Asian Women and Political Repression (poem), Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, Vol. 4 No. 2, Winter 1978

Title: Quest, A Feminist Quarterly (1978) - Vol. 4 No. 2, Asian Women and Political Repression by Sugiarti Siswadi [archive.org] Source: Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/questfeministqua42wash Date retrieved: 2026-10-19 OCR text (_djvu.txt) ISSN 0098-955 X QUEST ' a reminist quarterly INTTERNAnONAL FEMINISM Quest Communique Because of the magnitude of the subject this will be a special 112 page issue. Next issue it will be back to our new, but now regular, 96 page format. Explanation of Schedule Your subscription is not messed up and the post office is not carrying out a subversive plot to undermine the women's movement. Quest is behind in our publishing schedule. You should have received Vol. IV, No. 1, "Kaleidoscope Two," in late December, 1977. It was indeed, dated Summer, 1977. However, this issue, Vol. IV, No. 2, which is the issue succeeding Kaleidoscope Two, is dated Winter, 1978. Henceforth, we will date the issue with the season in which it is actually published. In the past, we have tied ourselves to a schedule of seasons corresponding to volume and issue numbers. This became totally confusing with the last issue because it was so far behind schedule. This does not mean, however, that we are becoming a less-than-quarterly publication. In fact, to retain our second class mailing rates (which represent incredible savings) we must publish four times a year. That is why we will still be catching up on our schedule over the next four issues. Besides time, the biggest hurdle we face is money. In order to put out more than one issue in three months, we have to create more income to pay for the additional typesetting and printing. Catching up, therefore, becomes a problem of finances as much as of time. That is the dilemma we're in right now: we have another issue ready to go to the printer, but we don't have the money to pay our already high printing debt so that it can go to press. We must publish three more issues before October, 1978, in order to keep our second class rates. That's four issues in approximately nine months, or, funds for one more issue than has been normal for the same time period. For us, that means extra hard work to meet the schedule and raise the additional money. For you, if we succeed, it means your Quests will come closer together this year, and you'll need to renew your subscription sooner than you expect. Sustaining Contributors One way you can help us is by becoming a Sustaining Contributor. We have suggested $25 a year. We welcome more, or less, as you can manage. If you have just subscribed or renewed your subscription, please consider subscribing for another year and becoming a Sustaining Contributor now, or taking gift subscriptions for your friends. Quest is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, so any amount contributed beyond the $9 annual subscription is a tax deductible contribution. Thank you for your continuing support. QUEST a femuumist Vol. IV, No. 2 Winter, 1978 INTERNMIONAL FEMINISM Contents AN INTRODUCTION Charlotte Bunch 4 CAN FEMINISM Be a GLOBAL IDEOLOGY? Devaki Jain 9 LETTERS 16 On the POLITICAL ECONOMY of DOMESTIC LABOUR Anja Meulenbelt 18 ASIAN WOMEN and POLITICAL REPRESSION - A Poem Sugiarti Siswadi 32 WOMEN in the GUINEA-BISSEAU REVOLUTION Stephanie Urdang 33 In Brief: BRAZIL, FRANCE, ISRAEL & an INTERNATIONAL 43 WOMEN, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, and the U.N. Elizabeth Reid 55 UNTITLED - A Poem Paola Ludovici 72 JAPANESE WOMEN SPEAK OUT Discussion on Liberation Fujieda Mioko 74 Where Are We Headed? IijimaAiko 78 A Look at the CUBAN FAMILY CODE Commentary by Jane Flax 87 FEMINIST & WOMEN'S RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS Dorothy Allison 94 ORGANIZERS' DIALOGUE A Critical View of the Wellesley Conference 101 Nawal El Saadawi, Fatima Mernissi & Mallica Vajrathon A Commentary on the International Tribunal Diana Russell 108 ©Copyright 1978 by Quest: a feminist quarterly, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Quest: a feminist quarterly is published four times a year in January, April, July and October by Quest: a feminist quarterly, Inc., 2000 P St. N.W., Washington, D.C., 20036, U.S.A. Second class postage paid at Washington, D.C. Quest: a feminist quarterly, Inc., is a taxexempt, non-profit organization. Address all correspondence to Quest: a feminist quarterly, P.O. Box 8843, Washington, D.C. 20003. Subscription rates are $9.00/year (4 issues) to individuals; $10.00/year in Canada and Mexico; $11.00/year overseas surface, $14.50/year overseas air; $15.00/year to institutions, $3.35/all single issues. Advertising rates and deadlines available upon request. Bookstores contact Women in Distribution, Box 8858, Washington, D.C. 20003 for ordering information. ISSN 0098-955 X Staff Managing Editor Beverly Fisher Design Editor Alexa Freeman Promotion Editor Dorothy Allison* Editors Charlotte Bunch* Jackie MacMillan Mary-Helen Mautner Sidney Oliver Gerri Traina Associates Denise Davis Jane Dolkart Nancy Hartsock Arleen Rogan Cynthia Washington Assistants JoAnn Brooks* Gracia Clark* Elmira* Jane Flax Ann-Cathrin Jarl* Judith Jones Sue Kahan Deborah Kelley* Joanna Knowles* Margaret Streitenberger Angela Wilson Helen Young *Development Committee Cover Design by Josie Cook Vancouver, B.C. Canada Quest: a feminist quarterly is seeking long-term, in-depth feminist political analysis and ideological development. Quest is not an end in itself, but a process leading to new directions for the women's movement, possibly including such concrete forms as regional or national conferences, a national organization, or a political party. We, the editors, are all women who have been in the movement several years and have reached a point where each answer leads us to more questions. We have been through various ideological and activist metamorphoses and end up feeling that our overall perspective is still not adequate. Where has the struggle brought us? Closer to real economic, political, and social power for women? Closer to the end of the exploitation of and violence against women? Closer to self-determination for all women? We do not have all the answers ourselves and expect that feminists across the country and the world will contribute to this process of seeking. ^^■rmm,K^&^ photograph by Charlotte Bunch An Introduction... By CHARLOTTE BUNCH In the summer of 1964, I made my first trip outside of North America. I participated in a work-study project sponsored by the Japanese YMCA where we discussed "Our Responsibility in a Changing Asia." I was one of the few participating Westerners; half the participants were Japanese, and most of the others were Asians. Therefore, everything we did and discussed was from a Japanese, or at least Asian, perspective, and experiencing that difference changed my life. At first I was completely disoriented. Gradually, though, I learned that the world, its problems, and even how one discusses them, look quite different when viewed from another culture, from other countries and life experiences. To say that this is true, however, and to experience its truth often are very different. Spending time in another country is not the only (or even a guaranteed) way to come to understand this phenomenon; but having to function in a completely different cultural context can be one of the most effective ways to learn this lesson — as the Third World Women who critique US-sponsored conference on Women and Development note. (See Organizers' Dialogue: "A Critical View of the Wellesley Conference.") Since that summer, I have travelled to other places, met people from many other societies, and have discovered more about the cultural differences within this country itself — and I have also learned a great deal about imperialism. But still, I will never forget that shock and the changes in my perception of "reality" that came with having to function in a completely different frame of reference. As a movement, we feminists in the US need to experience that shock. We have necessarily begun our analysis in light of our own experiences, but our perspectives have also been limited by that view. As our movement and its analysis have matured over the past few years, it is particularly important that we listen and talk across national boundaries. This is not an easy task, and this issue of Quest does not claim to meet that demand. But we hope that for some it will be an eye-opener and for all a significant contribution to the difficult but essential process of building a sustained international feminist dialogue. When Quest began planning its future themes in 1974, a special "international" issue was proposed. We rejected the idea at that time 4/Quesf, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 because we wanted to integrate articles from all over the world into each issue rather than segregating them into one. We thought that it would not be necessary to have a special theme in order to include feminist perspectives from around the world. We were wrong. In our first three years, we published only a few articles written by women outside the US. We discovered that we were not able to attract such articles unless we made a particular effort by concentrating an entire issue on feminist perspectives from other countries. When the development committee for this issue convened, our first problem was how to describe our intent. We wanted articles about women's struggles toward the development of feminism — by whatever name they called it. But we did not want articles simply describing the state of women's oppression throughout the world because other publications are already providing that information. Yet, we realized that understanding the context in which ideas and actions develop is integral to understanding the feminism of other countries. We also realized that while many women outside the US are forced to know something about our culture because it is exported everywhere, not many women in the US know much about other countries. Finally, we called the issue "International Feminism" and solicited articles covering three major areas of focus: (1) What kinds of feminist or women's activities, movements and concerns are generated by different national and/or cultural conditions? How do these differ and what — if any — seem to be common themes in photograph by Japanese YMC4 An Introduction/5 women's concerns internationally? Can we talk about the global oppression of women — its causes and cures — in any universal terms? What cross-national networks of women are developing? (2) How do particular governments, economic structures and social systems affect race and class analyses important internationally, and what is their significance for women in various situations? Ambitious questions, we knew, but ones that we hoped then, and still hope, will provoke discussion and future work. Despite the focus of our women's lives in work, childrearing, sex, etc.? What role do nongovernmental forms of social organization — such as ethnic, tribal or religious groups, or trade unions and political parties — play in affecting women's lives, either in conflict or in cooperation with the government? (3) What theoretical, strategic and programmatic developments are taking place that are vital to an international feminist audience? Why are issues such as "development," the economic function of women, lesbian oppression, or questions, most of the articles we received were about the state of women's oppression in various countries. And many of those were written by American and European women about Third World women. We had initially decided not to print articles by Westerners about the Third World in order to avoid the cultural bias and problems of "us" writing about "them." Nevertheless, many of these articles were informative, and through consideration of this dilemma, we became aware of the need for the development of a 6/Quest photograph taken in North Vietnam political/ethical perspective on how and when feminists can write with integrity about women in other cultures. Our priority has been articles from a wide variety of countries discussing what seem to be common questions and experiences for women — ones which go beyond a single country. Since our emphasis is on fundamental feminist issues, and not on specific activities or conditions relevant to single circumstances, we have reprinted some important articles written several years ago but not widely available. We have learned a great deal about the problems of "internationalism" and about the common questions that feminists face. Two related themes are most significant: First, all issues are indeed feminist issues, and second, a certain instinct for a common perspective ties us together, although we do not yet have an analysis providing the cohesive element. If feminism is to be perceived globally as a viable concept, it must not limit itself to a narrow definition of women's concerns. Feminism is not about a list of issues. Rather, it is about developing a particular perspective on all matters which touch on our lives. Women in different countries clearly have different priorities; but if feminism is a universally applicable perspective, it will provide a framework for all those concerns, no matter how diverse. And there is among women a certain impulse toward such a common feminist perspective; its existence in not yet fully articulated terms is clear throughout the manuscripts we have received. We do not yet share an analysis binding that instinct and giving it form. We are then, a movement of many common experiences and instincts, but one which has not yet given birth to a common language and analysis. Still, it is the presence of that impulse which fuels the search for that common language and analysis and gives us hope that, indeed, some form of global feminist perspective is developing. In working on this issue, certain questions kept recurring: How does the feminist movement relate to Marxist or class movements — both in theory and practice? What is the role of women's revolution within nationalist movements? What is the significance for women of what have been called "development" plans for the non-industrialized countries? What do we consider signs of progressive "development" or advance for women in any culture? How do we respect the selfdetermination of previouslycolonized countries and also articulate our criticisms of anti-woman practices within them? How has the oppression of women in industrialized countries taken a subtle and insidious turn which is sometimes exported as "women's emancipation", and how can we prevent that exportation without reinforcing the more traditional forms of female oppression? And of course, finally, what are the origins of our oppression in every culture, and how are they related: what are strategies for eradicating sexism, and how much can we transfer strategies from one culture to another? While producing this issue, we have experienced some of the practical problems of communicating in- An Introduction/7 ternationally. Most of us in the US are English-language chauvinists. We are not familiar with trying to undestand something not written in our native tongue, and we are used to having access to an abundance of material in our own language. We not only take language for granted, but are also cut off from many important feminist writings because we have not sought to read or have translated the feminist literature not available in English. Reading material written outside of the US made us aware of how often our own writing is based in American experience and jargon that assumes it is international, but is in fact parochial and inaccessible to other women. For these reasons, we considered printing each article in this issue in its original language and leaving it to you, the readers, to discover the problems of translation, but we decided the content was too important to risk such an experiment. And finally, the process of putting this issue together reminded us of the tenuous hold we have over any of life's resources, including our channels of communication. We are utterly dependent on male international systems, such as the postal service, for all forms of communication. This dependence has caused us problems and taught us that patience is essential in dealing on an international scale. This issue only begins to touch the areas that must be explored before international feminism is a living reality. Its purpose is to contribute to awakening a greater concern, particularly among US feminists, for exchange among women throughout the world. Such an exchange must be based on seeing ourselves as equals — women engaged in creating an international dialogue grounded in our respect for both our common and our differing experiences. 8/Quest photograph by Emily Medvec Can Feminism Be a Global Ideology? By DEVAKI JAIN graphics by Scarlet Cheng In international gatherings, the brown and black women usually bristle with animosity when the women's liberation movement or feminism is mentioned. There is an immediate rejection of the philosophy as inappropriate, not only because of the economic differences between the West and Asia, Africa and Latin America, but because of the cultural differences. Feminism usually is seen as an antimale philosophy or a malemimicking quest for equality which is unattractive in its perception, unnecessary for us and inappropriate to our political economies. Is this animosity justified? What are these differences and do they suggest a different ideology? It is my view that some of this rejection may be based on mistaken notions of what feminism is about and the tendency to think that feminism and the women's liberation movement are synonymous. As I perceive it, feminism and the women's liberation movement are not synonymous. The essense of feminism is a belief in the separate identity of the female. Feminists want this separateness to be moulded into a force which presses society to accept and accommodate femaleness as equal, even if different, in its attributes. Feminists also believe that only women uniting as women can generate such a force for change. On the other hand, the women's liberation movement — which is by no means a homogeneous movement — consists of many local thrusts and pressures and accommodates a diversity of approaches. Even women belonging to the same country, the same village, strongly differ in their approach to female emancipation, so it is no surprise that certain thrusts of the movement associated with the West are found distasteful in the East. Hence, if feminism as an ideology is not totally identified with all local expressions of the women's liberation movement, there may be less rejection. Let us consider some illustrations of approaches in the Western countries which appear inappropriate elsewhere. Wages for Housework Take the Wages for Housework movement (as described in a speech by Selma James — who comes from a London-based group). While the rhetoric is a kind of feminism heavily dosed with Marxism, the struggle is to have the State reward housework. This means that whoever does work which is classified as householdbound is engaged in economically productive activity, and therefore, Can Feminism Be a Global Ideology?/9 like any other producer, deserves a wage. James' demand was for the State to pay this — perhaps some would say that the husband should pay. How would this demand appear in an economy with massive chronic unemployment and an acute shortage of the financial resources necessary to utilize the unemployed labour force? Women might want to be employed with an income, and to some, employment at home may be ideal. But in a scarce resource situation, would housework deserve priority over production of food in schemes that generate employment? Where would finances be raised for this? The idealists may say to reduce defense expenditure or steel mills and pay the women, but in some socio-political contexts that option may not be open. Further, would poor rural women scraping together twigs and berries for a meal in a shack feel that payment for this work is their basic demand? Another dimension to this difference lies in the nature of agrarian economies with large "peasant households," where the whole household works. Women and the old engage in much activity that is economically productive, even in the conventional sense, but which is unpaid and confined to the household, such as grain processing, preparation of household articles, textiles, etc. Many items purchased in the market in advanced economies are produced at home for self-consumption. When women are not even paid for this work, what is the context for paying them for cooking and cleaning? What may look like a sensible or plausible demand in a full employment economy with some access to wealth may be impossible in poorer surpluslabour economies. Female vs. Male Another illustration of perceived attitudes from the women's liberation movement that often do not find acceptance here is the anti-male or female-versus-male stand taken by some groups. One off-shoot of this is the idea that if it is proven that women are superior to men, somehow injustice can be reversed. Another corollary is the often unconscious thrust to imitate men or take their lifestyles as the goal for women. These female-versus-male attitudes are often rejected because of concepts in both Eastern religious and agrarian peasant work patterns that are based on the assumption of unity and complementary functions of male and female. For example, some religions reject the idea that maleness and femaleness are independent of each other, such as the half-man). This idea of the "oneness" of male and female finds operative value in the peasant agrarian household where often superstition bans activities according to sex but where without the two uniting, an object cannot be made or a task completed. For example, in agriculture, some believe that women should not touch the plough and men should not sow the seed, but if the two combine the crop will be plentiful. In an agrarian economy where survival depends on the economic output of the household, it emerges as a 10/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 Feminism — Global Ideology?/ll unit where males and females complement each other. They see each other's importance and weave a life where they can maximise the yield to the household from these efforts. Hence the conflict that exists between the male and female is not easily perceived in these systems. Another illustration of different perceptions has to do with motherhood, which in most of these brown/black areas is a high status sought after by females. While women may feel oppressed by too many births or by domination and exploitation by men, they still take pride in being mothers. They are not eager to have men become 'mothers' — to do nurturing and caring — and often find the idea comical. Nor do they want to be males. Separateness vs. Similarity In a sense this distaste for a philosophy where equality is understood to be similarity to men, is essentially feminist, as I understand it. Woman-power can be mobilized more creatively and effectively on the basis of a separate identity than on a similarity between the sexes. The Black Power Movement illustrates the success of this approach. As long as Negroes wanted assimilation on the basis of claiming similarity or appeals to liberal attitudes, they remained disunited as well as neglected. But once they decided to assert their essential differences, and segregated themselves from whites — whether poor or rich — their mobilization was vibrant and dynamic. Self-confidence is the beginning of all power. The recognition of self as valuable for being what it is can be a strong basis for solidarity among the oppressed whether black in a white society, female in a male dominated society or Muslim in a Hindu society. Separatism, however, is not a new political philosophy. Its advantages and disadvantages have been discussed for centuries, and obviously, as in most philosophical debates, there is no self-evident correct choice. It all depends on who you are and how it looks to you. In India, regarding the strategy for ensuring justice for the untouchables (they are referred to as Harijans or Scheduled Castes in today's India), there was a strong controversy between Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar (a Harijan leader) around this issue of separation. Dr. Ambedkar wanted the Harijans to dissociate themselves from the religion which practiced untouchability (Hinduism) and converted millions of Harijans to Buddhism. (Christianity also attracted its largest proportion of converts from this class). Dr. Ambedkar also wanted to press for a separate political party of Harijans and reserved accommodation for them in all the roads to opportunity and power. Gandhi rejected this separation by appealing to the virtues of unity, compassion, self-purification. The Harijans are already isolated, he argued, and would further be isolated if they separated. Gandhi's perception of the human being was of the loving being who can be healed by being shown his error. It was not only the Harijans who were suffering, he said, so too the caste Hindus who ill-treated them, as they suf- 12/Quest fered morally/spiritually. The two would become "one" when this was recognised. In this debate, Gandhi won. Since the condition of the Harijans has not improved much, supporters of the Harijan community suggest that their continued oppression is because of this rejection of separatism. They believe that they could have had greater power through solidarity than through integration. Another rejection of separatism comes from a different political quarter — Marxism. In this case, the class is asked to unite against the oppressors irrespective of colour and religion and sex. Any attempt at seeking a separate identity within the classes is seen as betrayal of the class struggle. The Marxists' say: First throw out the system, then let us sort out our differences, or the exploiter will divide and rule. However, all evidence points out that the poor/the workers are not a homogeneous lot. And women are the largest sub-set of the poor whose interests do not coincide with the men of their own class. Indian demographic data of the last forty years raises many grave doubts about the proposition that sex should not divide the working class. While economic development of a sort has been taking place — not enough but more food, more schools, more health facilities, etc. — the discrepancy between the conditions for males and females has been widening. Among infants, females die at higher rates than males; this persists right up to middle age and the gap between these rates is increasing. The same gap between male and females is true in literacy. In India, and globally, women are displaced from incomingearning opportunities with technological progress or other forms of "modernization." When Marxists associate exploitation with the advent of capitalism, there often is sentimental yearning for pre-capitalist society, symbolised in the peasant society. Here man, woman and child worked harmoniously in one household producing for self -consumption with no surplus, no exploitation. Extending this picture, it is often argued that women had positive fundamental roles to play in a peasant society and therefore status. But was pre-capitalist society really all that perfect for women? Parts of traditional India a century ago could still be considered peasant society and many households today still resemble the peasant household. In such societies, female infanticide was practiced, along with Suttee (cremation of a widow on the funeral pile of her husband), dowry (payment by bride to bridegroom) and polygamy. Does this indicate that equal economic roles ensure equality with, or respect by, males? In my view it indicates that whatever the economic system, there was and still is, inequality between the sexes. The economic system does not provide the solution, as it only resolves one area of conflict. Economic independence and strength may be a necessary but is not a sufficient condition for assuring women's liberty. Unity within the Sex Can one ask Indian women to quietly accept devastation until the Feminism — Global Ideology?