Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future© UNESCO 2010

MODULE 12: WOMEN & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

Development affects people in different parts of the world in different ways. It also affects people differently, depending whether they are male or female. Being aware of this, and taking it into account in development planning and action is known today as practicing a ‘gender perspective’.

Generally speaking, there have been a number of improvements to women’s lives in the past twenty years. For example, female life expectancy is increasing; more girls are going to school; more women are in the paid workforce; and, many countries have introduced laws to protect women’s rights. However, the gender divide remains. There has been “no breakthrough in women’s participation in decision-making processes and little progress in legislation in favour of women’s rights to own land and other property”, according to Mr. Kofi Annan, in his role as Secretary General of the United Nations.

This module explores women’s experiences of development in different parts of the world. It also explores ways in which women from a number of countries are working to promote sustainable development in their communities and how these ideas can be integrated into a teaching programme.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the way development impacts on women in varying situations; To identify with women’s concerns about development; To understand the importance of accelerating the pace of change in women’s

development; To appreciate the way women are working for a sustainable future in their

own communities; and To identify opportunities for incorporating issues and activities from the

module into a teaching programme.

ACTIVITIES

1. Holding up half the sky2. Women’s experiences of development3. The International Platform for Action4. Working for a sustainable future5. Reflection

REFERENCES

Davis, C. (2007) Ask EarthTrends: Why is gender equality important for sustainable development?

De Pauli, L. (ed) (2000) Women’s Empowerment and Economic Justice: Reflecting on Experience in Latin America and the Caribbean, UNIFEM, New York.

Elson, D. (ed) (2000) Progress of the World’s Women, UNIFEM, New York.

Heward, C. and Nunwaree, S. (eds) (1999) Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment, Zed Books, London.

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development (IJISD) (2009) Special Issue on Gender and Sustainable Development, 4(2/3).

Mies, M. and Shiva, V. (1993) Ecofeminism, Spinifex, Melbourne.

Seager, J. (2009) The Atlas of Women in the World, Earthscan, London.

Shiva, V. (1989) Staying Alive, Zed Press, London.

Third Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2004) Enhancing the Role of Indigenous Women in Sustainable Development, IFAD Experience with Indigenous Women in Latin America and Asia, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Tisdale, C. (2001) Sustainable development, gender inequality and human resource capital, International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 2(Jan), pp. 178-192.

United Nations (2005) The World’s Women: Trends and Statistics, United Nations Statistics Division, New York.

UNDP (2004) Gender and Energy for Sustainable Development. A Toolkit and Resource Guide.

UNFPA and WEDO (2009) Climate Change Connections. A Resource Kit on Climate, Population and Gender.

UNFPA (2009) State of World Population 2009. Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate.

Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (1999) Risks, Rights and Reforms: A 50-Country Survey Assessing Government Actions Five Years After the International Conference on Population and Development, WEDO, New York.

Visvanathan, N., Duggan, L., Nisonoff, L. and Wiegersma, N. (eds) (1996) The Women, Gender and Development Reader, Zed Books.

INTERNET SITES

Many Internet sites provide resources on gender and sustainabilty. These sites contain much statistical information, case studies of current trends and links to related sites.

International Development Research Centre: Gender and Sustainable Development Unit

UNESCO – Society for International Development: Environmental Justice and Gender Programme

UNIFEM – The United Nations Development Fund for Women Women’s Environment and Development Organisation WomenWatch: The United Nations Internet Gateway on the Advancement

and Empowerment of Women

CREDITS

This module was written for UNESCO by Margaret Calder and John Fien from material written by Jane Williamson-Fien in Teaching for a Sustainable World (UNESCO – UNEP International Environmental Education Programmes) and from the World Resources Institute teaching unit, Women and Sustainable Development.

ACTIVITY 1: HOLDING UP HALF THE SKYWomen constitute one half of the world’s population,they do two-thirds of the world’s work,they earn one tenth of the world’s income andthey own one hundredth of the world’s property including land.

Source: United Nations (1979) State of the World’s Women, Voulntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women, New York.

Women have always been – and remain – the deciding influence on the quality of life and well-being of their families and communities. They are the primary care-givers and the managers of natural resources, including food, shelter and consumption of goods, in most cultures. In addition, many women also have jobs and have careers in the formal economy.

Women’s responsibilities place them in a unique position to improve human and economic well-being, and to conserve and maintain the natural environment. Yet, their needs, their work and their voices are often not considered a priority. As a result, women in many countries do not have equal access to education, health care, employment, land, credit, technology or political power.

The general failure to provide equal opportunities for women to pursue education and economic self-sufficiency has meant that a disproportionate number of women are poor. Without adequate education, many are stuck in low-paying, low-status jobs – if they are able to work outside the home at all. These social barriers – exclusion, low status and poverty – are also barriers to a sustainable future.

CASE STUDIES OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH FOR WOMEN

This activity illustrates these ideas through case studies of women’s education and women’s health around the world.

You may choose to explore one or both of these case studies.

GLOBAL PATTERNS OF EDUCATION FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

Secondary EducationThis graph shows the percentage of females enrolled in secondary school in different parts of the world, and how the numbers increased between 1975 and 1997.

[Note the marked differences in enrolment rates between countries in the North and the South.]

Q1: Identify the areas of the world where less than 60% of girls went to secondary school in 1997.

Q2: List two possible reasons why girls typically receive much less schooling than boys?

See sample answers.

Use the tools on Gapminder to learn how girls’ education has fared since 1997.

Adult LiteracyThis graph compares female and male adult literacy rates in six areas of the world in 2000.

Q3: How do literacy rates for women compare with those for men in the regions shown in the graph?

Q4: Which areas have the highest and lowest literacy rates for both women and men?

