The women's movement and the ecumenical agenda

Police remove Korean women workers from a sit-in strike.

Photo: Far Eastern Economic Review.

Part 2 — Analysis and Reflection

Ecumenism

The women’s movement and the ecumenical agenda

Park Sun Ai

This paper will deal with three aspects of the women's movement: women in the divided world, the women's movement as a renewal force, and women's power for unity. First of all I would like to share something about myself.

I was born a Korean woman. I am a Christian by birth and by my own choice. I believe in the salvation of humanity in the way of Jesus Christ. I hold great expectations and hope for the ecumenical movement and the women's movement.

Korea is a nation divided by superpower politics, not by the will of the people. I see my personal and public life as inextricably and seriously affected by this capricious political decision made by those few who held the power of this world. Culturally, Korea has a long tradition of practising Confucian ethics — teachings about keeping good human relationships in the spirit of humane love and righteousness. However, its perspective is strictly male-centred and hierarchical. Social harmony is pursued via the subservience and unconditional surrender of those in the lower social strata, and the women are the lowest among their own clans and social classes. The Christian religion was established on the foundation of the Confucian mode of life, and has continued so many aspects of its cultural conventions.

The women's issue, by its nature, involves complex dimensions in life — such as classism, racism, nationalism and cultural value systems. Therefore it is difficult to isolate it from other factors which affect all people, making the whole clan or the whole national unfree. For instance, for the proletariat, the managers and capitalists are their exploiters, for the black South Africans white apartheid is their enemy, but for women, men can be our oppressors and simultaneously our lovers, fathers and sons. As Fr Tissa Balasuriya said in his lecture on class, race and sex: "Classes compete, races coexist; the sexes cohabit"¹. In this complex order of reality, I experience my womanhood entrapped. Therefore my struggle encompasses the complexity itself. Fortunately, I find growing solidarity among women in the ecumenical movement; these women share the deep sense of being discriminated against for being a woman, regardless of nationality, class or cultural difference, and try to overcome this particular injustice — which includes other human factors and injustice. Our vision is one of a new heaven and a new earth, as dreamed by the prophet Isaiah and all those who follow the prophetic tradition of the Judaeo-Christian religion.

Women in the divided world

Usually, women are the ones concerned with relating to others and caring for people's feelings and opinions. Women are trained to handle the development of others: caring for children, encouraging their husbands, providing the necessities of life for their families. From childhood, women are conditioned to develop spirits and lives of service to others as second nature. All that women do in daily life is indispensable to the sustenance of human life: giving birth, nurturing children, preparing food, caring, keeping the important family events going.

Paradoxically, these indispensable services to humanity are devalued by the established cultural value system and the ethos of a whole society. Seeking the reasons for this, we must look at the problem from different angles, though finally all these angles are inter-related.

Economically, household services do not bring in any money, and professional skills are not needed to do the job. Politically, those who are engaged in domestic services have no decision making power. Consequently, such activists do not have any form of authority sociologically in the hierarchical structure. Culturally, we live in an era of patriarchal domination, when all forms of power and authority are held by the "old boys' clubs"; women are actually forbidden entry, although in some cases the door is open to nominal participation. It is not because of women's innate disabilities but rather due to lack of opportunity, lack of incentives to develop toward desirable goals (this lack is reinforced by cultural norms based on a discriminatory version of anthropology and divisive world views) that the sex role distinction is maintained and perpetuated. Sex role education starts from childhood, moulding the boys to be one way and the girls to be another, in order to fit in to the established social hierarchy and its value system — thus maintaining the vicious cycle.

In Asia, many women find out during the course of their lives that they were unwanted and even cursed at the moment they were born. This is true of Confucian culture as well as Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim cultures. Life in Christian churches is also heavily tainted by the indigenous cultural values of each nation or community. The infanticide of girls in India and even in China, which has gone through cultural revolution, shows how deeply rooted is misogyny in Asia. Because women's work does not hold any value, they are expendable — in spite of their indispensable services to humanity.

Since the patriarch has absolute authority over his women, children and property, women and the powerless strata of the clan (including servants and slaves) are all potentially expendable. If a woman encounters a merciful husband, she considers herself lucky; if not, she can be divorced for no fault of her own (e.g. for not producing male child). Many Asian women still consider marriage as a means of survival — not having been trained for economic activities, or not receiving recognition for their training, they seek the only alternative. When women are placed in such a vulnerable position, patriarchal control becomes much easier.

A parallel to the situation of women can be seen in the lot of landless peasants and urban industrial workers. Perhaps worse off are the jobless

urban poor who have been driven into their situation by circumstances. They may be victims of the modernisation processes; of bad and elitist land policies or of many other factors. Whatever the cause, their human dignity is lost.

