This supplement is a digest of recent events and significant contributions to fostering gender equality - and human development - in various secular cultures and institutions. It is acknowledged that the distinction between the secular and religious dimensions is an artificial one, often blurred in real life situations. In those cases, if the material is predominantly secular it is included here; else it is included in Supplement 6. The selected items are the editor's choice. Suggestions by readers are welcomed. Reporting on good role models is a high priority. The following sections are included this month:
The promotion of gender equality in society is a slow and painful process, and it is barely beginning to unfold worldwide. But it is a dynamic process, one in which progress begets progress. It is important to stay tuned to relevant news coming from all world regions and all world cultures. The Google News box displayed to the right may be helpful. Readers can enhance their web sites with their own version of this box - which is continuously refreshed as significant events are reported - by going to Google News, clicking on "Add a section," and follow simple instructions under "Create a custom section." This is a free service, but you must register in order to use the customization tool.
If you know about recent developments that should be mentioned in this page, please write to the Editor.
Futurist, behaviorist, and evolutionary biologist Dr. Judith Hand presents a compelling argument in her film “No More War” that if we chose to do it, we can achieve what no people before us could: a future without war. She introduces cutting edge hypotheses on the origins of cooperation, altruism and morality, indicating how they relate to the human potential for peace. The origins of war are explored, including a consideration of why men and women, in general, differ when it comes to using physical aggression to resolve conflicts. A proposal is offered that the time is right for us to mount a global, social transformation movement to abolish war and reasons are given for why we can, at this time, embrace the goal of ending war with confidence. Why participation of women as full partners with men in decision-making positions is a necessary condition, not an option, is stressed. Two complementary elements of a nonviolence campaign to end war are introduced: Constructive Program and Obstructive Program. Suggestions are offered for ways viewers can be involved in this great cause. Learn more.
A Future Without War is Judith Hand's website, where most of her writings can be readily accessed. The following are some links to material that should be of interest to readers of this journal:
Excerpt: "So long as men and women are estranged from each other, so long as they are unequal and one is considered subservient, so long as men continue to be estranged from satisfying, joy-giving, connections to their children, so long as humans are alienated from the natural world and instead consider themselves its masters and dominators, the need for deep connectedness will remain unmet." (page 129)
Violence (war in particular) is the greatest obstacle to sustainable human development. Judith Hand is making a significant contribution to peace by pointing the way to a culture of global solidarity and nonviolence. The reader is cordially invited to visit A Future Without War for more information on this important piece of work. For some key excerpts from several authors on the general theme of "men, women, and cross-gender solidarity," click here.
International Day of the Girl 2012: Fulfill girls' potential; end child marriage
This Thursday 11 October marks the first-ever International Day of the Girl.
In a world where the adolescent girl is so often ignored, this is a day to highlight the unique challenges that girls face, raise awareness of girls’ rights and celebrate girls’ potential to change their communities for the better.
Spotlight on child marriage
Child marriage has been chosen as the official theme for the inaugural Day of the Girl: a sign of increasing awareness that girls’ empowerment will be impossible unless we address the fact that every single day, 25,000 girls around the world are married off before they turn 18.
As Desmond Tutu and Graça Machel recently wrote: “Choices define us and allow us to realise our potential. Child marriage robs girls of this chance.”
The issue of child marriage is often set aside as a sensitive ‘cultural’ issue; something that is taboo and difficult to address. Over the last two years, The Elders have worked to challenge this assumption and put child marriage at the top of the global development agenda. In 2010 they began to forge a global coalition of organisations tackling early marriage around the world. Read more about Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.
Take action to help end child marriage
This International Day of the Girl is an opportunity to highlight some of the inspiring work already being done to tackle child marriage, as well as a chance to join together and call on the international community to support programmes and laws aimed at ending this harmful practice.
With the Millennium Development Goals expiring in 2015, it is also an important moment to encourage world leaders to make the needs of the adolescent girl a focus in any post-MDG development framework.