Q5: In which areas are there the biggest and smallest differences between the literacy rates of women and men?

Q6: Identify three consequences of not being able to read and write.

Q7: List three reasons why you believe it is important for women to become literate.

See sample answers.

Use the tools on Gapminder to learn how adult literacy rates have changed since 1997.

Female Literacy and Population GrowthThis graph shows the relationship between female literacy rates and projected population growth rates for 10 countries in different parts of the world.

Q8: Which five countries have the highest female literacy rates?

Q9: Which five countries have the lowest projected population growth rate?

Q10: What conclusions about educating girls and women can you draw from this pattern?

See sample answers.

See regularly updated statistics on women’s education.

GLOBAL PATTERNS OF WOMEN’S HEALTH

Maternal Mortality RatesThis graph shows maternal mortality rates in ten different countries.

[The maternal mortality rate is the number of deaths from pregnancy or childbirth related causes per 100,000 live births.]

Q11: Which countries have the lowest and highest maternal mortality rates?

Q12: Why are maternal mortality rates a significant social indicator of development?

Q13: What factors might cause maternal death rates to decrease?

See sample answers.

Use the tools on Gapminder to learn about changes in mortality rates in your region or country.

Sex Differences in Infant MortalityThis graph shows infant mortality rates for boys and girls in ten countries around the world.

[Infant mortality rate is the probability of dying before a child’s first birthday, multiplied by 1000.]

Q14: Which three countries have the highest infant mortality rates?

Q15: Which four countries have the lowest infant mortality rates?

Q16: In which countries are the infant mortality rates higher for girls than boys?

Q17: Which country has the largest gap between female and male infant mortality rates?

Q18: Identify some factors that could explain these differences.

Q19: Identify some factors that could contribute to high infant mortality.

See sample answers.

See regularly updated statistics on women’s health.

Use the tools on Gapminder to learn about the progress on women’s heath indicators around the world.

WOMEN’S HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE LIVING

Women tend to be very conscious of any changes in the environment because the health of their families is closely linked to the health of the land, the quality of water and air, and the conservation of forests, fisheries and other natural resources.

Unsustainable patterns of development cause serious health risks for women, especially in reproductive health. These risks increase as women become more active in work outside the home. For example:

Water pollution in Uzbekistan has led to an increase in birth defects and complications in pregnancy.

Pesticide exposures in Central Sudan are linked to 22% of hospital stillbirths. Air pollution in the Ukraine has been linked to 21% of illnesses affecting

women and children. One in three women in the USA will be diagnosed with cancer at some time

during their lives. Nuclear contamination in Chelyabinsk, Russia, has led to a 21% increase in

cancer and a 25% increase in birth defects. Half of the population of child-bearing age is sterile.

In Guatemala, pesticide residues in breast milk are reported to be 250 times the amounts allowed in cow’s milk.

Many children in China take in DDT from breast milk at levels 10 times higher than internationally accepted levels.

Source: Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (1999) Risks, Rights and Reforms, WEDO, New York.

Education is a solution to health problems such as these. Indeed, there is a high correlation between improved education for girls and improvements in health and in social and economic development.

Educated parents tend to have healthier children. Women are the primary health care providers in society. An estimated 75% of all health care takes place in the home. Therefore, attempts to improve the health of a country’s population must include and empower women. A woman who can read the label on a package of medicine is a more effective health care provider than one who cannot. In fact, surveys in 25 countries in the South show that, all other factors being equal, 1 to 3 years of schooling for a mother can reduce child mortality rates by 15%, as opposed to only 6%, when fathers have the same level of education.

Educated women also tend to have increased decision-making authority within the household.

Education also increases women’s chances of earning an income outside the home – income that can be used to pay for food, clothing, education and health care for their families.

Source: Paden, M. (ed) (1996) Women, World Resources Institute, Washington DC.

ACTIVITY 2: WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF DEVELOPMENTBegin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

The patterns on women’s health and education studied in Activity 1 are evidence that the experience of development varies in different parts of the world. They also show that the results of development are quite different for women and men.

This activity introduces you to a range of women through stories of their experiences of development.

Sithembiso is a Zimbabwean woman active in sustainable agriculture. Jane is a farmer in Australia. Cathy is a migrant worker from the Philippines who works in Singapore. Angela is an architect in Stockholm who is concerned about issues of gender

and urban design.

Q20: Identify key aspects of the experience of development of these women.

Q21: Using the stories of these women – and other women you know – analyse the range of impacts of development on women around the world.

How has development changed the nature of women’s lives and work? How similar or different are women’s experiences and concerns as

farmers, factory workers and service providers? Why? Use the case studies and the experiences and concerns of women in your country.

What sort of development would improve the position of the women in the case studies and women in your country?

ACTIVITY 3: THE INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM FOR ACTIONBegin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

AN INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

The United Nations has convened a number of international conferences to discuss women’s experiences of development. The Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing in 1995.

This conference developed a Platform for Action as “an agenda for women’s empowerment”.

The Beijing Platform for Action identified twelve issues as ‘critical areas of concern’ for women, and on which strategic action was needed by governments, non-government organisations and businesses around the world:

The persistent and increasing burden of poverty Inequalities and inadequacies in, and unequal access to, education and

training Inequalities and inadequacies in, and unequal access to, health care and

related services Violence against women The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including those

living under foreign occupation Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all forms of productive

activities and in access to resources Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-

making at all levels Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women Lack of respect for, and inadequate promotion and protection of, the human

rights of women Stereotyping of women and inequality promotion and protection of the human

rights of women Gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and in the

safeguarding of the environment Persistent discrimination against, and violation of, the rights of the girl child.

Q22: Which of these 12 concerns are relevant to the experiences of:

i. the women in the case studies in Activity 2, andii. women in your country?