In Asian countries experiencing the tides of modernisation and industrial development, there is a rapid increase in the industrial workforce. Workers are usually under contracts drawn up by their own governments and transnational corporations. The governments, believing in rapid economic growth as a way to increase national power, entice foreign business investment with the promise of cheap labour. Workers are considered tools of their policy, rather than human beings with the same basic needs as anybody else. The workers' demand, whether they are Koreans, Filipinos or Sri Lankans, is identical: "treat us as human beings!" They are usually not allowed to organise themselves, nor are they given any official channel through which to protest their dehumanised situation. In spite of their indispensable contribution to the industrial development of their nation, their labour is not given due recognition, and they are made expendable. This is because they do not possess the kind of power, authority and money the whole society recognises and respects. Worship of the monetary god is rapidly propagating itself in Asia. It is no longer the idol only in western capitalist nations. Evangelism of consumerism is much more effective than any religious evangelism.

The majority of Asians are rural agrarian people and, in spite of their hard work, they are kept poor. The highest rate of illiteracy is found among rural people — this perpetuates the vicious cycle of exploitation. If Asia is poor it is because the Asian agrarian sector is kept poor. These people must work on the land while not possessing it. They are poisoned by pesticides. They have to pay high prices (by comparison with what they receive for their own products) for fertilisers and tools. On top of all these difficulties, polluted waste from neighbouring industrial zones affects their health, land and domestic animals.

Many women in such conditions of poverty work either in the fields or in factories for survival. Their workload is heavy and their wages low. They have a double workload at home: cooking, cleaning, ironing, raising children. Moreover, they become the objects of their husbands' frustration and anxiety. Alcoholism, wife beating and rape are projections of the deep-seated frustration and anger that men, regardless of social class, experience in highly competitive and dehumanising societies. The formation of'maleness" is such that men cannot accept their failure. They vent suppressed frustration on their weaker partners; men's problems become women's problems. Social problems cause individual problems which, in turn, cause more social problems. Dowry deaths in India and the rampant prostitution industry all over Asia, especially Thailand (where it brings in the second highest GNP— next only to rice exports) and The Philippines, are the ultimate degradation of womanhood and the institution of marriage. Both involve women's sex and both view it as a commodity to be bought, possessed and disposed of.

Revealed in all these aspects of women's subjugation is man's sinful desire to possess, dominate, control and demonstrate (overtly and covertly)

superiority and power over the other sex. A basic characteristic of patriarchal culture is the view that dynamic and different social categories (such as classes, races, sexes, religions and nations) are categories which have to be divided and manipulated in order to be controlled. The means of keeping order are well-ordered "confusions": oppression, subjugation and exploitation of the "others". The largest category of others are the women who constitute half of the earth's population. Women in the third world suffer double or triple burdens of oppression.

Among all the well-ordered confusions of the demonic control is escalating militarism. Militarism is merciless, cold-blooded violence, by which group self-interest is maintained, legalised and sanctioned. For those protecting vested interests, others never count. All the others, including their properties and lives, are expendable. In Asian cities, in villages and on dusty roads, one often sees young boys in military uniform riding on army trucks handed out from the second world war arsenals of the US or the USSR. These boys all had a mother who nursed, cared for and had better dreams about them. Women may share different opinions about life, but one common denominator is that they all wish for better days, and a peaceful life for their children. For this dream they give everything: their time, energy, goods, hearts and minds. The merciless military machine plucks these fruits of the life-long work of millions of women, using them to defend the interests of greedy controllers of the status quo.

Historically, militarism accompanies prostitution. Tens of thousands of young Korean women were mobilised—in many cases in the manner of rabbit hunting by the police—to gratify the sexual "needs" of Japanese soldiers until the end of the second world war. Prostitution on the US army bases in Asian countries (Subic Bay naval base in The Philippines and 0-San air force base in Korea are only two among many) is a far more subtle operation. The coercive mobilisation which the Japanese colonial army employed on Korean women during the early half of the 1940s is gone; the circumstances now are manipulated and fabricated in such a way as to make these women look as if they are doing it of their own free will. But surely these women are victims of circumstances: of economic policies and cultural conditioning.

The side effects of defoliating chemicals used during the American war in Vietnam continue. Women and men affected by the chemicals still produce deformed babies. Women in the South Pacific cry out with strange pains and give birth to deformed babies due to the nuclear waste dumped by the big powers in their once beautiful and peaceful region.

