Male physical dominance has been used in most of the world's cultures to reinforce concepts of the superiority of men over women. Dominance has been reinforced through exclusion of women from education and participation in the institutions of society. Women have been powerless to fend for themselves in societies that afforded them little or no independent protection under the law, limited access to education, restricted rights to own property, and barriers to participation in the institutions of society. The dominance of men in all of the institutions of society along with greater physical strength ensured male dominance in personal relationships.
One of the developments of modern society is the ascendancy of women to full participation in the institutions of society. Baha'u'llah affirmed the equality of women and men within the culture and institutions of the nineteenth-century Islamic world. Abdul-Baha conditioned the degree of success and prosperity for global community on its achievement. The Baha'i writings use the analogy of the flight of a bird for the success of human society. It requires two equally strong wings for flight. Human society in this age requires the equality of women and men for its success.
And among the teachings of Baha'u'llah is the equality of women and men. The world of humanity has two wings - one is women and the other men. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly. Should one wing remain weak, flight is impossible. Not until the world of women becomes equal to the world of men in the acquisition of virtues and perfections, can success and prosperity be attained as they ought to be. (Selections from the Writings of Abdul-Baha, 302)
At a meeting of the Women's Freedom League in London, January 1913, Abdul'Baha spoke of the progress that would result from the continued efforts of women to fulfill their potential.
Women must go on advancing; they must extend their knowledge of science, literature, history, for the perfection of humanity. Erelong they will receive their rights. Men will see women in earnest, bearing themselves with dignity, improving the civil and political life, opposed to warfare, demanding suffrage and equal opportunities. I expect to see you advance in all phases of life; then will your brows be crowned with the diadem of eternal glory. (Baha'u'llah and the New Era, 149)
Male and female qualities are different. The Baha'i writings insist that they must be equally respected and integrated into the institutions of society. With the development of weapons of mass destruction that can potentially annihilate human life, the ordering of the affairs of humankind on the planet will be well served by the articulation of the more cooperative, supportive feminine qualities into the institutions of society and the de-accentuation of the more forceful male characteristics.
The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance, and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine and more permeated with the feminine ideals, or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced. (Baha'u'llah and the New Era, 149)