UNIFEM

UNIFEM is the section of the United Nations primarily responsible for women and development and encourages the mainstreaming of gender issues in all United Nations’ activities.

UNIFEM believes that the biggest concern facing women is the ‘feminisation of poverty’. It identifies seven main causes of this problem. These are:

Globalisation Low wages Traditional approaches to economic development Trade liberalisation Society’s attitudes towards women Cannot travel as freely as men. Access to markets

Explain how these factors contribute to the ‘feminisation of poverty’.

The Beijing Platform for Action argued that achieving equality between women and men was needed to address these concerns:

The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are a matter of human rights. This is a basic condition for social justice, and should not be seen in isolation as just a women’s issue. Indeed, this is the only way to build a sustainable, just and developed society. Empowerment of women and equality between women and men are prerequisites for achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples.

PROGRESS SINCE THE BEIJING CONFERENCE

The Beijing conference may be remembered as the point in history when women took over the international process, injected it with their own ideas and experiences, and then converted it back into local and national actions. Since 1995, women have used the ideas and energy of Beijing to push for progress on many fronts, often through new activist networks that span nations and regions.

They have convinced an increasing number of countries to adopt affirmative action programmes that raise the number of women in politics. In 2000, there were:

seven women heads of state in the world; three heads of government; and 145 countries have governments which included women.

Activists in South Africa have lobbied their government to breakdown its budget along gender lines so that women can see who really benefits. In Thailand, the government has prohibited sexual discrimination in its new constitution. In Egypt, women worked with religious leaders to repeal a law allowing rapists who marry their victims to avoid jail.

The Beijing conference also encouraged the UN system to place greater emphasis on gender. It called on UNIFEM, and other UN agencies, to establish the world’s first funding mechanism devoted to supporting projects to eliminate violence against women. Gender units have been set up in many agencies to foster women’s contributions to shaping critical policies and decisions. At UNESCO, women have been considered one of four priority groups since November 1995. After the Beijing conference, the Unit for the Promotion of the Status of Women and Gender Equity was created, and the Agenda for Gender Equity was established to bring gender into

all of its programmes and activities, especially in the media, peace, and science and technology education.

Despite the achievements of the past five years, however, women world wide continue to lag behind in almost all areas. According to the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, women’s employment has increased in all regions, but their wages are 50 to 80% of men’s. Up to 80% of refugees fleeing from conflict are women and children. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are female, and nearly half the women in the developing world do not meet minimum daily caloric intakes.

A long list of obstacles stands in the way of addressing these issues. Discriminatory attitudes and traditional stereotypes deprive women of resources and continue to prop up the laws, policies and institutions that prevent greater progress. For example, so-called ‘honour killings’ which are committed by men who feel that women have damaged their reputation, are still legal in three countries.

The Beijing Platform is not a legally binding document. Governments follow its recommendations only because it serves their interests to do so, or because women marshal the political power to persuade them to change laws and policies.

While women’s movements and networks have grown in strength and in their ability to work with national and international political systems, they must contend with a growing set of new challenges.

Source: Adapted from UNESCO Sources, No.125, 2000, pp. 4-5.

BEIJING +5

In June, 2000 delegates from 180 countries convened at UN headquarters in New York to evaluate progress made since Beijing, agree on obstacles, and map out a set of actions to continue implementing the Platform for Action.

Protracted debates took place over commitments to reproductive health and rights, with the Holy See and a handful of conservative Muslim and Catholic countries attempting to rill back gains by women made on these issues in previous international agreements.

However, for the first time, governments agreed to address the problems of ‘honour killings’ and forced marriages. There was consensus on the need to enact stronger laws against all forms of domestic violence, and to set up quota systems to bring more women into politics. The agreement also contains a reference to the right to inheritance, which has long been disputed by Muslim countries.

Source: Adapted from UNESCO Sources, No.125, 2000, pp. 4-5.

The governments at the Beijing +5 conference agreed to a Final Outcomes Document that reaffirmed their commitments to the Beijing Platform for Action and their plans to make gender equality on a key underlying principle in development. This would include:

a focus on women’s conditions and basic needs; a holistic approach to development based on equal rights; promotion and protection of all human rights; and

government policies, programmes and budget processes that adopt a gender perspective.

… AND BEYOND

Since the Beijing +5 conference there have been a further two global conferences (Beijing +10 and Beijing +15) to mark progress on women’s issues.

The latest of these, Beijing +15, was held in March 2010. The emphasis of the conference was on the sharing of experiences and good practices, with a view to overcoming remaining obstacles and new challenges, including those related to the Millennium Development Goals. In a commemorative event to reflect on the progress since the first conference in Beijing, UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said in her address:

In the past 15 years, understanding has grown that the empowerment of women and girls is not just a goal in itself, but is key to all our international development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

The impact of recent multiple global crises on women and girls has further heightened this understanding. We must, therefore, rethink past policies and strategies for growth and development.

The conference adopted a Declaration which contained the following seven resolutions, as priorities for attention over the next 5 years:

Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS Release of women and children taken hostage, including those subsequently

imprisoned, in armed conflicts The situation of and assistance to Palestinian women Women’s economic empowerment Eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity through the empowerment of

women Strengthening institutional arrangement of the UN for support of gender

equality and the empowerment of women by consolidating the four existing UN offices into a composite entity

Ending female genital mutilation.

ACTIVITY 4: WORKING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTUREBegin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

In 1999 the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) investigated the progress of 90 countries in addressing women’s rights since the 1995 Women’s Conference in Beijing.

Read an overview of the findings of this survey.

Q23: Identify (i) some of the positive changes and (ii) some of the disappointments in women’s experience of development since the 1995 Women’s Conference. Provide examples and data where available.