/l3 14/Quest system is changed? Obviously the benefits of development are accruing unequally between the sexes. There is a case for unity within the sex and a need for pressure for equalizating the inequity. The experiences of women seem to suggest that whatever the standard of living and the economic system, women feel exploited, are oppressed and get unequal shares of and/or access to development. There may be sharp differences among women from different cultures and economies on the issues of who is the enemy and what are women's real needs. There may also be strong feelings about the attitude towards men — depending on the base relationship in that situation between men and women. Hence the mainspring of action may not be antimale, but that should not be considered the inverse of female solidarity. Solidarity need not be against something but just for something. There seems to be a case for women to unite for their preservation and growth within the class, whether poor, or peasants or comrades. In this sense, there is a case for separatism at least in the first round. It follows then that there is a case for feminism — and that this would be relevant irrespective of stages of economic growth, culture or religion. If feminism is to flourish and grow as a uniting philosophy for women as a sex — and certainly it has the seeds for such a life — then women need to identify themselves as a sex for their greater strength and acceptance. However, female unity can only be a means to an end — namely equality. It is necessary because the base-line situation is one of inequality. It is here then that we see that separatism can only be a first step. It cannot be the goal. If the unity of women separated them from men, as a final result, then the very roots of sexual identity are removed. Women have to engage in tar more reflection in order to specify their goals, not in terms of equality alone but in terms of social organization. A central issue would be the family — whether its conventional form is suited to women's quest. Perhaps women will divide across cultures in their views but that should not matter. It is a point on which feminists should think globally as well as separately — assessing models as they exist in different cultures and choosing what seems 'ideal'. They should construct together and separately the world in which they can imagine their fulfillment. In all these endeavours, a globally uniting feminism can be invaluable, for it brings diverse experiences together and provides the base for reflection and choice. Devaki Jain is a researcher and writer with the Institute of Social Studies in New Delhi, India. Feminism — Global Ideology?/l5 etters Sisters, I just finished reading "Race, Class, & Culture". It was laid on me last month, as an assignment for my study group. Reading it made me feel once more, connected to other Black Feminists. For the last two years, I've been searching all the feminist papers and journals that I could find for information on "Third World" feminists. Needless to say I found little. Last year I tried to join the National Black Feminist Organization, but I was too late. I've tried to find a Black Feminist newspaper, but no luck. M aybe I searched wrong or didn't look far enough but I found nothing. Here in Albany there's only three black feminists who are "out", i.e. attend meetings and women's functions. As far as I can see, and it's pretty easy to tell, I am the only active one. Sometimes, I feel like an extinct item. I still feel selfconscious in crowds of feminists and am always expecting women to expect me to be the expert on poor women and our problems. When I was handed Quest, I felt both excitement and depression. Because as much as I wanted to read it, I felt I couldn't as I had tried before and couldn't understand it as I only have a tenth grade education. Reading it was difficult and I reread a lot of things and had to look up a lot of words, but it was well worth it. I was taken out of the black community at eleven and placed in an all white girls school (360 students, only 4 blacks). For close to ten years I have had very little to do with the community, now I find myself, full circle, working in the community. The racism that's in me is frightening. For so long I as a poor black, lived in a white, middle class world and so much of that is me. It shames me to think of the times I've turned my back on my culture and my people. I'm now trying to overcome my years of brainwashing, but am in desperate need of support. The women of the feminist community try, but can't understand. Could you please send me the address of the National Alliance of Black Feminists? In Sisterhood, Yvette Middleton Albany, New York Dear Yvette, We are sorry that we didn't print the address with the article. We have had several inquiries for National Alliance of Black Feminists 202 So. State, Suite 1024 Chicago, Illinois 60604 The Editors 16/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 Dear Quest Editors: We were of course gratified that three of our members were quoted in Bev Fisher's article, "Race & Class: Beyond Personal Politics," (Quest, vol. Ill, #4, Spring, 1977). However, we would like to point out that working class women in general and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women (NCNW) in particular have a very different view of the Displaced Homemakers bill. NCNW endorsed it as an important new working class issue and is actively supporting it. Marie Casella, one of the working class women quoted in your article, testified in favor of the bill at a special conference held in The White House in June, 1977. We were active in pushing for the New York State bill (it passed) and are now pressing for passage of the Federal bill which will be considered by the Congress in the Fall session. Despite Bev Fisher's flat statement that the Displaced Homemaker's bill advocates "job training for one group of women so they will be able to hire household workers," we hope the editorial staff will take a little harder look at this legislation with working class women in mind. The bill will affect millions of working class women — black, brown and white. Most working class women do not take on an extra job outside the home unless they are in need of money. What jobs they can get are usually low level and low paid and therefore inadequate for their needs when the other wage earner in the family dies or leaves. This is true even when they are young women. When they are between forty and sixty (the women covered by the Displaced Homemakers bill), they are often in dire circumstances with no place to turn but welfare. They are too young for social security, too unskilled for decent paying jobs, and too "old" to be considered "desirable" employees in a sexist marketplace. In addition, many who worked only in the home, may never be entitled to social security at all. For all the above reasons, we think the Displaced Homemakers Act serves a real need for working class women. We hope Quest will reexamine it and join us in support. Sincerely, Jane Field NCNW-Displaced Homemakers Committee Brooklyn, N.Y. Letters/17 On the Political Economy of Domestic Labour By ANJA MEULENBELT, Johanna's Daughter graphics by Joanna Vogelsang Introduction Dutch feminists are in a rather privileged position: we get all the interesting material from the surrounding countries. We read about the French, English, German, and American movements. But the exchange is one-sided. Only the Dutch read Dutch. To change that, we've translated some of the material that's in use in the socialist feminist movement in the Netherlands. This article was written two years ago and is already dated. It has been widely used by both feminist and socialist groups. Justified criticism and new material have been collected since then, and although I have considered re-writing it, I decided that the article would have to be altered so much that I might as well write a completely new one. Instead, I've decided to list the shortcomings of the article as it stands. 1. The article puts too much emphasis on the economic value of domestic labour and not enough on the ideological side of the matter. At the time this article was written we were so excited by the discovery that sexism was not simply an ideological issue but an economic one as well that we turned too much to that side. Reading the article, one might think that the family is just a place for the production of labour power. If it were written now, much more would be added about the family and political consciousness, about the way sexism as an ideology permeates the family. When we put the material on wage labour beside material on power relations in the family, we find a strong correlation between a low position in the workplace, and a tendency to find an alternative status as a 'man' outside it. In a way, oppressing women keeps oppressed men satisfied. And in that way, indirectly, capitalism profits from women's oppression, not only from their material work. 2. Following the first point, we now know more about what domestic labour meant in different historical periods and in different social layers of the population. The labourprocess has changed (documented by Harry Braverman, in Labor and Monopoly Capital) and so has domestic labour. More should be written about the way in which the IS/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 degradation of labour puts a heavier burden on the housewife. 3. An important shortcoming in the article is that little is said about the function of the State. It seems as if the only relation between capitalism and the family is through the labour power of wage labourers. We need to work out reasons why the State came to take control over large parts of the reproduction of labourpower that were previously a domestic task (such as education, health, and social work). 4. More should be said about the effects of the current economic and political crisis on the lives of women, both at home and in wage labour, especially since this is already welldocumented in England. 5. Finally, more could be said about the relation between capitalist social relations and patriarchy, about the way in which sexism is not only a tool of capitalism, but also much more than that; and so, about the relation between feminism and socialism. Still, we hope to give you an impression of what is being done in the Netherlands.* Amsterdam, Feb. 23, 1977 "You are no historical category/' a (male) Marxist once furiously snapped at me. He meant that he did not like women to organize themselves as a group outside the labour movement, for he did not understand what common ties women had that could be as important as the tie that binds people who are dependent on wages. In this article we shall begin a redefinition of women's position based *Quest is printing a shortened version of the original paper. on the whole of women's experiences. We cannot confine ourselves to what has already officially been labeled 'relevant to the class struggle.' To discover the material basis of sexism we should look beyond women's dependence on wages to the amount of work women perform in their families, and to the ways that influence their consciousness. Economic oppression goes hand in hand with ideological oppression. The power relations in the family are determined both by women's subordination to men and by the subordination of men and women to capital. In the following article we briefly describe the classic Marxist analyses of the position of housewives with reference to the main articles on the subject.1 We then discuss the dialectical relationship between women's position in wage work and their function in the home. Finally, we bring together the various interests of capital in maintaining the position of women in the nuclear family, and we consider the contradictions between these interests. Traditional Marxist Analysis Engels was particularly important in developing the theory that women's oppression is inherent in the capitalist system even if women's domination by men, the patriarchy, had existed long before. His view of the position of women was developed in a period in which the work of the family was gradually being taken over by industry. Men, and often wives and children, were forced to enter wage work to keep the family alive. Engels expected that, as On the Political Economy of Domestic Labour/19 production gradually disappeared from the family and women were increasingly pressed to enter wage work, the remaining domestic labour would be taken over by public services. A socialist revolution would on women's position. Women's emancipation is measured by women's participation in the production process, not by men's participation in the reproduction process, pending its socialization. But follow and the socialization of production and domestic labour would culminate in a network of collective state services: creches,* dining rooms, laundries. Engels' views led to the slogan, "Women in wage work to develop a revolutionary potential." Since Engels, essentially no new Marxist theory has been developed *Creche is the British word for day care center. women's domestic labour has not been taken over by the public sector, as Engels expected. And we have not much reason to suppose that this will happen as long as capital has so little interest in the socialization of domestic labour. Moreover, in those cases in which men and women both have full-time jobs, women appear to take on a second shift. The problem is now: Is the family really only a superstructural phenomenon? Why 20/Quest does it still exist? What is the function of domestic labour? And what does it mean for the strategy of women's liberation and ultimately the strategy for changing the capitalist society? Feminist Interest In Housewives The failure of the leftist movement to make an anlaysis that was specifically relevant to women has been one of the causes of the rise of the second feminist wave. Almost anyone in the leftist movement felt a curious resistance against analysing her/his own attitude towards women: concrete conditions of living were not to be discussed. The division in leftist discussions between 'political' and 'personal' correlated with the contrast between the functions of men (wage labour) and women (domestic labour). Only the work that was directly related to production was considered politically relevant. Women's work— caring, supporting, absorbing tensions, etc. — was not considered labour. The leftist movement therefore found it impossible to interpret the conflicts between men and women as other than private matters. It was only in the feminist movement that we discovered that the division between personal and political matters, also manifest in leftist groups, correlates with the division between production (political) and reproduction (personal). The Lines Meet: The First Feminist-Marxist Analysis Margaret Benston, in the early seventies, wrote an important article attempting to examine the material basis of women's oppression.2 She was the first to see that the family is still a production unit. Women's oppression, she argues, is therefore not so much due to the marginality of their work, as to the way her work has been subordinated to both capital and wage labour. Benston compares domestic labour with peasants' or serfs' argricultural labour, a type of production that had already been in existence before the rise of capitalism. The housewife bears responsibility for the simple production of use values for consumption by members of the family, a task which has by no means been taken over by industry. Hodee Edwards carries the argument a step further in her article "Housework and Exploitation."3 When a man is hired to do a job, she states, the labour power he sells is a commodity that is his, but one which the housewife produced without receiving any wage. In all other cases this would be called slavery. It is an anachronism. Consequently there is not only a contradiction between capital and wage labour, but also between wage labour and the pre-capitalist slave labour of housewives. Within the capitalist system we can see remnants of patriarchal ownership relations in which women are men's property. The idea that a woman is a man's property appears to exist implicitly even in unsuspected circles. Marx wrote, "But now the capitalist buys children and young persons under age. Previously the workman sold his labour-power, which he disposed of nominally as a free agent. Now he sells wife and child. He has become a slavedealer."4 Domestic Labour/21 One can criticize these rough analyses of the women who first looked for a material basis for women's oppression. It is true, domestic labour seems to bear a likeness to agricultural labour: it is production for one's own subsistence. But agricultural production will gradually lose importance as farmers become dependent on wages in agricultural industries. Those who describe domestic labour as a precapitalist phenomenon imply that it will change just as the farmer's position is changing. Housewives, however, are not a dying species as yet; a number of tasks performed by today's housewives are so labourintensive, and would therefore be so expensive if they were performed in wage labour, that there is not much hope that this situation will soon change by itself.5 Maria Rosa dalla Costa and Selma James developed a second theory in the initial stages of the search for the connection between domestic labour and the capitalist system.6 They take the line that housewives produce the main commodity necessary for carrying on production: they produce the worker himself. Housewives are unpaid workers in the proletariat, exploited by their husbands as well as by capital. The strategy for the feminist movement should be, therefore: STRIKE. No domestic labour should be done until women, like men, are paid for their work. The subsequent analyses of Secombe, Gardiner, Himmelweit, Vogel, to name a few, have effectively refuted James and dalla Costa, who have confused two things: the general definition of productive' as 'useful' with the strictly Marxist definition of 'productive' as 'creating surplus, value.' Domestic labour does not fall within the latter definition because the housewife does not sell her labour power for wages.7 This point is not only important for Marxist purists. The very fact that capital cannot draw surplus value from domestic labour determines the way in which the latter is organised. It is labour necessary for the continuation of the production process, but as long as the housewife can go on reproducing workers day after day and generation after generation, the capitalist does not care how many hours she spends each day, nor whether she works efficiently, or has the right appliances. This is one of the main reasons why socialization of domestic labour has lagged so much behind socialization of productive labour. The later analyses lead us to suspect that domestic labour is a separate economic category that can neither be described in terms of 'productive' or 'unproductive,' nor explained as a pre-capitalist phenomenon. The Housewife's Life Eighty-five to ninety percent of women are housewives, which means that they are responsible for the care of husband and/or children and/or other members of the family without receiving any wages.8 It is generally thought that housewives have little to do — they are mainly seen as consumers; they 'do not work'; they are 'kept' by their husbands. This 'absence of work' certainly takes a surprisingly long working week. Nearly all studies find that the housewive's working week lies 22/Quest between 50 and 100 hours a week.9 The average working week of British housewives with one little child or more is 77 hours a week. This is 7 hours more than 15 years ago.10 Domestic labour brings about some very characteristic symptoms. Many women are chronically tired. A much-heard complaint of housewives is that they are dead-tired at the end of the day from being constantly busy, but that they do not know what they have done. Domestic labour hardly ever yields a visible product. Clean floors will be full of muddy footprints within an hour; meals take half an hour to disappear. Indeed, much of the housewife's work only becomes visible when it is not done. There is a specific form of alienation inherent in the housewife's existence: invisible work that must be done and for which nothing is received in return.11 The difference between the work of a housewife and that of a wage worker becomes clear when we put them side by side. The wage worker sells his labour power as a commodity for a certain period in exchange for a wage paid in money; the rest of the time is his; there is a sharp distinction between work and leisure.12 From an emotional and a physical viewpoint he sees production and consumption as two completely different activities. For the housewife the house is her workplace; even in her leisure hours she does not get away from it. For her there is no sharp distinction between work and leisure, neither in place nor in time. She gets no wage for her work and no one other than herself is interested in the amount of time she spends in doing her work, as long as it is done. She is under no direct capitalist pressure to increase her productivity per hour. Relation Between Housewives and Capital Housewives seem to work only for the members of their families, with whom they have emotional rather than monetary ties. There is an apparent exchange of tasks in the family that has nothing to do with production relations: the husband hands over his wage, the wife gives physical and mental care in return. The fact that capital has an obvious interest in maintaining that structure is overlooked. The interest of capital in maintaining that structure is overlooked. The interest of capital in maintaining the family becomes visible when we think of what would happen if every worker had to look after himself in addition to doing his job. He would have substantially less energy for his tasks in the production process and less work could be squeezed out of him per hour. If, instead of caring for himself, he looked for substitute services in the public sector (restaurants, laundries, charwomen, and so on), he would certainly need a higher wage.13 Today's wages are actually based on the presumption that they are not only set off by the man's labour power, but also by the housewife's. Domestic labour really consists in the, reproduction of the commodity, labour power. Relation Between Consumption And Reproduction: Subsistence Level Up to now, Marxist theory has left a mysterious gap between the mo- Domestic Labour/23 tftftjtimt 'Mvf- 24/Quest ment the worker takes home his wage and the moment he resells his labour power. This intervening period has been called 'consumption/ thus concealing the fact that a packet of soup, bought with wages, only becomes consumable by adding the housewife's labour. Marx never denied that consumption and reproduction of labour power were two aspects of the same phenomenon. Labour power is a commodity, and its production is essential for capital because it is the only commodity that creates value and therefore the only one from which surplus value can be drawn. Like any other commodity labour power has two aspects: the aspect of its exchange value and that of its use value. The use value of labour power is the amount of work carried out by the worker; the exchange value of labour power is the socially necessary labour essential for its production. Aside from the contribution of public education and health care, the production of labour power in the family does not directly yield surplus value to capital. The conclusion can be drawn that domestic labour is a special economic category for which we as yet have no adequate term. It is the special character of domestic labour that it does not so much consist of a high production per hour as of a permanent availability in which production per hour is not important. If we look at domestic labour from yet another viewpoint,14 we reach the conclusion that the specific contribution of domestic labour to capital cannot be defined in terms of surplus value or even surplus labour but as a means to keep wages low. "The contribution which domestic labour makes to surplus value is one of keeping down necessary labour to a level that is lower than the actual subsistence level of the working class."15 The Housewife's New Task Which factors have influenced the lengthening of the housewife's working week are still matters for debate. Housewives appear to work even harder than they did previously — notwithstanding all the timesaving appliances. A possible factor is the economic crisis. When prices rise faster than wages, housewives must work harder. Higher qualifications for wage labour power is mentioned as another factor by Renate Bookhagen.16 This theory is still open for discussion. It is doubtful whether each individual worker has better qualifications than before, or whether there has been an increase in the qualifications of the working class as a whole due to further specialization.17 It is probably better to talk about the intensifying of labour as the important factor in the aggravation of the housewife's task. How the increase in the pace of work plus the economic crisis can aggravate the housewife's task becomes clear when there is a call for economy. This always begins in the so-called 'soft-sector': welfare work, health service, etc. Hospitals are forced to lower expenditures. This implies that they will less readily take in patients and that they will send patients home sooner. This in turn means that the average housewife will have to work harder. But no one will notice as long as this concerns Domestic Labour/25 only individual women each caring for her own individual patient.18 We can also trace the increased burden of the housewife in the women's magazines. After the first wave of articles on education, there is now a real increase in instruction for improving the marital