China’s women-only spaces show how women are creating sanctuaries in a male-dominated society.
As South Africa marks Women’s Month – we don’t celebrate it because there’s not much to cheer about the position of women in society – it is interesting to see the growth of a phenomenon of women-only co-living spaces in China.
As women are increasingly flexing their economic power in that country, these living and recreational spaces offer safety and a refuge from social pressure and male judgment.
Women come to share mutual support and “talk freely about intimate stuff”, while others seek companionship or refuge from harassment.
Sexual harassment is still rife in China – as is discrimination in the workplace, while patriarchal attitudes still persist in many places.
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Men, of course, are critical of these new developments, arguing that they are little more than places to foster “man hate”.
That observation says more about fragile male egos, though, than it does about the potential threat to the stability of society from a few feminist-inclined ventures.
Women everywhere need these types of sanctuaries from a male-run and dominated world… and we think it would be no bad thing if the idea took root here in South Africa.
If nothing else, they remind us that women don’t feel safe or comfortable in society as it stands.
