Technology and Gender Women's Work in Asia
edited by Cecilia Ng,
published by Women's Studies Unit, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia and Malaysian Social Science Association, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
The impact of technological innovation on women's work is a phenomenon only recently studied and understood, particularly with reference to developing societies. This volume of theoretical essays and case studies on technological change and working women in Asia looks at the different consequences on women compared to men and attempts to highlight the gender differences and issues so that women can equally benefit from the fruits of development.
Peasant women in the Held, rural women workers in the handicrafts industry, female production operators in high-tech semiconductors assembly factories and part-time keying-in typists in the banking and finance sectors are some of the areas covered.
This book is a contribution to the critical questions surrounding technology, gender and development. This is especially so given the pivotal role women play in nation-building, and their participation is crucial if technology is to be relevant and appropriate to our lives and environment
The Invisible Adjustment: Poor Women and the Economic Crisis
published by UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
"From the beginning of the 1980s, the Latin American and Caribbean region has been experiencing possibly the most serious and wide-spread crisis in history. The restrictions imposed by the foreign debt and the adjustment policies introduced have resulted in a severe economic recession, which has plunged the most vulnerable social groups, and women and children in particular, into a dramatic situation.
"The economic crisis and the adjustment policies followed put a double burden on poor women: firstly, because they are poor - and secondly, as women - who are economically super- exploited. It would seem, in fact, that poor women represent the principal variable for the policies of adjustment to the present crisis, in the sense that through women it is possible to ensure the survival of at least that third of the population with the lowest incomes, by extracting huge amounts of labour which is not socially recognized. This involves increasing efforts at the level of social and cultural discourse to hide this relationship and to avoid any discussion of women's position.
UNICEF seeks, through this publication, to provide documentary evidence of the impact of the economic crisis and adjustment policies on poor women and to initiate a practical debate which will mobilize forces and transform the present crisis into an opportunity to integrate women into development." From the foreword by Teresa Albanez Barnola.
1989 Directory of Women's Media
available from Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 3306, Ross Place, N.W., Washington, DC20008, U.SA.
A 30-page section, "Women Working Toward a Radical Restructuring of the Communications System," is now a regular feature of the annual Directory of Women's Media in the 1989 edition, just released. The previous four-page section entitled "A Radical Feminist Analysis of Mass Media" has been expanded, now also providing a wealth of information, ideas and analysis.
In addition to this significant section, the Directory of Women's Media has grown in the number of entries, now 1,873. With 702 women's periodicals (the 1988 edition listed 603) worldwide, it is encouraging to see the increasing communication among women dealing with such a wide diversity of issues and concerns.
Following the periodical section, the Directory describes 111 women's presses and publishers, 11 women's news services, 7 radio/TV groups, 39 regular radio/TV programs, 31 art/graphics, 7 theater groups, 11 women sriters groups, 18 women speakers groups, 47 media organizations professional and media change, 93 women's bookstores and mail order, 86 special library collections on women, 32 selected directories and catalogues. And more!
As well as women's media groups, the Directory contains the listing of 518 women and media-concerned women. Each woman tells her particular interests and resources, providing helpful networking among all media women, whether in our own media or in mass media.
The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) has been publishing the Directory of Women's Media annually since 1975. Founded in 1972, WIFP is a non-profit, tax exempt research and publishing organization of women who are concerned with the expansion and restructuring of the communications system in order for media to be in the hands of all people, not just wealthy and predominantly male media owners.
Sultana's Dream and the Selections from The Secluded Ones
by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, edited and translated by Roushan Jahan, Afterword by Hanna Papanek, available from The Feminist Press, 311 East 94th Street, New York, NY 10128, U.S.A.
"Purdah" is a word we have been hearing more and more often lately, as a resurgence of Muslim fundamentalism seems to be occurring all over the world. What is purdah, exactly? A new book from the Feminist Press, Sultana's Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones, offers the reader a deep and insightful look at this little-understood institution that secludes women from all but their immediate families.
"In this book," as the Preface states, "we look at purdah-the seclusion of women through three pairs of eyes: those of an early 20th century Muslim writer who saw purdah from the inside and campaigned against it most of her life; those of a modern Bangladeshi literary scholar and feminist activist, and those of a modern North American feminist social scientist familiar with South Asia and purdah." These three perspectives together offer the reader a fascinating inside look at a set of customs that arc by definition mysterious to the outside world.
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was an upper-class Muslim woman born into purdah in 1880. Her story, Sultana's Dream, first published in 1905, is one of the earliest feminist Utopias written and published in English. Sultana's Dream is a remarkable fantasy that reverses the roles of men and women, so that the men are in purdah and the women are engaged in all public activities, including scientific research that has enabled them to create in a mythical place called Ladyland a perfect society without war or hunger. Skillfully crafted with great wit and a delightfully prophetic view of the future, Sultana's Dream is a pleasure to read. Moreover, it is amazing that Sultana's Dream was written a decade earlier than the much better known feminist Utopian novel Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and it is even more amazing that it was written by a woman who had herself been isolated in purdah.
The Secluded Ones is a collection of selected vignettes, published in the 1920s as newspaper stories in Bengali, describing Rokeya's contemporaries' experiences with purdah. These "reports," as she called them, vividly demonstrate the life-limiting, often life threatening and indeed life- sacrificing, aspects of purdah.
Accompanying the two works are biographical and literary essays by Bangladeshi scholar, translator, and feminist activist Roushan Jahan, who traces Rokeya Hossain's journey from seclusion in purdah to a productive pubUc life as an educator, journalist, and feminist activist until her death in 1932.
The Afterword by Hanna Papanek illuminates several key concepts, including purdah itself and the notion of family honor. Tying all the material in the book together, Papanek puts Rokeya's life and writings into a global perspective and explains their relevance for contemporary readers.
Women and Health: Cross Cultural Perspectives
by Patricia Whelehan and contributors, available from Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc., 670 Amherst Road, South Hadley, MA 01075, U.S.A.
This holistic and cross-cultural survey of women's health reveals some predominant and positive themes. The authors document the effects of varying economic, political, social, and cultural conditions on women's health throughout the world. They address a wide range of topics: from the sexual, reproductive, and gynecological, to issues such as stress from, and adaptation to, increased urbanization, changing work roles, and family structures. Within the diversity of perspectives some common themes emerge women's consistent and active concern for their health, their adaptability and flexibility in pursuing the coping strategies available within their culture, and their ability to deal with the disparities between traditional and Western medical practices.
Women Teaching for Change: Gender Class and Power
by Kathleen Weiler, introduction Henry A. Giroux and Paulo Freire, available from Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc., 670 Amherst Road, South Hadley, MA 01075, U.S.A.
Women Teaching for Change examines how feminist teachers' goals of "social change and the creation of a more just society" are thwarted by the attitudes of predominantly male administrators as well as the perceptions held by the students.
Weiler explores the fact that feminist teachers themselves "are shaped and limited by existing social structures, particularly those concerned with gender."
Challenging accepted critical educational and feminist theories, Weiler reveals the day-to-day struggles and achievements of feminist teachers who invite their students to become more conscious of the political and social forces that are shaping their lives.
Applying theory to practice. Women Teaching for Change explores the complexity of being a feminist teacher in a public school setting in which the forces of sexism, racism, and classism, which characterize society as a whole, are played out in multiracial multicultural classrooms.