relationship. A good housewife does not only cook wholesome meals, she also prepares varied and sometimes exotic dishes; the house should not only be clean, but also well-decorated (more leisure hours are spent around the TV and less in the pub). All these different tendencies are difficult to weigh but it is clear that the increase of the housewife's burden is not only the result of subjective factors, of the ideology of the good housewife, the women's magazines trying to seduce women to an ever-increasing consumption by eternally dictating new fashions in clothes, furniture, dishes. There are, at the same time, material factors at work. Power Relations Within The Family The wage form only obscures matters for the worker who appears to be rewarded for his labour, not for his hiring out of labour power. Actually, both housewife and breadwinner supply their labour power against payment for their reproduction cost. But the incoming money seems to be the result of the man's labour, not his wife's, because the man sells his labour power in the market and the woman works at home outside direct production. Because the husband receives the wage as his own well-earned money, he also has the possibility to spend it as he thinks fit. This creates a mock relation in the family resembling the one between employer and employee. According to Engels, the husband is the bourgeois party in the family, and the wife, the proletariat.19 The husband's welfare is far more important than the wife's because she has been made dependent on the wage the man brings home. In the above paragraphs we put the wage worker and the housewife side by side, and assumed that housewives work primarily at home. In the Netherlands, however, onethird of the women are engaged in wage work and the number of married women entering work is still growing. The very interaction between both spheres is important. The fact that women in paid employment are housewives at the same time is reflected in their consciousness. In Marxist analysis we have learned to define political consciousness as the awareness of being dependent on wages, but housewives do not see themselves as dependent on wages. All too often the argument has been reversed, and it has been said that women cannot develop political consciousness from their own situation unless they are wage workers. If we define political consciousness as the power to read one's own material position and to understand its connection with capitalist production relations, it will be clear that housewives too can reach this insight from their own experiences and situations. Wage workers meet each other in places where they are exploited; they see that the boss profits by them. Women are isolated from each other. The ideology of the good housewife plays an important 26/QUest NON-TRANSFERABLE EXCEPT UNDER CONDITIONS PRESCRIB part in leading discontented women to blame themselves or some illchosen husband. A man who loathes his work and revolts is called classconscious. A woman who loathes her work and revolts is called frustrated, neurotic and unfeminine. In addition, women have very limited concrete possibilities for giving shape to their revolt. Collective resistence hardly exists, individual betterment is only reserved for a small group of women. To strike is almost impossible: you can hardly starve your children to wrest better labour conditions from capital. Because domestic labour is related to capital in indirect and complicated ways, housewives find it difficult to discern against whom or what they should revolt. The old patriarchal and new capitalist forms of oppression meet in the family. If it is true that housewives are a drag on the class struggle (as was the case, for instance, in a British strike where women tried to break the strike more with the family interest — bread on the shelf than with the class interest),10 the reversal is also true. Men are a drag on women's struggle for an independent existence. Even leftist men, even proletarian men, have difficulties in accepting that women do not belong in the kitchen by nature, especially if it implies that they must largely fend for themselves. During an Islington strike not so long ago in which women had occupied a factory, the strongest resistance did not Domestic Labour/27 come from the manufacturer but from the men who were against the occupation because it forced them to cook their own dinner and sleep alone. Influence Of The Domestic Function On Women's Position In Wage Work Women's positions as housewives clearly influence their position in wage work and vice versa. Women earn on an average one-third less than men: they end up in typically female jobs that excel in monotony, lack of possibilities for promotion, with poor social provisions. The influence of domestic tasks on women's employment is clearly seen in Spittalsfield, the London working class neighbourhood that is the traditional housing district of workers in the textile industry. All the large well-paying firms moved their factories elsewhere. Only the small workshops have remained, the sweatshops that can only exist because of abominable payments and primitive working conditions. It is the women who land in these workshops because they have to look for work close enough to their homes to enable them to do their housework. Underpaid women's labour appears to be one of the mainstays of capitalism. As long as women primarily see themselves as housewives supported by husbands who regard women's wage work as a supplement to a man's wage, change will be long in coming. Another reason for women's low pay in wage labour is that 'skilled' labour is better paid than 'unskilled' labour and the very skills needed for 'unskilled' women's labour have already been learned at home in contrast with most of the men's skills. Their socialization as housewives weakens their negotiating position in the labour market. Because all women can clean, charwomen can endlessly be replaced. Moreover, women cost less in social provisions. When a married woman in the Netherlands is dismissed, she only has a right to half a year of unemployment benefits; after that her husband is supposed to support her again. Many labour exchanges do not enter married women as employment seekers, if they have not already worked somewhere else. Much unemployment is kept hidden; the official number of unemployed simply does not register a large number of unemployed married women. In this way women function as an elastic cheap labour reserve that can be drawn upon whenever industry needs more unskilled labour power and sent home whenever they are no longer needed, and this with a minimum of extra costs. In the strike of the Philips Helmond women in opposition to the removal of the factory, it became evident how little trade unions are alive to the woman's double burden. Transfer of the factory would have prevented them from being home in time to cook dinner. The largest trade union (NW) did not declare itself in solidarity with the strike; the Catholic trade union (NKV) did at first, but later on translated the demands of the occupying women in terms of general employment in Helmond. Neither the NKV nor the NVV recognized that women's labour conditions are not only deter- 28/Quest mined by their working conditions but also by their responsibility toward their families. On the one hand trade unions do not want to make different rules for women. On the other hand they do not demand creches and factory meals which would forestall women's need for exceptional treatment. Who Has An Interest In The Survival Of The Family? If we summarize the interests of capital in maintaining the family we find the following: (1) It is a cheap way of guaranteeing reproduction of labour power. It passes the responsibility for people's physical and mental health on to the family and especially to the housewife; (2) Domestic labour acts as a buffer in economic crisis. It absorbs the first blows and thus suppresses the wage struggle; (3) Consumption can be increased by keeping families isolated from each other; (4) The family is the place where children learn in play to identify sooner with family interests than with class interests. These factors hinder the socialization of domestic labour. As long as capital has so much interest in maintaining the family, capital expenditure in collective houseworkreplacing provisions is not to be expected. At the same time, there does exist a factor furthering its partial socialization of housework: (5) Women are cheap workers when they enter wage work, because they are primarily housewives. It follows from this that there is a contradiction in the various kinds of interest capital has in maintaining the family. There is a limit to women's exploitation and it has become clear that women working in both paid employment and their families are worn out sooner than men. As is the case with labourers employed in arduous jobs, most women with a double burden completely fail to reach the retirement age in their jobs. Reproduction of new workers is especially important for the capitalist system as a whole, but the individual capitalist's main interest lies in the direct exploitation of women in wage work. It is therefore not accidental that in times of expansion, when there is a greater demand for female workers, more action is taken to adapt working hours and make collective provisions for domestic work. A clear illustration of this point is the creche situation in Great Britain. Although the government decreed an increase in the number of centres for preschool children, there is a general tendency to economise in this kind of marginal provision. In Denmark, the creches have become so expensive that low-paid women can no longer use them. Collective provisions, says Renate Bookhagen, are only to be expected in a capitalist system when women will be so much absorbed by wage labour that the reproduction of labour power runs into danger.21 Provisions are always minimal and very vulnerable — as is the whole 'soft sector': education, health, welfare work. It is in short the kind of work that can immediately be replaced by the housewife's labour. Some Remarks In Conclusion Feminist-socialists assume that women's position is not only deter- Domestic Labour/29 mined by their possible dependence on wages, but by their position as housewives as well. There is a dialectical relationship between women's wage labour and their domestic labour. There is a relationship between women's domestic labour and capital, although an indirect and complicated one. With these data as a basis, the concept of 'the' class struggle should be considered anew. Many Marxists still maintain that the labour movement is fighting their battle for everyone, as opposed to the feminist movement which is representing only limited interests. We are not of this opinion. It is not only a matter of seeing how much women can contribute to The Class Struggle! It is also a matter of seeing how much the labour movement is contributing towards women's liberation. The socialist-feminist perspective should be the starting-point for developing the strategy of the feminist movement. We have too little practical experience as yet to be able to do this thoroughly; the second feminist wave is only about seven years old, the feminist-socialist current is younger still. For the time being, feministsocialists will have to try and live with a double loyalty: solidarity with the labour movement (coupled with a critical attitude towards its inherent sexism, blind spots and prejudices), and solidarity with the feminist movement (with a critical attitude toward the currents that can only see socialism as a liberation of men). / am indebted to my sisters of the London Political Economy of Women Group for much of the material I used. This article is also the result of research by the Dutch Socialist Feminist Group. This latter group came into being in 1973 as a result of some courses on feminism and socialism at the short term Residential Colleges in Baarn and Oisterwijk. FOOTNOTES 'Discussions on domestic labour are in fulL flow in Great Britain, and took place first in New Left Review. In the U.S. the magazines, Monthly Review, Socialist Revolution and Radical America published articles on this topic. In Canada, they appeared in Our Generation. 2Margaret Benston, "The Political Economy of Women's Liberation," in Voices from Women's Liberation, Leslie B. Tanner, ed. New York: Signet, 1971). Before this time Juliet Mitchell had written "Women; the longest revolution," New Left Review 40 (Nov.-Dec, 1966), 11-37. This article was the basis for her subsequent book, Woman's Estate. Mitchell took the view that the crux of women's oppression lay in the fact that women are excluded from production. She argued that they were superfluous at home as well and it is their marginality which stands in the way of their emancipation. Benston criticizes this view. 3Hodee Edwards, "Housework and Exploitation," No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation V (1971). Karl Marx, Capital I (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1958), p. 373. 5One example of the labour intensive character of women's work is pre-school child care. Several authors have calculated that, given the British government's standards for the ratio of nursery staff to children (one to five), and an average family of one and a half children per mother, socialization of childcare would mean that at least 30% of the women then free to do paid work in other fields would have to do professional child care. The twenty-four hour service of mothers is not even mentioned. Susan Himmelweit, Jean Gardiner, and Maureen Mackintosh, "Women's Domestic Labour," Paper presented at the Conference of Socialist Economists, London, 1975. 30/Quest *See The Power of Women and the Subversion of Community (Bristol: Falling Wall Press, 1971). Both Dalla Costa and James are members of the international Feminist- Marxist group claiming a wage for domestic labour. To a certain degree this group caused a polarisation in the British feminist movement between supporters and opponents of housewives' wages, but presently the greater part of feminist-socialists reject this strategy. 7See Wally Secombe, "The Housewife and Her Labour under Capitalism," New Left Review 83 (Jan. -Feb., 1974); Jean Gardiner, "Women's Domestic Labour," New Left Review 91 (Jan.-Feb., 1975); Lise Vogel, "The Earthly Family," Radical America VII (July- Aug., 1973). "Ann Oakley, The Sociology of Housework (London: Martin Robertson, 1974) argues that approximately 85% of British women between the ages of 16 and 64 are housewives, that is, are responsible for the domestic tasks essential to maintaining the family in which they live. 'See Benston, p. 284; 1955 research of the Landbouwhogeschool (college of agriculture) Wageningen, commissioned by the Nederlandse Huihoudraad (Dutch Domestic Council). 10See Ann Oakley, op. cit., pp. 93-94. "Ann Oakley gives detailed descriptions of what housewives experience, op. cit. 12Lutz Holzinger, Gesellschaftliche Arbeit und private Hauswirtschaft (Raitz Verlag, Starnberg, 1974) has calculated that the average working week of wage workers is not 40 hours but 47.6 hours due to commuting, and so on. Of the remaining leisure time, 60% is needed for physical recovery and 20% is spent on subsistence (household repairs). See p. 26. "There are different computations of the replacement value of a housewife. The Dutch family council estimated the value at from D. fl. 8,000 to 22,950 a year, depending on the number of children and the educational level of the housewife. Van Praag en Kapteyn estimates the value of a housewife with two children living at home, and a husband earning D. fl. 21,000 at D. fl. 6,000 a year ("Women's Emancipation in the light of Economy, facts and wishful thinking," in Economisch-Statistiche Berichten, 11/6/75). 14Secombe, op. cit., p. 12. "Gardiner, op. cit, p. 58. 16Renate Bookhagen, Frauenlohnarbeit, Zur Kritik von Untersuchungen uber die Lage erwerbstaatiger Frauen in der BRD (Frankfurt: Verlag Roter Stern, 1973). 17See G. Brandt, J. Kotz, and G. Steppke, "Zur Frauenfrage im Kapitalismus," (Frankfurt am Mainz: Suhrkamp, 1973) pp. 96ff. 96ff. 18In East Germany, where a far greater proportion of women do wage work, the ratio of hospital beds to population is 11 to 1000, whereas in Holland it is 5 to 100. ''Frederick Engels, Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State (New York: International Publishers, 1942) pp. 65 ff. 20See Jean Gardiner, op. cit., p. 65. 21Renate Bookhagen, op. cit. p. 27. Anja Meulenbelt, Johanna's Daughter, a lesbian single mother who defines herself as a socialist feminist, writes about feminism, teaches the science of change, participates in the women's caucus of a trade union, and is part of SARA, a feminist publishing collective in Amsterdam. Errata: Quest regrets the errors which appeared in Barbara Deming's article, "On Remembering Who We Are," in Kaleidoscope II (Vol. IV, No. 1). We are printing only those corrections which the author indicated are most serious to her meaning: On p. 52, first column, it should read, "And I think that the fact that most of these dialecticians have been men helps to explain why they have overlooked so much," instead of, "And I think that the fact that most of these dialectitians have been men helps to explain why they are overlooked so much." On p. 66, second column, the word "heresy" has twice been changed to "heresay" incorrectly. On p. 73, second column, the second paragraph should begin, "Engels writes that 'Without contradiction nothing would exist.' But one can also say, 'Without commonality nothing would exist.' In one piece of writing, Engels himself acknowledges this." Domestic Labour/31 Asian Women and Political Repression By SUGIARTI SISWADI Freedom has changed the face of the world it rules the mind, the heart and the person it dispels the mist hanging over the mountains, the valleys the shores, the fields, the factories and the cities and the heads of us, women. Now we are no longer just giving birth to worker soldiers. We too are worker soldiers. No longer just wives of people's heroes we too are people's heroes. And when the fortresses of obsolete time are smashed and worker's power stands proudly in our land we shall no longer only tend the graves read the prayers and weep for the dead. We shall be part of the foremost ranks. Mrs. Siswadi — a well-known Indonesian poet was arrested in 1966 and apart from a few months release in 1970 has been in prison for the past 10 years. Quest received this poem from Asian Women's Liberation (No. 1, May, 1977) who reprinted it from "Suffering and Hope; An Anthology of Asian Writings" Christian Conference of Asia Singapore, 1976. 32/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 Women in the Guinea-Bisseau Revolution By STEPHANIE URDANG photographs by Stephanie Urdang Editor's Introduction Against a backdrop of Portuguese oppressive taxation, forced labor, an illiteracy rate of 99 percent, and the utter absence of social services, PAIGC, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, was founded secretly in 1956. Ultimately, the organization shifted its mobilizing focus from the workers in towns to the peasants — 95 percent of the population —and, under the leadership of Amilcar Cabral, also trained young cadres in Conakry, the capital of neighboring Guinea. By January 1963, the guerilla war began, and some IIV2 years later, PAIGC had liberated two-thirds of the territory of Guinea-Bissau. In September, 1974, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), took over the government of the new Republic of Guinea-Bissau. For the first time in sub-Saharan Africa, a war of liberation forced a colonial power to withdraw. But more than guerrilla victories distinguish PAIGC This is a shortened version of an article to be published in Spring, 1978, in the Review of African Political Economy, Sutterance Wharf, 2 West Ferry Road, London, E14, England. (together with MPLA and FRELIMO, the revolutionary forces of Angola and Mozambique respectively), from other African independence movements: PAIGC aims to build a society based on mass participation of the people and on eradication of all forms of exploitation, whether on the basis of race, ethnic group, religion or sex. The successes of PAIGC can best be measured by the way in which the masses of the people participated in that armed struggle, the way in which the fundamentals of the state were built, and, most importantly, the way in which a new woman and a new man began to emerge out of the revolutionary experience. In this context, emphasis on the liberation of women can be looked at in more detail. Portuguese exploitation of the area began five hundred years ago, with the highly lucrative slave trade. But the Portuguese completed domination of Guinea-Bissau only in the late 1920s when, with the rise of fascism in Portugal, their methods became brutal in the extreme. Guinea-Bissau was not blessed with the vast mineral resources of Angola and Mozambique. Moreover, its small size and difficult climate discouraged the Women in the Guinea-Bisseau Revolution/33 colonizers from establishing large plantations with forced labor. Instead, they extracted its wealth by heavy taxes and forced the people to cultivate peanuts on their own land. In order to pay taxes, peasants traded their peanuts, rice and palm oil to Portuguese stores at arbitrarily-set, rock-bottom prices. This concentration on peanuts as the cash crop weakened the peoples' already fragile subsistence on rice. Without adequate labor to produce both, they grew less rice and became more impoverished with the flourishing of political repression. To quote Cabral, "National liberation, war on colonialism, building of peace and progress, independence — all that will remain meaningless for the people unless it brings a real improvement in conditions of life." The Portuguese colonialist presented a visible and common enemy. During the war, differences of religion, ethnic group and sex were submerged in a sense of national unity. But the involvement of women in the revolution was a goal from the onset, not an afterthought brought about through necessity. Mobilizers went into the countryside in 1960; they spoke of the need for women to participate equally in the revolution and thus end their own dual exploitation. A PAIGC directive of the early '60s states: "defend the rights of women, respect and make others respect women (whether as children, young girls or adults), but persuade the women of our country that their liberation must be their own achievement on the basis of their work, dedication to the Party, self-respect, personality and decisiveness toward everything that can act against their dignity."1 Armed struggle was never viewed as the final stage of the revolution. Therefore, the concept of equality was integrated into the ideology of PAIGC at its inception, and then was put into practice in numerous notable ways which would have been considered extraneous by mere nationalists, who, traditionally, have given women responsibility only when responding to some specific necessity of a guerilla war. Women in the Revolution From the beginning of political mobilization for the war of liberation, the need to liberate women was an explicit and integral part of the overall revolution: "Our revolution will not be successful unless it ensures the full participation of women," said Amilcar Cabral, founder of PAIGC. Carmen Pereira, one of the organization's top leaders, affirmed these ideas when she said, "In Guinea-Bissau, we say that women are fighting against two colonialisms — one against the Portuguese, the other against men." In order to achieve that emancipation, PAIGC believed that an ongoing struggle must be waged by the women themselves; their liberation was never seen as something that would conveniently be realized along with the coming of independence. A PAIGC document states, "In our country, women have almost always been kept out of political affairs, of decisions concerning the life which they nonetheless support, thanks to their anonymous daily work." 2 Regardless of considerable diversity 34/Qwesf, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 Women still carry the major burden for production and preparation of food. Women in a village in the south of independent Guinea-Bissau. in religion and ethnicity, Guinea- Bissau women were inevitably responsible for well over half of the agricultural work and for all the village work — cleaning, washing, minding children, cooking. Maria Sa, a member of a sector committee in the south, spoke about this: "You want to know how we women suffered?" she asked. "First, it was the women who pounded, it was the women who fished, it was Guinea-Bisseau Revolution/35 the women who cooked for the men. "In addition to all of this, if his clothes were dirty, it was we women who washed them. Nice and clean. Because if the man walked into the village wearing dirty clothes and people saw him like that, who did it reflect on? Why, the women! Not the men. We do not like this or want this. All these things are ways in which women suffered. As for the men, the only thing they did was till the land. Once the men tilled the land and the rice began to grow, we were then responsible for everything after that. The women alone harvested the rice, and we had to transport it without their help to the village. "This, I tell you, is how all women were suffering." Needless to add, men's work also brought more status and more leisure. Women were expected to defer even to men in their own age groups. And almost without exception, men were responsible for the decision-making process, whether they were chiefs or elders. Women did not accept this situation without question, but they could do little within the traditional3 society to change it. Nevertheless, at first few women attended the mobilization meetings. To make sure that at least a few did, representatives were chosen from each village to report to the others at home. Female participation grew slowly; Bwetna N'dubi, regional deputy to the National Assembly, was one of the first of these participating peasant women: "I first heard about women's rights at the beginning of mobilization," she told me. "I un- Member of the People's Court of a Fula (Muslim) village (center). Three-member Courts were elected in each village or group of villages throughout the liberated zones. 