The Gender Agenda:Gaining Momentum
Introduction
Wishing you a very Happy International Women’s Day! This article has been Published in the recent issue of the CSI LIFE Magazine. I just want to share the same here too with a wider audience.
The UN theme for the International Women’s Day (IWD) 2013 is ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum’ stirs up a lot of social, political, economic and spiritual heat and dust at a time like this when the world has witnessed the most powerful demonstrations in relation to one of the worst heinous crimes against humanity – rape of women be they young or old. The brutal gang rape case of the 23 year old Indian girl Jyothi Singh Pandey on 16th December 1012, the brutal murder, mutilation and murder of the 17 year old girl Anene Booysen from South Africa have aroused a lot of protest from the public for the first time coming out to call for justice for these victims and security for girls and women generally to a greater extent than ever before. The present disputes on the age of Dafne, the Mexican girl who delivered a baby triggers issues of child abuse once again. It is not enough if one claims that her age is not nine but twelve. How does that make it any better when the facts remain the same that she has been abused by her stepfather or her mother is trying to protect her chances of being in school? The fact that a young girl has been forced to sexual acts at a tender age and with inappropriate relationships depriving her of her childhood and a life with better prospects needs to be questioned.
These inhuman and unjust incidents that occur in every part of the world, once again forces us to ask the question: Where is our humanity heading to in this 21st century in relation to women’s life? It is in such a context that ‘Mainstreaming Gender becomes important and all the more the realisation of ‘The Gender Agenda gaining Momentum’. Until we have a safe place for every child to enjoy its childhood with proper health acre, love and access to education leading them to a lived reality of a life where they feel that they are respected as a human being in relation to both their bodies as well as the special role that they play in all realms where they are being forced to remain at a lower place be it employment, wages or opportunities, there is no meaning in us affirming that we are gaining a momentum in relation to Gender Agenda.
The present context in many parts of the world that have been swirled into repeated economic crises, financial crunch – double dips and triple dips have put women in very difficult and marginalised situations. Amartya Sen, by contributing much to the academic disciplines of economics, philosophy has indeed contributed to the social & cultural fields too. By the mere fact that he has made the case for the poorest of the poor with plurality in cultural perspective, he has made it clear that women especially the poorer sections are the bottom line for advancing the cause of human development and wellbeing. According to UN statistics women constitute the majority of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor. They are paid on an average about 30 to 40 % less than men. When you look at employment in UK, it is indeed shocking to discover that the percentage of women in management level is only 22% when the total percentage of women in workforce is 72%! It is even worse reducing to 9.6% when it comes to executive posts.[1] All these definitely point to the need for mainstreaming Gender in general and definitely within our churches where the reality is far below that in the public sectors in many parts of the world.
Mainstreaming Gender with respect to Church’s Life and Witness
Mainstreaming Gender is an UNDP adopted strategy that aims at changing women’s situations that keep them at the margins in order to promote Gender equality. The term ‘Mainstreaming Gender’ gained currency from the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. Therefore it is important to remind ourselves once again as we celebrate this IWD on the theme, ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum’ that, ‘A mainstreaming strategy therefore emphasises systematic attention to gender equality issues in organization practices, policies and programmes with the goal of progress toward gender equality.”[2]
As members of various Christian communities and Churches, what is our role in mainstreaming Gender? How can we become actively engaged in promoting and mainstreaming Gender?
Making International Women’s Day meaningful for us today
In the history of the IWD, one of the most important landmarks that stand out for me is the call given by the teenager Clara Lemblich saying, “I am a working girl and one of those who are on strike against intolerable conditions. I am tires of listening to your speeches… I offer a resolution that a general strike be declared.”[3]
In the formation of the IWD for me is the call given by a young girl in a big crowd to voice their protest by calling for a strike! This young girl’s voice has rallied down the century and today the cry of the young girls like Jyothi, Anene and millions of others who are raped on account of unjust structures, policies, practises are held accountable and are called to engage actively, positively and practically in changing not just women’s lives but the lives of women and men around the world. How does this theme, ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum’ enable us to that?
The theme and its relevance
The theme chosen for this year’s IWD will be more apt I feel if it is put in the form of a question rather than an affirmation or a mere statement. While it is very important for us to tease this theme chosen to arrive at better informed decisions as to how we can make a progress, I wonder if we can do justice to it by going with it as a premise. Probably if we look at the Gender Agenda with a backdrop of where women were a century ago, definitely we can agree that the Gender Agenda has gained Momentum. However, if we cover just the last few decades, I wonder if we will be able to say the same.
