Gender Balance

I had a fascinating conversation with an old friend recently. He had just returned from Bahrain, where he had been working intermittently over a number of years.

I asked him what was his take on the Arab Spring from his own experience in Bahrain.
He said that he felt nothing could really change long term in the governments unless things changed within families and the gender balance....that the masculine influence was too strong & dominant...the feminine influence too absent.    Intrigued, I asked further and he went on to explain that his experience was that  behind closed doors, even amongst some of his educated colleagues, the man of the family was a bit of a tyrant...viewing both the women and children as his to do with, as he chose, and that physical violence was still not that uncommon. The autocratic governments which we have seen in the Middle East, he felt, are a like a large scale reflection of this family pattern.

This gave me food for thought....as it demonstrates how change at the ground level, could  influence  society. So often people feel they personally cannot make a difference, but in fact everybody can and does contribute to the status quo ...either by confirming or changing it.  Perhaps part of our changing  times is the breakdown of this 'top down' kind of influence and the appearance of much more personal responsibility from individuals....as well of course as a natural and balanced working partnership between the genders.