36/Quest derstood what was being said immediately — that equality is necessary and possible. Today, I work together with men, having more responsibility than many men. This is not only true for me. I understand that I have to fight together with other women against the domination of men. But we have to fight twice, once to convince women and the second time to convince men, that women have to have the same rights as men." She was a member of the first elected village council, established soon after the area had been liberated, as a means of replacing the traditional male elders and chiefs, and as a way to carry out party work, handle the daily organization of life in the village, and to provide support for the war. PAIGC had earlier stipulated that at least two of the five members of the new council be women, and to circumvent male resistance, had made the women councilors responsible for the supply of rice for the guerrillas. As an extension of traditional work over which women already had considerable control — the provision of funds — this role for women was readily accepted by the men, and thus the integration of women into a decision-making body was achieved, and brought with it recognition and increased status for women. Women did not play an equal role in the military, however. At the beginning of the war, many fought in the national militia. But when the guerrillas were reorganized to combat a fiercer level of fighting, women were encouraged to join the nursing corps or to operate radios. PAIGC reasoned that since there were more than enough men available for the Army, the situation in Guinea-Bissau was unlike that in Mozambique and Vietnam, for instance, and that hence it was not necessary for women to take part in armed combat. In addition, PAIGC decided that overcoming traditional opposition to recruiting women as regular soldiers would be a protracted process which would slow down the war. Therefore, it carried out the fight in the liberated zones instead, where time was on the side of the guerrilla forces and where improved conditions, directly attributable to PAIGC, created a favorable atmosphere for change. (Toward the end of the war, women soldiers were again being trained, but peace came before they could see action.) The question of women in the military, however, should be seen in a broader context. Again, PAIGC emphasized that the war was only a transitory phase in the building of a new society: "There is no point to our struggle if our only goal is to drive out the Portuguese. We want to drive out the Portuguese and build a new society.... Every man and woman must learn that work is their first duty, and that workers in the country are useful to the cause.... The armed struggle is very important, but the most important thing of all is an understanding of our people's situation. Our people support the armed struggle. We must assure them that those who bear arms are the sons of our people, and that arms are no better than the tools of labor. Between one man carrying a gun and another carrying a tool, the more important of the two is the man with the tool."4 Nonetheless, the fact that women Guinea-Bisseau Revolution/37 were not armed may be potentially problematical: guns and power are often equated. It is to be hoped that women's increased vigilance against men's attempts to dominate them will counteract the fact that they have not been armed. The Liberated Zones Teodora Gomes, a Regional Political Commissar in the South Front during the war, spoke of the continuing need to fight sexist attitudes: "It is one of the aspects of our society that has been present, still is present and will continue to be present for a long time. Men have very particular ideas about women. At the beginning of the struggle, when women and men first began working together, the men brought with them these ideas from their previous experience. They found it difficult to regard women as comrades or to treat them with the respect due to them — as persons equal in the struggle and working for the same goal... We continue to struggle very hard against this, and, I can say, there has been a very perceptible change over the years. Nonetheless, we cannot deny that these problems still exist, despite our efforts." Of the many changes now transforming the lives of peasant women, however, one of the most important is the firm stand PAIGC has taken against customs detrimental to women: "Oppose without violence all prejudicial customs, the negative aspects of the beliefs and traditions of our people," stated a Party directive which addressed forced marriage, women's lack of recourse to divorce, and polygyny. The question of forced marriage, taken up when mobilization first began, was a regular theme of speeches at mass peasant meetings. The response of many young women about to enter such marriages was immediate: they joined the Party, and went to work in the guerrilla bases away from their villages. Thus, by providing new structures to which women could escape, PAIGC laid the practical foundation on which Guinean women could begin to change their subordinate position. There was a similar response to the question of divorce. Women who had been forced to marry could now leave their husbands. Before the mobilization, it was extremely unusual for a woman to be given permission to return to her parental family. If she did, she lost all access to her children. These cases were later heard by the elected people's courts. And since they invariably decided in the woman's favor, by the end of the war, the old practices were virtually nonexistent in the liberated zones. The process of bringing polygyny to an end was more complex and is still not completed. Total reversal of this custom will take much longer because it is basic to the social structure and economy of the village: if a man has two or three wives, he has more help in the rice fields. The Party has understood that it cannot simply outlaw retrograde customs, or the people will rebel. This view is that the process of transformation begins with political education, but that ultimately, the economy must be changed so as to remove the conditions which have given rise to such social practices. The most striking example of PAIGC's attempt to change sexist at- 38/Quest titudes and protect women was its action for battered women. This regulation was put into immediate effect by means of a special emergency procedure. An injured wife can now report her case to the Commission of Justice; if she can show marks on her body from a beating, her husband will immediately be jailed for a minimum of 48 hours. The Commissioner of Justice commented of pre-mobilization Guinea, "The situation was scandalous. Every single day wives would be beaten so badly that some even died. Men oppressed by the colonialists took out their frustrations on their wives and their children. It was an urgent situation that had to be dealt with strongly. We [now] have to show these men that we are serious about changing those attitudes. Men must learn to respect women, and if they do not, we [shall] have to take action to combat [their reluctance]." At the meeting of the National Teodora Gomes addressed a meeting in a small town in independent Guinea-Bissau that was under Portuguese control during the war. Guinea-Bisseau Revolution/39 Assembly in May, 1974, six new laws were passed, three protecting the rights of women. One laid down conditions for divorce, making the law national in scope. Another, eliminating the categories of legitimate and illegitimate offspring, made a father equally responsible for the support of all his children. A third law gave equal status to "legal" and to "common-law" marriages. These three laws are seen as mechanisms for developing a greater respect and sense of responsibility on the part of men toward women. PAIGC anticipates that a man who cannot simply "forget" common-law wives and children is likely to weigh his actions toward women carefully. Independence The number of women in positions of leadership and responsibility is small but substantial — given that it began with zero. Francisca Pereira, a member of the Superior Council for the Fight, joined the party as a young adult and had to fight sexism continuously. She says, "Now, though, difficulties seldom occur between comrades working together. Women with positions in the Party, like Theodora [Gomes] and myself, have their opinions and decisions taken seriously and with respect. But still, this is not always the case for the younger women who are only beginning to work with the Party." Several new efforts to assure the continuing struggle against patriarchy have been established. One such, the Organization of Women established a few months after independence, is led by a tenmember Commission of Women which ranks as a ministry of the government. Each region elects a five-member committee, whose president works closely with its regional Commissioner. The latter travels frequently to discuss problems with committee members and to address mass meetings. Satu Djassi, a young peasant Commissioner, exemplified the political orientation of the Women's Organization in a speech she gave at a village near the Conakry border, to villagers who had only returned from refuge in Conakry after the war. Satu began her speech by emphasizing the need to work hard at rebuilding the country and encouraging women to help with the building of houses, work that has traditionally been done by the men: "If the wife does not help to build the house, your husband can say, 'This is my house, not yours', and, as is done so often, he can send you away. But if the husband and wife share in the building of the house, then it belongs to both. One does not have more rights than the other. Maybe the men think they are stronger than women and that they can. still send their wives away. But no man is stronger than the State, and the People's Court can intervene. Men must respect us and treat us as equals. "If a woman thinks: "No, I am inferior," then there is little we can do to change the situation. This is not correct. We women are not inferior. We can do what men do. Some women work harder than men. There is no work that is just for men or just for women. "Historically, the women of Guinea-Bissau participated in the struggle. Through this participation 40/Quest we learnt that we are not inferior. Women, I am asking you to hold onto what you gained during the war and to continue to struggle for equality. Do not allow the rebuilding of our society to go ahead and leave you behind. "The colonialists were against us, they oppressed us. Men and women. But then our men oppressed us on top of this. If your husband chose to, he would also beat you. That is why I say we had two colonialisms on our hands: we had the Portuguese in our country and our husbands in our house. "But the problem of the colonialism in our own homes is a more difficult one. We are all part of the same family. Our husband lives in our house and is the father of our children. But it is the women who care for the children, who know them best. Fathers say they have other things to think about. When the children grow up, suddenly the father says proudly: This is my daughter, not yours'. From that time on he pays much attention to her. But we know about the marriages that these daughters are expected to make. The father is doing this because her marriage will profit him. If a mother or daughter is unhappy about the husband that has been chosen, there is nothing they can do. "This cannot be, comrades," Satu said, addressing the men, "we must all decide together what our daughter is going to do. This practice must stop once and for all. If you are talking about freedom, then it must exist in your home and not just outside. As Amilcar Cabral said, 'We must leave these detrimental traditions behind us. You must respect your wife and daughter and not practice your colonial ideas in the family.' " An older peasant women, Mariama Camara, who had lived in Cacine, a small town turned into a fortified camp by the Portuguese army, and who had therefore only come into direct contact with PAIGC and its ideology after independence, spoke about the role of women in Guinea- Bissau, and showed her comprehension of the problems: "The Portuguese colonialists oppressed us. They smashed us. And for women it was particularly bad. The men were oppressed by the Portuguese and they, in turn, oppressed the women. So we were oppressed twice. Now at meetings, women want to stand up and speak their minds freely. Many women want to express their own independent personalities but they are afraid of the men. And the men think we do not speak because we do not understand what is going on. This is not so. We understand only too well the situation. We are not stupid. We are not inferior. But we do not speak out because they have oppressed us. "In order for our country to advance, this must end. For the country to develop, it must benefit from both men and women. Otherwise the country will suffer by losing our contribution. If this can change, we will advance more quickly than we are doing now. But it is not easy. Even though our country has been liberated, it does not mean that these attitudes, this mentality can change immediately. Oh no. It will take a long time to free both women and men from these attitudes." Satu Djassi and Mariama Camara Guinea-Bisseau Revolution/41 represent two aspects of the continuing struggle for the liberation of women. Satu is that continuing process in action, a process led by women who gained their experience, consciousness and political commitment through the armed struggle phase of the revolution. Mariama reveals the impact that it is having on peasant women — those who began hearing these words and concepts for the first time after independence. Conclusion PAIGC today is confronted with the seemingly overwhelming task of developing the nation into a socialist state. The priority during the war was the armed struggle, for nothing could be achieved until the Portuguese colonialists were forced from their land. The priority now is to build a viable economy, based on agriculture, in order to develop the country along a revolutionary and socialist path. In the meantime, the liberation of women has become one of the fundamental aspects of the continuing revolution. While national reconstruction has mushroomed to include many facets of development that could not be started in the forests during the war, it faces a general lack of cadres, and a critical lack of women cadres. Despite such obstacles, there are no signs that women are being encouraged to return to their homes and to traditional work; all indications point to the opposite. Creation of the material basis for socialism brings with it the best conditions for the emancipation of women, a goal which in the eyes of the PAIGC, is an integral part of the revolutionary process. This is a transitional and difficult stage in the history of the revolution. There are many concrete plans, many projections, many hopes and dreams for the future. PAIGC, to use Amilcar Cabral's words, is "taking the way of socialism/'- What we are witnessing the few years after independence are the first tentative steps by which the people and the government of Guinea-Bissau are trying to reach that goal. Footnotes 'PAIGC Document, "Report on the Politico-Socio-Economic Role of Women in Guinea and Cape Verde Islands." No date. 2PAIGC Document, "Report," no date. I use the term "traditional" — for want of a better — to distinguish peasant society from the urban society which was more fundamentally affected by Portuguese colonialism. Gerard Chalinand, Armed Struggle in Africa. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971), pp. 33, 35. Note: Cabral fluctuated in his use of "man." In other addresses, he said, "When I say 'man, I mean both 'man' and 'woman,' " or he would say "man" and "woman" without qualification. This was 1966, before the question of sexist language had been raised in the US as an issue. Stephanie Urdang is a member of the editorial collective of Southern Africa, a monthly news magazine published in New York and has recently finished a book about the role of women in the revolution in Guinea-Bissau. Al/Quest IN BRIEF... There are many topics of concern and areas of the world that it was impossible to include in this one issue of Quest. We hope that the work and contacts made through this issue will now enable us to print more international perspectives on all our Quest themes. In the meantime, we have selected here brief excerpts from several articles that we felt introduced an important idea or perspective that deserves further exploration in the future. BRAZIL O Homosexual Brasilero The following is taken from an unpublished manuscript, entitled, "O Homosexual Brasilero," written by Graca Maria Aires Montini of Brazil and translated by Victor Harris. Brazil is a large developing country consisting of different ethnic groups as well as different customs. After the appearance of lesbian and homosexual groups in Europe and America, claiming the legitimacy of their rights, Brazilian homosexuals began to organize for support. Many are no longer ashamed of their "condition", nor are they looking for a way to cure themselves. The homosexual presence manifests itself in various ways in the different regions, with greatest acceptance concentrated in the large cities such as Rio, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Brasilia and a few others. With the exception of some particular circles, above all those of the artist and a small sector of the youth in the large cities, there still exists a strong anti-homosexual prejudice that has been little affected by the liberal tradition of the customs and language. Even today, one hears and reads rude comments and debasing jokes about homosexuals on radio and television and in the press. In the media a homosexual person can be accepted, especially if she or he is someone famous from the literary world, the theatre or the movie world, but this acceptance is merely a "face-to-face" one because otherwise the typical jests continue. Homosexuals who are aware of themselves as homosexuals may number as much as 7 to 8% of the population but they remain largely In Brief: Brazil, France, Israel & an International/43 unknown to the "custom censors" (sociologists and psychologists) who only see in the homosexual a case to be dealt with by the police or a "deranged one" who should be castrated, or a sick soul to be treated. Brazilian law does not provide specific sanctions against homosexuality itself, but even with this fact the person with homosexual tendencies is no less a victim of social discrimination. The prejudice she or he faces is similar to racial prejudice. It should be said here that the liberalness of the language which was mentioned earlier has also contributed to the creation of highly pejorative words to label the lesbian, such as "big shoe" (sapatao) in carioca (Rio) slang. We can recognize that this expression was created by men and reflects a "macho" resentment, a frustration of the Brazilian man himself against what is seen as the dominant character in the lesbian pair. This also shows the ignorance prevalent since in many homosexual relationships, above all between women, there isn't one who plays the dominant or passive role, but instead an equality, giving to both individuals the same satisfaction. The lesbian woman in Brazil facing the repression of an anti-homosexual culture may still be considered less neurotic than a man in a similar situation. It's easier for her to accept the inner reality of physical attraction for a member of the same sex. Guilt for the woman still seems strongest in the heterosexual relationship, where the question of the profound taboos around virginity are concentrated. FRANCE Feminist Theory in France The following is a brief selection from an article entitled, "Reflections on Feminism," by Suzanne Blaise, one of the founders of the Trench Feminist Party Union in 1975 and who is currently working on a book demythologizing the relations between mothers and children. We want to give wider circulation to her 44/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 photograph by Charlotte Bunch ideas and to give some indication of the work being done by feminists in France. This selection was translated by Betty J. Powell We are working on a translation of the whole article and will publish more of her argument in a future issue of Quest. Even before we have clearly defined this new concept "feminism", we are asked to ponder the question of its assimilation of male-identified concepts, such as humanism or economism. Now, granted, we have been taught, we women, that is, that to effect the best cuisine is essentially the art of transforming leftovers. But one would fiercely hope that in this context all the resources of our intellect and will remain powerless to spice up the dubious taste of certain foods — goods which have not insured the best survival of humankind. In considering the issue of assimilation, what is disclosed is a kind of cosmic panic, an unconscious fear of engaging in the search for our own political identity, and a tendency to take refuge under the patriarchal cloak of what is labeled "certain." It reveals a profound ignorance or a destructive will to assume that feminism would resurrect certain idealistic or economistic visions which are synonymous with the word hypocrisy. We are provided the evidence every day. Humanism and economism (which pretend to pursue the same goal) are both suited to be compromised, however, and capable of duping women in the name of affective values or economic imperatives. In the general scheme of things their universal failure as alternatives is patent. Material progress alone has not succeeded in creating human happiness; nor have certain abstract visions of Man or Woman when considered out of their social and political contexts. Feminism is above all good sense and critical sense. It is a consciousness that cannot align itself with any positions without examining and evaluating them. It challenges all prevailing theories and ideologies that fail to include the reality of feminism in their analyses. Suzanne Blaise begins her analysis with these words. She goes on to demonstrate the inadequacy for feminists of both liberal and Marxist humanism. She then turns to the inadequacy of economism, defined as the belief in the primacy of the productive forces as the motor of human progress (the capitalist view) or the motor of revolution (the socialist version of economic deter- In Brief/45 minism). Blaise concludes her argument with this call for the autonomy of feminism: Woman, who has been denied either a soul or an identity is today in pursuit of both. And she will find it in political, economic, and emotional independence. She will reclaim it through the autonomy of her efforts and her unique means of struggle. Feminism can be nothing less than free and critical thought.... Women have accumulated, in their silence, which has endured for centuries now, a formidable critical sense which no amount of obstruction will, henceforth, blunt or sway •.... Feminism and politics have always been inseparable. There is, for example, the feminism long familiar to us now which never ceases to lay claim to its rights — these rights which can only become effective within a certain socio-economic context, rights we must struggle for in the here and now. These rights, so basic yet so formally cast in bourgeois democratic terms, must become real, must be clearly enunciated and loudly proclaimed and defended before all the world. ISRAEL Israeli Women: Equality or Mythology This is a portion of an article, "Equality for Israeli Women: Myth or Reality," by Rahel Alterman, who as a member of the Israel Feminist Movement with a Ph.D. in City Planning has undertaken research on the legal and parliamentarian aspects of women's status in Israel. The Israeli feminine reality is a complex mixture of sometimescontradictory facets, owing their origins to three dimensions: (1) Zionist hopes of creating a just, social-democratic society based on the best of Western liberalism; (2) archaic Jewish traditional religious customs; (3) the various sub-cultures of the ethnic groups (Jewish and Arab) composing the Israeli mosaic. On the one hand, one can point to examples of Israeli legislation that can still serve as models to many Western countries in the sphere of equality between the sexes. As early as 1951, the Israeli parliament passed the Women's Equal Rights Law which ostensibly assures women equality in all future legislation; three years later, it passed the Female 46/Quest photograph by Robin Birdfeather Labour Law which forbids an employer to fire a pregnant woman or a woman who has taken birth-leave of up to one year; national social security was provided to the working mother who would get almost full pay during three months of postbirth leave; in 1964, the Male and Female Workers (Equal Pay) Law was enacted; and, of course, Israel is one of the few western countries where women are conscripted to the army. But even in the legal sphere, where Israeli women fare relatively well, there are still barriers. Especially revealing of the Israeli paradox is the Female Labour Law of 1954, which "protects" women as semidependents. It forbids women to work after dark, except in occupations that it chooses to designate — such as nursing, or waitressing — which also happen to be relatively low-paying, traditionally "feminine" photograph by Flo Hollis In Brief/47 occupations. It also forbids women to work for three months after giving birth, even if the doctor believes the woman to be in good health, and even if the woman herself feels well enough. In the situation regarding marriage and divorce, traditional Jewish orthodox laws come into play, since this is the one area where religious law is the law of the land. In this realm the Israeli woman finds herself powerless, discriminated against, sometimes despised by the court. Imagine a couple beginning their family career in Israel. If the couple are both Jewish, the traditional wedding ceremony, which is the only ceremony the law recognizes, calls for the symbolic purchase of the wife. If the couple happen to be Moslem (and then religious Moslem law is the law of the land), the purchase is likely to be an actual transaction. The "merchandise" varies in price depending on the social class of the wife, her health and beauty, and her wealth. If the couple is unfortunate enough not to share the same religion, they would probably have to undergo their wedding ceremony abroad. If the marriage has failed, both the Jewish law and the Moslem law upheld in Israel regard the husband as the only one who can initiate the divorce and the wife must usually comply. In extreme situations, the Jewish Rabbi may go as far as to threaten the husband with a jail sentence if he does not give a divorce. But if he chooses to stay in prison rather than comply or if he is mentally unfit to dispense a divorce, the wife is bound to him and cannot remarry. During the Rabbinical court hearings, women are not allowed to serve as rabbinical judges, and even their status as witnesses is often questioned since Orthodox tradition has it that "women have frivolous minds" and cannot be trusted to tell the truth. The paradox lies in the fact that the two legal spheres — the relatively liberal secular laws and the highlyarchaic religious laws — have been coexisting side by side for twenty-six years each seemingly oblivious to the existence of the other. Few of the estimated 75% of the Israeli population who are secular non-religious, see room for complaint, although the issue of freedom to marry, often denied by religious law, has recently become a public political issue, but not particularly from the woman's point of view. 48/Quest photograph & copyright Layle