Publications

Teaching for a sustainable world: international edition

Griffith University and the Department of the Environment, Sport & Territories, 1997

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Module 17

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Workshop Outline
• Materials Required
• Further Reading
• Activities
• Resources

WOMEN, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Jane Williamson-Fien
Queensland University of Technology
Australia

INTRODUCTION

Women and men inhabit different environments and they use their environments in different ways. This workshop explores a range of women's environments. It addresses the various ways in which the processes of development have changed women's traditional environments while creating new female habitats. It also considers some of the strategies that women are using to protect and recover their environments. The workshop concludes with participants identifying a set of criteria that will promote sustainable development for women and their environments.

OBJECTIVES

As a result of completing this workshop, participants should be able to:

• identify a range of women's environments;
  
• evaluate the impacts of the processes of development on women's environments;
  
• appreciate the range of strategies that women have adopted to protect or recover their environments;
  
• empathise with women's concerns about their environments;
  
• identify a set of criteria necessary for the promotion of sustainable development for women and their environments; and
  
• identify opportunities for incorporating the issues and activities from the workshop in their teaching.

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

This workshop contains eight activities.

1. Personal Environments

In this warm-up activity, participants are asked to identify the nature and extent of their own environments.

2. Women's Domestic Environments

This activity explores women's domestic environments. It asks participants to consider how women's domestic environments might be improved.

3. Work Environments of Western Women

Statistical data are used in this activity to identify the types of work environments in which western women are to be found.

4. Women Farmers

This activity examines the endeavours of women farmers. Participants identify the factors that affect women farmers and the changes that are needed to improve their lives.

5. Women as Industrial and Service Workers in, and from, the South

This activity uses case studies of women workers both in and from the South. It examines the implications for these women of western-style development practices.

6. Women's Environmental Activism

Four case studies of women's environmental activism are used in this activity to consider the types of issues that women are concerned about and the range of strategies they are using to promote change.

7. Criteria for Sustainable Development

In this activity, participants develop a set of criteria which will promote sustainable development for women and their environments.

8. Curriculum Applications

Participants identify where the themes explored in this workshop can be incorporated into the syllabuses they teach and plan a lesson on one of the themes.

MATERIALS REQUIRED

A. Provided

Resources

Resource 1: Work Environments of Western Women and Men

Resource 2: Jane's Story

Resource 3: Mariama's Story

Resource 4: Sithembiso's Story

Resource 5: Jan's Story

Resource 6: Selina's Story

Resource 7: Noi's Story

Resource 8: Cathy's Story

Resource 9: The Chipko Movement

Resource 10: Kenya: Creating Islands of Green

Resource 11: Maria Cherkasova

Resource 12: Michiko Ishimure

B. To Obtain

Activity 2: Plans or diagrams of domestic environments are needed for this activity. Sometimes these can be found in building company advertisements in newspapers. Alternatively, participants could be provided with simple plans which are typical of the domestic dwellings or domestic compounds that are found in their communities. Participants will need to be supplied with large sheets of paper and coloured pencils for this activity.

Activity 3: Participants will need to be supplied with large sheets of paper and coloured pencils for this activity.

Activity 8: This activity requires a selection of relevant syllabuses and lesson plan headings.

ADDITIONAL READING

Afshar, H. (ed.) (1991) Women, Development and Survival in the Third World, Longman, London.

Braidotti, R., Charkiewicz, E., Hausler, S. and Wieringa S. (1994) Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development, Zed Press in association with INSTAW, London and New Jersey.

Dankelman, I. and Davidson, J. (1988) Women and the Environment in the Third World: Alliance for the Future, Earthscan Publications in association with IUCN, London.

Fuentes, A. and Ehrenreich, B. (1984) Women in the Global Factory, South End Press, Burton.

Manomiya (1984) Returned Volunteer Action, London. (A simulation/board game that explores the impact of a development project on a group African women farmers.)

MATRIX (1984) Making Space: Women and the Man-Made Environment, Pluto Press, London.

