From Margin to Centre: Reclaiming Agency of Women in a
Male-Dominated World
Dr. Naseer Ud Din Sofi.
Assistant Professor of English.
Department of Humanities & Languages,
Guru Kashi University Talwandi Sabo,
Bathinda, Punjab, India.
&
Harmandeep Kaur,
Department of Languages,
Punjabi University Guru Kashi Campus,
Damdama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo),
Punjab, India.
Abstract: The historical
subordination of women across cultures and societies has rendered their voices
marginal. This paper investigates the process of reclaiming women's agency in a
male-dominated world through feminist theory, literature, social activism, and
cultural resistance. Drawing on theorists such as bell hooks, Simone de
Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, this study explores how
women have moved from the peripheries of patriarchal discourse to sites of
resistance, negotiation, and power. It examines both historical struggles and
contemporary movements while addressing the intersectionality of gender with
race, class, caste, and culture. It will conclude with a reflection on the
challenges and possibilities in the ongoing struggle for gender justice.
Keywords: Cultural Resistance, Gender Justice Intersectionality, Patriarchy,
Women's Agency, Social Activism
Introduction
Women’s Agency:
The capacity to make autonomous choices and enact them has been persistently
constrained by the patriarchal structures of society. Historically relegated to
the margins, the voice of women was either silenced or subsumed under male
authority. In her seminal work Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell
hooks articulates the need to reframe feminist discourse by placing
marginalised voices- particularly those of women of colour at the centre. This
research paper will explore the reclamation of women’s agency in literature,
theory, and activism. The central concern is not only to critique male
domination but to illuminate the resilient and diverse ways in which women have
resisted, subverted, and redefined the norms imposed upon them.
Bell hooks'
original work, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, is foundational
in the conversation around reclaiming the agency of women. She critiques
mainstream (white, middle-class) feminism for ignoring the intersecting
oppressions of race, class, and gender. Hooks argues that real agency is only
reclaimed when feminism becomes inclusive of marginalized women-Black,
working-class, and queer women. Her emphasis on collective struggle,
empowerment, and decolonizing feminist thought aligns with the core idea of
moving from the periphery to the center.
Marginalisation of Women: Historical and
Cultural Roots
Across
civilizations, patriarchal systems have historically subordinated women by
assigning them roles limited to domestic spaces. Religious texts, customary
laws, and traditional practices often reinforced male authority. In many
societies, religious doctrines positioned women as morally and intellectually
inferior to men. This contributed to their exclusion from education,
leadership, and inheritance. Colonial powers often restructured indigenous
societies, reinforcing Victorian gender norms. In India, for instance, colonial
policies sidelined women’s traditional roles in the public and economic sphere.
Women have been stereotyped as emotional, weak, and dependent, while men are
seen as rational and strong. These cultural assumptions continue to influence
gender roles in contemporary times.
An article in
Tribute “A Lie Silenced by Patriarchy”?, Dated 12 July 2025, vol. 9, no. 191,
p. 12 Radhika’s murder shows the
Influence of patriarchy as the brutal killing of 25-year-old tennis player
Radhika Yadav by her own father Deepak Yadav in Gurugram is a blunt pointer to
how toxic patriarchy continues to simmer beneath the surface of even urban,
upwardly mobile Indian households. While the case seems like a tragic
aberration, it reflects a deep and disturbing reality: that a woman's autonomy,
even over her image and ambition, can still be a fatal threat to the male ego.
Early reports
suggest that Radhika's father was struggling with depression and social taunts
over her public presence, especially her Instagram reels, her music video and
her financial independence. As per the police, the accused was reportedly
shamed by acquaintance and relatives who questioned why he "allowed"
his daughter to pursue public-facing avenues like social media and tennis
coaching.
The murder reeks
of a dangerous intersection of masculinity, control and perceived dishonour.
That such a fate befell a young woman in a city/like Gurugram, the cyber hub
shows/how patriarchy clings to outdated ideas of honour, obedience and silence.
The killing demands that our society confronts the widening generational and
cultural gap between empowered young women and the patriarchal structures they
still inhabit.