Silbert 1977 The economic sphere is no less complex. On the one hand, statistics show that Israeli women have penetrated most of the professions to a greater extent than elsewhere in the Western world. As many as 70% of young professional women with no more than one child remain in the labour force at least part-time. But the over-all female participation rate in the labor force is much lower than in the U.S. — only 30% — indicating that lower-class married women rarely work outside their homes. And even the professional women do not fare too well: there is discrimination in hiring and advancement for highstatus jobs. Further, there is a 40% wage differential between men and women on the average, which can be attributed mostly to the lower-paying occupations where it is difficult to apply the Equal Pay Law. The employer conveniently makes it an all-female occupation so there would be no male to serve as a standard to which the Equal Pay Law could apply. The occupations in which women are the striking majority are practically devoid of avenues of advancement. The social scene is perhaps the most difficult to outline because of its broadness and complexity. In public education, for example, one can safely say that Israel compares well with other countries as far as early education for equality between the sexes. But boys do not take sewing and cooking nor do girls usually take carpentry. In short, sex-typing is almost as prevalent among Israeli children as it is among European and American children. A similar statement can be made about Israeli adults, but here the situation would photograph by Robin Birdfeather In Brief/49 vary depending on the ethnic group in question: among the Arab minority and Jews born in Arab countries (who are the majority of the population) women have a longer journey towards equality than among western-born Jews. One of the factors that has probably helped to create the myth of equality for Israeli women has been their supposed equality in the Kibbutzim. Even if that were true, the Kibbutzim constitute only 3% of Israeli population (and are slowly declining). Although in their earlier history there had been attempts to put equality between the sexes into everyday practice (and this is why the collective raising of children was instituted), the Kibbutzim of today have regressed markedly. Thus Kibbutz women usually work in the collective kitchen, laundry or child care, and all too often they are devoid of professional advancement. The Kibbutz family is no more egalitarian than the middle-class urban family. Finally, the myth that has perhaps proven most resistant to reality is the women-in- the-army image. Although officially women are conscripted to army service along with men, there are many fewer women in the army than men. Law and custom leave many avenues open for women to stay out: she may declare that she is religious; she may get married and then not be eligible for regular service; or she may lack high school education, a criterion which the army has unofficially set for women but of course not for men. If she serves, she will usually be employed in administrative work, nursing, or cultural work. Women are not allowed in the front lines and are not utilized even for such back-line work as vehicle and machine maintenance where there is a severe shortage of personnel. When they leave the army, they are unlikely to be called for reserve service (so important in the Israeli army) and if they choose to 50/Quest photograph by Charlotte Bunch make the army their career their advance will be restricted. Women in Israel live in a complex society. As yet, few Israeli women seem to be aware of the fact that there is much to be desired in all spheres of life if women are to be equal not only before the law, but also person-toperson. An International A Feminist International The following was translated by Nancy Hartsock, with the assistance of Dahlia Judovitz. Recognizing the strong current of feminist aspirations in the world and the common positions they hold, groups of women have understood that the hour has come to organize ourselves politically. It is from this perspective that the Unified Feminist Parties of France and Belgium took the initiative of contacting other feminist groups in different countries in order to set up an international gathering. This meeting took place at Montreuil, the 19-21 of May, 1977, and included women from Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and Israel, commissioned by their various organizations. In the course of the debate, the delegates were agreed on: 1. the necessity of a new form of political organization for women; 2. the feminist autonomy and political identity; 3. the abolition of the mode of production based on the family unit (familial mode of production), the basis of almost all existing societies. After thirty hours of debate, the first Feminist International was created on the basis of a platform unanimously adopted, and beginning with this appeal: FEMINISTS OF ALL COUNTRIES, LET US UNITE! Paris, May 21, 1977 PFU Francais, 1 rue Hoche, 93 100 Montreuil, France A. Organization I. Political Organization of Exploited and Oppressed Class: The only means of changing the present social and economic structure is the organization of women in order to take political power. Because of specific conditions, each country will be the judge of its own strategies. New forms of organization must In Brief/51 be created which reject hierarchy with its centralization of power and functions. The structural base will be the feminist group.* Coordination of member groups will be emphasized as opposed to centralization. II. The Member Groups of the International Are Feminist Organizations. They demand not only equality of rights for men and women, but feminist political autonomy and identity. The member groups of the International are not mixed. Feminism is its own political option — one which proposes a global alternative to society. *Feminist groups in the European context include consciousness-raising groups, but the term more directly refers to groups involved in feminist projects and political activity. III. Women Are Subject to the Oppression and Exploitation Both of the Patriarchy and of Private Capitalism or State Capitalism as Practiced in the Socialist Countries. The dialectic of the class struggle of women rests in the opposition (contradiction) of women and men. From this beginning, this struggle goes beyond the struggle of other social classes and ends in the destruction of the family-based mode of production, the base of all existing societies. This conception of feminism constitutes the foundation of the Feminist International. B. Objectives The taking of power to make a feminist revolution means: —the destruction of the family insofar as it constitutes a unit of production which requires the exploitation and oppression of the woman; —a new, non-sexist education and a new social decree for children; — the socialization in a selfdetermined way of domestic work and child-rearing and the suppression of sex roles;** —a new way of relating (new conviviality); **"Auto-gestion" has been translated here as "self-determination. " The French term as used by the Left in Europe has come to mean more than "selfmanagement" which would be the literal translation. It refers to a kind of control of social institutions as a whole by the participants in those institutions, along with a sense that participants will determine the general direction as well as specific policies to be followed. 52/Quest photograph & copyright Layle Silbert 1977 —a recreation of eroticism in the direction of a total humanity in place of a consumer-oriented sexuality; —control of our bodies; —the right to rewarding work; —the right to political life; —the full participation in all the functions of decision-making and control at every level — direct selfdetermination at the level of the enterprise, direct democracy and new modes of exercising power at the level of politics, suppression of the division of labor in the family as in the society. C. The Society We Want I. The Feminist International is convinced that the sole means of democratic rule is self-determination. It considers that this can only be attained in a society without economic or sexual exploitation. II. In the present period, selfdetermination means the autonomous feminist struggle against all centralized power — whether patriarchal or capitalist. A feminist society will be a planned economic system after the self-determined socialization of domestic work and the raising of children. photograph by Charlotte Bunch In Brief/53 v v^r19 00 D. Feminism: A Revolutionary Force I. Because it opposes the patriarchy, the base of almost all known societies, the Feminist International is radical and revolutionary. II. This I.F. (Internationale Feministe) was founded by the PFU's of Germany, Belgium, and France, and the Spanish feminist collectives in Barcelona, Madrid, Oviedo, Castelon, and Valencia. III. The I.F. respects the autonomy of the groups of each participating country and remains open to all feminist groups who accept the minimum positions of the International. IV. The I.F. does not consider the positions of the platform as adopted until after their ratification by each of the different groups. V. The I.F. is in solidarity with all feminist struggles of today and tomorrow. The feminist revolution will be born of solidarity in the organized feminist struggle. No feminism without the liberation of all the oppressed. No liberation of the oppressed without feminism! FEMINISTS OF ALL COUNTRIES, LET US UNITE! Paris, May 20, 1977 54/Quest photograph by Elaine Wessel/CWLU China Group Women, Economic Development & the UN By ELIZABETH REID graphics by Leslie Montgomery Elizabeth Reid attracted attention as a feminist spokeswoman at the International Women's Year Conference, in Mexico City, in June, 1975. She was one of the first declared feminists to hold a high position in a western government, when from 1973 to December, 1975, she was the advisor on women's affairs to the Labor Party prime minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam. Since the defeat of the Labor government, she has studied and spoken on the issues of women, development, and feminism on several continents. She is presently Director of the United Nations Asian and Pacific Center for Women and Development. The following is a condensed version of several of her papers, compiled and edited by Charlotte Bunch. Introducing the Demands This introduction to the issues of the new international economic order was written in response to Quest's inquiry about why this demand — and the U.N. generally — are important to feminists in both developed and developing countries. Access to food and to incomeproviding opportunities for women are preconditions to any long-term feminist global strategies. In the developed countries, the female labour force participation rate is almost 50%, whilst in the developing countries, it is estimated at about 26%. Globally, during the next few decades, it is predicted that both will decline. In the industrialised countries, continued or recurrent periods of economic stagnation will lead to high rates of unemployment and underemployment which will affect women's ability to be economically independent. In the developing countries, changes in the relative importance of agriculture will lead to women's displacement from their traditional sources of food and cash, without necessarily enabling their participation in the modern agricultural sector. Their future participation in the modern sector will be determined by outside interests, such as transnational corporations, other governments' aid programmes, investment patterns and the types of Women, Economic Development & the U.N. /55 technology transferred as well as internal bureaucratic and political decisions. These decisions will affect where people live and work, what they eat, the sorts of knowledge to which they will have access, and the society their children will inherit. brought their demands to the United Nations, the General Assembly decided to declare 1975 International Women's Year. The tradition of setting aside such years is quite strong in the U.N. Such years bring together government and U.N. officials, The demand — coming from the developing countries — for a new and more just international economic order has arisen from a reluctance to allow such outside and self-selected groups to be the architects of the future of developing countries. The forum in which the developing countries chose to present their demands was the United Nations. In the early '70s, at much the same time that the developing countries experts, and diplomats to devise plans of action to achieve the ends of the particular year. The thrust to use the U.N. as a forum for focussing attention on the needs of women has not been as successful in mobilising concern for women's needs as has the demand for a new international economic order. Thus, women need to examine the demand for a new international economic order from two perspec- 56/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 tives — to assess its impact on women, especially in terms of their economic displacement or absorption, and to compare the various successes and failures of this demand and of the demands for women, in order to increase our skill in using the international arena to bring about change. Why, however, should feminists be concerned with such a forum; what do we hope to achieve there? The U.N. functions as a pressure group on its member governments. It thus allows external international pressure on a particular issue as a means of reinforcing and legitimizing demands being made from within the country as well. Furthermore, after a government accedes to U.N. conventions or votes in favor of a resolution — the U.N. monitors its subsequent implementation, providing an opportunity for publicising any backsliding or neglect in its implementation. Thus feminists working within or without institutions such as the civil service, political parties, the legislature or trade unions, can be effectively assisted by such international initiatives. Any changes which must be brought about by institutional means (that is, non-self-help) could thus form a part of our international demands. Such demands, like all such demands of the feminist movement1, fall into two basic categories: those which lead towards a more equitable status quo, and those which lead towards more radical structural changes. Effectiveness in this arena, as in many other institutions, is dependent on our skill at playing power games: know our own facts, know how the system works — who is whose confidante or patron, who makes the decisions, the network of contracts — and turn the system to the advantage of women. This particular task cannot be done from outside the system. Critique of the Demand This section is edited and condensed from "A Critique and Analysis of the Demand for a New International Economic Order vis-avis Women," a paper presented to the 15th Annual Conference of the Society for International Development, Amsterdam, November- December 1976. Throughout the various forums for considering the demand for a new international economic order, a framework has emerged for subsequent discussions: international trade; transfer of resources and monetary reform; science and technology; industrialisation; food and agriculture; cooperation among developing nations, and restructuring the United Nations. Where this demand has been articulated, it has curved away from an increase in GNP (Gross National Product) or in industrial production, towards the satisfaction of basic needs or equal access to opportunities. The justification for the demand has been made either in the name of international justice, or in the name of the people in developing countries. The rhetoric has been in terms of rights, self-reliance and dependence, rejection of patchwork solutions, and ending oppression. Coincidental with the eruption of the demand for a new international Economic Development/57 economic order has been the intrusion of women into the same international arena. The justification of these two demands has been remarkably similar. But the tactics and strategies of the women's demands have been much less effective. However, the goals of each necessarily overlap, and any solution or short-term compromise will have severe repercussions on women. The first mention of the relevance to women of the demand for a new international economic order was made at the preparatory meeting for the World Conference for the International Women's Year, in February, 1975. It was a straightforward political move and evoked an automatically hostile response from those who had been adverse to the demand itself in other U.N. sessions. One side insisted that the demand had absolutely no relevance to women; and the other side insisted that it had every relevance. Neither side had any understanding of the relevance (or otherwise) of the demand to women. A few women realistic enough to understand which side had the numbers attempted to forge some tenuous links between those two demands. Paragraph eight of the IWY Plan of Action passed in Mexico City. "As a result of the uneven development which prevails in the international economic relations, three quarters of humanity is faced with urgent and pressing social and economic problems. The women among them are even more affected by such problems and the new measures taken to improve their situation as well as their role in the process of development must be an integral part of the global project for the establishment of a new economic order." It is clear, however, that whilst there was an intuitive understanding of the basic importance of the linkage between the demands of women and the demand for a new international economic order, there was still no clear programmatic articulation of it. This failure permeates almost all of the U.N. documents and rhetoric of the Year, and now of the Decade. This failure has led to uncoordinated, ad hoc responses to the call for action — too often the issuing of stickers or postage stamps — and has enabled such responses to pass for concerned action. The documents at best list the differing manifestations of the problem, and as these differ from society to culture and across time, the documents are a hodgepodge of complaints, of problems identified in one area treated as if they were ubiquitous, and of localised solutions similarly generalised. Moreover, the various deliberations and forums relating to women, unlike those relating to the demand for a new international economic order, have led neither to an agreed-upon set of priorities nor to a proliferation of further forums and negotiations. The goal of the Decade — the full integration and participation of women into the process of development — can only be achieved when women are seen as an integral part of all development planning and projects, including the demand for the restructuring of the economic order. The responsibility of the Decade is to devise the strategies for successfully translating this goal into 58/Quest action — a formidable task, for it involves ensuring that women take their place in the perceptions, in the world views, of all decision-makers. So far, no mechanism has been devised to even begin this task. Further, it involves the evolution of an adequate theory of sexism, one which lays bare its root cause, provides an explanation linking the cause to its varying manifestations, supplying criteria for selecting the best possible solution to each manifestation. The focussing of attention on women during the Year was successful, however, to the extent that the midterm appraisal of progress in the implementation of the International Development Strategy2 singles out the role of women in development as a priority in the establishment of a new international economic order. But the imagery of the demand for a new economic order is still often taken from the language of those blind to sexism: e.g., discussions of poverty which speak of "marginal men." One cannot help but feel that such language truly mirrors the prevailing perception of reality, of a world where many men are marginal, but where the women, if perceived at all, are perceived as marginal to the marginal. Like fleas on fleas. Goals of the Demand The ambitious goal set for the first Development Decade (1960-70) was a 5% annual increase in the GNP of developing countries. Surprisingly, their average growth rate over the Decade achieved this target. But towards the end of the Decade, it became clear that, despite this phenomenal growth, unemployment was rising, absolute poverty was on the increase, population growth continued, and income distribution became more unequal. Similarly, during the decade, the world's gross international product increased by approximately $1 trillion, of which 80% went to the industrialised countries (with average annual incomes of over $1,000), and only 6% went to the poor nations (with average annual incomes of less than $200). And additionally, much of the growth in international trade took place exclusively among the more developed countries. Thus, whilst the U.N. was struggling to formulate the International Development Strategy for the Second Development Decade, the developing countries were beginning to argue that: "The peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America have largely paid the price of the prosperity and economic power of the wealthy countries. Consequently, through the monopolies and corporations that belong to the rich countries, through the whole process of exploitation and processing of raw materials controlled by them, and through the consumer markets and the capital that they possess almost exclusively and also owing to the fact that they control all the mechanisms whereby the prices of raw materials and manufactured products are fixed, the industrialized countries transfer the bulk of the riches of the Third World into their own pockets.... This is equivalent to saying that the presently existing economic order looms up as the most serious handicap to the development and progress of the Third World countries."3 Economic Development/59 This new realization crystalized into the demand for the establishment of a new international economic order, one where the distribution of benefits, credit, knowledge, services and decision-making is no longer biased in favour of a privileged minority. In short, just such an order as women have been demanding. The goals of both women and developing countries have included access to employment, participation in decision-making, lessening of poverty, or more generally, satisfaction of basic needs and equality of opportunities. Both these latter general goals are interventionist in that they imply a rejection of the claim that market forces, if given free play, will in themselves lead to an equalised distribution of power, wealth, political influence, corporate control or knowledge. (This holds true whether it be at the level of nations or of individuals, or between women and men.) And they are reformist in that they propose a set of changes to make the present order more equitable. The "basic needs" approach to development is certainly the minimally acceptable one. As the U.N. report on Employment, Growth and Basic Needs explains: "The satisfaction of basic needs means meeting the minimum requirements of a family for personal consumption: it implies access to essential services, such as safe drinking-water, sanitation, transport, health and education; it implies that each person available for and willing to work should have an adequately remunerated job. It should further imply the satisfaction of needs of a more qualitative nature: a healthy, humane and satisfying environment, and popular participation in the making of decisions that affect the lives and livelihood of the people and individual freedoms."4 Each of these basic needs is an indicator of underdevelopment, and in most societies, the responsibility for their provision often lies with women. Given the paucity of information about them, even in the industrial countries, and the varying interpretations to which each need is subject, it is often difficult to identify specific needs, the affected groups and the best solutions. Such problems are exacerbated when it is the basic needs of women which are to be identified: in one case it may be nutrition, in another freedom from violence. Basic needs may differ between countries as well as between cultures. The successful implementation of the "basic needs" approach would require the political will of each government to undertake the required policy decisions and structural changes — but also in such a way as to pose no threat to its continuance. Moreover, just because it is a minimal strategy, it is compatible with almost the whole spectrum of alternative development strategies: it commits a government neither to labour-intensive nor capitalintensive industrialisation. Nor does it force further distributionist income or wealth policies, or determine investment policies. However, even minimal redistribution policies need financing; and in many areas (e.g. Latin America), there would not be enough to meet the basic needs of all people at an acceptable level, even if wealth were evenly distributed. 