The Social Status of Women in the Traditional Tuvan Society

Zoya Anayban

The Social Status of Women in the Traditional Tuvan Society

(55th Meeting, 2012)

In all times, the traditional Tuvan women took all vicissitudes of life upon themselves. It was due to a high social status of the woman, primarily in the family life, her significance in everyday life. As researchers-ethnographers emphasize that the Tuvan woman did live an isolated life, not even in the past, unlike women of the Muslim East. At all times she participated in economical activities, in the family life and in everyday ceremonies together with the man. She had relative independence in house-keeping. So we can state without exaggeration that woman’s authority in the family was strong. At the same time one cannot but agree with researchers who think that “in spite of the fact that in the family and everyday life the position of the woman was relatively equal to that of the man, the Tuvan woman had no rights as far as public life was concerned”.