Fearless Leaders:

An Exploration of Three Modern Matrifocal Societies

Shifra Dayak
CAP Diamond
Advisor: Mr. Shindel
June 6, 2019
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Introduction
Women make up 49.6% of the world’s population today (“Population”), meaning much global
conversation is centered around their rights, roles, and responsibilities — or lack thereof — in society.
Throughout history, human civilization has seen many unfortunate breaches of women’s autonomy. From
the Ancient Indian custom of sati, where women were expected to burn themselves on their husbands’
funeral pyres to acquire salvation, to the later Salem Witch trials, where innocent women assumed to be
practicing witchcraft were tried and executed by the hundreds, women have been the victims of purely
unjust treatment from ancient times to recent history. Despite the advancement of women’s rights around
the world, modern times have not seen a decreased number of violations against women. Rather, such
violations have continued with the same fervor as before. The detainment of womens’ rights activists in
Saudi Arabia in April 2019 as part of a crackdown on feminist groups in the country, sex trafficking in the
People’s Republic of China, and the gender pay gap in the United States (Sheth et al.) have made the
headlines in recent months because of the disproportional damage they have done to the lives of women.
Evidently, women have been relegated to an inferior place in society since the earliest days —
their social abilities depend on men’s lives and wishes, they are unfairly restricted and mistreated, and
they are given fewer resources. However, there are some corners of the world where the exact opposite is
true. Although rare, matriarchal and matrilineal societies have existed throughout history and still exist
today. In these societies, women hold power while men are charged with doing traditionally feminine
tasks. In a male-dominated world, these groups—most notably, the Khasi of northern India, the Umoja
Uaso of Kenya, and the Haenyeo of Korea—provide a refreshing glimpse of groups that defy gender
stereotypes in social, political, and economic realms in an effort to empower otherwise marginalized
individuals.
The Birth of the Societies
Despite similarities in their treatment and praise of women, the Khasi, Umoja Uaso, and Haenyeo
were born through vastly different circumstances. Prior to British colonization, the Khasi people were
some of the earliest migrants to Southern Asia. They spoke Austro-Asiatic languages, the earliest
languages on the Asian continent (“The Origin”), practiced a tribal religion centering around divinity
gained via nature, and governed through 25 separate chiefdoms situated along the mountains and
subtropical forests of northern India. Although their first contact with the British was in the mid-18th
century due to the use of markets to aid the colonial economy, contact and subsequent tensions intensified
with the capture of Assam and the annexation of Sylhet in 1830. The imperialistic practices of British
colonialists in this time period led to the fall of Khasi traditions, including granting women relative
autonomy. Eventually, the 25 kingdoms of the Khasi hill states entered a subsidiary alliance with the
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British and signed a treaty for autonomy in 1862. In 1947, Assam’s governor was granted the position of
agent to the president and given possession of a tribal area called Meghalaya. This official establishment
of the ethnic group created a channel for the rebirth of indigenous Khasi traditions as they exist today,
including those centering around female power (“Khasi”).
Several years later, in 1990, a group of Samburu Kenyan women living near a British military
base were raped by a group of British soldiers and Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers serving in the British army.
When they attempted to share their stories and seek medical help, most of the women were stigmatized
and thrown out of their villages, often by their own husbands (Dyer). The assault and subsequent
excommunication came on the heels of pre-existing backlash subjected on many of the women, who sold
handcrafted beads to support their families. In a traditional pattern of restricting women’s self-direction
and even minimal self-government, male Samburu officials deemed this type of economic growth
inappropriate (Rubenstein). Rebecca Lolosoli, a women’s rights activist in Kenya, joined forces with 14
other women who were rape victims and bought a piece of land in Samburu County. With help from
Kenya’s Ministry of Culture, the women founded Umoja Village as a women-only town on the land in the
same year. Since its founding under dark circumstances, the village has grown to become a refuge for
women who are victims of assault and those who want to escape early marriage and female genital
mutilation (Dyer).
As compared to their Kenyan and Indian counterparts’ beginnings, the Haenyeo women’s rise
was far older and more gradual. Diving for seafood has been a central facet of culture in Jeju-do, an island
in the Korean Strait, since 434 A.D.; due to gender roles that relegated women to domestic work,
however, they did not outnumber men as divers for several centuries. In the mid-1700s, the male
population slowly began to decline due to war casualties, leading women to fill male-dominated jobs. At
the same time, steep taxes meant to be paid in dried fish were imposed on civilians by the government,
and the harsh punishments that resulted when these went unpaid forced women to dive for abalone to
fulfill payments (Sang-Hun). During Japanese colonization in the early 20th century, diving further grew
— the Japanese allowed Haenyeo divers to sell their catch at market, some Haenyeo were hired as
wage-laborers, and new labor systems aligning with the Haenyeo style of work emerged, making the
profession more lucrative and establishing it as a defining factor of culture on Jeju. As Korea gained
independence and Jeju society was incorporated into the national economy by the 1960s, Haenyeo divers
made up the majority of the labor force and contributed to over 60% of Jeju’s fisheries revenue (Gwon).