60/Quest Thus, the success of the "basic needs" approach is directly related to the success of the demand for a new economic order globally. As for the second general goal, the demand for equality of opportunity, one interpretation is that persons or nations have equality of opportunity if neither faces an institutional obstacle which the other does not. But this interpretation is clearly insufficient to ensure equality of outcome. In this sense, both raw materials and manufactured goods have equal access to world markets, yet nevertheless there has been a systematic difference in their market value. To generalize a statement of Mary Daly: asking for equality in the present situation, be it for women or developing countries, would be comparable to a black person demanding equality in the Ku Klux Klan.5 The demand for control over one's environment (or self-determination) is, then, basic to both demands. In relation to equality of opportunity for nations, it is assertively stated by Mahbub ul Maq: "We must keep stressing, as often as we can, that the basic struggle is for equality of opportunity, not equality of income. We are not chasing the income levels of the rich nations. We do not wish to imitate their lifestyles. We are only suggesting that our societies must have a decent chance to develop, on an equal basis, without systematic discrimination against us, according to our own value systems, and in line with our own cultural traditions. We are not asking for a few more crumbs from the table of the rich. We are asking for a fair chance to make it on our own."6 The demand for structural change Economic Development/61 has been, and will, of course, be strongly resisted by those who have the most to gain from the status quo. The assumption that the existing economic system is sound and to be preserved at all costs — the very assumption which many of the concrete proposals and demands of the developing countries have challenged — has formed the basis of the United States' counter-proposals for a "moderate international order" throughout the negotiations. This moderate order has been thought of as capable of emerging from the present situation without having to assume violent dislocation or millenial changes in human nature. The analogous moderate (or reformist) response to the women's demands could possibly be: "which of the proposals of the World Plan of Action can we accommodate at minimal or no cost or other inconvenience, and without threat to our jobs or power bases?" Interestingly enough, there has been no felt need for such an accommodation. And because no serious attention has been paid to these demands, the women have not been challenged to produce a set of concrete proposals towards the implementation of their demands. Fuzz prevails. Concrete Proposals of the Demand Two of the most important proposals are agricultural reform and the determination to raise the developing countries' share of world industrial production from its present level of 7%, to 25% by the year 2000. The ramifications of these proposals for women are immediate. The great bulk of the female labour force in the developing countries is still in agriculture (e.g., over 90% and 80% in some countries in Africa and Asia, respectively), and they produce 44% of all food produced. Moreover, rural women work in conditions of appalling drudgery, with primitive tools and little or no exposure to modern methods of farming. Modernisation of the agricultural sector has excluded women from the new employment opportunities. And predictably, the modern industrial sector tends to be a male preserve where women are concentrated in a limited number of occupations at relatively low levels of skill and responsibility. Sexism thus remains the most pervasive determinant of who will work and where and for what remuneration.7 This discrimination sometimes arises from deep-seated, often unconscious, cultural and social norms, and sometimes from unproven and unquestioned assumptions about women's inclinations and capacities. Often, culturally inappropriate and harmful assumptions are transported to developing countries along with technology, aid and experts. Furthermore, although the absolute number of girls receiving education has recently increased, available figures indicate that in many countries girls complete only two or three years of schooling — not enough for the retention of literacy or numeracy. Needless to say, the situation is worst in rural areas. Thus, sexism of the new world prevents women from access to education, which prevents their access to training — all of which restricts their ability to participate in a whole range of activities. Sexism 62/Quest from the old world — which manifests itself in the structuring of jobs, in patterns of participation in the workforce, and even in machine and other technological design — compounds and amplifies these harmful attitudes. These patterns of limitation, discrimination and inequity could be minimised by informed and responsive development planning, if its genuine aim were to ensure the full integration of women into development. The trouble is that, to those who have the responsibility for planning and for implementation, women still remain invisible. While there is a need for change, it should be clear from the above that the changes which these proposals will have on the lives of the women of the developing countries can cause nought but harm unless immediate and sensitive meaures are taken on the national level to counteract them. The fact that emerged most clearly from the deliberations of International Women's Year is that women have been so invisible that development planners and technical assistance officers have come and gone without even noticing them. And this blindness persists to this day, even though in many cases it is women whose needs are most in need of attention. Women continue living in the cracks and crevices of each socie- Enabling Features of the Demand Proposals such as a thorough redistribution of wealth, a share of the power over capital, technology, and the movement of goods and labour will not be conceded willingly. It was the utilisation of oil as a political weapon that freed the imagination of the developing countries and brought home to them the dependence of the industrial world on their natural resources. The disruption of the industrialised world by a small group of developing countries, the use of oil as a tactical weapon in the Middle East and the growing unity between the Arabs and the Africans was the backdrop to the introduction of the demand. Its continuing effectiveness has depended on two factors: the politically strategic use of the new wealth and the growing unity and solidarity of the developing countries. Although the industrial world can be inconvenienced by the deprivation of commodities such as bauxite and phosphate, only oil has such a capacity for far-reaching impact on Western economies. More importantly, this new-found wealth has been astutely converted into further sources of power, ones which can themselves help force the creation of a new international economic order. The response of the industrial countries to the rise in oil prices was to attempt to ensure that the resulting monetary bounty was recycled. The oil-producing countries invested money in selected heavy industries such as armaments, transport and steel. This prompt response to the Western invitation to recycle and reinvest caused an aggressive counter-response to "contain the threat of excessive foreign investment." Suddenly the role of foreign investment in world affairs was a topic for self-examination amongst those countries with the balance of wealth and power. The bulk of the billions of dollars Economic Development/63 in surplus OPEC funds were deposited in a few U.S. banks at relatively short terms, creating a high degree of dependence on politically volatile deposits. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations began to fear that the U.S. banking system as a whole, and ultimately U.S. foreign policy, was vulnerable to a sudden decision of the OPEC countries to shift their funds. This fear was confirmed by the British experience, in which at one stage the official and privately-owned funds deposited by foreigners in London banks was nearly twice the national reserve. Shifting these funds caused a precipitous decline in the value of sterling, which, in turn, aggravated inflation. The oil-producing countries have thus had the political and economic astuteness to use their funds to force major changes in the international monetary system. They have also used them to gain further leverage in international affairs. In January, 1975, OPEC countries pledged $800 million in development aid. Of this, $200 million has been given directly to 45 most seriously affected countries in the form of long-term, interest-free loans for balance of payments support, and $400 million has been pledged to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, on the condition that the West make up the balance of $600 million. If this bullying succeeds, the OPEC contribution will give the thirteen members of the group the same voting power as the West on the funds board, which will also include representatives of the non-oil developing countries. The developing countries have shown a capacity to maintain a united front in presenting and negotiating demands, and a willingness to commit their own funds to back up their proposals. This cooperation, and the emphasis on the need for special measures for 64/Quest those countries most seriously affected, are manifestations of the broader concept of collective selfreliance which has been embodied in all their documents since the sixth special session of the U.N. General Assembly, held in 1974. The developing countries are now entering negotiations and bargaining collectively, with the omni-present threat of industrial, social and economic upheaval. This historic evolution is highlighted in the following: "In the last analysis, the real bargaining power of the poor nations is political, not economic. The Third World contains the overwhelming majority of mankind. It increasingly enjoys a decisive control over the U.N. General Assembly. Its vast population can be disregarded at present; its U.N. resolutions can be ignored; its demands can be brushed away as mere rhetoric. This is nothing unusual in the initial phases of a trade union movement. But if the new trade union of the poor nations holds together — and its unattended grievances are likely to keep uniting it — it is only a matter of time before the management is forced to enter into serious negotiations and the public posturing on both sides ceases as they send their chosen representatives into the back rooms to hammer out hard, tough compromises."8 It is in this area that the greatest and most depressing contrasts can be drawn between the demand for a new international economic order and those for women. Mostly women haven't bargained for our demands. Second, we haven't even realized that we needed to bargain, or that we needed a bargaining weapon. Finally, we don't have any, anyway. We have no weapon, no bargaining power. We have no power base and are not seen to have one. Even though we are, on the whole, seen as an undifferentiated mass, we do not even have the power of numbers. What threat do we have which is analogous to, say, the threat to strike or to nationalise? Although the women's vote is, at times, wooed, a threat to withdraw it would not be taken seriously. Nor could we carry out such a threat successfully, for we are as different one from another, in particular in our concerns and priorities, as men. Lysistrata is a male erotic fantasy. The reality would be rape. And the only other commodity over which we have a productive monopoly is successive generations — the issue of our bodies. The only possible weapons at hand for us are proven ability and persuasion. We must become skilled in negotiating, lobbying and the preparation of resolutions, documents, legislation and the like. We must gain an extensive understanding of the workings of the system, be well briefed, wellacquainted and visible. The art of persuasion lies in ensuring that all claims are properly documented, analyses penetrating, strategies clearly and tellingly presented. The method of presentation must take into account the prevailing blindness and the probability of an initial response of either fear or boredom. These are the only means we have of gaining respect in those arenas, international or national, where we must work. The remaining relevant strength is Economic Development/65 the commonality of women's perception. This commonality has overridden political affiliations and power-plays. A most vivid instance of this occurred when an attempt was made by the politicos to delete from the IWY World Plan of Action the sentence — "basic similarities unite women to fight differences whenever they exist in the legal, economic, social, political and cultural status of women and men." The women present in the drafting group, whatever their ideology, status, or age, unanimously and vocally objected and the unanimity of their objection stunned all. It also exhilarated the women, who clearly perceived it as a radical affirmation of their common cause, of their commonality. is some visible, normally physical, sign of differentiation between the colonisers and the colonised which forms the basis for consequent discrimination, exclusion and humiliation. Women's exploitation and oppression bears this imprint. But the differences between the classically colonised and women are, for women, the ultimate debilitation. The classically colonised have a visible, finite and ever-present goal — the regaining of their land. What territory is it that has been usurped from women? How many of us understand the depths of women's demands for our bodies, the closest (other than a room of our own) we can come to a claim to territoriality. And this is an individual rather than The Colonization of Women The classical marks of colonisation are that a majority group is peceived as a minority group; that the colonised have no voice in the decision-making; that they form a pool of cheap labour; and that there a unifying solution. For the classically colonised, the act of overthrowing the oppressors was the threshold of self-pride and regaining a sense of one's own value. It was to step out of the backdrop to become the human presence.9 What effect will it have on 66/Quest women that the oppressors to be overthrown are fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, sisters' husbands? The classically colonized are fighting for their own traditions, their old way of life, whereas this is the very thing that is colonising women. Sexism is not only the colonising agent, but it also creates the very possibility of our being colonised by mute, seemingly tacit, consent; sexism creates the victim mentality by which we see our colonisation as a "natural" part of our daily lives. Those demanding a new economic order want to end the relations of dominance and subordination, to end the humiliation and degradation of their past and present oppression. Yet their understanding of their own oppression has given them little insight into their own roles as oppressors, no understanding of the agony and extent of women's subjugation. In the words of the Three Marias: "I wonder whether the guerrillera who battles side by side with her brothers.... is fighting side by side with her real brothers, or whether these brothers may not still bear within themselves the roots of treason, both in the dialogue of the present struggle and in the future City."10 Towards a Theory of Women and Development The following is taken from an outline for future work written in the fall of 1976, and never before published. The position of women has often been considered a test whereby an age or a civilisation can be judged. It is clear that the position of women is one of the crucial tests by which the success or failure of development plans can be assessed. However, it is a test which is extraordinarily difficult to apply, for as yet, there is no consensus as to how that success or failure can best be measured. The indicators most commonly resorted to are level of education and wage employment, but these are clearly meaningless for developing countries. When the majority of illiterates are women, and the majority of women are illiterate, statistics showing the level of education attained will merely place most women in an undifferentiated majority category. Again, when 70-80% of the population of the developing countries is rural, and when the majority of the agricultural workers are subsistence farmers and women, statistics on the number of women in wage employment (which are the only employment statistics most governments keep) throw little light on the position of the majority of women. The lives of women in developing countries and regions can neither be described nor contained by such indicators. Indeed the phrases "position of women" or "status of women" — phrases repeatedly used, particularly in the rhetoric and documents of International Women's Year — are themselves questionable. "Position" can be taken to refer to a person's place within a social structure and "status," to the prestige accorded to holding that position. But the reality is that the majority of women have no place in such a social structure, not even on the bottom rung. They drop right through such filters, particularly in societies where Economic Development/67 women traditionally have been secluded, and live invisibly in society's cracks and crevices. It is only the rich, educated and healthy who fall feet first onto some stratum or other. It is only these who can be moved up the ladder and receive their rewards. The reality is that the most pervasive problem facing women in developing countries is not their status nor equal pay nor child care facilities — it is malnutrition. Food, water, shelter, fuel, health, clothing remain the basic necessities of life. On the whole, it is women who bear the responsibility for ensuring their provision, the responsibility for dayto-day survival. And it is women who make do. This, then, sheds some light on which model or approach to development might best help women. The governments of most developing countries are now at least paying lipservice to the need for social as well as economic development. But even where social development is a genuine concern, there remain two approaches to development, which may be termed the "reformist," and the "radical." The first accepts the system as a whole, and sets out to introduce certain changes which are perceived as important — viz., enhancing the status of women. But this approach can only succeed where the struture of a society, its institutions, and values, do not have an inbuilt discrimination against women. If the society is so structured that women will inevitably be precipitated out, invisible and mute, into its interstices, then radical, not just reformist, changes must be made in its very structure, its institutions and values. The radical approach to development recognises that the most basic hindrance to equitable development is the attitudes, prejudices and beliefs that each society holds about women, our needs, aspirations and abilities. These attitudes are held as much by women about ourselves as by men, as much by nationals as by foreigners. The fact that women as a group are supposed to have — indeed are forced to have, in many subtle and not so subtle ways — a different kind of personality, a different pattern of behaviour as a group, has consequences for our position in society. It does not simply create differences between women and men, as groups; it also created inequalities. Our "womanly virtues" are not those virtues which are rewarded by society, for it is to the aggresive, the powerful, the competitive and the singleminded that society deals out its rewards: power, status, wealth. Our "virtues," enforced and imposed differences, may well be hallowed, but valued they clearly are not. And we are so deeply affected by this rampant sexism, for this is what that word means, that we mutely consent to our own colonisation, to the debilitation of altruism, to the debasement of passivity, to the humiliation of self-effacement. For as long as these attitudes persist, and they exist in all societies, women will remain in an inferior position and any reforms, though they may alleviate, will not change them. These attitudes, therefore, act as constraints on the development process. If change is to be effected with the least possible dislocation of people and their lives, such attitudes must be known and openly discussed. The greatest imbalance in 68/Quest development occurs when only selected groups within a society benefit from it. If any group is left outside of the development process, be it the urban poor, women, older people or the rural sector, then the Economic Development/69 resultant situation could well be described as a form of internalised colonialism, even slavery. Thus an understanding of the pervasiveness of sexism leads to the conclusion that the integration of women into the process of development will only succeed when and if women are recognised as an essential component in each development project. To attempt to recify these imbalances by teaching women traditional home economics of one sort or another, traditional "women's" subjects, is to widen even further the gap between men and women. If women are not literate or are trained only in these fields, then they cannot participate in the development process in the same way as men, whatever their capacities. It should not be forgotten that the development planners and field officers, both men and women, are themselves imbued with these very attitudes. A natural resistance to, if not fear of, change will lead them to opt for the easier and less unsettling choice of separate development. It should also be remembered that to work for the goal of truly integrated development, of ensuring that women are included in every aspect of development is an enormous, depressing, frustrating and tiring task: the perception of each person who comes into contact with any woman, each person planning for development, has been distorted by these deep-seated and often unconscious attitudes and prejudices. This approach, then, gives rise to its own two-pronged methodology. First, women must be helped to identify their needs and to devise the means to attain them. They should be trained in whatever skills are necessary for attaining these ends. In this way, self-confidence and selfreliance, the basic preconditions for freedom, will grow. Second, each person who comes into contact with any woman, and each person, at any level of that society or elsewhere (such an international agencies or corporations), who makes decisions which affect any women's present or future life, must become sensitive and informed, must question and reassess each of those attitudes which have put and kept women where we are today. An impossible task? Maybe... but the only one which will bring any benefit to women. Footnotes 'On this question, see Charlotte Bunch, "The Reform Tool Kit," Quest: a feminist quarterly, 1:1 (Summer, 1974), pp. 37-51. 2U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3517 (xxx), Paragraphs 2 and 68. Petroleum, Raw Materials and Development. Memorandum submitted by Algeria on the occasion of the special session of the United Nations General Assembly, April 1974. pp. 6 and 9. '"Employment, Growth, and Basic Needs," International Labor Organization, publication, 1976. p. 7. 5Mary Daly, The Church and the Second Sex, 2nd edition, (New York: Harper, 1975), 6"The Third World and the International Economic Order," O.D.C. Development Paper 22, September 1976, p. 11. 7See, e.g., Ingrid Palmer, "The basic needs approach to the integration of rural women in 4 development: conditions for success." Mimeographed paper, 1976. 8Mahub ul Hag, Petroleum op. cit., p. J8. 'Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (London: Penguin Books, 1974), p. 201? 10The Three Marias: New Portuguese Letters (New York: Bantam Books, 1975), p. 87. 70/Quest a conference on the Great Goddess Re-Emerging March 31 to April 2, 1978 University of California; Santa Cruz Today the symbol of the Great Goddess is re-emerging in a culture which has been patriarchal for thousands of years. The Goddess is being rediscovered as a symbol of holistic understanding, cooperative process and natural energy, of season and cycle, waxing and waning, birth and death. Focusing on aspects relevant today, this conference will explore the Goddess through art, ritual, myth, theater and poetry, through history, archaeology, religion and psychology. Featured are: • Geoffrey Ashe • Nor Hall • Anne Kent Rush • Carol Christ • Hallie Iglehart • Carolyn Shaffer • Mary Beth Edelson • Gloria Feman Orenstein • Charlene Spretnak • Chellis Glendinning • Sandra Roos • Merlin Stone For a brochure, write Dept. JB UC mmrnm eryg Extension Santa Cruz, California 95064 ■Hm Phone (408) 429-4555 Back Issues of Quest Still Available $3.35 each Organizations and Strategies (vol. II, no. 3) Processes of Change* Leadership (vol. I, no. 1) (vol. II, no. 4) Money, Fame and Power Kaleidoscope One (vol. I, no. 2) (vol. Ill, no. 1) The Selfhood of Women Communication and Control (vol. I, no. 3) (vol. Ill, no. 2) Women and Spirituality Work, Work, Work (vol. I, no. 4) (vol. Ill, no. 3) Future Visions and Fantasies Race, Class and Culture (vol. II, no. 1) (vol. Ill, no. 4) Theories of Revolution* Kaleidoscope Two (vol. II, no. 2) (vol. IV, no. 1) * Available only in binder sets. Box-Binders are on sale with the full set of issues from Volume One and Two included. Each volume $25.00 — buy both for $45.00 and save! Send check to Quest: a feminist quarterly, P.O. Box 8843, Washington, D.C. 20003. Untitled— a poem By PAOLA LUDOVICI Rome, Italy Non ci si andava mai a spasso con i pensieri: erano rade amiche amanti della casa l'uscio un baratro un giorno ci ritrovammo a tendere i fili del bucato provammo a fame le nostre prime liane incaute acrobate dell'aria sui fili corteggiamo le nostre amiche — gli scomodi pensieri qui la morte e a portata tra i panni stesi e l'occhio nemico del sole. 1 mano: We never used to go for a walk with our thoughts: they were few girl-friends who loved to be home the door a precipice one day at the window we faced each others tightening the laundry lines — we tried to make them our first vine-ropes as daring air acrobats on thin ropes we1 court our girl-friends — the uncomfortable thoughts here death is handy: among the drying laundry under the enemy eye of the sun 72/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 graphic by Br una Ludovici Japo^seV\birm speck out graphics by Kyoko Saegusa A group of Japanese women based in Tokyo, called the "White Paper on Sexism in Japan Task Force/' edited and published an anthology, Japanese Women Speak Out, for the I.W.Y. Conference sponsored by the U.N. in Mexico City in 1975. The following are portions of two articles that were excerpted from that anthology by the Quest staff. Special thanks goes to Jean Inglis for assisting us in gathering the material and graphics for this article. By FUJIEDA MIOKO Discussion on Liberation This article was based on an editorial group discussion of what topics to include in Japanese Women Speak Out. Quest editors have condensed and occasionally rearranged the original text. I. Is the Removal of Sexism the Only Concern of the Women's Movement? When a national gathering of women's liberation groups in Japan was held in 1970, the concern most commonly shared by the participants centered around questions like, "What is the Liberation of Women?" or "What is Sexism?" One of the editors of Japanese Women Speak Out was concerned that this showed that the Women's Movement was more or less urban in character, and that their concerns were limited only to women's issues, nothing more, ignoring much broader socio-political struggles. In many countries of the Third World, particularly in countries like Vietnam, she argued, national causes and the fight of women are not two different things; they are one and the same. The example of women in Sanrizuka and Kita Fuji (peasant struggles against land appropriation by the Japanese government and the U.S. military) tells us much about the link between women's struggles and broader issues. In prewar days, women in rural areas used to suffer much more from the feudalistic, patriarchal, discriminatory practices than women in urban areas. This was certainly true in Sanrizuka and Kita Fuji. When the land struggles began there, it was the men in both these places who stood in the front, the women staying behind, mainly preparing the food for the men. But gradually they came to be involved in the fight to the point where they organized themselves into a Women's