Join The Elders and Girls Not Brides in marking the day:
Join Mary Robinson, Christy Turlington, experts and activists who will be discussing child marriage and answering your questions in a live Google+ Hangout on 11 October. We’ll be streaming the Hangout from The Elders’ website and anyone can take part by sending in questions and watching the live discussion. (You don’t need to be signed up to Google+!)
"Patriarchy is a social system in which the male gender role as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination. Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage.
"Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, and economic organization of a range of different cultures. Patriarchy also has a strong influence on modern civilization, although many cultures have moved towards a more egalitarian social system over the past century.
"Patriarchy literally means "rule of fathers" (Greek patriarkhes), "father" or "chief of a race, patriarch". Historically, the term patriarchy was used to refer to autocratic rule by the male head of a family. However, in modern times, it more generally refers to social systems in which power is primarily held by adult men.
"Anthropological and historical evidence indicates that most prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies were generally relatively egalitarian, and that patriarchal social structures did not develop until many years after the end of the Pleistocene era, following social and technological innovations such as agriculture and domestication. However, according to Robert M. Strozier, historical research has not yet found a specific "initiating event" of the origin of patriarchy. Some scholars point to about six thousand years ago (4000 BCE), when the concept of fatherhood took root, as the beginning of the spread of patriarchy."
The patriarchal mindset of rivalry and domination is pervasive and induces a culture of "command and control" and transcends family relations and contaminates all human relations as well as the human attitude toward the natural habitat. An excellent exposition of the need for a good dosage of "ecofeminism" to overcome patriarchy is provided by Patrick Curry in Chapter 9 of his book, Ecological Ethics. Following are some excerpts:
"Insofar as patriarchy identifies women with nature and dominates both, they are internally linked, so the struggle to resist or overturn either must address both."
"Ecofeminism is a meeting of two strands. One is feminism itself: the awareness of the pathological effects of dominant patriarchal or (to use a more recent term) masculinist structures, both 'inner' and 'outer' -- particularly, of course, on women but also, ultimately, on their oppressors -- and the attempt to replace them with ones that also value the feminine."
"The other element is a recognition of, and deep concern about, the equally masculinist domination and exploitation of nature through the very same habitual structures of though, feeling and action that devalue and harm women."
Curry goes on to analyze the master mentality, both dualist and hierarchical: "humanity versus nature; male versus female; and reason versus emotion... the domination and exploitation of nature and women proceed by the same logic, the same processes and, by and large, the same people... only ecofeminism brings a critical awareness of the extent and ways in which the subordination of women and ecological destruction are integrally linked."
The chapter unfolds with a review of work by ecofeminist leaders such as Vandana Shiva (India) and Wangari Maathai (Kenya), and proceeds to deconstruct the androcentric (male-centered) mentality while, at the same time, making it crystal clear that ecofeminism is definitely not a matter of demonizing men. In fact, men are victims of patriarchal practices as much as women; in one way or another, domination that goes around comes around. Only an ethics of care, as in a mother holding her child, can break the vicious circle of patriarchal command and control whereby humans abuse the human habitat at their own peril. Indeed, as Lynn White proposed years ago, St. Francis of Assisi should be recognized as the patron saint of ecologists.
The paper examines and explores why
gender equality must be seen as a final goal in and of itself and as a
prerequisite for attaining sustainable human development goals and building
global citizenship. Discriminatory practices in all areas including education,
as well as traditional and harmful gender norms like violence against women
limit, inhibit and eventually impede the full development and empowerment of
women which is critical to the realization of these two goals.
The escalation of economic
globalization has driven a demand for instrumental education which can be
clearly tied to the goals of production, productivity and employment. As a
consequence, programs for the development of critical thinking, humanities and
the social sciences that foster a deeper understanding of global issues social
justice, sustainable development and human rights have been diminished.