The women have since gained recognition and popularity, as have those in Kenya and India, for their
noteworthy work and unusual position.
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The Khasi: Women as Holders of Social Power

In the midst of India, dubbed the most dangerous country for women in a controversial 2018
Thomson Reuters poll (“Is India”), Meghalaya provides a refreshing and surprising amount of female
autonomy that begins with birth and continues well into adulthood. The Khasi people show their
preference for women in a social context from the moment children are born — girl children are favored
over boys, who are regarded somewhat disappointedly as “quite all right” (Allen). Considering the
age-old custom of preferring boys to girls elsewhere in the world, this pattern puts the Khasi in an
unusually progressive place. Older Khasi girls can choose if and when they want to get married, and in a
contrast to the widely-accepted Indian custom, generally stay with their families after marriage while their
husbands move in with them (Picone). In surrounding parts of India, having children out of wedlock and
with multiple partners is regarded as an atrocity (“Is India”), but Khasi women who have
children/relationships with multiple men are not looked down upon. Rather, they are given constructive
care and support that, as one Khasi woman said, “afford [them] ample opportunities to be both a mother
and a successful career woman” (Allen). Many women go on to work in weaving, traditionally a man’s
job, which has led to the rise of many women’s weaving organizations in the Northern hills
(“Meghalaya”). Meghalaya’s celebration of women’s multifaceted lives regardless of circumstances
provides a telling window into the value they place on female members of their society. Educational
patterns provide a similar window — while men have to leave school at a young age to aid in family
agriculture, girls are first educated at a local school and later encouraged to attend a larger school in the
capital of Shilong or a regional university, essentially flipping traditional gender roles in regard to
schooling.
However, by no means do the Khasi make up an ideal society. Although women control the
region’s money because they “do not trust men to look after [it]” (Allen), money-holding does not
translate to power over economic policy itself. Only social aspects of the economy, like property transfers
and ownership, occur via the matrilineal line — any and all policymaking is relegated entirely to men
(Picone). In some cases, Khasi women are required to grant approval for any male-led decisions, but still
do not hold decision-making power and thus are partially restricted despite their relative level of
autonomy in other areas (Allen). In fact, “all of the government ministers and most of the village council
members [in Meghalaya] are men” (Picone), giving women hardly any representation in the political
realms of the region. On the other end of the spectrum, in a rare movement, men’s rights activists led by
Khasi figure Keith Pariat have risen in Meghalaya since the 1960s, citing negative self-perception,
alcoholism, and drug abuse as men’s issues in the region. Pariat and his followers claim that the emphasis
on women’s social empowerment is “breeding generations of Khasi men who fall short of their inherent
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potential” and pulling Meghalaya further away from reaching pure equality (Allen). With women reigning
in social power and men reigning in economic and political power, the Khasi are by no means an
egalitarian society — perhaps, from a pessimistic standpoint, the polarization of power in the group is a
sign that true egalitarianism cannot be achieved. But Khasi patterns can also be taken as a “reminder that
multiple worlds and realities can exist simultaneously” (Picone), with said worlds sparking provocative
and unusual thought about women’s social place in the world.
The Umoja Samburu: Women as Holders of Political Power
Because all males except children born and raised in Umoja Uaso are banned from the village, the
Samburu women of the region hold complete power in all realms of society. However, the main facets of
their lives, which dictate their culture and behavior, are based around decision-making and leadership.