Action Corps, fighting in the front lines. What mattered to these women was not simply changing femalemale relationships, but forcing the 74/Quesf, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 Japanese Women Speak Out/75 government to give up its project of expropriating their land. Their work in the struggle led them to a realization, an awakening to liberation not only as women but as people capable of taking action, not only against husbands and families but also against governments and riot police. In our discussion, this approach to women's liberation was presented as a criticism of the women's liberation movement. Briefly summarized, it argued that as long as the women's liberation movement directs its attention only to women in cities and to female-male relationships, it will not be able to appreciate all the other struggles of Japanese women outside the cities, let alone the struggles of women in other Asian countries. Many of us felt that this view of how women become liberated was too simple and too optimistic. We are all women who are involved in some way or other in various kinds of citizens' movements and seeking ways to relate to the Third World, especially to other Asian countries threatened by Japanese economic domination, by fighting against it. Past experience proves to us that however militant and heroic, such struggles do not necessarily change women's status as second-class citizens. The struggle in itself does not always assure the liberation of women from the age-old concept that women's domain essentially is and should be in the home. Unless this concept is specifically challenged by women in particular struggles, it will continue to dominate the people's state of mind and their way of life even after the struggle is won. It was further noted that while rural women are still primarily in community-based situations, urban women suffer painful alienation which makes it difficult for them to get together. And, generally speaking, men of all politics have a built-in discrimination against women that will not change until women raise the question and refuse to be their tools. We all agreed that the women's liberation movement should not confine itself solely to the problem of female-male relationships, but should always have a broader outlook on socio-political problems, relating to them as much as possible, while challenging the conventional sexist concepts and practices. Why Do Japanese Women Put Up With Oppression? Why do most Japanese women put up with being oppressed and discriminated against? One group evolved the following line of argument. The root cause of discrimination against women lies in the division of labor betwen men and women, in other words our fixed, sex-based roles. This further takes the form of sex-based wage disparities in the area of work and gives rise to all sorts of discrimination in terms of employment, social status, promotion, retirement age, etc. The feudalistic ideology underlies and strengthens all these forms of discrimination. The feudalistic ethic of the "three follows" (follow your father when young, follow your husband when married) and the sexist teaching that women are hard to handle, still have a grip on the minds of many people today. We may call this argument opinion A. 76/Quest Noting the development of autonomous women's liberation movements in western countries, opinion A proponents point to a big difference in the attitude towards sex in Japan and in these countries, especially the United States. Women in the U.S. started their own movement, strongly repelled by the fact that they are regarded only as sex objects, and this feeling has developed into widespread indignation among broad sectors of women there. But in this country, social attitudes toward sex, as toward other subjects, are moderate. Women are generally divided into two categories: choredoers called housewives and prostitutes. This social atmosphere more often than not muffles strong indignation that might spur women into action as they do not feel they are sexually humiliated. Insofar as women have clung to the old consciousness that woman's place is in the family, they have functioned as a social force upholding the postwar economic structure with its emphasis on high economic growth. A vast number of women quit their jobs upon marriage or when they have had their first child. The number of independent female professionals and women who support themselves is not much more than it was before the war. Keeping women at the bottom of the wage structure fits in beautifully with the interests of capital. Those who claim that women's social status has improved are deluding themselves. Opinion A stresses that the most important task for us is to change the consciousness of women themselves — the deeply entrenched idea that women belong to family and family alone and that woman's job is to bring up children. In other words, first we must destroy the feudalistic ideology that seems to have been practically inseparable from women's nature. A second view, opinion B, looks at the matter as it relates to the imperatives of capital. The post-World War II reforms liberated women from the old family system, gave them equality with men under the law, and enabled them to participate in political and social life, and to establish a foothold in the professions. This liberation was not the result of struggle on the part of Japanese women themselves, however, but was handed down from above by U.S. occupation authorities. While there was a women's suffrage movement in prewar days, its leadership was largely coopted by the military supported organizations. The fact that women did not struggle for their liberation after the war surely has affected women's frame of mind in postwar Japan. What happened with the end of the war was that oppression and discrimination imposed by the family system receded into the background to be replaced by a generalized form of discrimination pervading every sector of society. While before, women had a single obvious focus for their anger, now the source of their oppression is so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible. The mechanism of women's oppression is subtle — women are permitted an illusion of freedom as long as they pledge their loyalty to the society which is, all the while, effectively undercutting the growth of their anger into social unrest. Japanese Women/77 For those who say that the sexbased division of labor and the feudalistic ideology that bolsters it up are the root of women's oppression, a look at the history of female labor since the war should be enough to show that these so-called fixed roles actually undergo qualitative changes in the new economic and industrial structure built around monopolies. On the level of ideology, too, there is actually a great deal of flexibility in the propaganda of sexism. The government, trying to promote its line for female labor, is putting forward the so-called American practice whereby women are supposed to Work practically up to their delivery, then quit their jobs and take care of their children full time, returning to their jobs when their children are big. What could be more modern than an American woman? This "two life cycles" theory is supposed to be congenial to the natural life pattern of women, but when applied in a society like ours with its seniority wage system and enterprise-centered employment structure, it only works to the disadvantage of women. This theory, by eulogizing "family responsibilities," plays on notions of "femininity" while at the same time paying lip service to the role of women in the labor force. In fact, it aims to make women into a safety valve for the economy in times of recession and unemployment. Despite the different approaches that A and B groups have to ' the problem, they agree that sexism basically originates in the fact that the female sex bears children. In societies where the utmost priority is placed on material production, everything is evaluated by the logic of productivity. Thus, the situation where women whose natural function is procreation are alienated from a materially productive process. An important task of the women's liberation movement from now on should be to challenge this very logic of material production first. By IIJIMA AIKO Where Are We Headed? A Critical Analysis of 30 Years of Woman's Policy Kaji Etsuko, one of the editors of Japanese Women Speak Out, sent Quest the following introduction to our condensed version of this article. The author has been involved in leftist and women's movements for mpre than twenty years. In 1969 she publicly criticized one of the traditional women's movements within Sohyo (General Council of Trade Unions of Japan) for its neglect of women's issues, and, together with other women, organized a new women's movement, Asian Women's Congress to Fight Discrimination and Aggression. Since then, the Congress has been the most militant women's group actively engaged in both women's issues (discrimination in workshops, protest against revision of the Abortion Law, etc.) and political issues including economic aggression and exploitation in Asia by Japanese capitalists. Recently Iijima Aiko raised a very fundamental question for the women's movement: how should women in Japan fight the ideology of the Emperor System (Tenno-ism), a system which is the very basis of sexism in Japan. The Japanese 78/Quest Japanese Women/79 women's movement as a whole is now at a crossroads. Will it go right or remain in the leftist framework? Several groups already have stated that they will pursue feminism within the framework of the present social system, not directly opposing the Emperor System. A women's liberation movement aiming at the total transformation of society is urgently needed in Japan today, and the Congress and other women's groups are being severely challenged by this need. Recovery After Defeat and The "Woman's Policy" Women's liberation was, along with land reform, the dissolution of the Zaibatsu, and the enactment of a new constitution, the starting point of the "new Japan" at the end of World War II. But what exactly did this "new Japan" mean for women? The Japanese government's first policy toward women after defeat was related to its "sex policy" for the soldiers and officers of the occupation army advancing into Japan. On August 18, 1945, immediately after Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allies, a note was sent by the Home Ministry to every police chief in the country ordering them to provide adequate facilities for sexual entertainment. When the occupation army's first group arrived at Atsugi military base, the RAA (Recreation and Amusemet Association) was, established with a fund of $30 million and many women. Public prostitutes as well as women desperate for jobs were stationed at entertainment facilities to "welcome" the U.S. soldiers. The so-called liberation of women after the war included several legal procedures such as the SCAP (the occupation administration) directive in October, 1945 on "the Liberation of Japanese women through suffrage," the establishment of equality between men and women under the new constitution as well as the civil law, the abolition of the old family system (in which the wife had the status of a legally incompetent person), and the abolition of the crime of adultery. Thus, most of the objectives of the Japanese feminist movement for prewar days were achieved in a single stroke by the new ruler, the occupation army. In the first general election, 39 women were elected to the Diet (the Japanese parliament). Between 1946 and 1947 many women appeared for the first time in places like Tokyo University, as heads of villages and towns, in local assemblies and government offices. While women's legal equality, political participation and emergence in public life was taking place, the mass discharge of women workers was also occurring. After Japan accepted unconditional surrender, the economy, which had deteriorated greatly during the long war, was paralysed. Though both men and women lost their jobs, women workers were also forced to quit jobs given to men returning from the front. War had brought women to work and now the end of the war deprived them of their jobs. It is not surprising that during this period increase of human traffic and prostitution became a social problem. Naturally the return of large S0/Quest numbers of men to civilian life after the war resulted in an explosive population increase. In July, 1948, the Eugenic Protection Law was passed, legalizing abortion in order to cope with food shortages and a population increase of around 1.2 million per year. Although the abortion law contained from the start various aspects such as the idea that female sexuality should be repressed and notions of eugenic ideology and population control, the discriminatory and oppressive nature of the law did not clearly emerge until 1973 when Japanese women rose up to oppose a revision of the Eugenic Protection Law which would have strengthened these aspects and made abortions more difficult for women. Working Women's Movement Shortly after the end of the war, CIU (Congress of Industrial Unions), the communist-oriented labor federation, became the mainstream of the postwar Japanese labor movement. Under the leadership of the CIU, women workers, along with young workers, fought aggressively through direct action in many labor struggles. Through these struggles, women workers in the Tokyo Teachers' Union gained equal pay for equal work (1948) and the Japan Teachers' Union won an agreement on protection of motherhood. In other words, many women workers in the CIU managed to gain their rights and continued to work in the days when workers throughout Japan were being hit by mass discharges. In the 1950's, Sohyo, an anticommunist council of trade unions, took over labor leadership from the CIU. Women workers organized in Sohyo and set their main objective "to win every condition which will enable us to continue to work:" day care centers, assistant teachers to substitute during child delivery leave, etc. The main wage system in Japanese enterprises is the seniority-order system. No matter how many years she works, a woman is usually kept within a certain "woman's wage." On the other hand, women workers in Sohyo, mainly public workers, have achieved equal pay for equal work and share with men in the seniority wage system. The women workers' struggle in Sohyo has aimed at "protecting" and "gaining." Though these causes are understandable, what they have protected and obtained must be exposed. The day care center campaign aimed at securing women's right to work has gradually been coopted by capital which began to mobilize and to incorporate housewives into the labor force as part of its high economic growth scheme. Today there are many corporations which provide married workers with nursery facilities. Most of them, however, are open only to part-time employees. In short, regular female employees are encouraged to retire when they have children and return after several years to work as low-wage part-time workers. Further, better working conditions and wage raises were obtained for women workers who were in the upper ranks and not for parttimers or temporary workers. And in general, it can be said that Japan's post-war prosperity has been the result of the exploitation of Japanese Women/81 82/Quest Okinawans, Koreans and Southeast Asian people. Another way in which Sohyo has failed women's needs is in its Women's Departments. While women were treated as no better than minors in the earlier union federation, the CIU, their fighting spirit was always highly appreciated by the union leaders. Some women's departments were so vigorous in serving women that one public workers' union issued a notice that: "youth and women's departments are not to have their own rules and regulations which would undermine the control and harmony of the union." These measures were intended to oppress and split the labor movement, but more important, they resulted in obstructing the development of an autonomous women's movement. In the process of Sohyo being formed, many women's sections dissolved entirely. Eight years after its formation, a "women's department" was set up in Sohyo, but the revived women's department is a far cry from those early women's sections with their strong fighting spirit, always considered a "burden" by the male unionists. Sexism in Work and in the Family Discrimination in present years should be seen against the background of a political and economic situation in which Japan moved away from its former policy of rapid economic growth depending on the U.S. economy and toward expansion into Asia, moving out from Korea to every corner of the region. The industrial structure also underwent a transformation in which changes in the labor process and in patterns of consumption transformed women's lives as well as the government's policy toward women. Prior to this time, "woman policies" tended to either be incorporated into general policies or to be of a "protective" nature: motherhood protection, mother-child health care — a part of the social welfare policy. But now the "woman policy" has emerged largely within the context of the nation's labor policy and it extends to almost every phase of women's lives: capital needs women's labor. Thus a spate of research on factors affecting the mobilization of women for the labor force has appeared in recent years correlating factors such as husband's income, number of children, wife's educational level, etc. The government's policy toward women — viewing them as a source of cheap labor — serves the interests of capital which possesss in this powerless labor force a control valve which can be turned on and off as the flow of capital demands. For example, the glowing words with which part-time work is recommended to women spell nothing but insecurity. Regardless of how many women become "workers" in this sense, or how firmly the shift system is established, part-time labor will lead only to the reinforcement of discrimination against women. Mobilization of women in the labor force is always carried out hand-in-hand with a policy toward family life. When women were not needed as workers, the slogan, "working mothers should return to the home," was current in society generally. But once the shortage of a young labor force seriously Japanese Women/83 threatened high profits, the policy toward family life shifted away from children's welfare and youth programs to a policy to secure women's labor, a policy emphasizing "harmony between domestic responsibility and job responsibility." The government then proposed to increase nursery facilities, to set up day-care centers for school children, to promote public services like garbage collection, work leave during child-care, and so on. But the government did not let down on its promotion of the idea of a "mother's role." Women's employment as a whole did not include the employment of women with babies. In short, the government aimed to establish a double life cycle for women centering around the part-time job; first, she is to work as a young laborer, then concentrate on childcare, and then to return to an insecure reemployment with the help of day-care centers. The role of the family was also seen as crucial, as in this 1968 report entitled "Desired Image of Family Life — What is the role of family life?" In the report four roles of family life were pointed out: (1) to maintain humanity (In a society where alienation deepens as development progresses, family life is practically the last, precious place where humanity, a sense of identity and some kind of security can be found.) (2) to form the human character, (Home is almost the only place where infants and children can be raised to become human beings who can live in society.) (3) to foster daily life, (Home is not only a place to maintain the family's health and reproduce energy for the next day, but one of the few places where rest, in the larger meaning of the word, is possible.) (4) to protect life (There is no better solution to the problem of old people and the handicapped than the joint energy created by the family relationship). Of course the other side of this exaggeration of the roles of the family life is ignoring the responsibility of society and the politicians: the family is expected to make up for bad administration. It is clear that the one expected to be the all-purpose counter-measure to juvenile delinquency, baby sitter, nurse for the elderly and disabled, as well as the preparer of husband's meals is the woman in the home. This is the situation at present. The phenomenon of recent years of women killing their children, often newborn babies, can be explained as a rebellion against individual "motherhood" with its burdens on women which are becoming increasingly difficult to shoulder. Women's Movement in the 70's The present wave of the women's liberation movement emeiged in the early 70's as the New Left struggles were dying out. Several factors promoted its advent at this time. First was the impact of the New Left struggle with its radical ideas and direct action methods so different from those of the old left. Secondly, there was the new form which the New Left created, emphasizing solidarity among independent individuals determined to fight, rather than the old style in which organizational forms grew out of an understanding of democracy as majority pressure. Thirdly, the new 84/Quesf power of people who had long been ignored or regarded as backward and weak people — Okinawans, Korean and Chinese residents in Japan, Vietnamese, Black people in the U.S. — the struggles of these people greatly encouraged women. Women in urban areas, furthermore, discovered strong determined women in farming villages like Sanrizuka and Kita Fuji who were carrying on militant long-term resistance to state power. The women's liberation movement emerged from among women who had been involved in both the old and the new left. But both groups had a common understanding of sexism in Japan as deeply connected with this country's aggression in Asia, its chauvinism. Behind the women's liberation groups' advocacy of sexual freedom lay an understanding that patriarchal monogamy which denies sexuality is also the foundation of Japanese chauvinism. Thus, members of both groups united in a campaign to stop "Kisaeng tourism" — the sexual exploitation of Korean women by Japanese businessmen, and they united to fight the revision of the Eugenic Protection Law referred to above. They also challenged leftists to understand the structure of sexism by which they were, either consciously or unconsciously, supporting the traditional system to "divide and rule" women. At the same time, they pointed out women's own female consciousness, womanliness, and that women should struggle to attain an equal level with men. But generally, the New Left political groups persisted in the thinking that, while the fact of sexism should be admitted, BROADSHEET New Zealand's feminist magazine. For six years we have been dealing with the vital issues which affect women and the Women's Liberation Movement, in New Zealand and overseas. Broadsheet contains local and international news relevant to women and their struggles; editorial comment on trends in New Zealand society and Movement issues; and main features on topics like high school women, lesbian mothers, rural women, women's music and women at work. We have a good coverage of women's health topics, a popular review section, and original short stories, poems, and graphics. Broadsheet Part of the world-wide women 9s liberation movement. To subscribe to Broadsheet send $8.50 NZ to P.O. Box 47-261, Auckland, New Zealand. 