Analysing Women's Situations

Analysing Women's Situations

Lim Chin Chin

The participatory analysis of women's situations may be described as falling into three parts.

Part I was the sharing of country reports. The participants came with poems, news clippings, pictures or their own drawings and cartoons depicting issues of women in their respective countries. These were put together in a collage, after which the participants gathered in small groups for sharing.

Part II was the workshop on analysing women's situations facilitated by Lim Chin Chin. Following is a summary of that workshop.

Some questions were raised for the participants' reflection and discussion:

(a) Who are the poor and oppressed? (Some responses: native and indigenous people, women, racial minorities, religious minorities, unskilled labour.)

(b) What are the manifestations of oppression? (Some responses: poverty; discrimination in law, pay and employment opportunities; denial of identity, history, culture and traditions through media, education and religion.)

(d) What makes you happy/hopeful?

(e) What are the issues specifically affecting the women in your countries? The collated issues were the following:

Education – rural women not exposed to education; not treated equally; little training or educational opportunities for women; or prohibitive costs of education for women.

Economic – effects of free trade zones and multinational corporations; workers going abroad as cheap labour; plantation sector women occupy lowest positions in factories.

Household – women hooked to stereotyped roles of child-bearing and rearing as well as to household chores; household work has no protection by labour law; no value or recognition of women's work.

Legal – laws are biased to males; where there may be pro-women laws they seem accessible only to the rich.

Social – dowry system binds women; high rate of unemployment materialism; social problems like drug abuse; divorce; high rates of indigenous people in jails.

Sexual – rape of women, prostitution, commercialisation of wo,en's bodies, incest.

From the sharing of responses it was concluded that women are indeed victims of socio-cultural and economic-politica structures of society. The following structure of analysis was presented to help participants deepen their analysis of the situation (see page 99).

The diagram depicts the functions of the present capitalist state and the relationships of the various apparatuses to maintain it. Production, which is the economic base to meet life's basic needs, is made possible by the different classes of people in society. There are the owners, the few who have the capital to buy raw materials, tools and labour. They decide what to produce and even create the

needs. They therefore control and create both the demand and supply goods. While they determine the workers' wages, they keep large profits to themselves. Then there are the professionals and skilled people. With more education and special training, they have better security in the labour market. Finally, there are the workers who generally have only their physical strength to offer in order to earn a living.

To remain in control and maintain its hold of society, the capitalist state has two major structures. The ideological structure provides the value system which is promoted by schools, media, churches and families. The political structure handles decision- making through the agents of parliament, administration, laws and courts, the police and military. While the ideological structure's agents work through persuasion, those of the political structure provide force especially where persuasion does not work. Nevertheless, the two complement and support each other in their influence and control on society.

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As the diagram shows, it is quite clear that the three classes of people do relate to each other but always in tension. As Iong as they remain that way, they continue to help perpetuate the kind of society that has arranged them in such a situation. However as the diagram also indicates, any hope for an alternative structure lies with the workers. Indeed, only those who are not satisfied with the way things are, are capable of envisioning an alternative structure and thus, of starting a movement for a new society that would build such a structure. And for sure, such an alternative structure cannot be built within the old structure; it has to be a new structure to truly replace the old one.

Part III consisted of an exercise on "Power Cards," adopted from a workshop in Uruguay. The exercise is for (a) provoking thought and discussion about the distribution of power between men and women, both in the family and at the workplace or in societies generally; and (b) initiating a discussion about the root causes of inequality in access to power between women and men. The materials needed for this exercise are: sets of identical flast cards for groups of 4-6 people; pencils or pens; blank cards the same size as the flash cards. The process is as follows.

1. Divide participants into small groups of 4-6 people.

2. Give each group a set of flash cards (samples on page 102) and two blank cards.

3. Tell participants that their task is to put the picture cards in a logical sequence and to develop a story or narrative that describes what is happening in the cards, following the sequence that they have chosen. Tell them that they should choose a person from the group to narrate their story for the rest of the participants.

4. Instruct the participants that they have the option, if they choose, of eliminating up to two of the picture cards from the set and of adding up to two of their own images (which they can draw on the blank cards).

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5. Have the groups go to separate corners of the room and lay their cards out in the desired order. Allow 15 minutes for the groups to order the cards and decide upon their narrative.

6. When everyone is finished, the chosen representative from each group should narrate the story, with the other participants looking on so that they can see the order chosen and whether cards were added or subtracted.

7. Once all the stories have been narrated, start a discussion. The discussion may be on the order chosen and stories created; on the similarity or difference of cards eliminated and created; on groups' reaction to the chosen sequence or to the interpretation of the pictures, etc.

8. Then initiate a conversation about the way power is shared or not shared in our own lives. You might ask, for example, which picture(s), if any, accurately reflect our ability to share power with men in our country or community? What are the parts of our lives over which we have power and what are the parts over which we feel others have power? Who "holds the strings?" Is it the men in our lives (husbands, fathers, brothers)? Other women? our families? the government, etc.?

9. Focus participants' attention on the card with the image of the woman snapping the string and freeing herself. Ask participants what they feel would need to happen for them to be able to snap the strings held by those who have power over them.

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Flash Cards Samples