Print Media

Asia and the Pacific

Empowering Women Workers: The W.W.F. experiment in Indian Cities

by Nandini Azad, Working Women's Forum, 55, Bheemasena Garden Road, Mylapore, Madras 600 004, India

An extremely in-depth description of the lives of women who belong to the lowest categories of workers (nay, existers) in India. Imposing an analytic and descriptive system on the ingredients of these lives, the writer succeeds in bringing into focus some of the most pathetic modes of existance in the world. The women described, petty hawkers, washerwomen, leaf-plate makers, are only one step away from starvation. What holds body and soul together is grinding and unrecognised labour.

Referred to in the introduction as members of the 'informal sector', the subjects of this study come through in the body of the text rather as victims of the formal sector. The first question which arises out of any perusal of this volume is: how can this exploitation of these women be allowed to exist? The author partially explains in the introduction:

"The informal labour sector has long been viewed as a transitory phase in the economies of developing nations. Theoretical analysts tend to explain the existence of the sector as involuntary and caused by high rates of natural demographic increases that have placed constraints on the occupational structure of the city, combined with rural/urban migration. Yet others explain it as evolutionary, i.e. the progress in occupational formation has led to sectoral lags in the rates of labour absorption in industry..." etc etc

What comes clear throughout the main body of the text, however, is that the existence of this sector is due to official neglect and to the fact that these women, belonging to the lowest castes, uneducated, unrepresented and helpless, perform vital functions for the rest of the society.

The work of the Working Women's Forum in trying to alleviate the distress of these 23,000 people is laudatory. The book they present makes it very obvious that this need should not continue to exist.

Women at Work in India: A Bibliography

Compiled by Suchitra Anant, Ramini Rao and Kabita Kapoor Sage Publications, 1986, M-32 Greater Kailash Market 1 New Delhi 110 048, India

This bibliography brings together material, whether published or not, concerning the condition of working women in India.

Women, especially those belonging to the poorer sections of Indian society, are central both to the social and economic aspirations of the country. Their contribution in the areas of agriculture, industry and services is critical but, alas, little understood. Indeed, the failure of India's planners to take cognisance of the contribution of women in these crucial sectors is one of the major reasons for the shortfalls in the country's economic growth.

This bibliography includes doctoral theses, journal articles, books and discussion and seminar papers produced during the post- independence period. It documents literature on such dynamic and developing fields of research as time allocation, value of household work, and female-headed households. This bibliography will serve as a reference tool for all those who are concerned with studying India's economy and society and the woman's role therein. It will assist in identifying future areas of research while avoiding duplication of effort.

Invisible Workers: Piecework labour amongst women in Lahore

by Farida Shaheed and Khawar Mumtaz Published by the Women's Division of the Government of Pakistan, Islamabad

National statistics in Pakistan indicate negligible participation of women in the organised sector of the labour force. Many more women, however, are found working on piece rate in the unorganised sector. These are invisible workers. They are neither included nor recognised in the national surveys or censuses. This study intends to explore various types of unorganises piece work done by women in urban areas to determine the effects of such work done and the value of the finished products. As an in-depth case study of a selected low income neighbourhood of Lahore, approximately 300 households are studied. This study, though based on a limited sample is one of the initial studies on the piece rate workers suggesting the need for a national survey.

Women in Moslem Paradise

by Fatima Mernissi, 1986, Kali for Women, N 84 Panchishila Park New Delhi 110017, India.

This publication has the deceptive appearance of a coffee table book of Islamic orientation. Short, printed on expensively-heavy paper, with large type and full-page illustrations done in the style of medieval Islamic art, it is ideal as a gift.

But, like the Trojan horse, the contents of this gift book entirely belie its seeming intention. Using a gently-probing wit, Fatima Mernissi undermines the Moslem conception of Male-female relations by enquiring into the scriptural definition of the Moslem heaven.