Given this situation the question
for educators then is, how do we meaningfully utilize the enormous impact of
globalization to develop and foster not only education to prepare students for
jobs and employment but education that develops a deep understanding and
solidarity for transcendent core values like justice, peace, equality and
sustainable development.
Another purpose of
internationalizing education is to expand and broaden student’s understanding
and appreciation of socio-economic political realities of other countries and
cultures as they relate to their own national and local realities in the hopes
that such exposure can bring about tolerance of difference and solidarity for
the common good. Global learning is also defined as education “that puts
learning in a global context that fosters critical and creative learning;
self-awareness and open mindedness towards difference; understanding of global
issues and power relationships and optimism and action for a better world”.
Gender equality in educational
access, participation and outcome is central to the promotion of democracy. A
vibrant civic life in which citizens are engage in all aspects of society is
critical to the flourishing of democratic institutions, and an important
precondition for promoting social justice and human right. As Educational For
All Global Monitoring Report 2011 : A Gender Review assert, education is a
human right of everyone, including girls and women. Much more needs to be done
in terms of educational reforms such as redefining quality of education to
include : (1) transformative, gender-responsive educational processes and
outcomes, (2) ensuring safety and protection of girls particularly in conflict
areas, (3) higher investment in early childhood care and education is crucial
for promoting sustained girl’s education, and (4) engendering school thru
textbook revisions and teacher training, and providing space and support
systems to encourage girl and young women to take on non-traditional subjects
such as math and science.
The Human Development Report of 1995
asserted that there are four elements in the concept of human development which
includes productivity, equity, sustainable, and empowerment. The human
development paradigm must be engendered and based on three principle : (1)
equality of rights between women and men as a fundamental principle, (2)
recognition that women are agent s and beneficiaries of change, and (3) the
engendered development model, though aiming to widen choices for both women and
men, should not predetermine how different cultures and different societies
exercise these choices. For illustration, the specific example of Miriam
College in the Philippines, is used to discuss both the possibilities, and
challenges of gendered global learning strategies.
II. REACTION PAPER
I agree that the women have to struggle for gender equality by demanding rights and access to education which is a key step in their political participation and empowerment. Eventhough the role of women as equal as a man, the woman should responsible to her duty as wives, woman career, and mother. The reason above is the basic for developing the next generation in the future.
In conclusion that global education must embrace the principle of social inclusion, gender quality, peace, human right, environment and diversity as ways to develop global citizenship. Global citizenship principles, values and behavior can be proactively promoted now. In promoting education to integrated a gender perspective that requires national curricula to:
a. Unpack the historical and sociological meaning of national curricular norms;
b. Recognize (if not deconstruct) the various male and female forms of knowledge and their representations in the curricula;
c. Understand the different types of gendered performance within different school subject;
d. Be sensitive to the changing gender relations brought about by globalization and its significance in terms of male and female relationship to knowledge.
Quality and equality in education are inextricably linked (UNESCO 2004). Poor or marginalized children, who are more likely to have illiterate parents and less access to reading materials in the home, are more dependent on their teachers for their learning than are better-off children. As a result, poor instruction perpetuates inequities because it is more often the most marginalized children who become school leavers, either through failure or voluntary termination. Research has shown that girls seem to be more sensitive to school quality than boys and that the quality of teachers has a greater impact on the demand for girls’ education than for boys’ (Kane 2004).