Matsui, Y. (1975) Protest and the Japanese Woman, Japan Quarterly, 22(1), 32-39.

Matsui, Y. (1987) Women's Asia, Zed Press, London.

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

New Internationalist (1986) Man-made Famine, New Internationalist, Oxford. (VHS video, 52 minutes with 6 page booklet.)

Ress, P. (1992) Women's Success in Environmental Management, Our Planet, 4(1), 16-18.

Rodda, A. (1991) Women and the Environment, Zed Press, London.

Seager, J. and Olson, A. (1986) Women in the World: An International Atlas, Pluto Press, London.

Seager, J. (1993) Earth Follies, Routledge, New York.

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

Shiva, V. (ed.) (1994) Close to Home - Women Reconnect Ecology, Health and Development, Earthscan, London.

Sontheimer, S. (ed.) (1991) Women and the Environment: A Reader, Earthscan Publications, London.

Timberlake, L. (1988) Only One Earth, BBC Books, London.

Weber, T. (1989) Hugging the Trees, Penguin, Harmondsworth.

United Nations (1991) The World's Women 1970-1990:Trends and Statistics, United Nations, New York.

Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women's Voices - Teaching Resources on Women and Development, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, Queensland, Australia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Resource 1 has been extracted from United Nations data on women (UN 1991).

Resource 2 (Jane's Story) comes from a radio interview with Jane Tassie by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The interview was subsequently published in J. Rigg and J. Copeland's book Coming Out (Nelson and the ABC, 1985).

Resource 3 (Mariama's Story) was first published in an article by S. Hobson entitled 'Bulldozed' (New Internationalist, January 1984).

Resource 4 (Sithembiso's Story) was extracted from an interview which Sithembiso did with students at Roseworthy Agricultural College, South Australia, in 1991. The interview was published as 'A Living from the Land' in Youthpower (Spring 1992).

Resource 8 (Cathy's Story) and Resource 12 (Michiko Ishimure) are based on information provided by Yayori Matsui. Cathy's Story comes from Matsui's (1987) Women's Asia ,while the details on Michiko Ishimure have been extracted from Matsui's (1975) article 'Protest and the Japanese Woman'.

Resource 9 (The Chipko Movement) comes from Weber (1989).

Resource 10 was originally published in Newsweek magazine (March 9, 1992).

Resource 11 (Maria Cherkasova) has been extracted from Ress (1992).

Finally, Resource 5 (Jan's Story), Resource 6 (Selina's Story) and Resource 7 (Noi's Story) were developed by the author for her text, Women's Voices (Williamson-Fien 1993).

ACTIVITIES

1. Personal Environments

This activity asks participants to identify the nature and extent of their own personal environments.

• Ask participants to work in pairs to discuss:
  - the extent to which they have access to personal physical space, e.g. personal sleeping space, personal recreation space, etc.;
  - the extent to which they have access to communal space and the range of activities they can undertake in that space;
  - whether there have been times in their lives when their access to particular physical spaces have been constrained; and
  - the nature of the factors that produced those constraints.
  
• Invite a number of the participants to share their observations with the rest of the group.
• Use the comments of participants to debrief from the activity ensuring that two sort of constraints associated with age, gender, class and race are debated.
  

2. Women's Domestic Environments

This activity explores domestic environments. Such environments might include: the domestic dwelling or dwellings, outhouses, sheds, etc., as well as any yards or gardens associated with the dwelling. In some instances, a domestic environment might be designated 'a domestic compound'. In other instances, a domestic environment might constitute a small apartment. These differences have implications for women and the tasks they undertake in the domestic sphere. The activity also asks participants to consider how women's domestic environments might be improved.

• Explain to participants that they are going to work in small groups to examine the nature of domestic environments in their community and consider what the construction of physical space might mean for women.
  
• Form groups of 3-4 participants. Give each group a set of floor plans or diagrams of domestic environments typical of their community.
  