In the Koran, she discloses, the passages which describe paradise state that there, as a reward for a good life, a true believer (male) is entitled to spend eternity being pleasured by beautiful virgins, called Houris.

An interesting precept. But it was when the Imams of the moslem community went on to interpret the texts that the real fun started. The first commentary on the Koran suggested that every true believer should have not just one, but two houris for his private and peaceful enjoyment. But then a second wise commentator found that this was not sufficient. He adjusted the number to 73. He was followed by others who were even more generous. In the end, we have a distinguished spiritual leader who settled on 490,000 beautiful women for each male!

The cumulative effect of this delineation is devastating. The questions which it raises about the nature of male-created religious systems are indeed difficult to answer. A book that should certainly be taken into consideration by Moslems and other religious people.

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Women in French-speaking Africa: An Annotated Bibliography of French-Language Materials

by Margo De Ley, 1985, available from the Office of Women in International Development, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, 318 Cable Hall, 801 south Wright Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA.

This bibliography is aimed at university students. It is a compilation of recent studies which examine issues related to women in the development process. It therefore focuses on: Women's roles and status; Women in Development; Women in the Economy; Women and education; Women in national and international migration.

Women in Egyptian Public Life

by Earl L. Sullivan, Syracuse University Press, 1986. Syracuse, New York 13210, USA.

In Egypt, as in other Islamic societies, religious tradition has defined the social roles which females are expected to perform. Since the 1920s, however, active and articulate Egyptian women have sought wider possibilities. Today women increasingly play legitimate and influential parts in Egyptian public life -in the professions and the arts, in business, in education and in politics.

This new book, focuses on 74 active participants in four sectors of Egyptian society: women who are delegates to the Majlis al- Shaab and Majlis al-Shura, the two national houses of Parliament; women involved in the exciting and uncertain world of the political opposition; the elite among business entreprenuers; and a unique group of three women, the wives of Egypt's three recent presidents; Suzanne Mubarak, Jihan Sadat and Tahia Nasser.

Based on in-depth interviews, the book explores the personal experiences of these three actors in non-traditional spheres to see how education, family networks, social and economic status, and personal qualities have contributed to their success. The three presidential wives discuss their own contributions, and those of their husbands, to the national dialogue on the opportunities and roles available to women.

CANADA AND THE USA

Women's Work and Chicano Families: Cannery Workers of the Santa Clara Valley

by Patricia Zavella, Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850. Price $12.05

Mexican-american women are entering the labour force in increasing numbers, yet little research has dealt with the relationship between their wage labour and their household labour. Drawing on revisionist social theories relating to Chicano family structure as well as on feminist theory, Patricia Zavella paints a compelling picture of the Chicano women who work in northern California's fruit and vegetable canneries. Her book combines social history, shop floor ethnography, and in-depth interview techniques to explore the linkages between Chicano family life and gender inequality in the labour market.

Zavella tells of the growth and eventual decline of canning in the Santa Clara Valley, showing how the mechanisation and unionization by the Teamsters Union contributed to the segregation of women, especially of Chicanas, into seasonal "women's" jobs. From interviews she constructs 'actor-oriented' descriptions -informants' versions of their experiences, conveyed in their own words, which reveal their underlying motives and goals as they take on work in addition to family responsibilities. She discusses cannery work culture, describing how women who must undertake fragmented, difficult work are still able to develop meaningful social relationships with co-workers. When Chicanas enter the labour force, she demonstrates, the possibilities of equality within the family clash with traditional gender ideology. She concludes that although Chicano women have exercised more control over their families, the rigidy of the cannary labour market has tended to support and reinforce traditional family roles.

This Is About Incest

by Margaret Randall, Firebrand Books 1987, Ithaca New York 14850.

...."incest seems ignorant of class, race, or social status. Recent studies show that 80 percent of children are victimised by an adult they know and trust. And it is overwhelmingly a male crime. In one serious study of incestuous abuse cases, 97 percent of the offenders were adult males and 87 percent of the child victims were females..."

