10

INPUT IV

Race, Gender and Class

Dr. Cecilia Ng in her lecture brought to light the class, ethnic and gender relations. She also categorically mentioned the various issues of women and gave instances by accounting facts from countries inhere these issues prevailed e.g. rape cases in Malaysia and dowry-death in India. To trace the oppression of women she related historical facts and defined the meaning of development by quoting two theories, one by Maria Mies on the "Social origins of the sexual division of labor" and the other Engels, "Origins of the family, private property and state".

The group was then divided according to their respective sub-region and the following questions were given as guidelines for discussions:

11

1) How do you view the position of women in your community/region?

2) How do our values, background, experiences, perpetuate the position of women?

To further facilitate her discussion on ethnic, class and gender relations with special reference to women, a video on the Indian Squatters in Malaysia was shown.