There are four main dimensions of gender equality outlined in the framework : (a) equality of access, means that girls and boys are offered equitable opportunities to gain admission to formal, non formal, or alternative approaches to basic education. Actual attendance, rather than enrollment, is a better indicator of whether access has been achieved (b) equality in the learning process, means that girls and boys receive equitable treatment and attention and have equal opportunities to learn. This means that girls and boys are exposed to the same curricula, although the coursework may be taught differently to accommodate the different learning styles of girls and boys. Equality in the learning process also means that all learners should be exposed to teaching methods and materials that are free of stereotypes and gender bias. In addition, it means that boys and girls should have the freedom to learn, explore, and develop skills in all academic and extracurricular offerings. (c) equality of educational outcomes means that girls and boys enjoy equal opportunities to achieve and outcomes are based on their individual talents and efforts. To ensure fair chances for achievement, the length of school careers, academic qualifications, and diplomas should not differ based on a person’s sex, and (d) equality of external results, occurs when the status of men and women, their access to goods and resources, and their ability to contribute to, participate in, and benefit from economic, social, cultural, and political activities are equal. This implies that career opportunities, the time needed to secure employment after leaving full-time education, and the earnings of men and women with similar qualifications and experience are equal. (Subrahmanian n.d.).
References
USAID, Education From A Gender Equality Perspective. This report was developed for USAID’s Office of Women in Development by the EQUATE Project, Management Systems International (Prime Contractor). Website: http://www.undp.or.id
GLOBAL GENDER GAP 2012 (World Economic Forum, November 2012)
"The Global Gender Gap Report 2012 emphasizes persisting gender gap divides across and within regions. Based on the seven years of data available for the 111 countries that have been part of the report since its inception, it finds that the majority of countries covered have made slow progress on closing gender gaps... The index continues to track the strong correlation between a country’s gender gap and its national competitiveness. Because women account for one-half of a country’s potential talent base, a nation’s competitiveness in the long term depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its women."
5. Gender Equality for Adaptation to Climate Change
This section is excerpted from
Women are powerful agents of change
CARE Climate Change
"As a rights-based organisation, CARE's climate change strategy is geared towards the empowerment of poor and marginalised people. CARE is deeply concerned about constraints that the inequitable distribution of rights, resources and power – as well as repressive cultural rules and norms – place on people's ability to take action on climate change. We believe that a wide range of development goals are achievable only if decision makers at all levels recognise the unique risks faced by poor and marginalised people and their essential roles in planning, implementing and evaluating action on climate change.
"The majority of the world's poorest people today are women and girls. Climate change is making it even more difficult for them to realise their basic rights, and it is exacerbating inequalities since they are more vulnerable to its impacts than men.
"Moreover, many women are denied access to new information about climate change and participation in important decision-making processes despite having unique skills and knowledge – about low risk farming, sustainable water management, family health and community mobilisation, for example – vital to effective adaptation.
"For all these reasons, and because women are central to the food and livelihood security of their families, we place a special emphasis on gender equality and women's empowerment."
For more, including links to other CARE resources, click here.
"Developing renewables to meet the growing demand for energy is a top priority in the 21st century. So is enhancing collaboration among developing countries. By training semi-literate women from rural Sierra Leone in solar-energy techniques, Barefoot College in western India works towards achieving both these goals. Twelve women attended and then returned to villages in Sierra Leone to assemble 1,500 household solar units at a new branch of Barefoot College in Konta Line, where the training will continue, reports a blog for the Guardian. The governments of both countries have played their part; Sierra Leone invested $820,000 in the project, and India provided equipment. The vast majority of households in Sierra Leone go without power. Following its decades-long civil war, electricity is Sierra Leone's "most daunting infrastructural challenge," notes a World Bank report. Lighting extends education and socializing into the evening hours, and the women are planning on manufacturing solar units to spread the new power."
Myanmar News: Aang San Suu Kyi Wants to Be President, But Will the Country's Generals Stop Her?
Dev Lewis, PolicyMic, 11 June 2013
Reprinter with permission from PolicyMic
One of the biggest developments in South Asia over the past 18 months has been the gradual political reform in Myanmar, opening the country to the rest of the world. A key leader to re-emerge during this process to become leader of the opposition and chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) is Aung San Suu Kyi. In a country deeply divided by distinct ethnic groups, taped together by an autocratic military that has maintained its rule using brutal means, Suu Kyi is a figure that transcends all, representing the important ideals of tolerance, secularism, human rights, and democracy. Recently Suu Kyi formally spoke of her intent to become president of Myanmar. But the question is not her popularity or her ability to lead, but whether the military will allow her to do so.