• Ask the groups to consider:
  - the groupings of people that they would expect to live in these domestic spaces and the activities that such people might undertake in them;
  - the arrangement, size and placement of spaces traditionally associated with female labour in the domestic environment; and
  - whether the arrangement, size and placement of these spaces is appropriate for the tasks that women usually undertake.
  
• Invite each group to share its observations with everyone else.
  
• Provide each group with large sheets of paper and coloured pencils. Ask them to design a domestic environment that would be woman-friendly. This might involve making adjustments to the plans they have used above. It might involve redesigning the space completely.
  
• When thinking about this task, ask participants to consider:
  - the tasks that women currently do in the domestic environment and whether their redesigned spaces increase the workload of women. (For example, increasing the size of some spaces might also increase the amount of cleaning and general maintenance that women are expected to do.)
  - whether their redesigned spaces have undesirable effects on other environments. (For example, certain labour-saving devices might help to reduce the workload of women but might also have undesirable effects on the natural environment.)
  
• Invite the groups to share their designs with everyone else.
  
• Discuss with participants:
  - the extent to which a focus on improving the domestic environment for women tends to reinforce stereotypical notions of where women ought to be located and whether this is a concern for participants;
  - the extent to which women can control or change the nature of their domestic environments; and- the problems participants faced in producing women-friendly domestic environments which were sensitive to other environmental contexts.
  
• Note to facilitator: If participants have difficulty accepting the possibility that the creation of women-friendly domestic environments can be consistent with sensitivity to natural environments, point out to them that some of the case studies they will examine in Activity 6 should encourage them to reconsider their position.

3. Work Environments of Western Women

In this activity, participants utilise statistical data to identify the types of work environments in which western women are found.

• Distribute copies of Resource 1 to participants and ask them to examine it carefully.
  
• Explain to participants that they are going to work in small groups of 3-4 people and use Resource 1 to develop the main points of a newspaper article on the work environments of western women.
  
• Move participants into small groups. Ask them to discuss and decide upon:
  - a 'punchy' title for the article; and
  - the four main points they would want to develop in the article.
  
• Distribute large sheets of paper and coloured pencils to the groups. Ask each group to develop a simple poster which includes the group's proposed title and its four points.
  
• Invite each group to display its poster and explain to the rest of the participants the significance of its title and the four main points that have been identified as important.
  
• Discuss with participants:
  - the effectiveness of the titles in attracting attention, identifying the issues, etc;
  - the range of main points that were selected; and
  - the extent to which the selection of the main points indicated similarities and differences across the groups and what these similarities and differences might suggest about their perceptions of the work environments of western women.
  
• Discuss the following with participants if these issues have not arisen in the earlier displays and discussions:
  - the explanations that might be offered for the positioning of women in particular work environments;
  - the types of wages and conditions that women might experience in their paid work;
  - the connections between the unpaid work that women do and the nature of their work in other work environments;
  - whether participants found the data surprising and the reasons for any surprise; and
  - the extent to which statistics provide useful information on women's work environments.
  

4. Women Farmers

This activity examines the endeavours of women farmers. Participants identify the factors that affect women farmers and the changes that are needed to improve their lives.

• Indicate to participants that they are to work in pairs. Provide each pair with Jane's Story (Resource 2) and Mariama's Story (Resource 3) which they are to read.
  
• Ask participants to work in their pairs to compare and contrast:
  - the range of farming activities the two women undertake;
  - the problems they face as farmers; and
  - how those problems might be overcome.
  
  (Pairs could role play a conversation between the two women as a way of exploring these issues.

• Ask some of the pairs to share their responses with the whole group. Discuss the responses.
  
• Discuss with participants the factors that discourage the recognition of women as farmers and the extent to which these barriers are challengeable by individuals.
  
• Provide each pair of participants with Sithembiso's Story (Resource 4) and Jan's Story (Resource 5). Ask them to compare and contrast:
  - the concerns that Sithembiso and Jan have about women in rural areas;
  - the actions that Sithembiso and Jan have taken and the extent to which those actions have improved the situation for women farmers; and
  - their perspectives on what appropriate development might mean.
  
  (Role plays are possible here too.)
  

• Ask some of the pairs to share their responses with the whole group. Discuss the responses.
  
• Discuss with participants:
  - whether the actions taken by Sithembiso and Jan have any bearing on the problems faced by Jane and Mariama;
  - what the case studies suggest about the implications for women farmers of western-style development;
  - the range of changes that are needed to improve the position of women farmers; and
  - how these changes might be achieved.
  
  (Note to facilitator: A number of teaching resources exist which will allow participants to extend their appreciation of these issues. They include Manomiya, a simulation board game, and Man-Made Famine, a video. Further details are in the Additional Reading List.
  

5. Women as Industrial and Service Workers in, and from, the South

This activity uses case studies of women workers both in and from the South. It examines the implications for these women of western-style development practices.

• Explain to participants that they are going to work in groups, with each group examining a case study of a woman industrial or service worker from the South.
  
• Move participants into three groups. Provide the first group with copies of Resource 6, the second group with copies of Resource 7 and the third group with copies of Resource 8.
  
• Ask each group to appoint a spokesperson who will report on the group's findings.
  
• Ask the groups to consider:
  - how western-style development has changed the nature of the woman's life and work;
  - how the woman feels about the new environment in which she finds herself; and
  - whether the woman will find it easy to return to and fit into her old environment.
  
• Invite each spokesperson to:
  - outline the story of the woman that his/her group has investigated; and
  - describe the groups findings.
  
• Discuss with participants:
  - the other types of service and industrial work that women from the South might do;
  - whether women industrial and service workers in their community are confronted with similar working environments to those experienced by Selina, Noi and Cathy;
  - the range of work environments experienced by any migrant women to their community;
  - how women in other parts of the world might be affected by or benefit from the work of Selina, Noi and Cathy; and
  - how they would feel if confronted with the sort of changes to their lives that Selina, Noi and Cathy have faced.
  

6. Women's Environmental Activism

Four case studies of women's environmental activism are used in this activity to consider the type of issues that women are concerned about and the range of strategies they are using to promote change.

• Divide participants into four groups.
  
• Explain to participants that each group will be provided with a case study of female environmentalism. Each group will then examine and discuss its case study as preparation for the development and presentation of a short dramatic presentation based on its case study.
  
• Provide the first group with Resource 9, the second group with Resource 10, the third group with Resource 11 and the fourth group with Resource 12.
  
• Indicate to the groups that in thinking about their presentation they should consider:
  - the issues that concern the women or woman;
  - the types of strategies that the women or woman adopt to promote change; and
  - the extent to which those strategies prove successful.
  
• Ask each group to give its presentation.
  
• Discuss with participants:
  - the range of issues concerning the women in the case studies;
  - the range of strategies the women had taken;
  - the extent to which the women concerned have been able to achieve the changes they desired; and
  - what actions participants might want to take to support the women in the case studies.

7. Criteria for Sustainable Development

In this activity, participants develop a set of criteria which will promote sustainable development for women and their environments.

• Explain to participants that in this activity they are going to identify ten criteria which, if followed, would provide the basis of sustainable development for women and their environments. The ten criteria will form a code which can be presented to a range of individuals and groups.
  
• Discuss with participants the nature of sustainable development.
  
• Note to facilitators: It might be useful to introduce participants to the definition developed by the World Commission on Environment and Development. It said that:
  
  Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
  
  
• Discuss with participants what a definition of sustainable development for women might look like. Ask participants whether the World Commission's definition is useful in this context. In considering this question refer participants back to some of the issues they have already considered, including:
  - the nature of women's domestic environments and how these might be improved;
  - the nature of women's work environments and the range of demands placed upon them;
  - the impacts of western-style development on women; and
  - the issues that have concerned some women activists and the strategies they have adopted to address these issues.
  
• As a whole group identify a working definition of sustainable development for women.
  
• Note to facilitators: If participants feel that a universal definition cannot be applied to the circumstances of all women, then ask them to identify a working definition that holds good for the women of their own community.
  