Most notably, the women have used their shared experiences as victims of violence as a catalyst to create
policies that make the village a refuge for women subjected to gender-based oppression,
excommunication, or tribal violence in Kenya’s center (Bindel). All the village policies are based on
concepts of “ensuring equality and mutual respect” and protecting women. Laws include principles
regarding the following matters: to promote their heritage and uphold empowerment, women are required
to wear traditional dress at all times to promote their heritage; the dangerous and dehumanizing practice
of female genital mutilation is outlawed; “outside” men are not permitted to sleep in the village, and so
forth. In keeping with their laws and anti-violence mission, Umoja women have taken up campaigns to
educate young children in the area by holding public workshops about human rights and gender equity
(Rubenstein). To expand said education efforts to a larger scale, the older community members opened a
school in 2014 where classes are available to children all around Samburu County. By spearheading such
initiatives to arm young children with the tools to combat instances of gender-based violences, the women
of Umoja aim to stop the spread of toxic abuses of power in their country with arguably the most
powerful tool in the box — education. The Samburu women’s confident decision-making, although
mostly political, is also closely connected to their economic lives. Since breaking away from the men who
restricted their economic autonomy, women make a living by creating the same beaded jewelry they
fashioned while still living in mainstream Kenyan society. The colorful artifacts have come to define the
women of Umoja and create a spirit of unity and pride in the village — several Samburu women have
celebrated that they are “allowed to make [their] own money” and revealed that “when a tourist buys
some of [their] beads, [they are] so proud.”
Despite the women of Umoja’s major autonomy, they continue to cling to certain aspects of
patriarchal Kenyan culture that trap them in a rut of sustained gender-biased behavior. In a contrast to the
relative freedom of women in other areas, children are still a point of contention in Samburu culture, and
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men are permitted into the village if solely for reproduction. Although, unlike in Khasi society, a social
stigma around children born outside of traditional marriage does exist, Umoja women admit that it is even
worse for Kenyan individuals to have no children, saying that “without children, [women] are nothing”
(Bindel). Regardless of how much power Samburu women receive, the unshakeable Umoja tradition of
having children seems to indicate that global society will always equate women with mothers. As much as
gender equality advocates discourage a view of women living simply to bear children, customs all around
the world, including in Kenya, show the still-rampant existence of that attitude. Undeterred by being
banned from living on Umoja land, men are fairly involved in the society in other ways as well — from
coming to fulfill the “man’s job” of tending to the herds every day to becoming involved in larger ways,
men are surprisingly present in the women-only village. In Umoja Uaso, marriage is on a woman’s own
terms rather than forced among the Umoja, but “most of the younger women in the village do plan on
marrying and raising families” (Rubenstein). Likely, these decisions come at least partially because of the
traditional equation of women with wives — while the self-determination of marriage represents progress
as compared to other parts of Kenya, the fact that many women default to marriage indicates ingrained
customs and attitudes about a woman’s place in society and duty to men. As in almost every other society,
restriction and ridicule of women’s sexuality is also evident in Umoja Uaso. Samburu men involved with
the society have remarked that men that the women meet outside the village “come here in the nights and
go into their huts” (Bindel), adopting derisive attitudes toward women who participate in such behavior.
Umoja’s unique beginnings and growth provide a glimpse into a resilient future world where women turn
violence into meaningful empowerment; at the same time, however, the paradoxical existence of
stereotypes and ridicule insinuates that gender bias is so deeply ingrained in global society that it cannot
disappear even in the most progressive villages.
The Haenyeo: Women as Holders of Economic Power
The Haenyeo diving culture demands an incredible amount of fortitude from women. The divers,
who are generally linked via matriliny, venture more than 40 feet below the surface for abalone, conch,
sea urchins, and sea cucumbers up to 100 times in a day with no equipment except flippers, goggles, and
minimal tools to collect seafood. Although there is a hierarchy within the groups of divers in order to
protect younger, older, and vulnerable women from rough tides and dangerous conditions, women still
dive when pregnant and ill in order to support their families and keep the industry alive (Sang-Hun).
Recently, because the development of modern technology has allowed the Haenyeo to dive deeper and for
longer amounts of time, there has been a higher work rate and larger numbers of illnesses and deaths in
the industry (Merz). Evidently, the Haenyeo emphasize women’s need to make sacrifices for the common
good, as do many other societies around the world — the difference, however, lies in their celebration of
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hard labor as a challenge for women to take on as opposed to a danger from which to shy away. Women’s
diving work has always been so respected among Haenyeo society that in the 19th and 20th centuries,
“while brides in other parts of South Korea were expected to provide a dowry, on Jeju the men paid a
bride price” (Sang-Hun). In an unusual transfer of responsibility, while women go out to sea on fishing
boats each day, men occupy traditionally feminine positions, such as sorting seaweed from the previous
day’s catch. Although the Haenyeo first occupied diving jobs simply because they had to, their careers
have since expanded to create cultural traditions, from work songs to a syncretic form of Korean
shamanism (Mundy).