Haryana's gender
norms are still shaped by entrenched ideas of hongur, obedience and male
control. And when these rigid social mores clash with the aspirations of
modern, digital-age young women like Radhika who are confident, financially
independent and visible on public platforms the result can be tragic. As the
investigation continues, we must look beyond the courtroom. While we demand
justice for Radhika, we must also renew the pledge to transforming a system
that still kills daughters with/ menace, shame and familial violence protected
by patriarchal code.
Legal
Exclusion: In many societies,
women historically lacked legal personhood — they could not own property, enter
contracts, or represent themselves in court. Their identities were tied to
their fathers or husbands. Until recent decades, laws related to inheritance,
marriage, divorce, and custody often favoured men. For instance, in many
countries, customary laws override statutory laws, denying women property
rights. Even where laws exist to protect women, social and institutional
barriers (like expensive legal fees, lack of legal literacy, or fear of
backlash) prevent many women from seeking justice.
Political
Exclusion: Women were denied
voting rights in most countries until the 20th century. For example, women in
Switzerland gained full suffrage only in 1971. Women remain significantly
underrepresented in parliaments and political leadership worldwide. Even when
elected, they often face gender-based discrimination and tokenism.
Male-dominated governance has historically failed to prioritize women-centric
issues like maternal healthcare, domestic violence, reproductive rights, and
gender-based education reforms.
Religious Subjugation: Religion has historically played a pivotal role in
shaping social norms and gender roles across cultures. While many religious
texts and practices promote moral values, they have also been used to legitimize
the subordination of women. This subjugation operates through
the interpretation of sacred texts, patriarchal leadership structures,
and cultural traditions cloaked in religious authority. In many
religious traditions-such as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism-scriptural
interpretations have been historically controlled by men. These interpretations
often emphasize obedience, chastity, and domestic roles for women, while
granting authority and public roles to men. Women have been systematically
excluded from priesthood or positions of spiritual leadership. For instance, the
Brahminical order in Hinduism, the Catholic Church’s
male-only priesthood, or restrictions on women leading
prayers in conservative Islamic communities reinforce male dominance
in religious spaces.
Concepts such as menstrual impurity in
Hinduism or women’s ‘tempting’ nature in Abrahamic religions
have often been used to justify the exclusion of women from sacred spaces and
rituals, reinforcing the idea that a woman’s body is inherently inferior or
impure. Doctrines that idealize female obedience and submission to male
authority (such as the notion of wives submitting to husbands in
Christian texts or the ideal of pativrata in Hinduism) have
historically shaped cultural norms that silence women and restrict their
autonomy. Practices such as sati, child marriage, purdah, and polygamy
were often backed by religious justifications, making it difficult for
reformers to challenge them without appearing to challenge the religion itself.
Economic Dependence: The marginalisation of women has deep historical and
cultural roots, one of the most persistent being their economic dependence on
men. Traditionally, patriarchal societies structured familial and societal
roles in a way that confined women to domestic spaces while men occupied the
public, economic sphere. Cultural norms and religious practices across
civilizations-from ancient Hindu traditions to Greco-Roman laws-upheld male
authority and inheritance rights, leaving women with little access to property,
education, or income. Colonial rule further institutionalized these disparities
by codifying gender-based laws. As a result, women became economically
dependent on fathers, husbands, or sons, which limited their autonomy and
reinforced subservient roles. This dependence not only restricted women’s
choices in marriage, education, and work but also made them vulnerable to
exploitation and abuse. Despite growing participation in the workforce in
modern times, the legacy of economic marginalisation continues through gender
wage gaps, lack of land ownership, and limited access to credit or leadership
positions. Thus, economic dependence remains a central mechanism through which
women’s marginal status is sustained, rooted in centuries of socio-cultural
inequality.