These socio-cultural phenomena of patriarchy — the really threatening, confusing and divisive forces in the world — affect life in the church profoundly. As in the home and in society, women's role is in the service area: indispensable work in the life of the church. Church leaders welcome women's service, but they do not treat women as their equals. They are too proud or threatened to listen to the words proceeding from the mouth of a woman or to take communion administered by a woman. Patriarchal ideology forms people's thoughts in such a way that femaleness and sacredness can never go together. Men are conditioned to gain power by any means through fierce competition; they deal with a woman in leadership as an invader in their

Women’s bodies are exploited by the advertising industry throughout south-east Asia. The message behind the ads is both racist and sexist: Anchor billboards, like this one in a major Singapore street, typically feature women of European or Eurasian appearance, who are considered more beautiful than the locals.

Photo: Jennie Clarke.

sacred territory, instead of uplifting her in their brotherly community and utilising her God-given talents for the Godly community. All this unsurfaced fear and hatred of women in the church is rationalised by androcentric theology. Many women who felt accepted fully by Jesus of Nazareth would find themselves terribly hurt in His church.

The women's movement as a force of renewal

The objectives of the ecumenical movement are: the unity of humankind through church unity in the divided world, and the fostering of a renewal movement in the stifled traditional church and in the world.

I have reflected on the general situation of women in the divided world, and their parallel situation in the church. The church is, fundamentally, a new creation in the spirit of God — the creator of the whole universe who has revealed the utmost way of salvation of God's creation through the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church is in the world but not of the world. This ambivalence is itself the source of creativity and challenge. The Christian church serves God, who has created the whole world and has bestowed on humanity the image of God. We are partners in the ongoing creation of the history of the world's salvation. God's incarnation in Jesus Christ is the covenant of this partnership of God-human joint work towards salvation.

In this solemn partnership both men and women are called forth. However, the traditional church's theology and practice belittle women's potential. The church in the west and, more so, in the east, is heavily tainted by patriarchal prejudice and a basically divisive, hierarchical and domination-oriented cultural value system. A dualistic outlook on theology separates body and spirit, men and women, this world and the other world — reinforcing and legitimising the divisive way of life in the church. By being too little "in the world" and too much "of the world", when the world is turbulent and confused, churches seek security within the narrow boundaries of their own local church or denomination, losing the creativity and challenge which comes from faith in the God of justice, love, freedom and of the creation of ongoing history.

Nevertheless, the spirit of God moves like wind and fire. We have witnessed young students, workers and peasants standing up against injustice and oppression in their demand for freedom, justice and humanity in Korea, The Philippines and elsewhere. In all these movements women are involved directly and indirectly. They act according to a vision of a society in which workers and peasants are no longer exploited but receive just wages, in which prostitutes and migrant workers do not have to sell their bodies and services, leaving their loved ones at home with the loneliness of social stigma, physical harassment and emotional disturbances. The new heaven and earth has been envisioned by the prophet Isaiah and hoped for by innumerable believers throughout history.

It is crucial to have a vision of the new heaven and the new earth. The vision is the goal towards which every action and every struggle is directed. Without the goal all actions are like isolated vapours which disappear into the air, leaving no trace in the eternal history of the living. All third world people

hope for a world where big powers no longer decide and plan for small nations' destiny while pushing all the lives on the planet to the brink of peril by inventing more and more monstrous war machines.

The vision of women must have another dimension: that of a society where women are not treated as mere sex objects or opinionless dolls, but as independent persons who are capable of participating in all areas of social life. Men should be freed from the self-image of dominance and from the desire to control others; they must cultivate an attitude of sharing, caring, serving and developing others, an attitude which is now designated as female only. While these qualities give enriching experience, when carried to extremes they risk causing self-effacement, a debased self-image, and a confined view of life. This is precisely the dilemma most women are caught in — consciously or unconsciously — under the system that demands rigid role differentiation.

The new model of shared responsibilities can be developed in small human communities like the home and church. In family situations where both husband and wife are involved in career development, they can share childcare and household chores. In church situations, mixed discussion groups should be encouraged — so that women and men can hear one another's opinions on various issues. Tasks like serving refreshments should be shared. Decision making bodies should be constituted by equal numbers of men and women, and these bodies should make efforts to enhance equal participation of both sexes and all church members in all areas of the church's life.

Such individual efforts for a more equitable and democratic communal life must accompany constant efforts for structural change in wider society. In both efforts — those for individual and societal change — the issue of equality between women and men must be the underlying factor. Attitudes of superiority and inferiority are learned, not innate, behaviour. The community of women and men is the earliest and most common learning place for everybody.

