Security at Georgetown University. Indeed, sometimes laws fall short in practice: In Bangladesh, child marriage was banned in 1924, but today, three out of four Bangladeshi girls are still married before their eighteenth birthday, she said.

Still, laws do matter, and such policies do fit within the Syndrome鈥檚 framework, said Klugman. For instance, sexual and reproductive health鈥攂oth family planning and access to safe and legal abortions鈥攁re relevant. 鈥淗aving no control over one鈥檚 own fertility is recognized as a prime driver of female subordination, including in the context of early marriage,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd听听more broadly.鈥�

鈥淐learly these changes are not in themselves sufficient, and progress on one aspect may well not survive,鈥� said Klugman. But these changes are also necessary, as even so-called conventional routes to gender equality bring benefits to women themselves, such as听听and working outside the home.听

罢补肠办濒颈苍驳听, polygyny, and pensions are three of the easiest ways of addressing the Patrilineal/Fraternal Syndrome, said Hudson. 鈥淚f those three were the focus of attention, we think that a lot of cascading downstream effects from that would take place,鈥� she said. But we should not ignore traditional measures like female literacy,听, and听, said Nielsen, since rather than being mutually exclusive, these measures should go together to improve the status of women worldwide.

Every human society, past and present, has encoded the Patrilineal/Fraternal Syndrome in some way, and it is 鈥渃onstantly evolving, retreating, and advancing,鈥� said Bowen. Hence, even in states that move away from the syndrome, regression is still possible. 鈥淸T]he battle will need to be fought anew with every generation,鈥� said Hudson.

Written by Cindy Zhou, edited by Sandra Yin.听Sources: Center for Reproductive Rights; International Security; National Academies; 鈥淭he First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide,鈥� by Valerie M. Hudson, Donna Lee Bowen, and Perpetua Lynne Nielsen; UNICEF; UN Women

Continue听the conversation听on听Twitter by following听听and find related听coverage听on our blog,听.

This event is part of a Wilson Center series held in recognition of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (November 25 鈥� December 10, 2020), an international campaign to build awareness and galvanize action in the fight against violence against women and girls.

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