Traditional women exercised political agency from behind the scenes

Evidence

Despite this, in reality the Bantu women ignored by social scientists played a crucial role in social and political life. There are alternative anthropological analyses which enable an understanding of the options available to women as beings of agency capable of making decisions, influencing behaviour and exercizing power in what was wholly conceived as a male-dominated world. The Melanesian women of Papua New Guinea, for example, made use of suicide as a realistic and effective political strategy to influence serious social and political decisions among male leaders in their society, a sure case of women leading from behind. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 961

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: An unpaid woman adviser wielded real power through press manipulation and loyalty — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 606; Structural factors, not ideology, gave women bridging roles — Silke Roth, Intersectionality and coalitions in…, 159; State women’s conventions elevated ordinary, previously unknown rural and urban women into public roles — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 364