Improvements in the rights of women and their access to services such as education are the result of what UNIFEM calls “women’s advocacy worldwide”. That is, they are the result of women working actively in their local communities, and through national and international networks, to improve the life opportunities of all women and their families.

This activity provides an opportunity to meet some of these women.

Michiko Ishimure of Japan wrote a documentary account of Minamata Disease and organised a civic group to assist victims of the disease.

Chipko women in north India pledged to save forests from logging. Sophie Kiarie in Kenya worked on greening arid areas of Kenya. Maria Cherkasova of Russia led a protest against a dam in the Altar

Mountains.

Q24: Analyse the contributions of these women to a sustainable future.

Identify the issues that concern these women. What types of strategies did these women use? Why do you think these women have been successful?

See other case studies of women working for a sustainable future from the report by the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation.

ACTIVITY 5: REFLECTIONBegin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

Completing the module: Look back through the activities and tasks to check that you have done them all and to change any that you think you can improve now that you have come to the end of the module.

Q25: Identify three reasons why the study of gender and sustainable development should be an important part of every person’s education.

Q26: Identify (i) a subject or syllabus, (ii) a grade level, and (iii) a syllabus topic where the topic of gender and sustainable futures may be taught.

Q27: Identify the name of a woman, women’s group or project that could be used as a case study to illustrate these topics. This could be a case study from this module or one that you know about from your own community or country.

Q28: Explore the following gender issues in your school:

Are the experiences and contributions of girls and women included in text books used in your school? Are many textbooks written by women?

Are both boys and girls encouraged to enrol in the same types of classes (social studies, mathematics, science, sports, etc.) in your school? Does the school maintain records of enrolment patterns by gender for each subject area and course?

Does the rate of participation in programmes for gifted and talented students reflect the gender balance of the school?

Do the rates of participation in advanced mathematics and science courses reflect the gender balance of the school?

Do boys and girls participate equally in classroom discussions? Do boys and girls participate equally in hands-on activities in settings

such as science laboratories and computer classes? Do girls get into trouble for the same reasons as boys? (For example,

are loud voices, speaking out of turn, tardiness, and failure to complete assignments on time, treated uniformly?)

What proportion of student leadership positions in the school are held by boys and girls?

Do student clubs, organisations and extra curricular activities seem to attract boys and girls equally? If not, which activities attract boys and which girls? Why?

Is there gender equity in your school’s sports program? Is the attendance at girls’ events and boys’ events comparable?

Do teachers, counsellors, and administrators receive training in gender fairness?

Are there policies for reporting and responding to complaints of sexual harassment and sex discrimination?

Sample answersQuestion 1Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Question 2 Girls are often kept home to do household chores, especially in cultures where girls become members of their husband’s household when they get married. There is little incentive to invest in the education of daughters as sons are expected to contribute to the family’s income and to support their parents in old age.

Question 3Literacy rates for women are lower than those for men almost everywhere in the world. Just over one-third of all the women in the world are illiterate, while less than one-fifth of all men are illiterate.

Question 4 Highest: Industrialised countries, East Asia and Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean.Lowest: South Asia, Sub-Sahara Africa and Arab States.

Question 5 Biggest: South Asia; Arab States.Smallest: Industrialised countries, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Question 6Being unable to read and write means that a person finds it difficult to function as a worker, a citizen, or even as a consumer.

While the proportion of the population that is illiterate is much smaller in the North than the South, the consequences of illiteracy for the individual are the same everywhere.

Question 7 Teaching women to read and write benefits them as well as their families and communities. By educating women, a country can reduce poverty, improve productivity, ease population pressure, and offer its children a better future.

Educated mothers and fathers have better educated children, and maternal education tends to influence a girl’s education in particular. So, as each generation of women is educated, the long-term rewards for society build quickly.

Question 8Jamaica, Thailand, Colombia, Sri Lanka and the Dominican Republic.

Question 9The same five countries: Jamaica, Thailand, Colombia, Sri Lanka and the Dominican Republic.

Question 10As women become literate, they have fewer children. This affects overall population growth.

The connection is most pronounced among those who have completed primary school and had some secondary schooling. According to World Bank studies, for every year of schooling a woman receives, her fertility rate is reduced by 10%.

Question 11Lowest: Sweden, United States and Japan.Highest: Somalia, Nigeria and India.

Question 12High maternal death rates are often caused by malnutrition. Malnutrition impairs women’s physical development and health and affects their capacity to bear healthy children.

Women are more likely than men to be malnourished. Half of all women in Africa and south-west Asia are malnourished. In many developing countries, food is distributed within households according to a person’s status rather than nutritional needs. In India and Bangladesh, females are given less food from birth.

The maternal death rate reflects women’s lack of access to the health-care system, especially in rural areas.

Many women do not have control over the number of children they have. They lack access to contraceptives or may not be able to use them because of economic limitations or cultural norms.

High fertility rates contribute to many health problems for women. 

Question 13Improved nutrition and access to health care, including prenatal care as well as care during childbirth.

Maternal mortality rates decrease as education for women increases. 

Question 14Bhutan, India and Nigeria

Question 15Australia, Japan, Sweden and United States

Question 16Bhutan, China, India and South Korea

Question 17China

Question 18Girls are sometimes given less food than boys in the same family. In rural Bangladesh, for example, malnutrition was found to be almost three times more common among girls than among boys.

To limit its population growth, China has a strict policy of one child per family. When girls marry, they are no longer considered to be members of their own family, but are now members of their husband’s family. They are not available to help support their own families. Boys have more economic value to the family because they can contribute income and because it is their responsibility to care for the parents in old age. Thus, if families can only have one child, there is a cultural preference for a son.

In some regions, patriarchal inheritance customs also lead parents with limited resources to invest more in their sons than in their daughters. Sons will inherit the family’s land and holdings; daughters cannot.