In 2015 Myanmar is due to hold its next election. Presently the constitution blocks anyone whose spouses or children are overseas citizens from becoming president or vice-president. Suu Kyi’s two sons and her late husband are British citizens, automatically disqualifying her. The constitution can be amended, but in order to pass, an amendment requires at least 75% parliamentary approval. But 25% of the body’s seats are reserved for the military, while the majority of those seats remaining are held by former soldiers and their business associates. Even if the amendment were to pass successfully, procedure dictates that the change still requires majority approval in a nationwide referendum. To put it plainly, amending the constitution is an extremely time-consuming process and cannot be amended without the military deciding to do so.
A Nobel laureate, Suu Kyi is easily Myanmar’s most internationally recognized leader and has been asked about her intent to become president on many occasions, but she has consistently remained coy with her answer. Addressing world leaders and heads of business on June 6 at the World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw she declared her intent to become president: "I want to run for president and I'm quite frank about it…. If I pretended that I didn't want to be president I wouldn't be honest”. According to a New York Times article Suu Kyi also expressed her desire in the Burmese language, which Burmese journalists say is a first.
According to some experts, it will be almost impossible for her to amend the constitution and become an eligible candidate. Tint Swe, a former member of the NLD and chairman of the Burma Center, said, “The regime in power before 2008 did this intentionally, making it almost impossible to amend the constitution”. Remember also that Suu Kyi was imprisoned for over a decade by the military.
Making any definite prediction or ruling out Suu Kyi would be naïve because Myanmar itself is evolving and its political climate is far from stable. Since the gradual series of reforms instituted by General Thein Sein in 2010, thousands of political prisoners have been released, censorship has been scaled back, trade unions have been legalized, and Suu Kyi herself was released from house arrest. President Obama and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have made official visits as Myanmar has begun shedding its pariah state status, opening itself to an international system of political and financial networks. But this change has neither been enough nor all-encompassing. During this time the military has been in a civil war against the Kachin Independence group, Rohingya Muslims, and groups from the Arakan state. Decades of oppressive rule have made it very difficult to achieve trust, and without trust lasting peace is unattainable.
In the same address at the World Economic Forum, Suu Kyi said she refuses to indulge in optimism in regards to amending the constitution. Instead she said, “Hope has to be backed up by endeavor and rather than hope and be optimistic for the constitution to be amended, we are going to work for the constitution to be amended”. Clearly Suu Kyi already began this endeavor much before her speech, because in March the Myanmar parliament approved the formation of a committee for constitutional amendment. After decades of political struggle Suu Kyi's intent to run for president has now emerged very clearly. Naturally the military will be unwilling to give up further power and allow an individual whom it had imprisoned for decades to become president. However, Myanmar has changed rapidly over the past 18 months and Suu Kyi, who has fought a host of obstacles already, could well ascend to the top in what would be a Mandela-type moment for the country.
While Ivy League schools marvel at India’s economic growth, Vandana Shiva’s University of the Seed looks to the earth—and Gandhi—for guidance.
Gandhi once burned British cloth imported from the mills of Manchester to reveal the power of the indigenous spinning wheel; and led the famous Salt March to underscore the capacities of all Indians (in fact, all human beings) to live autonomously, depending on the support of themselves and each other while throwing off the shackles of global empire.
Renowned food and anti-globalization activist Vandana Shiva’s Bija Vidyapeeth (University of the Seed), co-founded with Satish Kumar in 2001, is grounded on the four Gandhian principles of non-violence: swaraj (self-rule), swadeshi (home-spun), satyagraha (truth force), and savodaya (the uplifting of all).
