Women's political rights worldwide, including Indonesia illiteracy figures

=== [PDF page 1] === THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN - still a long way to go SHIRLEY CHISHOLM, first black congresswoman. Suffrage convention in Atlantic City in 1916. "The level of a people's civilization can be measured by the social position occupied by its women." DOMINGO FAUSTINO SARMIENTO (1811-1888) By JEANNE CHAXON he Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted without opposition by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, gave women the world over new hope of a better status. A world-wide proclamation of the principles of equality, free consent to marriage, the right to hold office and to participate in public affairs, the right to employment and fair remuneration, the right to education, was bound to have a profound effect on all subsequent pro grams, demands, legislation and prac tice. Between 1893 and 1950, fifty-six coun tries granted women voting rights. Be tween 1951 to 1967, their number has more than doubled, with 57 new countries added to the list. Some of these countries, such as Mexico, only needed to generalize measures already taken at the local level; others, remembering the role played by women in the conquest of independence, treated them like responsible citizens right from the start: this was the case, for instance,.in India, Indonesia and most of the new African States. A few countries still limit the political rights of their women, either by imposing special condi tions on them, or by delaying the realign ment of federal legislation on the best local legislation (Switzerland). But the granting of political rights is not automatically followed by the exer cise of these rights. A number of surveys have been made on the participation of women in political life. Although they are fragmentary, and, consequently, arbi trary, they show that women probably vote less than men, particularly in gen eral elections, and that middle-aged wom en are the most conscientious in this re spect. On the whole, women only repre sent about 25% of the membership of poli tical parties, and this has several conse quences; the first is that, except during a pre-electoral period, parties do not bother very much with Women’s demands, and are hesitant about putting up women as candidates. The result is that the number erf wom en holding political office is small. In only one of the republics of the USSR (Byelo russia) do women account for more than 35% of the members of the Supreme So viet; the other Soviet republics, and the Socialist countries, have on average be tween 20% and 33% of woman representa tives. In two countries which were among the first to give women political rights, Finland and Sweden, the percentages are 17% and 12% respectively. In Britain, 3% of members of parliament are women, in the United States 2%, and in France, less than 2%. In the countries of the Third World (Ghana^Guinea, Malaysia, Philip pines, etc.) a hard core of educated and committed women have managed without difficulty to gel parliamentary seats. In 29 countries, up to now, women have been appointed government minis ters. But apart from a few shining excep tions (India, Ceylon, Sweden, U.S.S.R., United Kingdom), they are given port folios such as health, family, social or youth questions. RIGHT TO EDUCATION The second essential ingredient of woman’s independence is education. That there are still hundreds of millions of il literates in the world of today is a sad commonplace. Everywhere, women make up the larger proportion of illiter ates, and the more they are bound by convention to their hearth and kitchen, the less chance they have of being edu cated. In Indonesia some years ago, 42% of the male population was illiterate and 70% of women, while in Greece 8% of all men and 30% of all women did not know how to read. Efforts to combat discrimination and to provide education may be made at all levels, but traditions, a low-level econ omy, lack of schools, create cumulative difficulties which are more acute in the developing countries. Among the indus trialized countries, Finland is a shining example with a proportion of 49% of girl students in higher education. Girls account for 42% of France’s university population, and in many of the wealthier countries, the numbers of boys and girls are equal at the secondary level. But all too often, technical and pro fessional education for women is only grudgingly provided, and even then the machinery to give women access to more than a handful of professions is frequently lacking. Female students of agronomy and agriculture, for instance, are few and far between, except in the Socialist coun-' tries, Finland, the United Kingdom and a few Latin American countries such as Argentina. Favorites with girl students everywhere, on the other hand, are lan guages, literature and education, some times also law and pharmacy. ECONOMIC LIFE It is on this training, often embarked on unsystematically, that women depend for the complete attainment erf their independence and participation in eco nomic life. There is no room here to give a list of the various types ot employment popular with women in different parts of the world, but one can safely make the fol lowing generalization; as soon as women become educated, they abandon the more arduous primary and secondary employ ment sectors. They move into the ser vices sector, office employment and other branches which are not directly productive but no'less indispensable to society. If they are unqualified they are maintained in the lowest category — manual labor. The attraction of the ser vices sector is as great in the developing countries as elsewhere, for women the world over aspire to stable and comfort able employment. The number of salaried working women is on the increase, par ticularly among married women: 60% of working women in the United States are married, 58% in France, and 52% in Canada. Once again it is the Socialist coun tries which show the largest number of women working in the widest variety of jobs, no doubt because work for all and( opportunity for all were essential driving forces in the building up of these democ racies. Examples from the Socialist coun tries of the woman astronaut, women ship’s captains, women astronomers and experimental farm managers, have had wide publicity. There are similar exam ples in some western countries, but cer tainly fewer of them. DAGMAR WILSON, originator of Women Strike for Peace. liliii THE DILEMMA OF WORK AND FAMILY Thus we can say that women’s status shows a fairly uniform pattern of progres sion throughout the world, in spite of the diversity of political and social condi tions. But the old conflict between work and family still exists. All modern so cieties have attempted to tackle the problem and reduce the dilemma for the working woman: among measures now common in many countries are maternity leave, special creches and day-nurseries, concessions as to the hours the married woman works and when she takes her holidays, and sometimes even extra long holidays. The fact is that modern society needs working women, and this is why induce ments are being increasingly made to the working mother. Even if women only rep resent one third Of the total labor force, this third is irreplaceable. But still most countries of the world tend to have reservations about working women. This third of general economic activity which women represent, and which is steadily increasing in profession al value, is still looked on as a variable which can be reduced or" developed as necessary. At times of full employment and economic development, women are encouraged to work; at periods of regres sion, they are reminded of their duties at home. In other words, women’s work is often looked on as marginal labor, and married women’s work as of doubtful ben efit both to society and to the family. Sol utions such as the breaking-off of work during the children’s pre-school years and the resumption later for a further 25 years or so, which would amply justify the cost,of retraining, are studied with care and will no doubt ultimately tri umph over the remaining opposition. Miss Cbaton is Fronch representa tive on the U.N. Status of Women Commission, and was until recently Chairman of the Standing Commit tee of Non-governmental Organiza tions at Unesco. The above feature UNESCO FEATURES. CHARLENE MITCHELL, first black woman candidate for president. DOLORES HUERTA, Form Workers Union leader. CORETTA KING, leader. JAN. 11-12,1969