Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
~ 170 ~
In former times the spheres of men’s and women’s
activities were considered separate. In modern
times, however, this clear demarcation has been
dispensed with, one of the grounds being that a
nation cannot progress if women are not offered
equal opportunities in its construction. But the
experiment of giving women a free hand has not
contributed either to nation-building or to the
progress of civilization. In countries where women
have already been offered equal opportunities in
every field, all of the more important and advanced
fields are still dominated by men.
Those who subscribe to the view that a nation will
fail to march ahead without the participation of
women — who constitute almost half of the
population — need only look at the example of
Japan, one of the most developed countries of the
modern world. They will be forced to change their
ideas when they consider that all of the major
developments in Japan have taken place without
women’s involvement as equal in non-domestic
activities. Japan’s example is the greatest challenge
to the feminist view. Its continuing to be a male
dominated society clearly shows that the