If these statistics are correct, then there is a great need for works which discuss treatment strategies. Margaret Randall presents one such, but it is a somewhat oblique presentation. Using memory, photography and writing, she attempts to come to terms with the disturbing secret of her childhood, the sexual abuse by her grandfather.

Born in seemingly ideal family setting, the writer grew up with certain personality disorders: a fear of mushrooms and a tendency towards compulsive overeating. In trying to come to terms with these problems, she stumbles into the horror of her early childhood memories of rape. Slowly, painstakingly, she begins to put the pieces of her past together, to confront the formerly- avoided experiences, and to finally free herself from the unreasoning fears and compulsions that had bound her.

There is a stream of consciousness air about the work that gives it a haunting immediacy. After a first reading it is difficult to weigh the usefulness of this book as a pattern for self-therapy. But the experience of being let into such a delicate process of personal destruction and re-construction is deeply moving.

The reflections about society, sexuality, language and meaning add another dimension to the exposition of the voyage of discovery.

LET US MOVE ON

"... The poet who knows that beautiful language can lie, that the oppressor's language sometimes sounds beautiful..."

Adrienne Rich

Having found the event
I looked for the man.
Having discovered the man
I needed the meaning.

It was my grandfather
who abused me
(rape, Margaret, use the word rape).
Angry and relieved, deeply sad
but finally in control,
linking the pieces, I am
filled with questions.

How must I read the birthday note
penned in such style:
"December 6th, 1938.
This is for my little sweetheart Margaret
who has set back the clock
for her 'Grandpa'"?

On December 6th, 1938
I was two years old.
Your hands had already begun
to cripple my vision
spiralling to find you out.
Yet the words are sweet and shine.
Each a many-sided stone
cut to multiplicity of sign
and memory.

I did not set back your clock (and what
does that mean?)
You set back your clock
using your hands
your tongue your penis and my trust.
Your obsession, my availability.
Your time, safety, authority.
My gender, size, vulnerability.

I will not say again
I sat on his lap. No.
He had me on his lap.
You were not raped: he raped you.

Memory moves as it can, freedom is yours
to place the verb.
And yes, the oppressor's language a
sometimes sounds beautiful,
always dies hard.
Let us move on.

from: This is Incest
by Margaret Randall

Lives of Fruit Vendors in India

"Morning, evening and at night, the fruit vendor faces the risk of police harassment. Some policemen accept bribes and others seek 'cases' and book vendors. Andal, a deserted vendor describes an interesting episode thus:

'One day as I had wares worth Rs 800, the police raided our market. As I saw the Inspector, I ran into an Iyer's (Brahmin) house. The Inspector confiscated my wares and then proceeded to my hiding spot and hit me on the head. I fell down. I approached a local politician I knew. Four of us organised a signature campaign in two days and took about 50 fruit vendors to the Police Commissioner's Office. For two days, our wares/carts lay in the lock-up alongside with fruit vendors, i.e., both men and women. I was called by the Commissioner's. He was a humane man and heard my story. I cried a lot before him. He telephoned the Inspector and said - you can't create a loss in their business by locking their fruit up and spoiling it. You have a right to merely book the case. Within a week, the sub-inspector was transferred. Afterwards, most of the other policemen behaved properly with us...

"Now we have experience in hiding ourselves from the police. When they arrive, we smell them at a distance. We know they all book us in 'the shop case' and fine us Rs 8, 23 or 25. Then we have to engage a lawyer for Rs 5. The earlier system was to provide policemen with 50 paise per cart and three times a day policemen changed duty. Now, we have less trouble. Perhaps they have to visit many markets! After all, each locality has a market. Whether it is an Iyer, Harijan or Muslim, as soon as we see a policeman, we send signals to each other. All of us are business women and compete, yet we unite as soon as we hear traffic police or see their white uniforms....'"

from: Empowering Women Workers: The W.W. F. Experiment in Indian Cities by Nandini Azad

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Garment Workers in Jamaica

A report by Leith L. Dunn for the Joint Trade Unions Research Development Centre, sponsored by CUSO 14 south Ave, PO Box 326, Kingston 10, Jamaica.

