IX

Editors note

Melbourne, early 1986.

Editing a book on a subject as broad as "women in Asia and the Pacific", has been an experience at once exhilarating and frustrating. After almost a year of erratic work, I'm still not sure whether I've fulfilled the aims set out for me.

I've deliberately avoided putting together a document detailing the concerns of women Christian students, trying instead to select material which gives an overview of the situation of women in the region — or material about women "closer to the edge" of society. In retrospect, I'm not sure whether this was the best course to take: the absence of content on tertiary education, the church, careers, sexuality or the media may mean that the book does not provide a "jumping off" point for women students who might otherwise begin to develop an analysis of women's oppression from their own experiences.

My decision was based on a belief that, despite the universal nature of gender oppression and its adaptability to different economic or cultural contexts, most feminist writing has focused on the concerns of a minority: educated women, white women, and women from the ruling and middle social classes. And, as someone from the "first world", I have been made painfully aware that the "woman issue" is sometimes treated with suspicion in Asia: it appears to threaten the: unity of opposition movements by turning women and men against one another, or distracting women from more important work. I hope the stories included here will illustrate the complexity of women's struggle today; they identify a range of reasons for women's suffering. Political imperialism, war, military build-up, export-oriented economies and grossly unequal distribution of land are among them: women are affected differently and sometimes more seriously than men by these injustices. But there are added burdens for women: the sex trade, a lack of information about birth control, unsympathetic trade unions, the pressures of domestic work, and a myriad of cultural myths and taboos associated with birth, menstruation, marriage, sexual expression and old age (the latter are especially pronounced in states where religious fundamentalism has a political dimension).

The book does not set out to prove the compatibility of Christianity and women's liberation: there are other places where such "defences" are eloquently and convincingly put. (I also believe

X

that debates on this subject, conducted as they are in the realm of ideas, are usually a waste of women activists' time. Even in countries where the churches incorporate a progressive element, we can achieve more for women — or peasants, or workers, or racial minorities — by working with them directly than we can through trying to convince a half-interested church hierarchy of the validity of their struggle.)

Because of WSCF Asia-Pacific's limited resources, there have been some restrictions on my role as editor. I have not been able to get material from every country in which a Student Christian Movement exists: Maori women of Aotearoa (New Zealand) do not feature in the book, nor do women of Hong Kong, Taiwan or Papua New Guinea. Certain important issues — the use of Depo Provera as a contraceptive or, on another level, the matrix of relationships between women, transnational corporations, internal migration and workplace injuries — have not received attention. Some of the submitted material did not feature authors' names. Other articles contained non-English words: I was able to find out some meanings, but not others, and hope readers will forgive any resulting lack of clarity.

Thanks are due to the regional WSCF staff and Nick the typesetter, for their patience in the face of my disregard for deadlines. Thanks also to Chris Ledger for ideas and consolation, and to Ruth Ford for running errands and re-organising me when I was incapable of doing it myself.

Jennie Clarke