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)