CAUSE OF GENDER EQUALITY IN DORNE: MY THEORY

Again, this is my hypothesis on the Dornish national character and egalitarian worldview: why Dornish women and children are more free from patriarchal norms and restraint than any of their counterparts north of the Marches.

In history, the major shifts from gender role rigidity to free love and self-expression values (Hellenism, 18th-century courtly promiscuity, the 1960s sexual revolution) happen to take place always after great armed conflicts. And I connect the Dornish culture of free love to these findings.
Should we read Harm de Blij's The Power of Place, Chapter 7 "Same Place, Different Destinies," we would get a detailed overview of the causes of the gender mortality gap/gender ratio (male:female mortality ratio) in real-life Western demography (that is, why females tend to live for longer time).

Historically, Dorne has always been a warzone: wars have been fought by Dorne against the Stormlands, the Reach, and the Crown. And even Dornish-on-Dornish feuds. For freshwater, for territorial expansion vs. independence...
The history of how the realm was unified by the Rhoynar refugees led by Nymeria when she promised her aid to Mors Martell in defeating other lords in their anarchic struggle for freshwater sources pretty much sums up the whole history that would come thereafter: crossing of national and foreign influences, freshwater a commodity during hard times, and of course a catalyst for warfare. What's more, Nymeria outlived a husband killed in action and is still revered by the Dornish as "mother of the nation" (giving her as much cred as Isabella the Catholic, who also unified realms and co-ruled with her husband), in spite of being a female foreigner.

As we have stated before, the history of Dorne is a history of war, and war tends to decimate any adult male population, the more armed conflict the more prominently. Nymeria was neither the first nor the only Dornishwoman to outlive her husband. Yet what may strike the reader is the fact that Dornishwomen can also be warriors and fight or lead armies on the battlefield.

Again, "Same Place, Different Destinies" holds the key. It states that males are more prone to risk-taking habits (substance abuse, reckless driving...) than females, which may have a biological source (hormonal). On the battlefield, during wartime, this is true in general as well, and thus, the equal-opportunity Dornish military, in times of conflict, will surely display a greater female ratio because of this risk-taking.

So: Warfare empowers minorities (women, children, foreigners...) and encourages self-expression values by decimating the adult male national elite of any system (This is the most positive thing I can say about armed conflict). The history of Dorne is, basically, a history of warfare. Hence: the Dornish culture's emphasis on self-expression values can be explained by the consequences of armed conflict and risk-taking influenced by testosterone, which stress the male:female mortality ratio and lead to female empowerment.

THE POWER OF PLACE - CHAPTER 7

Chapter 7: Same Place, Divergent Destines

      Males and females have been separated from the beginning of time. Each culture, country, religion, has their own opinion on the whole subject, but male dominance has almost always been a factor. Harm De Blij states how males make the world more flat as well; you don't see a whole lot of female Asians or Africans flying on a plane to Los Angeles to get a job (2009, p.157).  Gender effects education, deaths, children, and economy in the world in serveral different ways.
        
The Longevity Gap
       Women tend to live a decade longer than men because women tend not to pick up on the unhealthy habits (alcoholism, addictions, drug abuse, suicide, etc...) of men (De Blij, 2009, p.161). The book shows a map of how third world countries tend to have a smaller longevity gap than the core countries.

Living longer comes with its downs because many of the women that do live longer than their soulmate usually suffer from poverty and loneliness.

Quality of Life
    Every culture in the world has its own opinion about women and how they should be treated , and for the most part it is not good. Many women are to stay home and work hard in the house, and if they are lucky they might be able to go to school for a few years. Domestic Violence is also and issue; in an UN study 60% of all divorce cases state that the wife had some sort of physical violence. In India suicide rate are higher for women and they often will be killed by their husband because their family cannot pay the correct dowry (De Blij, 2009, p.167). Female mutilation is another terrible thing that countries in Southwest and Southeast Asia and Africa do to women. They do a painful surgery on children under the age of 11 without any anesthesia.  An estimation is that 70 to 90% of all women in Somalia have had the surgery (De Blij, 2009,p.169). It is a gruesome procedure and is not fair to women in any way. Women in all of the world have also fought for the right to work. Even in America females have not received the right wages and they face many barriers in this globalizing world (De Blij, 2009, p. 171).

Rulers and Ruled
    Even when women have the opportunity to become leaders, men still rule the majority of countries. Only 2 of 40 states in Europe are led by women and no woman has ever held the lead position in North America, East Asia, or Australia. Harm De Blij shows a map of women in parliament and how many of the countries in the core do not have an ample amount of women on the seats: US has 16 out of 100 and 71 out for 435, and only 9 % in India. Surprisingly, the periphery countries have many more female leaders. "...the small and poor have something to teach the large and powerful." (De Blij, 2009, p.176) maybe something the core wants to take a look at.

Barriers Abolished
     Today women have many more opportunities then they did even just a century ago. Countries all over the world are recognizing that women are just as capable of doing things just as well as men, if not better. Government is now recognizing that the more gender-diverse states can sometimes be better, and India even has seats that are "women-only" in their parliament (De Blij, 2009, p.180). Gender is still a major way to determine the power of any place in the world.

Chapter 7: Same Places Divergent Destinies

                      If you think about, the gender of a child is determined by only one chromosome, so why has the male dominated over the female population for hundreds of years? No one will ever know why it was determined to be like that from the beginning of time, but it was, and every religion and country will have their own opinion on this matter. Because of thinking that males are “better” than females, many women have been pushed aside over the past years and some are still being treated unfairly today. In the past years, the “right” thing for them to do was to stay home, take care of the children, and make dinner. Also many were physically violated and abused which is a cruel act considering we are all the same species of human beings, but during the past years the women have fought for themselves to be respected like any other man. All their hard work and fighting has paid off and has been successful because today many women have become leaders and gotten involved in the government. The males and females are slowly beginning to even out which allows women to be recognized for all their same good qualities that the males have. Also another topic on genders is longevity; which gender lives longer? Usually in core countries the females live longer because more males do drugs, alcohol, and etc, and the overall longevity of the population is longer in the core countries than in the periphery countries.