Meghalaya, India: Where women rule, and men are suffragettes

[Starboard Tack]

In the small hilly Indian state of Meghalaya, a matrilineal system operates with property names and wealth passing from mother to daughter rather than father to son - but some men are campaigning for change.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16592633

[A777]

1. Interesting

I wonder why this hasn't gotten much attention.

If this was happening a few hundred miles to the East, in an Afghan town where women weren't voting, there would be a lot more concern. I suppose it's hard to understand that men can be discriminated against in some societies (including, in rare incidences, in "Western" ones).

[Nikia]

3. Despite the wording of the article, men have political power

It even says in the article that women are traditionally excluded from political power. In that culture, men and women have different spheres of power. This is traditional in some other cultures too, including some Native American cultures.

[xmas74]

2. Interesting article.

It shows that no one sex is better than the other when it comes to control.

I think that it shows equality is the only true answer.

[Nikia]

4. In this culture, man and women have different spheres of power

Men have political power and women have economic power. Even if this is slightly in favor of women, it doesn't show that women are just as bad as men in patriarchy. There isn't male infanticide or ostracism of widowers as there is with the reverse gender in the more patriarchal areas of India.

[TigerToMany]

5. Usually in a matriarchal society, power is divided equally between two spheres.

Men and women have different roles, but one is not considered better or worse than the other. And social mobility is much more obvious. Anyways it's not up to us to judge such cultures.

In patriarchal societies, ALL the power rests with men, whether religious, economic, political, or social. So when women are denied rights it is much worse than when men are, because when women are discriminated it's dehumanizing and an indication of how one half of humanity oppresses the others.