Coloniality of Gender

Running head: COLONIALITY OF GENDER
Coloniality of Gender
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COLONIALITY OF GENDER
It is important that a departure from the generic understanding of colonialism be made in
order to understand the works of Maria Lugones. Colonualism is generally considered as a
phenomenon whereby a militarily powerful nation dominates over a militarily weaker one
politically for the purpose of exploiting the natural and the human resources. Maria Lugones had
tried to explain colonialism in a totally different context. Her understanding and explanation of
colonialism pertains to the age of modernity and its overarching influence on the gender roles.
The colonialism which Lugones is concerned about in her works is rather ideological and
sociological than the narrative of political and economic colonialism. Her works very
meticulously outlines how the change in the mode of production had led to the ushering in of the
age of modernity, and how it had consolidated the already existing social order of the dominance
of the men over the women, without the use of crude and brutal coercive force. The idea or the
conceptualization of colonialism being a form of dominance perpetrated by the Western nations
upon the third world has been utilized by Lugones to explain how certain key elements of
modernity had been imbibed by the third world since the west and the third world were
philosophically, ideologically and sociologically inclined towards those value perceptions
(Lugones 2010). In this particular essay I shall be discussing about how this state of coloniality
has had its effect on gender roles with specific reference to the strengthening of patriarchy, with
an essence of personal experience to substantiate the arguments of Maria Lugones.
As it has already been discussed that colonialism or the state of coloniality in this context
is concerned about that of the consolidation of patriarchy in the age of modernity to suit a new
socio-economic order with new socio-economic needs (Lugones 2016). Patriarchy is not a novel
creation of modernity, rather modernity has redefined patriarchy by redrawing its boundaries.
During the early days of Industrial Revolution, the physical force was very much needed by the

2COLONIALITY OF GENDER
capitalists for conducting the process of production in the industries. That was used as a
justification to confine the women within the domestic sphere. The men sold their labour at the
industries to earn the money, hence their labour came to be valued more than the household work
which the women did. The women were expected to play the role of nurturers and sustain the
capitalist system, without their contributions being valued. Taking care of the household chores,
preparing the food on time, bearing children and raising them to champion the capitalist
economy, providing sexual and emotional pleasures to their men, were not considered as work,
rather a duty (Lugones 2016). Resultantly, the women were reduced to mere beneficiaries hence
unimportant, and the men being the providers became more important, along with getting the
privilege of dominating over their women as an object which they own. By and large, if one
looks into the functioning of the ways of the world, this system is still very much prevalent, in
my native country Pakistan, as well as in Saudi Arabia, where I was born and brought up.
Unfortunately, despite moving to free and open Australia, the menacing lurk of the patriarchal
cultural ethos of Saudi and Pakistan had not left jeopardizing my prospects of living life in my
own terms.
With regard to the aspect of power and agency, it can de deduced that they are but the
prerogative of the men. The status quo of the super-ordinance of the men has been consolidated
with the ushering in of the capitalistic model of economy. With regard to my purpose herein, as a
Non-European woman, I am likely to face double jeopardy with regard to my agency and my
power being overwhelmed, as per the views of Maria Lugones. On one hand, as Maria Lugones
says that the very being of a woman in itself poses a lot of impediments, on top of that
colonization has imposed two fold penalties on her, for her gender, and for her race. I would like
to cite the example of some excerpts from my life in Australia. As it is being a Pakistani, I have