The Role of Women in the Global Village

The Earth as a single ecological system and the political and socioeconomic globalisation of the human enterprise render obsolete the concept of “inside” and “outside” that characterises both nationalistic and sexist chauvinism. As this reality widens the traditional female domestic sphere and narrows the traditional male public sphere, it requires a fresh look at the public/private dichotomy, which has separated gender roles. This also applies to the concept of international relations. Some scholars argue that the very notion of “other” has given rise to alienation among human groups and identities based on ethnicity, nationality, race and sex, among other factors and must be questioned. The biological facts of one human species dependent on a single planet now take primacy over separations imposed by emphasising differences or prescribing specialised socioeconomic roles.