The present context: Achievements and Challenges
The Science and the Engineering fields have come out with their statistics saying that except to the Biological and Medical sciences, women have been and are underrepresented. Even there the percentage of women is at or near 50%. When it comes to their membership in national academies in science it is only at or below 30% and in many countries less than 20%.[4] If the best percentage of women stands at 50% in one or two fields, and the rest are at such lower levels, I wonder what it will be when it trickles down to the Church and her witness! Although the Church proclaims that we are all created in God’s image which the non-negotiable and the core principle of our Christian faith, in practise the Church is far away from including women fully in its life, worship and witness. How do we address this situation?
The Gender of History & the History of Gender
It does not take a long time for us to look back at the history of the Church and the secular history to a great extent to see he History has been gendered. Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza has helped us to shape the world. In the last 50 years, we believe that Mary Dale walking out of the chapel gave birth to a new era and Elizabeth Fiorenza has uncovered issues of Theological equation and radical equality. She is a foundational thinker. ‘In memory of her’ solidified her influence. Her concept of the discipleship of equals helps us to review what we need to be as Christian communities.
When we read through the Bible, we know that the androcentric views in relation to women and their participation often becomes a barrier to promote women’s active participation. However, when we scrutinise the History of Gender, we do find many liberating acts where we find conscious efforts to include women, recognise their presence and contribution in the saving acts and liberation that God’s intervention in history has brought. The famous Biblical characters like Miriam, Deborah, Esther, daughters of Zelophehad to name a few, and Mary the Mother of God along with numerable others who worked with Jesus as well as Paul stand out as living witnesses for the Church to ask ‘What should be the just way forward?’ May be a review and starting to find reasons for lagging behind in making Gender Agenda to gain momentum would be see where we have failed.
Reasons for the Gender Agenda to remain in the back burners
- Unintentional biases: These include and project the built in biases against appointing, selecting or nominating women to positions where they can contribute.
- Outdated policies: These often may result out of the conviction to hold onto policies that are discriminating against women and unwillingness to change them. It can also operate at a level where the need for reforming policies to make it embrace those in the margins, are not seen as viable or possible options. It can also be due mere ignorance
- Absence of empowering structures: The conscious and dedicated efforts to have empowering structures are often absent be in in the fields of education, employment, economic, political or spiritual realms.
- Failure to put in place women friendly measures: From small measures such as taking into consideration the time of meeting,
- Failure to provide training to strengthen women’s participation: Women are pushed into places with more expectations to fulfil and least training opportunities to ensure that they are well equipped to perform their best adds to the problem of labelling women as misfits!
The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum?
Achieving ‘Momentum’ begins starts with creating forward progress. Once again going, going back to the young girls who have lost their lives becoming victims of gang rape recently in India and South Africa that have evoked such a huge response from the social, political as well as the spiritual spheres does reveal that the Theme, ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum’ can be seen as a reality today. If we are able to raise our voices for respect for the ‘body’ (inclusive of their minds, spirits) of women all over the world, that should unlock the silence of the past to address issues related to women and their rights as ‘Human rights issues’ and take it forward by putting it on top of our Agenda be it the Life and witness of the Church, within the closed doors of the family or home, the communities that we live in or the nations that we represent. Women need to be able to feel that they have a safe space in their homes, churches, work places and neighbourhood to experience fullness of life in Christ that we believe is for all.
Conclusion
As we celebrate IWD in our communities, be they the within the Church or beyond, may we try to locate where we are now in history and make deliberate attempts to start creating forward progress even if they are in very small ways. We need to have a clear strategy and pursue it. May the life of Jesus who upheld women at home, synagogues, public places stand out as living examples for the Church that is founded on Christ and his way of addressing life in order that we may all experience the fullness of Life. The Church in India is compelled to look at gender issues and empowerment of women if it has to stay tuned to uphold Christ and his Church, there is no other go. May all our discussions, deliberations and decisions bring glory to God as we become the followers of Jesus Christ, our Lord and liberator who has tread the world and set an ever living example for us to follow to extend God’s reign. Wishing all of you a very Happy and meaningful IWD 2013!
Elizabeth Joy
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Director – Meora World Mission
Deputy Secretary for Ecumenical Relations & Spiritual Organizations
UK region of the Diocese of UK, Europe & Africa
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Indian Orthodox Church)
Former Executive Secretary for Mission Education, CWM
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[3] Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle, Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996. pp 248-252
[4] http://www.ianas.org/index.php/programs/women-for-science
