According to Osho, he is not against women but questions the women’s liberation movement when it turns revengeful and destructive. He acknowledges historic male exploitation, yet urges forgiveness, love, and creative change rather than aggression. True liberation arises from mutual understanding and honoring the natural differences between men and women, ending the cycle of chauvinism.
He isn’t against women; he’s against revenge and fighting—heal past hurt with love, forgiveness, and understanding because men and women are different yet complementary.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU AGAINST THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT? Shakti, I am not against women, I am all for them. But the liberation movement is something ugly -- and I know the responsibility is on the male chauvinists. They have been doing so much harm to women down the ages that now the woman wants to take revenge. But whenever you start taking revenge you become destructive. The movement is still in a destructive phase; it has not become creative. And I am against destructiveness. It is of no use to go on looking at past wounds. It is of no use to take revenge because of the past. One should learn to forgive and forget. Yes, it was wrong -- accept it. Whatsoever has been done to women down the ages was absolutely wrong. Man HAS exploited them. Man has been very brutal, very animalistic.
Beloved Osho, you said recently that women's liberation would be men's liberation also. Would you please comment on men's liberation?
Women are turning into lesbians. They feel so much hatred for men that millions of women don't want to have any love relationship with men, they would prefer an unnatural and perverted relationship with a woman. And it is easier, because a man will never be able to suspect that his wife has a girlfriend. Even if the two women go on making love in the house, the husband will never suspect. But if a man comes on the scene and makes the triangle of all the stories and the films and the novels, it cannot be long before the husband discovers it. It is the slavery of women that is turning the women towards lesbianism, but she thinks this is liberation from men. Dropping love for men is not liberation, you are becoming perverted. Drop the marriage contract, drop the license which has been issued by the court. Make…
Women in italy contest that fact that it is you, a man, who is giving them an equal position in the world, rather than women themselves taking what is their birthright. Can you please comment on this?
Man has enslaved women, and it was man's responsibility to give them freedom, to give them dignity and equality. I have not only tried in every possible way to make them equal, but something more -- because they need some compensation. For centuries, man has been exploiting them; hence in my commune I put all the women at the top in every department. Not only should they be given equality for a few years, they should be given something more than equality just to keep the balance. They have suffered so long, and my understanding is that if women take it from men it will not be a beautiful situation. If they fight for it and take it, then men and women will always remain enemies -- and that's what is happening through the women's liberation movement. That movement is creating a kind of antagonism, it is reactionary. Whatever man…
My communes are run by women, and they have proved far superior to men in every possible way. My sannyasins are doing better business than any man can do, finding better bargains than any man can find. I wanted it to be a solid argument before the whole of humanity that women are not inferior, that if you give them a chance, they can even prove superior in many matters. At least they are going to prove equal. And this is a strange way: to keep half of humanity in a downtrodden state. How much is the loss? -- half of humanity means that women, if they were accepted equally, would have produced a Dostoevsky, a Turgenev, a Chekhov, a Gorky, a van Gogh, a Picasso, a Nijinsky. They may have proved a Buddha, a Jesus.... Half of humanity!
Why have your teachings attracted so many followers, and why are women, particularly, attracted to your teaching?
Truth has a magnetic force in it. It always attracts, particularly those who are young and fresh, particularly those who are not burdened with old rubbish and garbage and junk; who are receptive, capable of seeing, understanding. That's why so many people, without any special effort on my part to attract them, have come close to me. I started the journey alone, and then people started coming and the caravan became bigger and bigger. Now it is surrounding the whole earth. You are asking why more women are attracted. All the religions have condemned women. I am the first man who is trying to compensate for all the harm and the wounds that have been done by the past and its so-called religious people. My respect for women is equal to my respect for men. This has not been the case in the past. Gautam Buddha, a man I respect,…