Some cultures require the parents of a daughter to pay a large dowry to the family of her husband when she is married. This dowry can be an enormous financial burden to a poor family with several daughters.

Question 19Among the many factors are the mother’s and infant’s diet, whether the mother and infant have access to medical care, including prenatal care and immunisations, as well as access to clean water and sanitation, and exposure to diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Drought, famine, floods, war, and other calamities also play a part.

Sithembiso’s StorySithembiso comes from Zimbabwe in Africa. She is concerned with land ownership and land use and is the founding Director of the Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP). ORAP has over 700 affiliated groups and is the largest grass roots Non-Government Organisation in Southern Africa.

Sithembiso says:

Perhaps you would like to hear what happened to my own family? It’s a very common story. In 1945, my parents were moved from their land in Matabeleland south to the Midlands to make room for soldiers returning from World War II. It was very good, fertile land that we lost. The land tenure meant that we had to move to virgin land and start from scratch. There was no compensation for our old homes or the loss of our land. We were just moved out and our homes were destroyed.

Each family was given about 10 acres in the new area, and as the families grew, the land had to be worked more and more. Before, on our old land, there was room for us to cultivate different fields each year and let the land regenerate itself.

I have seen a lot of changes in my own lifetime. When I was a child there used to be a lot of thick brush and a great variety of plants and animals and grasses. There was also a lot of underground water and the rivers were flowing full. But today these things do not exist any more because of the droughts, the economic situation, which has pushed people to stay on the land, and the land tenure system, which has pushed large numbers of people onto unsuitable land.

People have to rely on their surroundings for their livelihood. But sometimes if you go to a village where there is soil erosion, for example, you will tend to blame the people you see there, rather than look behind at the history of those people and see why the situation is what it is. The environmentalists accuse people of ignorance and not caring, or having too many children, of over-exploiting the land. No one asks why they are there in the first place.

The women are the ones who suffer the most. Where the land has been overused and is becoming less productive, the men will usually go to the cities and try to find a job. But the women will remain in the village, to look after the family, or try to make a living from the land.

In my job I go to a lot of villages and find that they are occupied by women and children, and sometimes very old people. But the majority of young people and able-bodied men go to the cities to look for work. The women get overloaded with work – taking care of the children, the household, making a living.

My organisation is a village movement. We work at the village level. What we try to do is assist women, and the whole family, to make a living in the village situation. The first thing that we do is popular education, to make

people aware that they should not blame themselves for what has happened to the land, and to understand the forces that have acted on them.

We also have to work within the culture. One of the things I have learned in my job is that this development work is not about what I know and can give, but about what people themselves know and can use. Our culture is rich. We are not a bankrupt continent, contrary to Western perceptions. We are rich in moral values, in spirit, in things that really matter.

One of the strategies that we are using in ORAP is to go back to our culture and understand how land is being used now, and how it could be used – how people should relate to land and nature. The main thing is that we really should learn to respect the land. This is our traditional way. You cannot respect the land if you do not understand it, or if you do not know much about it.

So the first stage for us is to learn about our environment, to learn about our trees, to learn about our forests and what they can do for us. What various types of plants are used for and how they grow and how they are taken care of. Also we need to learn about the relationships between the animals and insects in our forests because all of nature is balanced.

The second stage is to use a different method of agriculture. We are changing it back from commercial monoculture, where you clear everything on the land and then plant a single crop. Now we are going back to multicropping. We plant all the crops together, just as in nature. There are bushes growing next to tall trees and little plants. We grow different things together – such as maize, groundnuts and millet. This is what we used to do before the introduction of Western methods of agriculture. Our old women know which crops we should plant together to enhance the soil, to control the insects, to keep the worms away from the seeds in the ground, to keep the birds off the crops. We are also returning to using compost and organic fertilisers, as we used to do.

The Western-style agriculture that has been introduced to our country has been very bad for the land and for the people. For example, when you cut down all the trees and plough the huge fields, the soil becomes loose and the wind strips off all the topsoil.

Western-style education has taught us that the old ways are ‘backward’ but we are now learning the wisdom and value of them. We are listening to the knowledge of the old people and setting up documentation centres in the villages.

I have found that in every human being there is a need and a push for change – in everyone there is a force towards a better world!

Source: Williamson-Fien, J (1993) Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women’s Voices – Teaching Resources on Women and Development, Global Learning Centre,

Windsor, Australia. Adapted from Living from the land, Youthpower, No. 14, 1992, pp. 5-7.

Jane’s StoryJane is a farmer. She works a farm with her husband in Australia. This is how she tells her story:

Our property is about 200 hectares. It’s a mixed grazing property with sheep and cattle – we don’t do any cropping. I’m full partner in the farm and I share 50% of management and planning decisions and 50% of the domestic work with my husband. I suppose the most physically taxing job I do is hay carting, which involves stacking square bales, taking them from the paddock and stacking them in the shed. A lot of women don’t do that work because they haven’t been encouraged to have a try. A lot of men don’t do it either because it’s very hard work but, although it is physically demanding at the time, after I’ve done it I feel very good. With just a bit of thought and ingenuity I know that women can do practically any job on the farm, using principles of physics or whatever, just using their heads.

Women’s contributions are not recognised: even people who know the amount of work I do and have seen me doing it still find it very difficult to accept me as a farmer. They refer questions about the farm to Simon and expect him to answer them. They call him the boss, which annoys us both because we know that’s not so. I’ve had a lot of trouble in the past with people like stock agents and people in machinery shops. Once when Simon was away a couple of my women friends from the city were staying with me. We spent a day laying pipes from a tank to a trough and had a wonderful time working together, and at the end of the day we felt so good that we thought we would come down to town to celebrate with a few drinks and dinner. On the way I stopped in at the stock agents in Mount Gambier to get some gate saddles, which are like hinges.