Inspired by these principles, this university grown on a farm preserves a wild diversity of indigenous seeds in cooperation with thousands of farmers across India and the world, committed to the organic principles of working with Mother Earth—rather than waging war on her with chemicals.
“Gandhi and Globalization” is a course co-taught annually at Bija Vidyapeeth for ten short, intense days in November and December. Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar (founder of Schumacher College in England), and Samdhong Rimpoche (the first Prime Minister of Independent Tibet) designed this course for students coming from all continents, speaking in multiple tongues, and joined by a shared passion for both Gandhi and the end of the era of globalization or neo-colonialism.
During the last three years, I have had the privilege of joining these three great teachers in the fabulous intellectual and moral adventure of co-teaching this course with them. “Gandhi and Globalization” is one among a range of courses offered by Bija Vidyapeeth to demonstrate that Gandhi’s relevance grows even as globalization strangulates indigenous traditions of teaching, learning, living, and celebrating life and death.
Madhu Suri Prakash interviewed Vandana Shiva for YES! Magazine, a national nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Madhu is a contributing editor to YES! Magazine.
The patriarchal culture of control and domination is the root of all social and ecological violence. It corrupted the original unity of man and woman (cf. Genesis 3:16) and is now corrupting the unity between humanity and the human habitat. Just as we are now aware that slavery and racism are moral evils, we must become aware that all manner of gender discrimination is a moral evil that must be overcome and eradicated if social solidarity and ecological sustainability are to be attained.
The need to reform obsolete patriarchal structures applies to both secular and religious institutions. Feminism is clearly a "sign of the times" to the extent that it fosters authentic gender solidarity and nonviolence for the good of humanity and the glory of God. Given the enormous influence of religious traditions, it is especially critical for religious institutions to overcome and eradicate any semblance of male hegemony in matters of doctrine and religious practices.
The book, The Three D's: Democracy, Divinity and Drama: An Essay on Gender and Destiny, by Bruce A. Burton, is an integrated analysis of the need for gender balance in both the secular and religious dimensions of human development. This book, initially published in 2007 and reprinted in 2013, should be a point of reference for scholars and other professionals seeking renewed progress toward a better world of solidarity and sustainability.
FROM THE BOOK COVER
"An indexed essay and reference text that spans 10,000 years in its study of Gender Balance and the Natural Law origins of Democracy, including the origins of language, writing, and the alphabet, Abraham's Bronze Age influence on the meaning of Divinity and THE BIBLE, the evolution of Dionysus, the naming of Greek Tragic Drama, and the Neolithic influences on Homer which underlay the rebirth of Democracy in Greece after its disappearance from Neolithic Mesopotamia 2,600 years earlier. Similarly, in terms of Natural Law, the Epilogue reveals how the death of Jane McCrea, in a Homeric repetition of history, influenced the American Struggle for Independence and the rebirth of Democracy in America after its disappearance from Athens some 2,000 years earlier."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "After early years in Westport CT and attending Green Farms Elementary School, then raised on a Vermont dairy farm and attending one-room schools, Professor Bruce A. Burton (WGAw) graduated from Deerfield Academy, Bowdoin College (BA), and, as student of the late K.J. Fielding*, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, writing his thesis on Thomas Hardy for his Masters of Letters in The Nineteenth Century English Novel. Returning to the US with his wife Jamie and joining the English Department at Castleton State College, Professor Burton taught American, English, and Continental Literature, Greek Tragic Poetry, Native Studies, Speech and Writing for 26 years. In addition to novels and screen works, Professor Burton has written and published essays on Literature, and as Eastern Bureau Editor of The Turtle Quarterly of The Native American Center for the Living Arts (Niagara Falls, NY) essays on Native American Issues, Government, History, and, as contributor to THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATIVE AMERICAN LEGAL TRADITION (Greenwood Press. 1998), Natural Law (Natural Man and Woman). *K..J. Fielding, Saintsbury Professor of English Literature; student of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Oxford University."