The position of women vis-a-vis multinationals operating in Asia and the Pacific is well documented. Assembly line production exploits the desperate status of women, who are willing to work long hours on tedious, repetitive jobs for the most meagre wages.

Here is a document which demonstrates how exactly the same process is underway in the Caribbean. It analyses the position of women in the Jamaican Free Trade Zones, where multinationals are given favourable conditions in order to attract foreign capital to "invest" in this part of the world.

Drawing on traditional methodologies, existing literature, interviews, statistics, newspaper clippings etc, the report also uses participatory drama techniques to elicit information from the victims of this system of production. The women's theatre collective, Sistren, is engaged in a series of workshops with the garment workers in order to help them recognise and analyse their situation and explore strategies for confronting and changing it.

INTERNATIONAL

The Women's Watch

Published by the International Women's Rights Action Watch, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 301 19th Ave. South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.

A cyclostyled newsletter of great potential value. This publication is dedicated to reporting on law and policy change affecting the status of women worldwide and on efforts to implement the principles articulated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

IWRAW - the International Women's Rights Action Watch - grew out of a series of workshops on the Convention at the 1985 Nairobi world conference on women. Organised jointly by the Development Law and Policy Program at Columbia University and the Women, Public Policy and Development Project, Humphry Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, IWRAW's objective is to facilitate and monitor law and policy reform according to the principles articulated in the convention.

Women & Computing Newsletter

Published by Microsyster, Wesley House, 4 Wild Court, off Kingsway, London WC2B 5AU, UK.

An essential aid for women who do not want to get left behind i n the race for the 'new technology'. This publication uses simple, but not condescending, language to let the computer- illiterate into the mysteries of such concepts as 'megabytes' MS DOS, etc., etc.

It reviews new equipment, announces training opportunities, analyses health risks associated with computers, publishes book reviews and generally helps remove the mental blocks that might inhibit many women from grasping new technology.

The clarity and accessibility of its presentation is truly remarkable; it should prove to be a treasure of a new publication.

Audio-Visual Resources

The following six films are available  from:

The Development Education Centre
229 College street
Toronto, Ontario Canada M5T 1R4

Maids and Madams

Video, Colour, 2 mins. Produced by Mira Hamermesh. Available in VHS.

The hand that rocks the cradle... In South Africa many white children are brought up by black South African women who transfer to them the love they would otherwise have devoted to their own children.

Mira Hamermesh's film examines closely the painful relations between black maids and white madams in South Africa today. And since more than one million black women work as maids in white homes the largest source of employment after agricultural work - this is a significant issue.

This film shows the vivid contrast between the luxurious homes of the rich whites and the grinding poverty of the homelands - battered shacks and huts in a desolate wasteland with 18 people living in four rooms.

It also examines the living conditions for the maids. Six square metres of space often with no ceiling. The maids shop for their white employers in supermarkets overflowing with food. But their families in the townships have a meagre diet.

It describes the work of the South African Domestic Workers Association, a growing group run by black women themselves.

You Have Struck a Rock

16 mm film, colour, 30 min. Produced by Deborah May.

"You have touched a woman. You have struck a rock. You will be crushed!" Angry words. Fighting words. Words sung with resolve by South African women in the fifties.

This film documents women's resistance to the "pass" laws in South Africa, focusing particularly on the anti-pass campaigns of 1955 and 1956. The apartheid government first tried to force women to carry passes in 1913. Passes. Bits of paper. Bits of paper that say where you can go, when you can go, how long you can go for. Bits of paper that mean you may be beaten, tortured, arrested and forced into labour.

In 1954 the Congress of South African Women was formed, and women such as Lillian Ngoyi from the African National Congress Women's League, Helen Joseph from the Congress of Democrats and Bettie du Toit from the Garment Worker's Union provided inspired leadership for the upsurge of resistance from the majority of South Africa's non-white women.