I went and said, “I’ll have half a dozen saddles for the gates,” and the man behind the counter said, “Does he want galvanised or plain?”

I said, “I’d like them galvanised”

“Which size does he want?”

“I”d like such and such a size.”

There was some other question, “Does he know such-and-such?” to which I just said, “Look, I know what I want … (that certain type of hinge).”

To me it was amazing; I felt I had some invisible man over my left shoulder that this person was talking to.

Another day, we finished shearing and were both very tired. We then went over to a place to inspect some sheep which we were considering buying. It was about 38°C and, as I say, we were tired. We were inspecting the sheep in the yard – I might preface this by saying that I had asked a few relevant questions of the man who owned the sheep and he answered me in a sensible way, in a way that recognised that I knew what I was talking about. The stock agent then turned to me and said, “I suppose it’s nice to get out

and come for a drive.” It was 38°C and we’d travelled about 220km so it was hardly that. I thought. “Listen mate, if you could have seen what I’ve done over the last week and a half” and he was standing there with his big fat beer stomach.

The image of the farmer in the media is still the same, unfortunately. You have shows like the Country Hour, which constantly refers to farmers as “he”. It used always to refer to the problems of succession on farms as ‘the son taking over the farm’. I haven’t noticed that has changed a great deal. There has been a little more attention paid to the capacities of women to run farms and to work on farms but not as much as I think is due. I think it’s probably up to women to help one another.

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women’s Voices – Teaching Resources on Women and Development, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp. 34-35.

Cathy’s StoryIn one of the wealthiest residential areas on the east coast of Singapore, a 32 year old Filipino named Cathy works as a maid. In the quiet late afternoon she sits on the verandah of the apartment where she is slowly rocking a sleeping baby in a hammock.

The baby wakes and is fretful; Cathy takes her up in her arms and kisses her cheek. “Shizu is such a darling that I forget I’m homesick,” she says with a warm smile. Her English is very good even though she speaks with a strong Filipino accent. Cathy begins to talk about herself. A typical Filipino woman, she is friendly and frank.

Four-months-old Shizu is the daughter of the Japanese businessman who employs Cathy, and his American wife who is working on behalf of refugees. “When I am looking at Shizu she reminds me of my own four children left behind in my home country,” said Cathy.

Why did the mother of four children have to leave them and go to Singapore to work? Cathy was born in Visayas, in the central part of the Philippines, one of the most economically depressed areas. Her father is a primary school teacher, and her mother works for the local government. Cathy went to college and studied to become a laboratory technician but, even with her training, it was difficult to get a job. Finally, she was hired to work in a nature conservation bureau, but her salary was very low.

She married a local government official, but her husband was also poorly paid. Even though they were both working, it was difficult to raise four children. This is why Cathy began to consider going abroad as migrant worker. Her sisters-in-law were already working in Singapore as maids. “I heard that some women who had migrated to other countries had dreadful experiences, so I chose Singapore as I was told it was a safe place to work” Cathy’s father was opposed to her plan to work overseas. “He felt that it was a pity that a college graduate had to become a maid,” Cathy says. Nevertheless, Cathy was determined to go. She applied to an overseas employment agency and for permission to leave the country.

Cathy’s first job in Singapore made her very unhappy. She was unable to communicate with the family and was badly mistreated. Eventually she ran away but, because she had failed to fulfill the terms of her two year contract, she was forced to return to the Philippines.

Fortunately, before she left she was introduced to her present employer and, after spending some time at home, returned to Singapore to begin working for this new family. “The wife of my present employer is very warm and kind; I’m very lucky,” Cathy smiled. She earns $350 each month which is the average pay for domestic helpers here.

Sunday is her only day off.

On Sunday I go to mass in the morning, and then to the Botanical Garden. This is the meeting place for the Filipinos and I can see my sister-in-law, cousins, and friends.

On Sundays the Botanical Garden in Singapore is crowded with Filipino women; they have lunch together, and sing and play guitars. It is really a holiday scene where the maids from the Philippines can rest and enjoy themselves. For Cathy, it is also a time for meeting with her relatives- her aunt, who was a teacher for many years, and six other family members are working in Singapore. They get together to forget the loneliness of living in a foreign country. Cathy usually leaves early to have time to write letters to her family.

Even on a working day, after I finish my job, I write letters to my children about school, study, play, behaviour, and such ordinary things. It is quite natural for a mother to be concerned about these issues. Fortunately, my mother-in-law is taking good care of them. My elder sons go to school and make very good marks. I am encouraged.

This mother of three sons, aged ten, eight, and seven, and a three-year-old daughter, is concerned about her children all the time. She carries their photographs with her everywhere she goes.

When I left home, my children saw me off and all of them were crying. It was very, very hard when my daughter, Sherila, cried, “Mummy, don’t go” and clung tightly to me. When some friend is going home I always send toys to my children.

Cathy weeps, but she adds:

Without education you cannot get out of poverty. I’m working hard now not only to earn my living, but also to save for the children’s education so that they can grow up to be good citizens. My husband has recently written to me saying that he also wants to migrate to work in the Middle East. I have made up my mind to continue working here for another two years after this contract is up. Both of us are ready to sacrifice ourselves for the future of our children.

A college graduate mother has to bring up someone else’s child far away from her own, and her husband is also planning to leave the family to work elsewhere. Such a case, where family members are living and working in different places, is not at all exceptional in the Philippines. More than one million Filipinos are working abroad. Men go to Middle Eastern countries as construction workers and women go all over the world as maids.

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women’s Voices – Teaching Resources on Women and Development, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, Australia. Adapted from

Matsui, Y. (1987) Women’s Asia, Zed Press, London, pp. 50-51.

