Women, social cohesion: When Celebration becomes recognition of structural role – Daad Qanou

If it is not accompanied by awareness every year, International Women’s Day becomes merely a symbolic occasion to celebrate women’s achievements. Yet such celebration remains incomplete unless it truly acknowledges women’s structural role in building society and maintaining its cohesion. 

Women are not simply a complementary element in the social system; they are central actors in producing solidarity, sustaining values, and strengthening stability.

Women as Producers of Social Solidarity

The sociologist Émile Durkheim explained that societies are built upon a form of solidarity that preserves their cohesion. While social institutions work together to ensure stability, the family represents the primary nucleus of this integration. Within this nucleus, women play a key role in socialization and in transmitting the norms and values that preserve a society’s identity.

Women plant in children the concepts of cooperation, belonging, and respect for others. Through this daily and repeated role, they produce what may be called “silent stability” — the type of cohesion that may not be visible but prevents social fragmentation. In Syria today, this kind of cohesion is urgently needed to stop the chaotic erosion of values and to restore women’s effective participatory role.

Between Care and Social Capital

The influence of women does not stop at the narrow family sphere. Both Pierre Bourdieu and Robert Putnam have shown that social capital — networks of trust and cooperation — forms the foundation of cohesive societies. Women are often the most present in these networks, whether in education, healthcare, volunteer work, or community initiatives.

Such engagement strengthens horizontal ties within society and reinforces bridges of trust among its members, raising the level of general solidarity and minimizing conflicts.

Cohesion Does Not Mean Silence About Inequality

However, speaking about social cohesion should not be understood as a call to preserve traditional roles or accept inequality. According to the conflict theory of Karl Marx, any stability built on unequal distribution of power and resources remains fragile. Therefore, empowering women educationally and economically is not only a matter of rights but also a condition for fair and sustainable stability.

A society that provides women with full opportunities for participation reduces structural tensions and establishes more balanced relationships within families and beyond.

In a Time of Transformation

Amid digital transformations, economic pressures, and rapid value changes, the role of women in protecting the social fabric from fragmentation becomes increasingly important. Women are not only transmitters of culture but also active agents in renewing it. They are not merely supporters but partners in decision-making, policy building, and guiding development, in line with the principles of strengthening democratic society proposed by thinker Abdullah ،Ocalan.

Women’s Day: Recognition of Shared Responsibility

Celebrating Women’s Day should move beyond emotional rhetoric toward deep recognition of women’s structural role in maintaining social cohesion. Throughout history, women have been mediators between generations, guardians of identity, creators of social capital, and sources of balance during times of crisis.

Empowering women is not merely a form of honoring them, but an investment in the stability of society as a whole. The most important message of this occasion is that when women are strong and fully participating, society becomes more cohesive and better able to face its challenges.

ANHA