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Foreword

Many stories — from childhood fairytales to newspaper reports — portray women as inferior, weak, stupid, irrational or not worth mentioning. Even women, told these stories over and over again, half believe them. It is when women meet together and share their own real-life stories that we become convinced of our own worth and strength. Together, we see a new pattern emerging: of strong women, suffering women, courageous women, women of stamina, faith, compassion.

This book gives an insight into the new pattern, the true stories. It is a product of the women's programme of the Asia/Pacific region of the World Student Christian Federation. WSCF is increasingly aware that the church is not innocent in the history of the oppression of women. Despite a gospel of love, equality and liberation, the Christian church has been, and still is, culpable of keeping women in our "proper" place. WSCF has embarked on the women's programme in order to educate itself about issues of women in church and society, and to provide resources for women members of WSCF when they meet together for mutual encouragement.

Women, for so long outnumbered at WSCF meetings, are holding their own meetings to encourage, challenge, and strengthen one another. A particular challenge we face is that of reaching a common understanding about the way in which oppression on the basis of gender is related to economic and political injustice and militarisation in the region.

This book flows out of one such meeting. In June 1985, forty-six women from Student Christian Movements all over the region met in Singapore. We shared stories, worked on analyses of women's oppression, developed a common programme, sang, laughed, wept. Our deliberations form some of the material for this book. Other contributions are drawn from other WSCF regional meetings that have considered women's issues in recent years. The remainder was gathered by individual women in WSCF specifically for the book. The Australian SCM was asked to put the book together. Jennie Clarke, an Australian participant at the Singapore meeting, offered her writing and editing talents for the coordination of the task. She has done so

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with great skill, finding time in between her numerous study, work, and SCM commitments.

The women of WSCF Asia/Pacific offer this book as a resource to the ecumenical community, and especially to those SCM women who could not be with us in Singapore.

Chris Ledger

Regional women's coordinator

Participants in the WSCF Asia-Pacific women’s meeting perform a song of freedom (see p. 134). They are, from left to right, Angela Wong (Hong Kong SCM, and regional women’s committee), Tsai Mei-Chiung (Taiwan SCM, and composer of the song), Chew Puay Hwang (Singapore SCM) and Wong Yuet Ying (Hong Kong SCM).