Angela’s StoryAngela is a qualified architect and works with a firm of architects in Stockholm, Sweden. She lives reasonably close to her work place in a modest, but restored, apartment that she obtained on a mortgage last year.

Angela is a single woman, in her late 30s. She enjoys her work and is making what she describes ‘as a comfortable living’. She argues that there are certain frustrations associated with her profession, however. One concern is the unspoken assumption that, as a woman, it is more appropriate for her to be involved in the design of domestic housing rather than have her expertise directed towards commercial or public buildings.

However, for the most part, Angela is happy to be concerned with domestic architectural design. She has always felt, for example, that conventional building plans for kitchens and laundries – areas traditionally associated with female domestic activity – are poor.

These rooms may be located in parts of the house which experience extremes of temperature, for example, and this is crazy because they are areas in which women, traditionally, do a lot of work. They are often relatively small, too, which discourages family participation in kitchen and laundry activities and suggests that they are places where women are expected to work alone.

In contrast, Angela notes, the parts of the house associated with leisure and recreation, the games room, the bar, the sitting room – even the barbecue area – get prime locations and are often more spacious. “Interestingly”, Angela says, “These areas are frequently associated with male activities or male control, except of course when it comes to cleaning them!” Angela enjoys talking with her clients about these issues. “It can be exciting to design homes that challenge some of the gender-based assumptions about life and work in the home.” She says.

Angela also has concerns about the trend towards bigger and bigger houses.

Some of these palatial homes built for wealthier end of the market make no sense at all. After all, fewer and fewer people are living in the sort of nuclear family that requires that amount of space and, if you think about it, it is absurd to have homes with three to four bathrooms when people in other parts of the world are lucky to have a tap in their street. No, I think we need to promote denser settlement of the near city area, with people living closer to their work places and to the facilities they need. This means returning to smaller, more compact homes although, of course, these sort of projects should not be developed without respect for the existing, established communities.

Although she enjoys designing homes and considering the implications for women, Angela thinks that women architects should be more influential in the design of bigger commercial, government and public buildings. As she says:

Government offices and inner-city buildings generally house the sort of services that employ vast numbers of women in clerical, secretarial, retail and even cleaning jobs. Part of the frustration of women in the city is that they are living and working within the constraints of a man-made environment. For

example, it has only been in the last few years that the operators of some car parking stations have provided special places for women with babies or small children.

But despite some improvements that make the city more ‘woman-friendly’, there are other questions about the use of urban space which need confronting. Angela asks:

Why is it that the women’s toilets and mothers’ rooms are frequently found in the most inaccessible place in the big department stores? Why are secretaries expected to work in small, public areas while their bosses sit behind big desks in enclosed offices? Why are there never enough toilets for women in theatres and concert halls so that we always have to queue?

Of course, some of these questions might seem rather trivial in view of the bigger issues associated with the life and death struggles of women elsewhere, but, I think, they do point to broader underlying questions about the nature of women’s environments and about the control women have over them. Development for women must address these underlying questions.

Source: Adapted from Williamson Fien, J. (1993) Women’s Voices – Teaching Resources on Women and Development, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp. 18-

19.

GLOBAL SURVEY FINDS PROGRESS ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND EQUALITY COMPROMISED BY ECONOMIC GLOBALISATIONA report to be released March 1 by the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) finds progress on promises made by governments at the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. However, women’s organisations from a majority of reporting countries say economic restructuring is severely affecting the realisation of the Beijing commitments and reducing women’s access to jobs, rights to health care and equal opportunity. In light of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, WEDO’s report, Mapping Progress: Assessing Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, spotlights the ways in which economic globalisation is undermining women’s rights and equality in key areas.

On the positive side, over 70% of the world’s 187 countries have drawn up national action plans or drafts as required by the Beijing Platform. WEDO’s in-depth report covers 90 of these 187 countries. Governments in 61 countries acknowledged the expertise and experience of women’s NGOs by involving them in formulating these plans. Further, governments are strengthening mechanisms to implement the plans; 66 have already set up national offices for women’s affairs, 34 of them with the power to initiate legislation.

“In countries around the world, women’s groups have pushed their governments for specific actions to live up to the promises they made at Beijing,” observed Bella Abzug, WEDO President and former US Congresswoman. “In a growing number of countries, governments are being challenged to act on their commitments by women’s caucuses, formed along the lines of WEDO’s Women’s Caucus that mobilised thousands of women during the UN conferences.”

Since the Beijing conference, 58 countries have adopted legislation or policies to address women’s rights. For example, 26 countries, a number of them in Latin America and the Caribbean, China and New Zealand have passed laws to curb domestic violence. In Egypt, the Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling prohibiting the practice of female genital mutilation in state-supported and private facilities. In Thailand, a new law stiffens penalties and speeds trials to prevent and suppress the trafficking of women and children. Due to gender segregation policies in Iran and the introduction of co-education in Pakistan, girls’ school enrolment has increased. In Zimbabwe, a new inheritance law has been drafted to favour neither sons nor daughters.

But, women’s groups report, that fiscal austerity measures in industrialised and developing countries, and the current economic turmoil in Asia have had a crippling effect on many positive legislative efforts. “On balance, women are still the shock absorbers for structural change,” noted Susan Davis, WEDO Executive Director. Women in economies in transition, whether in Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, Africa or Latin America, pay a disproportionate share of the costs of economic globalisation while being excluded from its benefits. An abhorrent aspect of the global economy is the prostitution of women in a sex industry that spans the world.

In Canada the deepest job losses have been in the government, health and education sectors dominated by women. The incidence of low-paid employment

among Canadian women is now second only to Japan among industrialised nations. In the Ukraine, an estimated 80% of those currently unemployed are women. In Zimbabwe, where macroeconomic restructuring is ongoing, the informal sector has ballooned, drawing on the poorly paid labor of mostly women and more recently girls.

