Girls Leading Our World

Gender dynamics, in any culture, at any time, are always fascinating to watch and I had a particularly interesting situation to observe today on my way out of work. It appears that two very drunk men had a disagreement resulting in one wanting to pummel the other in the middle of the plaza. So with much posturing and following around the two created quite the scene. Luckily there were plenty of men around to make sure the situation didn’t get too far out of hand and many of them did their best to diffuse the situation by trying to talk the two men down. Even so, they did end up mixing it up a bit, but that was quickly broken up by the growing group of onlookers.

The situation wasn’t totally in hand though, until a woman, whom I assume was the wife of the man instigating the tussle, appeared on the scene and proceeded to escalate into a quite upset and vocal state aimed at her husband. His posturing continued and he remained in his own agitated state, but I also noticed he no longer truly tried to follow his target as she alternated between standing in front of him, yelling at him and pushing him back to standing behind him, yelling at him, and pulling on the back of his shirt. When I left the scene he was sitting down still yelling about his perceived wronging, but the other man had finally succeeded in walking away without pursuit.

Woman in this culture tend to be on the quiet side, calmly taking care of most of the work, especially in the home. They are also, historically, the ones who harvest the rice, allowing the men can stay home and guard the house and children from attack. It’s a more mixed crowd now, but I still observe women doing the bulk of the work. They certainly aren’t the ones sitting around the plaza drinking, or playing endless games of pool. In a culture where men still hold most of the public offices and act as the head of the house, you can still catch rare glimpses of a much more balanced power dynamic than appears on the surface.

PS GLOW Camps are a Peace Corps creation designed to empower woman. And yes, that is my T-Shirt!