The Role of Women in the Expansion of Empire.

 Throughout history, the role women have played in the creation, maintenance, and expansion of empires has been complicated, to say the least. While white male dominance and power have been in the driver’s seat of colonization and the expansion of empire, women are often found riding shotgun be it through force, necessity, or choice. What’s important to note is the distinct way in which women from different cultures and races have played different roles in the expansion and consolidation of empires throughout history. Native women have been used historically to meet the domestic and sexual needs of colonizing men when European women were in short supply. As expansion occurred and more European women joined the European men in the various new colonies, the need for concubines and prostitutes decreased as the focus shifted to maintaining pure bloodlines through European-European reproduction.

 The Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century is an interesting example of the complicated history of women and colonial consolidation and empire. Due to the high costs of transporting European women to the Dutch East Indies and fears of European women would “infringe on the VOC’s monopoly through private trade to increase their enrichment or that European women’s children would be sickly and force families to leave the East Indies”, the VOCs encouraged the male workers to take in a concubine so that their needs for domestic services, education about and access to the local traditions and life, and sexual needs would be met. These cohabitations brought Native women closer to power, but because of laws that prohibited them from marrying European men, it prohibited them from ever having access to the rights or privileges that would have allowed them to benefit from these partnerships (Stoler, 58). The resulting mixed-raced births created a conundrum for the people in power, so to maintain pure European bloodlines, the VOCs changed their stance on the transport of European women to the Dutch East Indies (Stoler). As European women began arriving the focus shifted to the importance of maintaining these pure bloodlines through reproduction with other Europeans. According to Stoler, “most accounts agree that the presence of European women put new demands on the white communities to heighten their ranks, clarify their boundaries, and mark out their social spaces” (64). In other words, the arrival of European women increased racial divides between natives and Europeans. As Natives became the domestic help for European families, the class and racial hierarchies became more exaggerated. The arrival of European women to the various colonies also gave rise to feminist critiques of how European men were handling, or not handling, the customs and cultural practices of the natives, which European women sometimes found to be cruel or unjust.

As white, European feminists began to experience more autonomy from European men and gained more knowledge about local native customs, they shifted their gaze outward to women of other races whom they felt shared in a sort of global sisterhood, and whom they felt were suffering horrific injustices at the hands of men within the other cultures. One example was the practice of Sati or widow burning. British feminists who had aligned themselves with male Indian Nationalists began to critique the tolerance of the British colonial government for their tolerance of cruel punishments or rituals like Sati (Rafael, lecture 7-2).  Their concerns and efforts to eradicate injustices, while well-meaning, were often centered on the experience and cultural values of white women (ethnocentric) and failed to take into consideration what harm might befall other women to “save” them. This has also been the case in Afghanistan as post-feminist efforts to “unveil” Afghan women and pry them from the oppressive grip of Islam failed to take into consideration the grave danger these women would be in should they be caught in public without their burka (Rafael, lecture 7-2). This danger is real for women in other countries as we are currently seeing in Iran where native women are protesting the enforcement of wearing a hijab in public. While it’s important to support women in other countries as they protest unjust laws, white feminists mustn’t center themselves within these battles when they are unfamiliar with the conditions and customs from which these rules were created and put women in more danger unnecessarily. This centering of white feminists and post-feminists is not just dangerous but also becomes another form of orientalism that places native women in a subordinate position and creates a harmful narrative in which they are uneducated, can’t think or fend for themselves, and need saving.

In post-feminist America, women are purveyors of colonialism and empire by way of the US military.  Today, women make up roughly 16 percent of the US military (Brookings.edu). These post-feminist agents of empire train, live and work alongside their male military cohorts. While women are not allowed to work in combat positions, they are an integral part of US military operations. Sadly, female military members are frequently subjected to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of fellow military members, including men in higher-ranking positions (Rafael, lecture 7-3). In 2009, 3,230 military men and women reported being sexually assaulted (The Invisible War). We know that as many as 80% of sexual assaults go unreported so if you account for the assaults that likely took place that year but weren’t reported, that 3,230 number is probably closer to 16,000 (The Invisible War). What is most troubling is that the men and women reporting these assaults are often victim-blamed and experience high rates of retaliation and risk insubordination or demotion by senior-ranking members of the military. Victims are gas-lit, threatened, demeaned, and suffer additional trauma on account of the assault and the resulting failure of senior members to ensure their safety and bring perpetrators to justice. According to the documentary, The Invisible War, 4 out of 5 women who reported being assaulted at the Marine Barracks in Washington DC were punished while not a single officer was punished for the assault that occurred. When female military members are sent away to war this trauma becomes two-fold. The emotional and physical toll of being a witness to and/or partaking in the combat of war coupled with the trauma of being a constant target of male aggression and assault leads women to experience and report higher rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) upon their return home (Rafael, lecture 7-3). Upon returning home, there is little help available to these female military members because there are fewer resources available to women as compared to what is available for men returning from war (Rafael, lecture 7-3). The insensitivity and humiliation that these female military members endure, coupled with the physical and mental anguish that accompany an assault, with little to no repercussions or accountability for perpetrators leaves women feeling untethered, alone, and without the proper safety nets to help them heal. This leads to women considering and sometimes attempting suicide, as well as them experiencing higher rates of debilitating mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.

The role of women in the consolidation and expansion of empire is ongoing and ever-changing. Women have been both victims and perpetrators of colonial expansion. Both Native and American female military members continue to suffer at the hands of male US military members with no real end in sight. The effects of colonization around the globe are still being seen and felt today and will likely continue to evolve for generations to come as new wars break out and as women struggle to gain and maintain their positions of power and autonomy.