“Mapping Progress, the fifth in a series, reveals incremental progress by governments in implementing the Beijing agenda and the growing political strength of women’s movements across the world,” said Bharati Sadasivam, WEDO’s Program Coordinator for Women’s Rights, who conducted the survey.

Source: Women’s Environment and Development Organisation, 1999.

Michiko Ishumure Of JapanTowards the end of the 1950s, the people in a small fishing village on Minamata Bay in Kyushu, Japan, began to suffer from a terrible disease.

Their limbs were paralysed, their lips unmovable; and they cried aloud like dogs howling in madness. Japanese scientists discovered that this strange disease was caused by waste from Chisso Corporation’s factory, located in Minamata City, which had polluted not only the coastal waters but also the fish and the shellfish.

There was one woman visitor to this fishing village who made calls on these poor victims. She was Ishimure Michiko, a poet and housewife. She kept records of all she saw and heard during her visits to the victims. Among those she visited were a blind boy who could not talk but fumbled for a baseball bat with which to hit at stones; a fisherman’s wife who, longing to live a healthy life once more and to go fishing with her husband, died in convulsive agony; a beautiful little girl who lived a death-like life; and an old man who died in madness, rending the wall and hitting his head against the head-board of his bed.

In profound sympathy, understanding and anguish, Ishimure Michiko wrote her documentary account, Kugai Jodo (Pure Land Poisoned Sea), which was subtitled ‘Our Minamata Disease.’ This documentary brought the true results of industrialisation vividly to the attention of the Japanese people, and an enormous reaction ensued. The book openly and effectively questioned the ’productivity-first and profit-first’ attitude of industrialised Japan.

Ishimure Michiko herself organised a civic group to assist victims of Minamata Disease and launched a movement to secure adequate compensation for them from Chisso Corporation.

(N.B. This extract uses the Japanese convention of putting the family name first and the personal name second.)

Source: Adapted from Matsui, Y. (1975) Protest and the Japanese Woman, Japan Quarterly, 22(1), pp. 31-32.

The Chipko Movement Of North IndiaIndia’s hill forests are a critical resource, not only for the women who utilise them for gathering food, fuel and fodder but as a watershed, regulating water flow to the valleys below. However, commercial logging in the Garhwal Himilaya region led to landslides and disastrous floods.

In the 1970s, local resistance to forest destruction gathered pace in the form of the Chipko movement (‘Chipko’ means to hug). By 1974, hundreds of women from the Chamoli District in Uttar Pradesh had pledged to save the trees at the cost of their own lives if necessary. When the loggers arrived the women went into the forests and put their arms around the trees, telling the loggers that they would not be able to cut the trees before first killing them.

The contractors withdrew and the forest was saved. The Chipko movement spread and many villagers began to guard the forests, fast for them and hug the trees to prevent them being felled. When forest officers accused the women of being foolish, saying:

Do you not know what the forests bear? Resin, timber and foreign exchange”, the women replied. “What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air! Soil, water and pure air are the very bases of life!

Source: Adapted from Weber, T. (1989) Hugging the Trees, Penguin, Hammondsworth.

Sophia Kiarie Of KenyaSophia Kiarie moved from Kenya’s forested highlands to the arid community of Ruiru, about 20kms north of Nairobi where she was shocked by the lack of greenery. The parched fields provided little food or firewood for her family of 11 children.

She decided to learn all she could about the life cycles of different trees, talking with foresters and making her own careful observations. She now says, “I have a degree in understanding the problems of my area”, even though she never took a class in forestry or botany.

Finally, Sophia became a field officer for the Bellerive Foundation that focuses on environmental issues. In this job, she learnt more and more about land degradation and so opened a tree nursery which has distributed more than half a million seedlings to schools, hospitals and farmers. This is part of a wider campaign to establish ‘green islands’ around government institutions.

Sophia also began to promote energy-efficient, low-cost stoves in order to save trees. These stoves burn much less wood than traditional stone-bordered fires. More than 2000 Kenyan families and 600 institutions now use them.

Sophia believes that women are the key to a sustainable future and hopes to get many more involved in her reforestation projects. “Women know how to nurse”, she says, gently tucking a tiny sprout into the earth. “They have caring hands.”

Source: Adapted from Newsweek, 9 March, 1992.

Maria Cherkasova Of RussiaIn 1986 local authorities and the Ministry of Energy in the Soviet Union decided to build a huge, 200 metre high dam on the Katrun River in the Altar Mountains.

They hadn’t counted on Maria Cherkasova, a biologist and journalist. When she realised that the dam would flood a beautiful historic wilderness, destroy wildlife, erode fertile land and, by leaching mercury and other toxic substances out of the rocks, pollute the drinking water for millions of people, she spread the word, and small action committees for the Salvation of the Katun River were created in six cities. They soon won the support of thousands of citizens who started protest marches, signed mass petitions, and organised meetings and letter-writing campaigns – and construction on the dam was stopped.

Other consequences of the campaign are just as important. It raised nationwide Soviet consciousness about environmental issues. It also taught those involved a lot about environmental activism and led to the creation of an umbrella organisation of 200 Soviet environmental groups, the Socio-Ecological Union, under Maria Cherkasova’s leadership. The Union established contacts with international organisations and has gone on to lead a wide range of successful environmental campaigns and activities.

[Due to the recent difficult economic climate the goverment of the Altai Republic is reviving its plans to build a hydropower dam on the Katun River to generate energy and to encourage investment in industrial development.]

Source: Adapted from Rees, P. (1992) Women’s success in environmental management, Our Planet, 4 (1), pp. 16-17.