In 1963, fifty years after its first attempts, the government forced women to carry passes. But this was only a momentary victory, for the legacy of defiance lives on, as powerful, determined and eloquent as ever.

With These Hands: How Women Feed Africa

16 mm and video, colour, 30 mins. Produced by The New Internationalist.

With these hands presents the stories of three women from three Africa countries: Kenya, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso. Each woman tells, in her own words of the struggle to feed her family. Together the stories give a continent-wide account of Africa's relentless slide into perpetual famine, putting into a human context many of the larger forces that are shaping the future of the continent.

But With These Hands provides much more than a factual account of women's role in African agriculture. It shows, through the rich and colourful detail of family and village life, how the timeless efforts of women to feed their children are so often frustrated - by men, by machines, by money. We witness the ritual confinement of mother and newborn baby which threatens the family harvest; the anger of women whose husbands spend hard-earned cash on beer - and other women; the joy that follows a crop safely reaped and stored. And beyond the quiet drama of the women's individual struggles we encounter the clash of corporate power and village democracy; the conflict between traditional male authority and the growing confidence of newly-organised women.

The Second Revolution: Women in Nicaragua

Colour, 3/4" video and 16 mm., 30 min. Produced by Jackie Reiter and Alter- Cine.

The second Revolution features Gladys Baez, the first women to join the guerilla forces fighting Somoza in the 1970s. In July 1979, the first women's battalion was formed in Nicaragua as part of the defensive forces of the new Republic.

Women in Central America are involved everywhere in the struggle for national liberation, and this film examines some of the difficulties and problems they are facing. Torture and repression were part of this reality; but there is also another level of preoccupations, stemming from the moral and cultural traditions: the problems of prostitution, of chauvinism, of the double work day, of the marginal place accorded to women in social and political life.

Different women give accounts of the path they have traveled and outline future perspectives.

From the Ashes... Nicaragua Today

16 mm., colour, Spanish with English voice over and sub-titles, 60 min. Produced by International Women's Film Project.

Begun on the first anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista forces in July 1980, it was completed 18 months later, when rumours of the U.S. military
intervention in Nicaragua were rife. This film provides a unique portrayal of history in the making.

One of the real strengths of this film lies in its feminist approach. The women filmmakers take a close look at particular concerns for women. They specifically examine domestic life and the changing relations between the sexes.

Women in Arms

Colour, 16 mm., 59 min. Produced hy Victoria Shultz.

"Revolutionary processes have necessarily to liberate women. Any sort of process that doesn't liberate women, gradually perhaps, is not a revolution. Women have reached a certain point. They won't go back. They'll keep advancing, gaining ground. But always as women."

This powerful and optimistic statement was made by Dora Maria Tellez, a guerrilla commander in the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. She is only one of many women featured in this documentary.

Thirty per cent of the fighters in Nicaragua's revolution were women. In the film, we hear tales of street vendors carrying home-made bombs in their apron pockets, as well as horror stories of Somoza's barbaric attacks on the civilian population; we see women marching in jeans and sneakers in the Sandinist army; we feel the jubilation of victory celebrations and the sadness for the tens of thousands who were killed in the struggle.

Kumekucha - "From Sun Up"

16 mm., documentary in colour, 28 mins. Kiswahili with English commentary and subtitles. Price: US$ 2000 (16mm) $500 (video). Produced by Flora M'mbugu - Schelling.

"Kumekucha" is a Kiswahili word meaning "it's dawn". For some women, it means "Oh Goddess, its morning again, the struggle continues."

The film describes the invisible trials undergone daily by Tanzanian peasant women as they attempt to provide for themselves and their families and their relationship with men. The film shows not only the problems they face but also their determination to overcome them. It serves as a medium for the women to talk about themselves and provides a basis for discussion among those concerned with women's issues.

Copies are available from:

P.O. Box 3616
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania