TOWARDS EMANCIPATION 77 to human life. This is not a recent development but the historic legacy of the woman. August Bebel has depicted in meticulous detail the supercilious treatment meted out to women from the beginning of the Christian era down the middle ages to modern capitalism.1 He called the woman ^the first human being to come into bondage. She was a slave before the male slave existed."2 The woman is unfree in the sense that what she is today is what she was made out to be by the man over thousands of years of history. The only identity she has of herself is that given by the man to suit the needs of his ever-inflating ego. The values that she has internalized and upholds most vigorously—uncritical obedience to the man, faith in his superiority, chastity, devotion to the family to the exclusion of every other interest— are those created by the man to buttress his familial and social dominance. Her supreme virtue lies in being a total nonentity, in completely denying herself a life of her own and in totally identifying herself with the hopes, frustrations, likes and dislikes of her family. Impact of Images A woman is wife to a man and a household, and mother. A man is rarely ever defined as a husband or a father. He is always perceived as an engineer, a doctor, an artist, a machinist and so on. He is defined in terms of the role he plays in the productive process or the service he renders to the community. Not so the woman. As Simone de Beauvoir says, ^Man is defined as a human being and woman is defined as a female. Whenever she tries to behave as a human being she is accused of trying to emulate the male".8 The man-made "feminine culture", applicable mostly to the upper classes and to a lesser degree to the lower classes made out the ideal woman to be a frail creature solely of decorative worth. Much was made of her feebleness and dependence. The woman was the eternal "damsel in distress" and the man became the knight errant, her benefactor. Many a dictator, it should be recalled, began his career as a bene- V A reflection of woman's dependence is the fact that her contribution to humanity's advance (scientific discoveries for instance) has been negligible. While her physical labour has built many an empire, she has rarely had a share in real political power. All this implies that for some reason or the other, th^ woman has not had the opportunity to develop her creative potential. She has not asserted herself as a human being who is engaged in the perennial struggle with nature to comprehend and change and in the process undergo changes herself. The effect has been disastrous for the development of the woman's personality which has been traditionally identified with timidity, caution, irrationality and emotionalism. This is true not only for the women of the Third World but for those in the ^West", the industrially advanced capitalist world, as well.