Examination of Women Participation in the Advancement of Dharma

Jacob W. Buganga, Peace Psychologist / Researcher,
Peace and Conflict Programme
Department of Religion and Peace Studies
Makerere University



Women have a reputation for supporting human life development processes. Dharma is the universality of thinking, understanding, and acting for the mutual benefit of everything in return. The theoretical analysis of the concept of Dharma and women participation provides interesting views about women involvement in increasing its understanding. Women are the most compliant to the needs of Dharma of the two genders, with qualities the get in harmony with it such as patience, concern for the environment, slowness to aggress, compassionate tendency, analytical, and eagerness to understand dharma, and to change the world around her. They are willing to contribute to Dharma in various respects, backgrounds, and traditions in order to change lives of themselves, their children, and families, including boys and men. Dharma as expressed in Buddhist terms limits involvement of women as it gets associated to a differentiation, divisionism, unitarization, and denunciation of other philosophies they belong to yet dharma implies universality of thinking and saying or doing. Women participation in increasing understanding of Dharma is possible is made independent of biases and the diverse thoughts, and cultures. While that happens, women participation is advancement the understanding of Dharma is already in place, and they will always do so long as the architects of taking the message across borders relate with them as supporters of peaceful co-existence, human and ecological justice and development agents. It is therefore important to rethink the limiting concept: ‘Buddhism’ for a more universe concept: ‘Dharmaism,’ which is integrative of everything and everyone, including women.