• Ask participants to work in pairs to reflect on earlier activities in order to identify three criteria which will promote sustainable development for women and their environments.
  
• Invite pairs to indicate their three criteria and use the blackboard to list all the possible criteria.
  
• Explain to participants that the maximum number of criteria needed is ten.
  
• Discuss with participants which ten criteria they would all be happy with. In deciding on a final set of criteria remind participants of the working definition they constructed of sustainable development.
  
• When participants have agreed on ten criteria, invite suggestions from participants about which individuals and groups should receive copies of their new ten criteria code.
  
• Discuss with participants how they will follow through and deliver the ten criteria to those individuals and groups that have been identified.
  

8. Curriculum Applications

In this activity, participants identify where the themes explored in this workshop can be incorporated into the syllabuses they teach, and then plan a lesson on one of the themes appropriate to a subject and class they teach.

A. A Place in the Syllabus

Participants may require copies of relevant syllabus documents for this activity.

• Work in pairs to identify (i) a subject or syllabus, (ii) a year or grade level, and (iii) a syllabus topic where the following seven themes covered in this workshop could be taught:
  - Personal environments
  - Women's domestic environments
  - Work environments of western women
  - Women farmers
  - Women industrial and service workers in, and from, the South
  - Women's environmental activism
  - Criteria for sustainable development
  
• Note to facilitators: This activity need not be cross-curricular but could be done for a single school subject or syllabus with participants asked to identify (i) the year or grade level, and (ii) the syllabus topic, only.
  

B. Lesson Planning

• Ask each participant to identify one of the seven activities in this workshop around which they can plan a lesson which is suitable for a subject/class they teach. Assure participants that they may adapt the activities where appropriate. Provide participants with a range of suitable lesson plan headings, for example:
  - Subject and grade level
  - Lesson topic
  - Place in syllabus
  - Lesson overview
  - Key idea(s) to be taught
  - Objectives
  - Resources
  - Lesson introduction
  - Steps in the lesson
  - Lesson conclusion
  - Lesson timing
  - Self-evaluation strategy.

Resource 1

Work Environments of Western Women and Men

Source: Extracted from United Nations (1991) The World's Women 1970-1990: Trends and Statistics, UN, New York, pp. 102-104.

A. Indicators of Time Use: Distribution Between Women and Men of Unpaid Housework (% Share of Women and Men)

			Preparing Meals		Child Care		Shopping		Other Housework		Total
		Year*	W (%)	M (%)	W (%)	M (%)	W (%)	M (%)	W (%)	M (%)	W (%)	M (%)
Australia		1987	76	24	78	22	60	40	53	47	68	32
Belgium		1966	94	6	81	19	76	24	83	17	85	15
Canada		1971 1981 1986	87 74 81	13 26 19	80 75 76	20 25 24	58 61 58	42 39 42	78 66 67	22 34 33	77 69 68	23 31 32
Finland		1979	82	18	77	23	57	43	54	46	69	31
France		1965	87	13	85	15	70	30	76	24	79	21
Netherlands		1975 1980	83 80	17 20	77 79	23 21	65 63	35 37	84 86	16 24	79 79	21 21
Norway		1972 1981	89 81	11 19	79 70	21 30	67 57	33 43	86 82	14 18	84 76	16 24
United Kingdom		1961 1975 1984	90 89 74	10 11 26	86 81 76	14 19 24	79 69 60	21 31 40	89 87 76	11 13 24	88 84 72	12 16 28
United States		1965 1975 1986	90 87 78	10 13 22	82 77 73	18 23 28	66 62 60	34 38 40	78 68 61	22 31 39	79 75 64	21 25 36
West Germany		1965	94	6	84	16	75	25	74	26	80	20

* The most up-to-date information available

 

B. Indicators of Women's Economic Activity

		Economically Active Population Aged 15 Years and Over									Occupational Groups (1980s)
		Women economically active (000s)		Economic Activity Rate (%)				Av. Annual Growth % 1970-1990		W as % of total	Managers	Cleri-cal, sales	Fac-tory
		1970	1990	1970	1990	1970	1990	F	M	1990	Women per 100 men
Australia		1666	3037	37	46	82	77	3.0	1.5	38	42	138	28
Belgium		1100	1400	29	33	71	70	1.2	0.5	34	15	102	16
Canada		2808	5313	37	49	79	78	3.2	1.6	40	54	178	17
Finland		960	1200	53	57	75	70	1.1	0.4	37	20	140	18
Netherlands		1235	1900	26	31	74	71	2.2	1.0	31	14	127	9
Norway		472	875	32	50	79	75	3.1	0.5	41	28	252	18
United Kingdom		9077	10724	41	46	82	77	0.8	0.2	39	29	225	18
United States		31727	50531	42	50	78	77	2.4	1.3	41	61	183	23
West Germany		9704	10915	39	41	79	75	0.6	0.4	37	20	140	18

Resource 2

Jane's Story

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women's Voices, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp.34-35.

Jane was a farmer. She worked a farm with her husband in South Australia. In 1985, she made the following comments on a radio program:

(Jane has now left the land to work in women's health in Adelaide.)

Resource 3

Mariama's Story

Source: Hobson, S. (1984) Bulldozed, New Internationalist, January, pp. 21-22.

Mariama is a farmer and until recently she farmed her own rice land in Gambia (West Africa).

Mariama notes:

The rice fields provide the women of Gambia with both food and cash. They grow most of the country's rice, as independent farmers, and this has provided them with considerable control over their own lives while allowing them to fulfil their fundamental marital obligation - to produce food for their families.

To the women of Gambia, their rice fields are their domain. For generations, they have worked them without the assistance of the men. Nevertheless, the productivity of the women's fields has always been hampered by lack of technical support, facilities and credit. Last year women farmers received less than one per cent of government credit; the bulk went to male farmers for their seed, fertiliser and machinery. In the last eight years more than thirty times the money has been spent on developing irrigated land to the advantage of men, with relative small returns in rice; while women's traditional rice cultivation, which produces most of the country's rice, has been mainly ignored.

Mariama knows about the impact of such things:

Recently, the livelihood of Mariama, and thousands of other women in the Kerewan Samba Sira area, has been threatened by a major development project designed to make Gambia more self-sufficient in rice.

Compensation has still not been paid to the 13 women farmers, 9 months after they lost their harvest and in June, hundreds of women farmers were ordered not to grow rice during the rainy season - rice they needed to feed their families. Food aid was to be provided, but the women doubted when it would come and to whom it would go. For months they lived in a state of anxiety until sacks of rice were distributed.

It is the women's rice land that has been acquired tor the new development scheme. Apparently the village headman leased their land, along with unused village swamp land for 50 years to the government. The women were not consulted, despite their traditional rights over the land, and they have no guarantee of its return.

The project document declares that 'the rights of women to use of land will be respected in land distribution deriving from the project'. But Mariama is sceptical.

At 33, Mariama is a leading force among the women of her village. President of the Women's Society and organiser for the Young Farmers' Club, she helps to rally men and women farmers to work as a cooperative, to produce more food and to save money. Yet she is also a woman, the second of her husband's wives, the mother of seven children, three of whom have died. Her life is bound by domestic duties, her fertility and acceptance of the status quo.

As a woman, she is expected to weed and transplant. The Project recognises that much of its success depends on the labour of women. But will women be given the opportunity to have their own plots and work as independent farmers?

Mariama is only semi-literate, but she recognises that such a situation makes her dependent on what work the Project has to offer and what its managers are prepared to give her.

Resource 4

Sithembiso's Story

Source: A Living from the Land, Youthpower, No. 14, Spring 1992, pp. 5-7.

Sithembiso 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 (O.R.A.P). O.R.A.P. has over 700 groups affiliated with it and is the largest grass roots non- government organisation in Southern Africa.

Sithembiso says:

Resource 5

Jan's Story

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women's Voices, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp. 32-33.

Jan is a grazier. She owns and runs, with husband Michael, a 2270 hectare property, The Overflow, just south of Brisbane, Australia. Jan has always been connected with the land and with the grazing industry in particular. She grew up on her parent's central Queensland cattle property and, following a private school education in Brisbane, she returned to the land, working on a number of Queensland properties with her husband before they took over the Joyce family farm, The Overflow, in 1968.

In March 1992, Jan was elected President of the South East Queensland Branch of the United Graziers Association. This organisation is the direct descendent of the Darling Downs Pastoralists' Association, formed to counter the shearers in the 1890s. Until Jan's election, it had never had a women leader. At the time of her elevation to the presidency, Jan said:

One year after her election, Jan acknowledges that she has 'worked harder than most to justify it' but she admits that this typically occurs when women achieve positions of power in male-oriented organisations.

Jan would like to see women having a higher profile in farmer organisations. She says:

The main reason for this lack of encouragement, Jan believes, is that men feel threatened or afraid when women start to become active. 'It's a male ego thing' she says. In the past, she points out, some producer associations discouraged women from attending their branch meetings and they organised separate programmes for women at their conferences, so that the women 'had no input into discussions'.

Things are changing, however, there are now a number of women like Jan in elected positions in other producers' organisations. But substantial barriers remain to women's participation in agricultural politics, not the least of which is the lack of time busy women farmers have to devote to additional activities.

Ironically, while Jan acknowledges that the rural recession has had a dreadful impact on families in the bush, she believes that it has proved to he a 'watershed for women'. With men leaving the land in search of additional work, the women left behind are 'taking on roles they have not done before; they are being forced to make decisions and become more independent'. Jan hopes that this new confidence and visibility will encourage more rural women to have their say in primary industry organisations.

Apart from insisting that women should be appropriately represented in producers' associations, Jan believes that women's experiences and insights can offer 'new perspectives on many issues'. Such perspectives will enable the associations to keep abreast of the concerns of the wider community, she argues. This seems clear in Jan's own case. For example, her busy schedule as, housewife, grazier and industry leader has enabled her to empathise with other busy women who are looking for ways to reduce their work loads and simplify their chores. One aspect of this, which Jan is quick to point out, is the desire for convenience foods. She notes:

Jan's concerns about producing for changing market requirements, along with a keen interest in animal welfare and a desire to promote unity across producer groups occupy a lot of her time and energy. In addition, she is acutely aware of the need to avoid what she calls 'development without progress', by which she means the application of new ideas, or new technologies, which do little to improve the final outcome, or the final product, but which might actually make the situation worse than it was before. The active involvement of more women in agricultural politics might help to ensure that this sort of development does not occur.

Resource 6

Selina's Story

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women's Voices, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp. 62-63.

Selina is a twenty year old Malaysian women. Like many women of her age and background, Selina left her rural home to find factory work in one of Malaysia's export processing zones. Selina is employed by a U.S. owned electronics firm which manufactures and tests silicon micro-chips in a factory in Penang.

The Malaysian Government has promoted an export-oriented, manufacturing sector as the means to achieve economic growth. Export processing zones, or free trade zones, were established by the government to promote this form of development. In these zones, foreign companies are provided with infrastructure services and land for factories. The main attractions for foreign investors, however, are tax incentives, e.g. tax holidays, and the availability of a cheap, non-unionised female labour force. Selina became one of the workers in this system.

Selina says:

(Adapted from: Grossman, R. (1985) Miss Micro, New Internationalist, No. 150, August, pp.12-13; Matsui, Y. (1987) Women's Asia, Zed Press, London, p. 33-40; Sunam, Hard Labour, Australia Asia Workers Links, Melbourne, 1992, p. 30.)

Resource 7

Noi's Story

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women's Voices, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp. 56-57.

Noi is Thai. She comes from a poor province in northern Thailand but currently she is working in one of the Bangkok bars that 'service' foreign male tourists.

