Sorry LEGO, my post replies to Killarney.

I do believe however that technology is making more military roles possible for women. As I have said though, I do not suppose that feminists are at all interested in what jobs might suit women. Feminists are about maintaining their own roles.

Killarney,

Did I read you right that you're saying the more advanced an complex a society, the more rigid the gender roles?

Do you mean the more "technologically" advanced, because if you do, I'm thinking that the reverse is true, particularly in the modern Western world.

Technology enables women to participate as never before, merely because technology enables humans to employ machinery which negates the difference in strength between the genders.

I'd also use the example of women participating in the war effort in Britain during WWII to make weapons in factories while the men were engaging in combat overseas. I think the example of women on the home front in that particular war is instructive as to how important women were to the war effort without being sent to war fronts. Their role in "keeping the home fires burning" and keeping up the supply lines of weapons and machinery was indispensable.

I believe the less advanced traditional or tribal society, the more rigid the gender roles. Of course, a woman's role may be to do just about every practical thing in the village, including assisting men in building the shelters. But a tribal community would conceive itself as and autonomous and bonded group, working together to achieve a better outcome for "itself". I certainly wouldn't see women undervaluing their roles, on the contrary they would recognise the power vested in their roles.

onthebeach,

Talking of xerox machines -

You should remember that feminist principles have flourished because consumer society dictates that we should have as many able bodied people of "working age" out there earning, spending and consuming (we tend to shut those who are outside that age paradigm into institutions)...so it's pertinent to raise the issue of our system of "consume at all costs" when confronting the changes in our society.

Of course, much of the human behaviour we are assigning to the past, is still alive in communities the world over.

We in the West have an extremely narrow concept of "how people live".

When I watched "Human Planet" I was amazed at the models and practices that have survived in this world. Amazing societal structures where women and men cooperate for the good of their communities....yes, with women and men undertaking all kinds of activities and roles.

Certainly opened my eyes to the ways in which people live on this planet - in the here and now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/humanplanetexplorer/