Cultural Stereotypes: Cultural stereotypes have played a significant role in
the marginalisation of women across societies and historical periods. These
stereotypes are deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies that have constructed
women as inferior, emotional, irrational, or dependent beings, in contrast to
men who are portrayed as rational, strong, and capable leaders. From
mythologies to mainstream media, women have often been depicted in limiting
roles such as the obedient daughter, self-sacrificing mother, passive wife, or
seductive temptress. These representations confine women to the private sphere
and discourage their active participation in political, economic, and
intellectual domains.
Beauvoir's
existentialist feminism underscores the idea that “one is not born, but becomes
a woman.” She highlights the process of othering women as the “second sex”
and how patriarchal structures define femininity. She calls for autonomy,
education, and economic independence as key to reclaiming women's agency.
In many cultures,
traditional norms idealize women’s silence, chastity, and submission,
reinforcing gender hierarchies and justifying systemic discrimination. For
example, in classical texts and religious doctrines, women are frequently
portrayed as morally weak or in need of male guidance, which historically
contributed to their exclusion from education, property rights, and
decision-making roles. These cultural stereotypes not only shape societal
expectations but also internalize inferiority among women themselves, creating
psychological barriers to empowerment. Literature, cinema, folklore, and
religious narratives all play a part in normalizing these roles, thereby
perpetuating cycles of marginalisation.
However, feminist
scholars and activists have challenged these constructions by exposing how such
cultural norms are socially manufactured and not biologically determined. The
deconstruction of gender stereotypes is thus essential to understanding and
addressing the historical and cultural roots of women’s marginalisation.
Reclaiming Agency
through Literature: Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf’s A
Room of One’s Own (1929) is a landmark feminist text that powerfully
reclaims female agency through literature. Drawing from a series of lectures
delivered at women’s colleges at Cambridge, Woolf explores the historical,
social, and economic barriers that have hindered women’s creative expression.
She argues that for a woman to write fiction, she must have “money and a room
of her own”-a metaphor for financial independence and personal space, both of
which are essential for intellectual freedom and self-realization.
Woolf reclaims
women’s agency by challenging the patriarchal literary canon and exposing the
gender inequalities embedded in education, publishing, and authorship. She
imagines the tragic fate of Shakespeare’s fictional sister, Judith, whose
talent is stifled by societal norms, underscoring the systemic erasure of
women’s voices from literary history. By doing so, Woolf not only highlights
the absence of women in the literary tradition but also calls for the creation
of a new literary lineage that values women’s experiences and narratives.
Through
introspective, lyrical prose and intellectual inquiry, Woolf encourages women
to reclaim the pen, assert their identities, and shape their destinies through
storytelling. Her work becomes an empowering manifesto for women writers to
break free from silence, internalized oppression, and dependency-thus
reclaiming their agency in both life and literature.
Reclaiming Agency through Literature: Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a
powerful literary work that exemplifies how literature can serve as a means of
reclaiming agency, particularly for historically oppressed groups. Through the
character of Sethe and her traumatic past, Morrison articulates the
psychological scars of slavery and explores the struggle for selfhood, memory,
and autonomy. Set in post-Civil War America, Beloved
centers around Sethe, an escaped slave who is haunted-literally and
figuratively-by the ghost of her dead daughter. Morrison crafts a narrative in
which Sethe’s attempt to claim ownership of her body, her motherhood, and her
memory represents a radical act of self-assertion in a world that sought to
dehumanize her. Her act of infanticide, while horrific, is framed not as
madness but as a desperate assertion of agency-choosing death over slavery for
her child. The character of Beloved, as both ghost and reincarnated daughter,
serves as a manifestation of unresolved trauma. Sethe’s journey through guilt,
remembrance, and confrontation ultimately becomes a path toward healing. By
revisiting and reclaiming her traumatic past, she begins to redefine her
identity on her own terms.
Morrison’s narrative technique-non-linear, fragmented,
and deeply psychological-mirrors the fractured selfhood of her characters and
allows for a polyphonic expression of voices long silenced by history. In doing
so, Morrison gives voice to the collective memory of Black women and positions
literature as a site of resistance, empowerment, and reclamation.
