good mothering, "sisterhood," and a "make-love-not-war" attitude the key to peaceful gender equality?

Question

this concept occured to me while watching a program about the "last great ape"--the bonobo. it contrasted the behavior of bonobos and chimps--both of which share with humans over 98% of our DNA.
bonobos are peaceful and mildly matriarchal, mothers are there for their kids their whole lives, and they have sex all the time, females stick together against males that try to mistreat them. chimps are violent, strongly patriarchal- with males often killing each other, beating females, committing infanticide-- they must compete for mates. females fend for themselves and are often "loners" and are easy targets for male attacks.

it occurred to me that we could learn from the bonobos. if women were to stick together more, instead of competing and working against each other it would prevent women from being overpowered. and if sex were less restricted, that would possibly prevent turmoil. and mothering is also a key element--to raise our children to respect each other, regardless of gender.

what are some thoughts about this?

here's a link about bonobos if interested:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bonobos/

women could band together and demand a stop to pornography & the threat of rape, demand that they receive respect (which is what feminism has been trying to do). the bonobo females literally stand together when a male or group of males begins to threaten one of them (or one of their kids) and, even though the females are individually weaker than the male, together they are stronger and the male ends his "violent" (for them) outburst

sufi-
i agree with your point, but i suggest that women at least work together-- in the situation you describe, the way that women could stick together is to be friends, if you were friends with a woman she'd be more likely to inform you of the abuse (so you would know) and you could help her (by calling the cops). so you would be standing together, only not literally.
i had a friend and neighbor whom i told of the abuse in my past relationship (not terribly severe), one night when it was occurring she heard and she came over to my aid. you'd be surprised at how easily an abuser may back down when confronted even by just two women standing together.
not to mention the help and encouragement that women can give each other to get OUT of such situations.

Answer 1

Excellent analogy and good points, thanks for sharing this insight. If women did bond together there would be great social changes and much more equality to all. However, the patriarchal values that are prevalent in our society coerce women into competing with each other, not to mention judging themselves and others all the time. Women are forced to control their food intake, sexuality, appearance etc. There actions are controlled by pornography which demoralizes and shames them into control and the threat of rape and violence also keeps women on guard and in "their place". Feminism is the only way to change the values of society so that women are as valued as men. Minorities, the aged, disabled and all the other marginalized groups are given equal power. Feminist was to rid the worlds of all of the isms.

Answer 2

you're right. women need to be more cooperative with each other. in today's society, women are pitted against one another
in every aspect. men don't have this stigma. they tend to stick together more than women. i, for one could never fathom where this split among women occurred. we don't have trust among ourselves, and i think that is the beginning to bonding.

Answer 3

one of the comments i have is that the nuclear family idea interferes with this. one man and one woman are supposed to be in a house with walls and their children. there is no other woman there to see/know about the abuse. living in larger (family) groups makes it more possible for women to know what is going on and protect each other (and their children). It is the idea of living separately i think that contributes a lot to our inability to make this work. because you don't know when your neighbor is being abused. and if you do know, you call the cops, not a group of women.

Answer 4

Also, maybe if you understood that men have problems that need to be addressed in society also and worked towards that, it would probably go a long way towards peaceful gender equality.

Answer 5

Yes, you are right. The key is that we stick together, and end divisiveness. That is the only way to attain our goals.

Answer 6

And if we would all be Buddhist we could care less about oil prices and whats hot.