Unfortunately, the Haenyeo women have faced an incredible number of barriers and backlash
directly related to their influential position in the Korean economic sector. Until the divers began wearing
modern full-body wetsuits, many men criticized them for showing parts of their body in their homemade
cotton gear, revealing that the sexualization of women is global and has been longstanding. Additionally,
divorce rates on Jeju Island are some of the highest in South Korea; this disturbing pattern probably stems
from misogynistic attitudes toward diving women acting as the primary breadwinners and thus rejecting
traditional patriarchal gender roles (Sang-Hun). As in the hills of Meghalaya, Haenyeo women are also
entrusted with little political, economic, and cultural power. The divers, simply because they are women,
are “still excluded from the inheritance of the familial line, of property, and of the performing of the
ancestor-worship ceremony” (Gwon). In addition, at least in part because of internalized misogyny and
perceptions of gender roles, “sea women always elected their men as chiefs of their villages,” and
associations like the Jeju Provincial Council have very few female members (Sang-Hun). This consistent
passing over of women in positions of power reveals the unfortunate truth that global adherence to
patriarchy makes it essentially impossible for women to proceed past a certain line dictating their
maximum influence in society. With women’s autonomy, the diving culture itself has also been dwindling
and whatever is still left of it has significantly changed from its birth. The matrifocal group has lessened
from 26,000 divers in the 1960s to a few over 4,000 today. About 80% of the modern Haenyeo are
women above age 60 who have long been involved in the tradition. In about 20 years, it is entirely
possible that there will be an untraceable number of divers remaining and that deep sea diving “may
disappear entirely as a meaningful occupational category” in Korea (Gwon). According to the owner of a
Korean diving association, modern-day “young women want to different things” and “prefer more
comfortable lives in the island’s two cities or on the mainland” rather than on Jeju (Mundy), which has
significantly decreased the size of the Haenyeo. In March 2014, the Jeju divers were added to UNESCO’s
Intangible Cultural Heritage list in an effort to preserve the declining spirit of female independence. The
Jeju government has also taken to funding the women’s equipment and subsidizing their insurance in an
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effort to keep the tradition alive (Merz). The Haenyeo’s very existence and progression presents a
complicated narrative. While the changing face of the diving culture could represent a simple transition in
cultural priorities and the liberation of women from a career they were once forced to take, it could also
signify a society’s inability to maintain a matrifocal system for long. Perhaps it is a combination of both,
but the declining focus on the strength and empowerment of the divers definitely is a testament to the
overpowering patriarchy that is found in so many world cultures.
Conclusion (Implications)
The United States is a first-world country and withholds significant rights — reproductive and
career-related, among others — from its women. Although America claims to be egalitarian in many
realms, the violence and violations committed against women tells otherwise. Across the ocean, nations
like India and Kenya, part of the third world, are making leaps and bounds through appraisal and exposure
of progressive, albeit flawed, societies like the Khasi, Umoja Uaso, and Haenyeo. This paradox reveals
the interesting truth that perhaps, it’s time for the United States to take some cues from its developing
counterparts. By following the leadership of the three matrifocal societies in celebrating women’s
education, encouraging women to battle stereotypes in pursuing fields generally dominated by men,
trusting women with political and social power, building supportive communities, and paving a smoother
path to empowerment, America can undeniably create progress.
Considering the mixed narratives of the Khasi, Samburu of Umoja Uaso, and Haenyeo, is the goal
of full autonomy actually reachable anywhere in the world? Is hoping for further female autonomy across
the globe unrealistic? The questions are multifaceted ones, but ultimately, examining the three societies
reveals that first, individuals must admire and look to unusual patterns of female empowerment for
inspiration, and second, that it will be an incredibly long time before full achievement is reached. Even in
societies like that in Meghalaya, where women are granted an amazing level of autonomy, they still
generally do not hold political positions of power. Women in Umoja Uaso, despite their political control,
are still socially restricted. And the Haenyeo women’s relative economic power does not signify the same
power in cultural participation. Perhaps global society, even where women’s autonomy exists to a
surprising extent, is too deeply rooted in patriarchal structures to stage a true gender revolution soon —
even after thousands of years of struggle and attempts at egalitarianism, women have still not reached the
finish line in the marathon of complete equality. All corners of the globe may not yet be able to model
themselves after the Khasi, Samburu of Umoja, or the Haenyeo, and likewise, the Khasi, Samburu, and
Haenyeo may not yet be capable of attaining perfection. But evidently, the very existence of matrifocal
societies and the emerging discussion of them is a symbol of hope that the world is on a path to greater
autonomy. To see a brighter, more equitable future, that path must be walked without shame.
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