What if the world never had WOMEN?

What if the world never had women?

Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine a world where no lullaby was ever sung. No hand steadied a trembling child on the first day of school. No quiet voice stayed awake through the night beside a feverish bed. No one stitched together broken confidence with patience and faith.

It would not simply be a quieter world. It would be a colder one.

To remove women from history is not to subtract half the population. It is to dismantle the emotional, biological, intellectual, cultural, and economic foundations of civilisation. It is to remove the invisible architecture that keeps humanity standing.

From a feminist perspective, this question becomes more than imaginative. It becomes political. Because in many ways, history has often behaved as though women were optional. Their labour was expected. Their sacrifice normalised. Their brilliance under recorded.

Feminist theory asks us to question power structures. Liberal feminism argues that women deserve equal access to education, employment, and political participation. Radical feminism examines how deeply patriarchy is embedded in institutions. Socialist feminism highlights unpaid domestic labour that sustains economic systems. Intersectional feminism reminds us that not all women experience inequality in the same way. A tribal woman, a disabled woman, and an urban professional woman do not face identical realities.

Through this lens, the question shifts. Not only what if the world never had women, but what if the world had truly valued them?

In the Vedic worldview, woman is Shakti, the dynamic energy of existence. The Rigveda preserves hymns composed by women seers such as Lopamudra and Ghosha. Gargi Vachaknavi stood in the court of King Janaka and questioned sage Yajnavalkya about ultimate reality. Maitreyi chose philosophical inquiry over material wealth.

Ancient Indian thought did not entirely silence women. Yet over centuries, patriarchal systems restricted their autonomy. This shift reflects a central feminist argument. Oppression is constructed. It is not destiny.

The Puranic imagination elevates the feminine to divinity. Durga emerges when other forces fail. Saraswati embodies wisdom. Lakshmi symbolises prosperity. Parvati represents resilience. Ardhanarishvara expresses the inseparability of masculine and feminine principles.

Yet societies that worship goddesses have often denied rights to real women. Reverence without equality is contradiction. Biology itself affirms another truth. Every leader, reformer, scientist, and revolutionary began life within a woman’s body. Yet reproductive labour has historically been unpaid and undervalued. Remove women, and within one generation, humanity ceases.

Across history, women have not only nurtured life but defended it. Rani Lakshmibai resisted colonial power. Raziyya Sultan ruled despite hostility. Joan of Arc inspired a nation. The Agojie warriors formed a disciplined female regiment. Courage has never been exclusively male.

Modern courage continues this tradition. Sehmat Khan risked her life for national security. Malala Yousafzai stood for education in the face of violence. Even attending school can become revolutionary when systems deny access.

The Renaissance was not solely male. Isabella d Este shaped art and diplomacy. Cassandra Fedele earned recognition for scholarship and public oratory. Yet their names appear less frequently in mainstream narratives.

Simone de Beauvoir wrote that one is not born but becomes a woman. Society constructs gender roles. When history sidelines women, it reinforces hierarchy.

Science reveals similar patterns. Marie Curie transformed physics and chemistry. Rosalind Franklin’s research was crucial to understanding DNA. Hedy Lamarr developed frequency hopping ideas foundational to secure wireless communication and WiFi technology. Josephine Cochrane advanced the dishwasher. Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper. Their inventions entered daily life quietly while recognition remained limited.

In Ayurveda and traditional healing systems, women preserved medicinal knowledge across generations. Community health often depended on their herbal expertise and caregiving. Yet such knowledge was labelled domestic rather than scientific. Cultural preservation also rests heavily on women. Rukmini Devi Arundale revived Bharatanatyam. Balasaraswati preserved its expressive authenticity. Sitara Devi electrified Kathak. Sanjukta Panigrahi globalised Odissi. M S Subbulakshmi elevated Carnatic music. Lata Mangeshkar shaped collective emotion through song. Clara Schumann composed with brilliance. Evelyn Glennie redefined music despite profound deafness, proving that sound can be felt beyond hearing.

Fashion is not superficial. Coco Chanel challenged restrictive clothing norms. When women demanded mobility, fashion adapted. Control over dress has historically been a tool of control over women’s bodies.

Tribal societies offer alternative structures. Among the Khasi and Garo communities of Meghalaya, lineage follows a matrilineal system. Property and family name pass through daughters. The youngest daughter inherits ancestral property. The Minangkabau community of Indonesia also traces descent through women. These systems show that patriarchy is not universal. In polar regions, Inuit women ensured survival through skilled clothing production and food preservation in extreme climates. Across indigenous communities worldwide, women function as agricultural experts, healers, storytellers, and custodians of oral tradition.

Economically, women sustain both formal and informal sectors. Yet wage gaps persist globally. Feminist economics questions why unpaid care work is excluded from national calculations despite sustaining societies.

Campaigns such as those by Ford Motor Company on International Men’s Day highlight irony. When systems have historically privileged men, equality is not favouritism. It is fairness.

The most overlooked contribution remains emotional labour. Women disproportionately manage emotional stability within families and workplaces. They anticipate needs, soothe conflict, remember details, and absorb tension.

Imagine hospitals without nurses. Schools without female teachers. Homes without mothers. Laboratories without women scientists. Movements without women activists. The world would not simply lose productivity. It would lose empathy. As an eleventh standard student reading mythology, biographies, and political essays, I notice something consistent. Women are everywhere in history, yet often at the margins of the page.

If the world never had women, there would be no bedtime stories whispered softly. No revolutions nurtured in kitchens. No scientific breakthroughs achieved through relentless persistence. No cultural traditions carried through dance and song.

It would not be a male dominated world. It would be an emotionally impoverished world. Feminism does not argue for superiority. It argues for recognition and equity. The progress of humanity is not measured by how high one gender rises. It is measured by whether both rise together.

If the world never had women, there would be no birth, no balance, no continuity, no transformation.

Whenever women rise, civilization rises with them!