Gender Equality

Dallanaism is quite a patriarchal religion, very similar to Christianity in impact, so for the first millennium and a half of the common era it pretty much played out the exact same. There are differences of course, but I've yet to flesh out historical aspects. If anything, it was even worse as Dallana himself was a lot more conservative and stoic than Jesus; he even proclaimed himself god-emperor. So things played out essentially as they did, where women were expected to be submissive, sexually available and were treated as slaves and all.

On the other hand, the West was very liberal with women. Mir was highly favourable to women as a result of his upbringing and native culture, so his views spread rapidly with his legacy, the Reddegan Empire. There was a slight decrease with Rean and Adrean, but it shot right up with Tyra. Because Tyra murdered Rean and stopped the little state-religion conflict, she was praised as a saint by the religious community.

By the beginning of the Great War, Easterners were shocked to find themselves fighting against female regiments and this caused panic to ripple across the nations back home. Some countries declared the practice heretical and worthy of further punishment but a significant minority, especially considering the social upheaval once women found out, and became ashamed that the slanty-eyed devils had one-upped them. Eventually, in order to not lose the propaganda wars, several Eastern powers took on aggressive equality campaigns. In the centuries that followed the Great War, industrialisation began and several more conservative countries were forced to change their traditions and policies to not fall behind.

Due to the onrush of gender equality with the exception of a couple of stereotypes and biases, it became more and more acceptable for Eastern women to wear men's clothing and was often taken up due to fashion and ease of mobility. Dresses and skirts amongst women are still commonplace with a ratio of trousers to dresses being roughly 1:1, but now it's more a personal choice rather than social or even judicial enforcement.

As women moved into the army, longer hair was considered impractical and annoying so more women opted for short hair and buzz cuts. As war ended, women with their short hair returned home to their families and it gradually became acceptable amongst all classes, though not clean shaven for the higher classes. Amongst certain cultures such as the Bolscemenans, long hair is highly desired amongst both men and women, even to the detriment of military efficiency - the longer the hair the better, though up to a point of sensibleness.

Women in military clothing are seen now as an honorable position and are often seen in portraits. In some areas, they are seen as more endearing and curious than formal and serious, but in others they are increasingly popular as formalwear. Hence, there is a famous painting of several noblewomen standing around and chatting at a ball in uniform. It turns out that going into the military is a respectable occupation at least for the women whose temperament it suits; of course, they have rank according to social standing. I have a vision of various young men and women sitting around a campfire in a snowy forest amongst many other distant encampments. Braided/bun hair, mostly blonde and Icelandic.

Matriarchs and patriarchs are held in equal esteem. However, due to the firm placement of the class system, family planning is mainly installed thanks to education (??). Children will often wed people of the same class and expected to marry/bear children as soon as possible, lest they become spinsters, male and female, and be shut up in the attic or something. The alternative revolution is putting this to a halt because the youth now like having pre-marital sex and all that.

Butlers can be male or female too. However, gender equality is not absolute - men physiologically are stronger so the idea of rape is still a problem. Hopefully it's not too bad, due to education and restraint but things happen.

Policies regarding female combatants varies across the world with social norms and all that. Most of them do but there are exceptions, notably the remaining jungle tribes in the West, Kohia and Dakhland (though Dahkland is not fanatic about it as the Kohians are and most likely will change at some point). Gender stereotypes and sexual tension aren't much of a problem since everyone is used to it - the root causes aren't widespread and most males have respect for the female comrades.

I've recently realised that a fair bit of both the East and West during the Great War would have been uncultured and isolated. Certainly contributing very little to the war effort. But the bits that were cultured followed the Reddegan tradition of gender equality (at least before. After the defeat and collapse of the empire, many conquered nations fell back to their old ways). Although the East did have some more tolerant societies, it was still very patriarchal. But why were they generally embarrassed instead of outraged. Gravenia and Dallanaism is very traditional yet they have attanas. And Dallana himself was quite the dickhead. I guess it must have been a twist of fate. When news of female soldiers and gender equality, it sent waves of shock across the land, unearthing many different attitudes. There were several protests and conflicts on both sides of the debate, especially considering that the West did seem to be winning at that point. Eventually, as it became evident that more manpower was needed, laws were created and repealed. Some countries, such as Kohia, still have draconian laws against women. But in terms of Gravenia, Buia Dallana (then descendent of Dallana) had a funny turn in the night and demanded that she be made attan in face of the crisis. She was indeed Dallana's child and accused the current Attan of harbouring Western sympathies. Successful.

There is a definite link between birth rate and female education. Since women are on average more educated than in our world, there would probably be a lower birth rate. At this point, global population is between one and two billion. On the other hand, I don't think there is much education teaching for lower birth rate so let's still say an average of 3-4 children per family.