Traditional versus modern women : the semantics of guilt

And at the application of the notion of traditional and modern to women, which feeds into the guilt/shame dichotomy - a fundamental component of women's emotional perception of self. Conflicting trends in Western society concerning the shift towards formal equality as well as substantive equality are examined and the concept of intersectionality, which adds the class and race components to the gender issue, is introduced. The religion-inspired ideas of female subordination are analyzed, as it is seen in some quarters to lend them a penumbra of righteousness, making them sacred and thus a matter of outrage if anyone disputes them. The paper ends by looking briefly at the powerful strands that are moving away from the notion of women as the subordinate being to men, which has been common currency throughout the centuries, denying women collective experience because of the relative denial of women's history existence. [Publisher's text].