In starting my reading regarding societal roles of men and women within Bhutanese culture, I expected an old and antiquated tradition of men being the dominant majority in the workforce, like most eastern countries have and have sustained for hundreds of years. I was surprisingly happy to see what the real breakdown of the workforce in Bhutan, with the percentage tallying in as almost 50/50 men to women. This off the bat was rather fascinating because in my reading I keep reading about Bhutan being a country that has resisted and avoided a massive amount of societal change throughout the last few hundreds of years. Bhutan is frequently referred to as a country that is secluded and avoids any western or eastern influences on their country, due to their massive pride in their culture and upbringings. Thinking through regular logic when I hear that a country is assumed to be a less socially developed society that they have more archaic gender roles within the workforce, and I thought they would have a large disparity within their workforce. This proved me wrong clearly, and it set the tone for my research on societal roles within Bhutan.
Looking at the article from everyculture.com that I cited, 93% of Bhutanese laborers work within the agriculture sector, which makes sense due to the dense mountains and foliage that takes up a large amount of Bhutan. This is surprising though since the workforce is split 50/50, in America we see a very miniscule amount of laborers who are female, with the overwhelming majority being males, but Bhutan is clearly a more progressive country when it comes to workforce equality than America. This may have to do with the massive emphasis on the familial matriarchy within the Bhutanese culture. Bhutan’s overwhelming familial hierarchy starts with the mother right at the top, she is the owner of the home, and purveyor of all that happens within it and what comes in to support it. With the high rate of female’s working within the regular workforce, this can only underline the emphasis on the importance of females in the familial system, with a large amount of the workforce supporting and taking care of their families through general labor in Bhutan. This is a great cross section between Bhutan and us as a country here in the U.S. where we still even in the 21st century put a decent emphasis on old gender roles within the general labor workforce, even with the disparity of the major labor here in the U.S. and the small comparative amount in Bhutan. Something else that really stuck out like a sore thumb when I was researching gender roles within Bhutan was the major emphasis upon land ownership in Bhutanese families. A good 60% of women in Bhutan are land owners, which is a huge disparity from the U.S. With the emphasis on matriarchy within Bhutan, this split makes sense, because the women are the major bread winners within the family, so the land most probably would be acquired by them due to the majority of the capital coming in. Bhutan is a culturally secluded country, which puts a footnote on keeping a bloodline going through families, so the disparity through land ownership is understandable, with the house being the stable place for a mother to raise children to keep the lineage going. The assumption that the woman will be the main bread winner is directly converse to what we have had in America throughout our history, which luckily is changing progressively, to bring more equality to our workforce and our communities, but I would definitely say we could take a page out of the Bhutanese playbook in this. The only drawback to this being the societal norm in Bhutan is their lack of secondary education for women in their culture, with the emphasis going on having a family and subsequently being able to truly provide for them it takes away that opportunity for advanced education and continued literacy within the Bhutanese culture. Within my research about Bhutanese societal roles, I was very surprised with what I found overall. The sheer fact that the workforce is evenly distributed between genders is fascinating, especially growing up and living in what we would think as a “progressive” western culture. I was brought up having the thoughts of the men having to be the bread winners and the heads of the family ingrained into me, which I swiftly found was incredibly untrue, especially in 21st century America. The fact that they have a culture where that gender role is totally flipped upside down is amazing, because the overarching thoughts of Bhutan is they are an enclosed society away from influences of the 21st century, when they truly are one of the most forward thinking and progressive cultures out there. While there still is a need for the males to be parts of the work force, the clear emphasis on a total matriarchy within the familial culture takes them into another category compared to the other eastern countries. Looking comparatively between the U.S. and Bhutan, we are clearly the tortoise and Bhutan is the hare within gender equality within the workforce and the economy, with American women still majorly discriminated within the workplace, and with the gender pay gap in our country. Bhutan is a country that is incredibly proud of their culture, and they are historically more concerned with their GNH rating, gross national happiness, than their economical GDP, or their foreign relations. This shines through with their culture, and their progression into the 21st century when it comes to gender disparities, where the majority of eastern cultures are still a good heap of years behind, and we as the U.S. are clearly slacking on addressing. The culture of Bhutan is truly a fascinating one, and the societal roles of males and females is the true pillar of that protected culture. References: People of Bhutan. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://www.earth-cultures.com/cultures/people-of-bhutan Aguilar, G. (2013, December 4). Education and Economic Empowerment of Women in Bhutan Could Address the Gender Gap in Happiness. Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/12/04/education-economic-empowerment-women-bhutan-gender-gap-happiness Bhutan. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bhutan.html
2 Comments
Shelby Rini
10/27/2016 10:19:00 am
Hi Andy,
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10/27/2016 06:14:11 pm
Very interesting research! I was really surprised by the statistics you gave. I wonder what caused so any women to enter the workforce, and why this isn't the case in other countries. I would guess that this difference could be attributed to either governmental or societal changes.
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