THE CONTRADICTIONS OF WOMEN'S SUBORDINATION
- Women's biological role as mothers should be a source of their power; instead, it is used to justify their subordination.
- Women's capacity to give sexual pleasure is used by men, but also despised or feared, while women's right to experience sexual pleasure is often denied or sharply restricted.
- Women are everywhere valued as mothers, yet economic conditions often force them into multiple, conflicting roles they may be criticized for.
- Women are revered in most religious traditions, yet they are subjected to many forms of abuse.
- A woman cannot be a chaste, modest wife and also meet a husband's demand for the sort of sex that commercial sex workers provide.
- If a woman asks her partner about symptoms of RTIs (hers or his), or if she denies her partner sex until he is cured of infection or willing to use a condom regularly, she may be accused of being unfaithful, and risks violence or desertion.
- A woman may want prenatal and delivery care, or a safe abortion, but her government may refuse to provide it, or her partner may not pay for it, or she may be denied the opportunity to earn the necessary money herself.
- A woman may realize that she and other women are receiving inadequate medical care, but have no personal, social, or political power to bring about changes in the health system.