Very often I hear the comment: "third world women must prioritise national liberation together with their men. The women's issue is a secondary issue". I hear this from progressive men both in the first world and in the third world, and from some third world women who are actively involved in national liberation movements. Fortunately all such women do not share the same opinion. For instance, in Korea, women who started from human rights or labour struggles came to realise the urgent need to overcome sexism among progressive male partners. They encounter in their daily struggle unjust discrimination against them even by those who are committed on all the other human right issues. This does not mean that these women forsook their first commitment. They are working for both ends with double strategies.

The women's movement comes from women's lived experience, just as the anti-racism, anti-classism movements come out of people's lived experience of oppression. The search for freedom is prompted by our God- given thirst for a primordial condition of sinless relationship between God and creatures, between human beings, and between human beings and other creatures. As women enter their own struggle, many become awakened to the

reality of injustice done to other people in different ways. Faced with the need for solidarity — which faces all oppressed groups — women's groups must first come together in dialogue to formulate common strategies and form a power group with a totally new value orientation.

American psychiatrist Jean Miller, in her Sheffield conferences speech under the title, "The sense of self in women and men", describes psychological dilemmas of contemporary western men. [As many Asian nations are also caught in the rat-race of modernisation and economic development, I find her analysis has deep insight for our situation too.]

One oft-sighted issue is the lack of a convincing higher purpose, and interest beyond self-interest. A related issue is the inability to find a sense of community or even a sense of communication with others. A third is the failure to organise our knowledge and technology for the maximum benefit of human beings. And fourth is the inability to encompass the development of others and to act on the basis of belief that one's own interest is synonymous with the interest of others.³

Referring to the way in which women are trained to be skilled in developing others and finding meaning in relationality, she says:

I should like to say that I see them [these skills] as the basis of psychological strengths, and also for a more advanced form of life than either sex has yet known. On the other hand, these are characteristics which have been defined as weakness or worse, and women themselves have generally thought of them that way.

If this potential for a more advanced form of life is regarded as weakness, it is because this quality is not shared by both sexes but has been kept only in the domain of women, who are deemed the inferior and powerless sex. As women linked in the ecumenical context actively seek a new spirituality, a new value, a new mode of relating to one another — sharing and caring for the oppressed masses of the world and for men whose egos are inflated with wrong concepts of power — and as women empower what is thought to be their weakness, we can bring renewal in the church and society.

Women's power for unity

"The pyramid of domination is a hindrance to discussions of unity for at least two reasons," says Letty Russell:

The first and most important is that unity is unity in Jesus Christ, the one who welcomed the outsiders into God's kingdom (Luke 4:16-30). The second is that the 'multiversity' of the world in which we live creates continual chaos with such a paradigm as so few people fit into any one view of reality or one way of understanding theological truth.⁵

This refers to male dominance in the tradition of Christian theology. However, it is applicable in all areas of life in the church and in the world. The domination by a few to the exclusion of all the rest is the source of confusion and division. It is true in politics, economic structures and race relationships. Structural analysis shows that the pyramid-shaped hierarchy of domination is typical of patriarchal systems in all areas of life. The majority at the bottom are alienated, controlled and exploited in one way or another.

Any renewal movement causes conflict — conflict of the old and the new, with all their interests and values at stake. Nevertheless, coercive control and

manipulated, make-believe unity is not true unity. True unity must come from inclusion and acceptance of all, from honest dialogue and common effort to form a true community of women and men — one in which everyone is involved in developing others, as well as her or his own potential. This is a feminist value as I conceive of it.

Then we will see the renewal movement and the unity of the church and world as compatible, rather than exclusive of one another. As Dr W A Visser ‘T Hooft said —

Unity by itself is nothing, it may even mean death. It is only when the breath of God comes upon the bones that the whole house of Israel' is truly gathered and united. Unity in the biblical sense is God-given unity which implies new life.⁶ Women and men who are awakened to the urgent need of a new value system in this deadly divisive world must build solidarity; not in order to be the rulers to oppress others, but to build a really humane community where the spirit of justice and love is made concrete for all.

Notes

1. See Mid-Stream, vol XXI, no 3, July 1982, p 318.

2. "The community of women and men in the church" was a 1981 consultation of the World Council of Churches held in Sheffield, England. See the official report of the same title, edited by Constance F Parvey, WCC, Geneva, 1983; also THOMPSON, Betty, A chance to change: women and men in the church, WCC ("Risk" book series), Geneva, 1982.

3. See Mid-Stream, vol XXI, no 3, July 1982, p 324.

4. Ibid, p 325.

5. Ibid, pp 300-1.

6. VISSER 'T HOOFT, WA, The renewal of the church, SCM Press, London,1956.