Women Not Seen as Citizens of the World, Say Activists
By Judith Achieng’
COPENHAGEN (IPS) - Most African governments have failed to recognise their women as citizens, yet they continue to use women and girls as an attraction to global markets in the agricultural sector, export processing zones (EPZs) and in tourism, says one gender expert.
Southern African feminist Patricia McPhadden likens Africa's marginalisation of women to racism in the north.
"Like racism, gender discrimination and abuse is equally ideologically destructive," McPhadden told a recent conference on solidarity in social development in Cophenhagen.
"Most governments feel no responsibility for women as their citizens, but take every opportunity to exploit their labour," she said.
McPhadden said, women in Africa have had to live with deeply rooted patriarchal systems, which not only marginalises them in all aspects of development, but also abuses their individual rights such as education.
"We make references to the large number of African women who are poor but we do not link it to the consequences of exclusion, which are severe," McPhadden told some 200 delegates at the Solidarity 2000 conference last week.
The meeting, organised by the Danish Association for International Co-operation (MS) was a follow up to the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) held in Copenhagen in 1995.
Gender development and women empowerment was one of the 10 key commitments made by leaders at the Copenhagen summit. But little seems to have changed in the lives of women especially in the Third World where poverty has been worsened by global trade policies, which hurt the poor.
In the Caribbean, women are grappling with problems of globalisation. "We are told that any micro-entrepreneur can become a millionaire. The only access they need is the Internet. But where do we start from when we are still dealing with alphabets and simple counting?" asks Jeanne Henriquez, who heads the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA).
One negative impact of globalisation in the Caribbean, is the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) decision against European Union's preferential treatment of Caribbean banana imports. It has disadvantaged women who make up 70 percent of the banana producers in the 400 million US-dollar industry in 12 Caribbean countries.
"We need to de-power WTO and empower the organisations that respect social rights," says Henriquez.
In Africa, the lack of land ownership among African women according to McPhadden, also reflects the lack of credit and the new markets. "The market is the feature of the new century. If they don't own land and cannot get credit, how can they access the market," she says. "It is impossible for people who don't own property to access and exercise their rights.”
Their economic problems are worsened by state systems which consciously work to subvert the direct relationship between women and property, by pursuing policies which deny women land ownership, yet they are in the majority in farm labour. One example is Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who once retorted that women "should not get married if they want property" when confronted by a group of widows who had been thrown off their land by in-laws after their spouses' death.
"This is our culture and you have to accept it," he said.
Most African courts too, despite being based on national laws, often rule in favour of customary laws, which discriminate against women.
But marginalisation of women in key sectors of development is not only a Third World problem.
Women in Denmark, one of the world's richest countries also complain of marginalisation in the employment sector and in the decision-making process.
"Women's progress has nothing to do with economic structure of a country, but also male and female roles in society which tend to overburden women," says Lotte Grauballe, the Vice-Chairperson of MS.
Lennie Person of the Danish women association argues that although Danish policies are up-to-date on equal pay for equal work, the labour market still discriminates against women.
She says women, because of their reproductive role get unequal pension because of the days of absence at work, and compared to their male counterparts enjoy fewer privileges such as promotion at work.
"It doesn't make sense to insist on the contribution and pursue the interests of the strong," she says. "We had beautiful initiatives in Copenhagen, the sad fact is that women are 80 percent of the poor and suffer social and economic abuse.”
"We need to put our money where our mouth is," Grauballe told the delegates who attended a special gender session at the conference.
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Has the world lived up to its 1996 commitments..?
Solidarity 2000 starting 17th of June!
MS's big summer event Solidarity 2000 will start very soon now, with a week-long variety of debates and arrangements. The activities range from encounters between young people from Balkan, Africa and Central America to big conferences on the planet's social development and environment.
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The 1996 Copenhagen Social Summit final report in English, French and Spanish.