Social
Movements and Cultural Resistance
The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) emerged prominently in the late 1960s and 1970s as
a part of the broader wave of global social justice movements. Rooted in second-wave feminism, it sought not only gender equality in the public and private spheres but
also aimed to challenge
patriarchal cultural norms, institutions, and ideologies that had long oppressed women. The WLM
was deeply entrenched in cultural resistance, confronting the subtle and overt
ways in which culture upheld gender inequality. The movement radically reshaped societal attitudes toward gender roles and continues to
inspire contemporary feminist movements. It laid the groundwork for third- and
fourth-wave feminism, emphasizing intersectionality and inclusivity. While it
began largely in the West, the WLM inspired localized feminist struggles globally-challenging caste, class,
and race-based patriarchy in India, Africa, and Latin America. Women like Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, and Germaine Greer became iconic figures in this global discourse.
Intersectionality:
Expanding the Scope of Agency
Intersectionality,
a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, refers to the interconnected nature of
social categorizations such as race, gender, class, sexuality, caste, and
ability, which can create overlapping systems of discrimination or
disadvantage. This framework has become pivotal in expanding our understanding
of individual and collective agency within complex social hierarchies.
Traditionally,
agency has been perceived in linear or uniform terms—often tied to liberal
notions of autonomy and self-determination. However, intersectionality
challenges this by showing that individuals experience power and oppression in
multifaceted ways. For example, a Dalit woman in India or a Black queer person
in the United States navigates a matrix of power that is not solely defined by
gender or race alone but by the intersections of these and other identities.
Hence, intersectionality deepens our grasp of how agency is constrained or
enabled differently across social positions.
Expanding the
scope of agency through intersectionality means recognizing the situational,
relational, and context-specific dimensions of power. It calls for a move
beyond universalized feminist or human rights discourses to more inclusive,
localized, and nuanced understandings of resistance, empowerment, and voice.
Women's movements, queer activism, and subaltern struggles have increasingly
adopted this framework to ensure that marginalized voices are not only heard
but understood in the fullness of their lived realities.
Moreover,
intersectionality enriches academic, legal, and policy discussions by offering
tools to analyze and dismantle systemic inequalities. In literature, media, and
cultural studies, it allows for the representation of diverse identities and
challenges the erasure of complex subjectivities. Thus, intersectionality is
not merely an analytical tool but a method of rethinking power, justice, and
freedom.
Recommendations:
Gender
justice initiatives should incorporate intersectionality-considering
caste, race, class, sexuality, and ability-to ensure inclusive empowerment
strategies. Educational institutions should embed feminist theories and
voices of subaltern women in curricula. Funding and visibility should
be provided to grassroots women’s collectives and local activism
that challenge patriarchal structures. Empower Women Through Media
Representation: Encourage diverse and authentic
representations of women in media and literature, highlighting
resistance, resilience, and agency. Develop programs to educate men and boys about gender
equality, emotional labor, and toxic masculinity. Encourage cross-cultural
collaborations among feminists across geographies.
Conclusion:
The
journey from margin to centre for women in a male-dominated world is both a
personal and collective struggle for recognition, autonomy, and equality.
Through feminist theory, literature, activism, and resistance, women have
continually challenged patriarchal norms and redefined the contours of agency.
The works of thinkers like bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and
Chandra Talpade Mohanty have illuminated how women’s voices, once silenced or
dismissed, have now become potent tools of resistance and transformation. This
process of reclaiming agency is not merely about inclusion within existing
power structures but about reshaping those structures themselves-challenging
binaries, questioning gender roles, and opening up new possibilities for
identity, expression, and social participation. From the pages of feminist
literature to the streets of global movements, women continue to assert their
right to define their narratives, control their bodies, and participate equally
in cultural, economic, and political life.
True empowerment lies not only in individual advancement
but in systemic change that benefits all women, particularly those still pushed
to the peripheries. Moving from margin to centre, therefore, is not a linear
path but a dynamic, continuous process of questioning, resisting, and transforming
the status quo. Reclaiming agency in this way becomes a radical act of
rewriting the world through a feminist lens- just, inclusive, and equitable.
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