Noi says:

(Adapted from Lenze, I. (1978) Tourism Prostitution in Asia, Isis, No. 13, 6-7; O'Grady, R. (1981) Third World Stopover, World Council of Churches, Geneva; The Time Bomb of AIDS in Thailand, Background Briefing (Summer Season), A.B.C. Radio National, Jan. 10, 1993.)

Resource 8

Cathy's Story

Source: Williamson-Fien, J. (1993) Women's Voices, Global Learning Centre, Windsor, pp. 20-21.

In one of the wealthiest residential areas on the east coast of Singapore, a thirty-two-year-old Filipino named Cathy works as a maid. She is a short, brown-skinned woman wearing a T-shirt and jeans. In the quiet late afternoon she sits on the veranda 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 a 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 come 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 because the Philippines is full of unemployed people. 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 and 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 women who had migrated to Saudi Arabia 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. Her employer was Chinese. She was unable to communicate with the family and was badly mistreated. Eventually she ran away but, because she had failed to fulfil 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 Singapore $300 and $50 allowance each month (approximately $A320) which is the average pay for domestic helpers here. Sunday is her day off.

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.

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.

Cathy weeps, but she adds:

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. More than 7,000-8,000 Filipinos, like Cathy, are working as domestics in Singapore. In 1988, more than 30,000 Filipino women were working as maids in Hong Kong.

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

Resource 9

The Chipko Movement

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

India'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. Commercial logging in the Garhwel 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). In 1974, hundreds of women from the Chamoli District in Uttar Pradesh 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 reprieved. 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!'

Resource 10

Kenya: Creating Islands of Green

Source: Newsweek, March 9, 1992.*

When Sophia Kiarie moved from Kenya's forested highlands to the arid community of Ruiru 20 years ago, she was immediately struck by the lack of greenery. She looked out over the parched sisal fields and wondered where she could possibly find enough firewood for her family, including her husband and 11 children. So she began studying informally, asking Kenya foresters their advice and carefully observing the life cycles of different trees. 'Some died of drought', she recalls, poking a finger into the soft Kenyan soil. 'Others died when the hard rains came.'

Though she never took a class in forestry or botany, Kiaire, 41, learned quickly. 'I have a degree in understanding the problems of my area', she says with a knowing smile. She became a local field officer for the Geneva-based Bellerive Foundation, a non-profit organisation that focuses on environmental issues. That woke her up to the dangers of land degradation around Ruiru, about 20 kilometers north of Nairobi. Soon she opened a tree nursery, which has so far distributed more than 500,000 seedlings to schools, hospitals and individual farmers. In addition, Kiarie has led a successful campaign to conserve trees by promoting an energy efficient, low-cost stove designed by engineers from the Bellerive Foundation. The stove, which burns far less wood than the traditional stone-bordered fire, has become a local hit; more than 2,000 Kenyan families and 600 institutions now use one. 'I can convince people because I am a beneficiary of the product', says Kiarie. 'It's easier to convince people when they can identify with you.'

Kiarie is not just a local hero. Last November she was invited to Miami to attend the United Nations-sponsored Global Assembly on Women and the Environment, where she spoke about her crusade to establish scores of 'green islands' - plots of trees - around government institutions. Kiarie believes women are the key to a healthier future for Kenya and hopes to get more of them involved in her reforestation projects. 'Women know how to nurse', she says, gently tucking a tiny sprout into the earth. 'They have caring hands.'

* From Newsweek, March, 1992. © 1992 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Resource 11

Maria Cherkasova

Source: Ress, P. (1992) Women's Success in Environmental Management, Our Planet, 4(1), 16-17.

In the Soviet Union, in 1986, the Ministry of Energy and local authorities decided to build a huge, 200 metre high electric dam on the Katrun River in the Altai 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, militant 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. Construction on the dam has been halted - at least for the moment.

Other consequences of the campaign are just as important. It raised nationwide Soviet consciousness about environmental issues, 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 Cherkosova's leadership. The Union established contacts with international organisations and has gone on to lead a wide range of successful environmental campaigns and activities.

Resource 12

Michiko Ishimure

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

Towards 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.

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