Cultural, political factors obstruct women's progress

Cultural, political factors obstruct women's progress

JAKARTA (JP): Cultural and political factors hinder efforts
toward empowerment of women to the extent that it appears that
women collaborate with their own oppression.

"This is not an issue of men versus women... It is a political
issue and women are actually struggling with themselves,"
Navrekha Sharma, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Indian Embassy,
said at a discussion yesterday.

The discussion, held at the British Council in observance of
this year's International Women's Day yesterday, was organized
jointly by the British Council and feminist Julia Suryakusuma.

In response to a question from a participant, who expressed
perplexity at how women in certain countries seemed to encourage
the state of oppression they were in, Sharma pointed out the
situation stemmed from deep cultural and political values.

"Their own sense of self-esteem as women is so low that the
only way they can gain recognition is by bearing sons, raising
them and making them successful people. Society dictates them so
it becomes the only way they can be a part of the system, like
the men," she said, explaining the cultural aspects of the issue.

It was for this reason, she said, that women seemed to
collaborate in their oppression, such as by agreeing to give
better health treatment or education to their sons rather than to
their daughters.

Prestige

Sharma said boys were considered more valuable than girls in
many cultures. "Therefore, whatever prestige a woman gets will be
through being the mother of a man".

Daradjat Natanegara, Project Officer for Social Mobilization
and Advocacy of the United Nations International Children's Fund,
and the only gentleman among the panelists, said scant education
also played a major role in women's participation in their own
oppression.

The more educated women are, the more aware they are of this
oppression and the more they will want to struggle against it, he
pointed out.

Panelists, who also included Minister Counselor for the
Chilean Embassy Cecelia Gallardo and Assistant Press Attache of
the U.S. Embassy Kathleen Brahney, agreed that to some extent
cultural inhibitions and hesitancy within women themselves caused
the drawback and prevented them from speaking up in situations
which were often predominantly male.

Mira, a participant from the Kalyanamitra group which assists
women in development, suggested that empowering women would be
easier if they were well-trained to speak up.

"Being unable to speak is not always a weakness. Sometimes
women have brilliant ideas but even the presence of a man is
already a symbol of patriarchy and this fact shuts the women up,"
she said.

Many participants and panelists agreed that in many
situations, "everything was made for men".

Mira pointed out that school textbooks, for instance, were
often one-sided as they gave an impression that men were
"leaders" and "rule-makers" while women had the job to ensure
that children abide by those laws but were given no space in the
political process itself.

Daradjat said that empowerment itself was not a solution to
the problem of oppression.

"The fruits of empowerment can not be seen right away. The
most significant indicator of a successful empowering of women is
their level of active participation in decision-making
processes," he said.

Brahney said that many revisions were made to textbooks in the
U.S. so that the predominantly male ambience shifted to a more
balanced one in which women were also involved.

"Changing situations have caused these revisions to take place
and it required the involvement of a large number of women to
make it happen," she said.(pwn)