Reclaiming Our History: Arundhati Roy, and How Women Affect Leadership
Meet Arundhati Roy, a ‘shrill’ and ‘hysterical’ voice championing for the betterment of global human rights.
Aruhdhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things (1997).
Arundhati Roy, born November 24th, 1961, is known globally for her bold political advocacy and demands for social action, from her support for Kashmiri separatism, to her disputes of US foreign policy statements, to her criticism of the Sri Lankan government. Roy’s voice and writing, both fiction and non-fiction, has won numerous awards and recognitions, and her direct tone never shies from harsh or painful truths. Her work in social justice has paved precedent for arguments supporting women’s rights, alter-globalization, and environmental justice.
Roy’s Writings
Her book, The God of Small Things (1997), a fictional drama commentary on the “Love Laws” prevalent in India in the 1960s, received the Booker Prize of Fiction in the year of its release. Her second fiction, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, followed in 2017.
Both of her fictions take place in India, and explore how casteism, land reform, and other historically influential events - such as the Kashmir insurgency and the Godhra train burning - affect a gambit of characters from varied life stories. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness received the 2017 Hindu Literary Prize shortlist honor and the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist honor.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is available here for purchase.
Roy has published 20 non-fiction writings, including The Algebra of Infinite Justice (2001), a collection of essays over a wide range of political issues, including political response to India’s nuclear bomb testing, the influence of foreign companies on poorer countries’ political policies, and the war on terror in India.
The Shape of the Beast (2008), boasts a fascinating compilation of interviews by Roy, conducted between January 2001 and March 2008, in which Roy speaks about many prevailing social and political issues in India, such as the genocide in Gujarat, her public remarks around occupied Kashmir, and American Imperialism.
Listening to Grasshoppers (2009), a similar collection of essays, received polarized critical reviews, which highlight the fine line political activists are demanded to walk: the line between extreme moralizing and dutiful reporting.
Walking the Line
The Financial Times wrote in review of Listening to Grasshoppers, "There is little doubt that Roy, with her eloquence, concern for the poor, and personal magnetism, is an important voice in the Indian public sphere. But the danger is that her extreme views – and her fierce hostility to a liberalisation programme that many Indians credit with dramatic improvements in their own lives – will alienate those whose support will be essential in India's struggle for social justice in the years ahead."
Criticism of Roy’s deafening tone – from onlookers, fellow activists, and from the Indian government - is in no short supply. Environmental historian Ramachandru Guha has commented on Roy’s activism surrounding the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project, a controversial gravity dam constructed on the Narmada River: "Ms. Roy's tendency to exaggerate and simplify… and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis".
““There is little doubt that Roy, with her eloquence, concern for the poor, and personal magnetism, is an important voice in the Indian public sphere. But the danger is that her extreme views... will alienate those whose support will be essential in India’s struggle for social justice.””
Of course, a conscientious reader cannot ignore the use of the word ‘shrill’ in this critique of a fellow environmentalist, a word commonly associated with the bigotry surrounding many liberal attitudes around women in activism, particularly political activism. Women’s voices like Roy’s, which cross lines even the bravest progressives have hesitated to cross, are so destructive to the narrative that women’s roles should be limited to small and private life – family and home - that even other liberal voices sometimes respond negatively, which creates space for conservative and other malicious voices to be heard.
Backlash to Women’s Voices
In fact, in 2023, the Human Rights Watch reported that global backlash to women’s rights had reached an all-time high: from Afghanistan’s terrified ban of women in education; China’s frightened censorship policies of feminist content as ‘harmful speech’ (harmful to whom, is the important question); Poland’s juvenile retrogressive policies obstructing response to gender-based violence and reproductive rights; the United States’ malevolent regression from healthy reproductive rights; South Korea’s knee-jerk pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which abolishes the use of the word ‘women’ in policies addressing gendered discrimination, and more. In 2024, we see continued decline in humanity across the globe, a direct response to the standard of growth to women’s power worldwide.
Studies on Women’s Voices in Leadership Provide Answers
“Decades of studies show women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational dedication, and improve fairness.”
The American Psychological Association
Of course, with women’s voices rising in echo, we have had the chance to study the effects of bringing more women to political power. As reported by UN Women, “There is established and growing evidence that women’s leadership in political decision-making processes improves them.” In a controlled example, “…research on panchayats (local councils) in India discovered that the number of drinking water projects in areas with women-led councils was 62 per cent higher than in those with men-led councils”. In another: “In Norway, a direct causal relationship between the presence of women in municipal councils and childcare coverage was found”.
The American Psychological Association has performed a number of studies on this phenomenon. A landmark 1992 analysis of 61 of these studies has discovered that women are more likely to ‘epitomize what’s good in the organization and inspire people to go along with it’s mission, compared with men’.
According to a 2010 by organizational psychologist Anita Williams Woolley, PhD, the proportion of women in a group strongly corrolated to the group’s collective intelligence, which is measured in the group’s ability to solve a wide range of problems as a team.
“Groups with more women exhibited greater equality in conversational turn-taking, further enabling the group members to be responsive to one another and to make the best use of the knowledge and skills of members.”
As a matter of fact, in a study of traits relevant to leadership assessed in a 2008 survey by Pew Research Center, women rank higher in seven of the eight. Read this fascinating study here.
The mere presence of a female leader relative to a male leader affects how perceivers anticipate fair treatment. ‘Female leaders cued organizational trust in both male- and female-dominated industries and when they occupied different levels of the organizational hierarchy.’
““Our findings suggest that female representation is not merely an end, but also a means to systematically change insidious gender stereotypes and overcome the trade-off between women being perceived as either competent or likeable,” study authors wrote.”
For a list of these studies and a video on how women in psychology are changing the world, click here.
UN Women suggests that these improvements are natural to the rise of women into places of political power, as women have proven more likely to work across political lines without the distractions of parties or partisanism: “Women demonstrate political leadership by working across party lines through parliamentary women’s caucuses—even in the most politically combative environments—and by championing issues of gender equality, such as the elimination of gender-based violence, parental leave and childcare, pensions, gender-equality laws, and electoral reform”.
What does that mean? Well, it means that these early examples tell us something we already knew: that women, living in a world that is terrified of women in power, will respond to power by helping other women.
In Conclusion
Roy’s response to Ramachandru Guha and his commentary on her ‘shrill’ tone speaks volumes to the rising chorus of women’s voices: "I am hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh... you'll wake the neighbours!' I want to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their eyes!”.
When told we are shrill - when mocked for hysteria - when deliberately silenced - especially as the claws of the panic of men tighten around global politics, let us smile.
We are shrill. We are shrieking. And we are all shrieking together.
We will wake the fucking neighbors in 2025.
Get Involved
Through her work in environmentalism and human rights, Roy fights for the earth, and for our lives. Fight with her, and with myself, by getting involved in the following organizations:
Earthjustice, America’s leading environmental law organization, fights to maintain and improve environmental protections in the United States, and won a staggering 85% of the cases they brought to Donnie-T’s administration in 2024.
The Nature Conservancy, a global marine conservation organization operating in more than 80 countries and territories. They’ll even cover your processing fee for any size donation, and you’ll get a free year of the Nature Conservancy magazine for helping out.
The Wildlife Protection Society of India, founded in 1994, is one of the most effective wildlife conservation efforts in India today. The Society’s main focus is providing aid to local communities and government bodies serving to curb poaching and illegal wildlife hunting. Donate or read more here.
Thanks for Reading
Remember:
An ideology only panics when it knows it’s dying.
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