10 issues per year. Japanese Women/85 sexual discrimination is not as important as racial discrimination or prejudice against minority groups such as the Buraka (outcast) people and, anyway, will disappear when the whole svstem is changed. The new trend of women's liberation in the 70's also comprehended that the root of sexism was based on division of labor by sex. In a society which gives highest priority to material production, women who produce life through natural functions are essentially alienated from the place of labor, and forced to live through the medium of sex. Women began to realize that sexism and sexual division of labor is more fundamental than any other form of discrimination or division of labor, and that as long as two kinds of production — production of materials and production of human beings — are not recognized as being of equal value, there can be no equality between men and women in the true sense. Today, the government explains that women's liberation is synonymous with the development of women's power, and equality is opposed to protection of motherhood. At the same time, equality between the sexes is limited to "equal opportunity" and "better conditions," thus the sexual division of labor, the root of the sexism, is to be untouched. But we cannot shift all the responsibility onto the government or established women's groups. After all, our task lies in breaking through these limits. DAUGHTERS Publishing Co., Inc. 22 Charles Street/New York, NY 10014 ANGEL DANCE Kat is a Chicana detective who can fight her way through anything— except her passion for Angel Stone, best-selling feminist author certain people are out to destroy... $5.00 I MUST NOT ROCK "With cut-throat humor, Linda Marie tells the story of how she saved her own life." -Rita Mac Brown $5.00 ApplesauGe JUNE ARNOLD "An anatomical dissection of rnarriage-in-the-raw." Bertha Harris $5.00 I o order .Kid SO. SO/hook handling 86/Quest a Look at the Cuban Family Code The following is a portion of the Cuban Family Code with an introductory commentary written by Jane Flax, a political theorist who works with Quest. The entire text of the Code can be obtained from the Cuban Resource Center, P.O. Box 206; Cathedral Station, NY, NY 10025 graphic by Marguarite Ahumada Commentary The Cuban family code was drafted in July 1974. Following extensive discussion throughout the country, the Code was adopted March 8, 1975. The Cubans view the Code as the beginning of a prolonged attack on both sexist attitudes and women's "second shift", i.e. complete responsibility for domestic labor as well as work outside the home. The Code is historically important as one strategy for ending sexism under socialism. It has been praised by many outside Cuba as an exemplary piece of socialist legislation. As feminists who operate in a different historical context and situation, we must be careful to evaluate the Code in terms of our own needs and principles. The Code raises rather than resolves one of the most difficult issues for feminist theory: the role of the heterosexual family and its place in a liberated society. The Cuban Code explicitly identifies the heterosexual family as the ".elementary cell" of society and as the "center for relations of common existence between men and women and between them and their children and between all of them with their relatives." The Code involves the state, especially the judiciary, in the regulation of marriage, divorce, alimony and child custody and institutionalizes a preference for "judicially recognized" marriages. The family will be supported and strengthened by the state and is recognized as the social unit for the satisfaction of "deep rooted human needs in the social field and in the field of affection for the individual". Within the family the absolute equality of the partners is stressed as is their equal responsibility for the satisfaction of all the needs of the family. Family responsibilities should not hinder either partner in the pursuit of her/his skill or profession, but neither should family life suffer as a result of these pursuits. While these principles are important to the development of equal relations between men and women, many important questions of concern to feminists outside Cuba remain unresolved. The state supported bias towards heterosexuality is extremely troubling. Can patriarchy be completely eliminated without an attack A Look at the Cuban Family Code/87 on the channeling of sexuality in exclusively heterosexual directions? What happens to persons whose deeply rooted social needs can only be met by relations with someone of the same sex? Feminists have traced strong connections between the suppression and control of sexuality and the existence of authoritarian social patterns. These connections need to be considered as we conceptualize our ideal social organization. We must also evaluate the bias towards the family as the center of child development and "domestic" labor and the involvement of the state in legitimating and regulating relations between men and women, parents and children. The nuclear family structure may result in certain forms of psychological development, forms which may preclude full development of individual capacities and true sociability — or it may be essential to such development. Without experimentation with a wide range of forms this central question can never be resolved. Furthermore, we must consider what types of socially necessary labor now performed in the family (cooking, childcare, etc.) should remain there. While we need means of insuring responsibility between adults and between adults and children, it is not clear that granting the state a monopoly on regulating and legitimating these relations is the solution. Perhaps the feminist ideal will look more like the combination of responsibility and fluidity suggested by Marge Piercy in Woman on the Edge of Time. These issues, while central to feminism, are far from settled. We should learn from the examples of others, but the hard work still lies before us: to develop a feminist theory and practice adequate to our own historical situation, needs and visions. The Cuban family code is an important document for feminists to study, but it should be analyzed with these questions and concerns in mind. The following are excerpts highlighting the major features of the code. The Cuban Family Code WHEREAS: The equality of citizens resulting from the elimination of private property over the means of production and the extinction of classes and all forms of exploitation of human beings by others is a basic principle of the socialistic society being constructed by our people, a principle which must be explicitly and fully reflected in the provisions of our legislation. WHEREAS: Obsolete judicial norms from the bourgeois past which are contrary to equality and discriminatory with regard to women and children born out of wedlock still exist in our country, these norms must be replaced by others fully in keeping with the principles of equality and the realities of our socialist society, which is constantly and dynamically advancing. WHEREAS: The socialist concept of the family is based on the fundamental consideration that it constitutes an entity in which social and personal interests are present and closely linked in view of the fact that it is the elementary cell of society and, as such, contributes to its development 88/Qwesf, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 and plays an important role in the upbringing of the new generations. Moreover, as the center for relations of common existence between men and women and between them and their children and between all of them with their relatives, it meets deep-rooted human needs in the social field and in the field of affection for the individual... ARTICLE 1 - This Code regulates judicially the institutions of the family — marriage, divorce, parent-child relations, obligations to provide alimony, adoption and tutelage — with the main objectives of contributing to: — the strengthening of the family and of the ties of affection and reciprocal respect between its members; — the strengthening of legally formalized or judicially recognized marriage, based on absolute equality of rights between men and women; — the most effective fulfillment by parents of their obligation regarding the protection, moral upbringing and education of their children so they can develop fully in every field as worthy citizens of a socialist society; — the absolute fulfillment of the principle of equality of all children... ARTICLE 2. - Marriage is the voluntarily established union between a man and a woman who are Cuban Family Code/ 89 legally fit to do so, in order to live together. Marriage will have a legal effect only when it is formalized or recognized in keeping with the rules established in this Code... ARTICLE 24. - Marriage is established with equal rights and duties for both partners. ARTICLE 25. - Partners must live together, be loyal, considerate, respectful and mutually helpful to each other... ARTICLE 26. - Both partners must care for the family they have created and each must cooperate with the other in the education, upbringing and guidance of the children according to the principles of socialist morality. They must participate, to the extent of their capacity or possibilities, in the running of the home, and cooperate so that it will develop in the best possible way. ARTICLE 27. — The partners must help meet the needs of the family they have created with their marriage, each according to his or her ability and financial status. However, if one of them only contributes by working at home and caring for the children, the other partner must contribute to this support alone, without prejudice to his duty of cooperating in the above-mentioned work and care. ARTICLE 28. - Both partners have the right to practice their profession or skill and they have the duty of helping each other and cooperating in order to make this possible and to study or improve their knowledge. However, they must always see to it that home life is organized in such a way that these activities are coordinated with their fulfillment of the obligations posed by this Code... ARTICLE 29. — The economic basis of matrimony will be joint property of goods as contemplated in this ARTICLE 49. — Divorce will result in the dissolution of the matrimonial ties and all the other effects mentioned in this section. ARTICLE 50. — Divorce can only be obtained by means of a judicial decree. ARTICLE 51. - Divorce will take effect by common agreement or when the court determines that there are factors which have led the marriage to lose its meaning for the partners and for the children and, thus, for society as a whole. ARTICLE 52. — For the purposes of this law it is understood that marriage loses its meaning for the partners and for the children and, thus, for society as a whole when there are causes which create an objective situation in which the marriage is no longer, or cannot be in the future, the union of a man and a woman in a manner adequate to exercise the rights, fulfill the obligation and obtain the objectives mentioned in Articles 24-28 inclusive. ARTICLE 53. - Either one of the partners can take action to obtain a ARTICLE 58. - If the partners have lived together for more than a year or if children have been born during their marriage, the court, when hand- 90 /Quest ing down the decree of divorce, will grant an alimony for one of them in the following cases: 1) the partner who does not have a paying job and lacks other means of support. This will be temporary and it will be paid by the other partner for six months if there are no minor children in his or her care and guardianship, or for a year if there are, so the beneficiary can obtain a paying job; 2) the partner who because of age, disability, illness or other insurmountable obstacle is unable to work and lacks other means of support. In this case the alimony will continue as long as the obstacle exists. ARTICLE 57. - In the decree of a divorce the court will grant patria potestas, establishing as a rule that both parents shall retain it over their minors. However, the court may grant it to the parent whom it feels should have it, when this is required by the interests of the minors, outlining the reasons why one or the other is deprived of it. Likewise, the court may determine, outlining its basis for doing so, the negation of patria potestas to both parents when necessary for the interests of the children, in which case the children will be placed under tutelage. ARTICLE 58. - In the decree of divorce the court must determine which of the parents will have guardianship and care over the children born during the marriage and will take the necessary measures so the children can maintain adequate communication with the parent that is not entrusted with their guardianship and care... ARTICLE 59. — Support of minors is a duty of both parents even if they do not have patria potestas over them or even if the children are not under their guardianship and care if they are enrolled in an educational institution... ARTICLE 60. - The amount of alimony for minors will be determined by their normal expenses and the income of the parents, in order to determine the responsibility of the latter in a proportionate manner... ARTICLE 84. - The children are obliged to respect, show consideration for and help their parents and to obey them while under their patria potestas. ARTICLE 85. - Patria potestas entails the following rights and duties of the parents: 1) keeping the children under their guardianship and care; making every possible effort to provide them with a stable home and adequate nourishment; caring for their health and personal hygiene; providing them with the means of recreation fitting their age which are within their possibilities; giving them the proper protection; seeing to their good behavior and cooperating with the authorities in order to overcome any situation or environmental factor that may have an unfavorable effect on their training and development; 2) seeing to the education of their children; inculcating them with love for learning; seeing to it that they attend school, seeing to their adequate technical, scientific and cultural im- Cuban Family Code/ 91 provement in keeping with their aptitude and vocation and the demands posed by the country's development; and collaborating with the educational authorities in school programs and activities; 3) training their children to be useful citizens; inculcating them with the love for their country, respect for the country's symbols and their country's values, the spirit of internationalism, the standards of coexistence, and socialist morality, respect for social property and the property and personal rights of others; arousing the respect of their children by their attitude toward them, and teaching them to respect the authorities, their teachers, and every other person; 4) administering and caring for their children's property, seeing to it that their children use and enjoy in a proper manner whatever property they have; and not to sell, exchange, or give any such property except in the interest of the children pursuant to the requisites of this Code; 5) representing their children in every judicial action or arrangement in which they are involved; giving their authorization in those cases where full capacity for taking action is required; and taking action opportunely and in due fashion to defend the children's interest and property. ARTICLE 86. — The parents are invested with the authority to reprimand and set straight adequately and moderately those children under their patria potestas... ARTICLE 89.-...Under equal conditions, the court will generally decide that the children be left under the care of the parent in whose company they have been until the disagreement arose. Preference is given to the mother in the case that the children lived with both father and mother, unless special reasons make another solution advisable... ARTICLE 93 — Both parents or one of them will lose patria potestas over their children when: 1) unappealable judgment is imposed on them for criminal action... ARTICLE 95 — In keeping with the circumstances, the court may deprive one or both of the parents of patria potestas or suspend their exercise of patria potestas... by a judgment dictated on a motion made by one of the parents or by the distict attorney, in the case where one or both parents: 1) are grossly derelict in their duties as established in Article 85; 2) induce the child to carry out a criminal act; 3) abandon the national territory and, therefore, their children; 4) observe a defective, corrupting, criminal or dangerous conduct incompatible with the exercise of patria potestas; 5) commit a crime against the child. ARTICLE 96 — Privation or suspension of patria potestas does not exempt the parents from the duty to provide alimony for their children. 92 /Quest "We need to think of art... as a form whereby people can relate to each other in a human way with the goal of workingin the movement." Patty Lee Parmalee "Capitalism has always depended for legitimacy on its apparent production of art and culture, woman and the family, as realms to which we might retreat for a 'life-after-work'." Evan Stark Stanley Aronowitz • Hans Magnus Enzensberger Charlotte Bunch • Elizabeth Sutherland Martinez and others on Culture & Politics notes from a conference by Barbara Bick $2.50 per copy. Public Resource Center, 1747 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20009 DIRECTORY OF THE FEMINIST MEDIA Periodicals, presses & publishers, news services, radio/TV groups, film, video & cable groups, music, art/graphics/theater, distributors, bookstores & mail order, multimedia groups, directories & catalogs, speakers bureaus, special library collections, media organizations, and individual media women. All entries are written by the women themselves, providing contact persons, phones & addresses. Plus: annotated index of media activities and research on women and the media. Send $8 for the Media Report to Women Index/- Di rectory to Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP), 3306 Ross Place, N.W., Washington, DC 20008. CONDITIONS: a new magazine of writing by women —ith an emphasis on writing b\ lesbians POETRY**»FICTION***JOURNALS*»* CRITICAL ESSAYS»*»INTERV1EWS*»»REVIEWS "Leibian/feminist writers are undertaking the hard work of creating a tradition of our own. one which could not have been created before our time. I tee CONDITIONS as one of the placet where this work is being done with seriousness and intelligence. Certainly the poetry in the fust issue would be reason enough for subscribing. And to subscribe means to help give continuity to our culture: to nourish that which nourishes us." -ADRIENNE RICH "The first issue is preciously packed with first-rate writing of varied sorts, and the materials...are singularly important, serious, instructive, and enjoyable, at once. I've told everyone about the good news of CONDITIONS." -JUNE JORDAN ONE SPRING 1977: 148 pages of work by 31 women. Features: on Susan Sherman's poetry; on Radclyffe Hall's fiction; Part I of an interview with Adrienne Rich; Reviews of TWO AUTUMN 1977: nowi Features: Women Without Children; Towards a Black Feminist Criticism: Part II of Rich Interview; Review of II books. $6.50 per year (3 issues); students and unemployed $5; supporting subscriptions $10, $13, $25; institutional $10; Single issues $2.50. CONDITIONS: P.O. Box 56 Van Brunt Station Brooklyn, New York 1 1215 93 Feminist & Women's Resources & Publications Compiled by DOROTHY ALLISON Feminist & Women's Resources and Publications Outside the U.S. The feminist community extends throughout the world, from battered women's shelters in London, to study groups in Berlin, to women workers and students who publish a newsletter in Madras, India. Five years ago the magazines, newsletters and broadsides published within this community would have made a small but impressive list. The problem, then and now, is to locate the women and organizations involved. When we began work on this issue of Quest, we went first to several sources: mailing lists from international women's conferences; the back pages of other feminist publications for ads and announcements; the lists of publications printed in other journals; and our own files. In the course of a year and a half, we have encountered many of the problems women communicating over great distances have always faced. Many groups had disbanded. Women, as well as organizations and publications, changed their names or their addresses. What was once a 16 page glossy monthly became an irregular 4 page newsletter. The postal services proved uncooperative and uncertain, sometimes losing letters, often raising rates and occasionally going out of business themselves. Some replies to our original letters were still coming in a full year after the mailing. For these and other reasons, what follows is by no means a complete list. With few exceptions we are not including magazines published in the U.S. We are including only those publications which are still being distributed and for which we can provide an address. We are not including those we were told about but could not reach for verification, except for publications recently verified by ISIS, the Women's International Information and Communication Service. Wherever possible we have also quoted the prices in both the currency of the country of origin and in U.S. dollars. Unless otherwise noted, all publications are in the offical language of their country. In many cases we were unable to get complete data, and for those we recommend that you write the magazines for further information. International International Archives for the Women's Movement (International Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging — IAU), Hevengracht 262, Amsterdam, Netherlands. A comprehensive book, periodical and newspaper collection dating back to the 1800's. They publish a documentation bulletin listing articles and periodicals of interest. Isis: Women's International Information and Communication Service, Via Delia Pellic- 94/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 cia 31, 00153 Rome, Italy, or P.O. Box 301, CH-1227 Carouge/Geneva, Switzerland. If you had only the name of a magazine published in Angola and you wanted to know more, the best thing you could do would be to write Isis. Founded in 1974 to collect materials from women's groups and to make those resources available to other women, Isis has become the Women's International Information and Communication Service, publishing the Isis International Bulletin and coordinating the International Feminist Network (proposed at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels, March 1976.) Isis is financed by its subscribers plus additional funds from women's groups and nongovernmental organizations. Subscriptions are $20.00 (US) per year, or $10.00 (US) for women's groups. The next issue of the bulletin will concentrate on "Feminism and Socialism" and will be available for $2.00 (US) plus $1.25 for postage outside of Europe. Cheques should be made payable to Account No. Cl-605. 667.0 in the name of Isis, Societe de Banque Suisse, rud du Marche 11, CH-1227 Carouge, Switzerland. Women at Work, c/o International Labour Office, ILO Publications, CH-1211, Geneva 22, Switzerland. 3 times yearly in English & French. Women's International Network News, 187 Grant Street, Lexington, MA 02173. Win News provides documentation and biographical information on many issues of women's health, women and environment, and women and development. Subscriptions are $25.00 (US) for institutions and $15.00 (US) for individuals. Ms. Fran P. Hosken, the editor, has also written "Genital Mutilation of Women in Africa," available from Munger Africana Library Notes, Calif. Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, U.S.A., for $2.00. Africa Asia Asian Women's Liberation, c/o Goto Masako, 147 Kenjo-Kosha, 112 Sakuragaoka, Hodogaya, Yokonama-shi, Kanagawa-ken, Japan. The first issue was published in May, 1977. In English. Australia Hecate, A Women's Interdisciplinary Journal, P.O. Box 99, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia 4067. Subscription prices: A. $2.50, UK 1.80, U.S. $4.00. Individual: $4/year or Institutions: $10/year or $6.50/copy Sustaining subs: $16/year. Cross-disciplinary and Socialist Women's Studies magazine published twice a year. Liberation, c/o Women's Liberation, Bloor House, Bloor Court, Adelaide, S.A. 5000. Lip, c/o The Women in The Visual Arts Collective, 66 Carlton Street, Carlton 3053, Victoria, Australia. LIP is a bi-annual feminist art magazine. Luna — c/o The Editor, 101, Edgevale Road, Kew, Victoria, Australia. Literary magazine. Refractory Girl (A Women's Studies Journal), 62 Regent Street, Sydney, Australia. Subs: $4.50 Australian/year. Published quarterly. Vashti's Voice, A Women's Liberation Newspaper, P.O. Box 132, Carlton, Victoria, Australia. Women At Work*, Working Women's Centre, 423 Little Collins St., Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia. A newspaper in English, Italian, Greek, and various Eastern European languages, which concentrates on women's role in Unions. Famille et Developpement,* BP 11007, CD Annexe, Dakar, Senegal. A quarterly review of family health which includes articles on African development, unemployment, agriculture exploitation, and often deals with women's issues. indicates information about the publication came from ISIS. Belgium Les Cahiers Du Grif, rue du Musee 14, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium. Subs: $13/yr/surface; $17/yr/air. French-language journal organized thematically: Women vs. the Church; The Economic Crisis: Their Crisis, Our Struggle; Women and Children; etc. Published quarterly; back issues available. Feminist & Women's Resources & Publications/95 Canada Atlantis, P.O. Box 294, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. Atlantis is a women's studies journal which publishes fiction, art and scholarly articles. The Body Politic, A Gay Liberation Journal, Box 7289, Station A, Toronto, Canada M5W 1X9. The Body Politic includes many articles of interest to feminists, including "Tapestries", a column which regularly reviews lesbian publications. Branching Out, P.O. Box 4098, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 4S8. Branching Out is published and written by Canadian women and concentrates on issues that affect Canadian women. Subscriptions are $6.00 per year for individuals within Canada. U.S. subscriptions are $7.00 and overseas subscriptions are $8.00 (Canadian dollars). Sample issues are $1.25. Calgary Women's Newspaper, 1114 6th Avenue, S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2P OW2 Canada. This monthly feminist publication emphasizes the issues of concern to Alberta women. A subscription is $4.00 per year. Canadian Newsletter of Research on Women, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Dept. of Sociology, 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6. An academic resource which lists recent research on women, available to individuals in Canada & the U.S. for $5.00 per year and $6.00 overseas. Institutional subscriptions are $12.00. Chatelaine Magazine, 481 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1A7 Canada. Emergency Librarian, 46 Gormley Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4V lZl Canada. A Canadian feminist magazine devoted to liberating libraries, librarians, and readers of all kinds. An overseas subscription is $9.00; sample issues are $1.50. Kinesis, 2029 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A monthly newspaper available for $8.00 per year. Makara Magazine, 1011 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. An alternative general interest Canadian magazine that is "more diverse than its staff suspects." The Northern Woman, 316 Bay Street, Thunder Bay P. Ontario, Canada. This magazine serves much of north western Ontario. A subscription covering 6 issues a year is $3.00 for individuals and $7.00 for institutions. Priorities, 3485 West 15th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Monthly newsletter emphasizing feminism and socialism, available for $5.00 per year. Room of One's Own, Growing Room Collective, 1918 Waterloo St., Vancouver, B.C. V6R 3G6, Canada. One of the finest feminist journals of literature and criticism. Individual subscriptions are $7.00 per year with sample copies at $2.25. Institutional subscriptions are $10.00 per year. Central America Cidhal News, CIDHAL, A.C., Apdo. Postal 579, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Special reports describing news and activities of CIDHAL: "We do not have a publication any more, but we do have a center of documentation, with a great deal of information on women." Denmark Kvinder, Kvindehuset, Prinsessegade 7, 1422 K, Copenhagen, Denmark. Subs: 45 kr./year; 8,50 kr. /issue. Edited by the Copenhagen Redstockings, it deals with all kinds of topics, from labour problems to prophylactics, and every issue has a certain theme (e.g., Women and Violence). England Big Flame Journal, 217 Wavertree Rd., Liverpool 7. Subscriptions are £2.25 per year in Britain and Ireland, £1.10 for six months. International subscriptions are £3.00 and £1.50. Big Flame, which emphasizes local organizing with working class people, is sponsored by a revolutionary women's group which also publishes a monthly newspaper and Women's Struggle Notes. Catcall, 37 Wortley Rd., London E 6. Catcall describes itself as a nonsectarian forum for discussion, theory and the exchange of ideas by and for women in the women's liberation movement. Subscriptions are 90 pence for six issues, plus postage, art magazine. Power of Women, c/o Falling Wall Book Service, 79 Richmond Rd., Montpellier, Bristol, U.K. Power of Women is a magazine of the international wages for housework cam- 96 /Quest paign. Each issue is 15 pence plus postage. Red Rag, 9 Stratford Villas, London, NWl England. A political magazine of articles, reviews and news from many countries. Subscriptions are £1.25 for 4 issues but they need sustaining subscribers for £2.00. Sappho, 20 Dorset Square, London NWL 6QB England. Sappho is one of the oldest lesbian-feminist magazines still publishing. Issues which include articles, reviews and poems are available for 50 pence plus postage. Shrew, c/o Women's Liberation Workshop, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London, WC2 England. Sustaining subscriptions are £2.00. Socialist Woman, c/o Dudie Weppler, 97 Caledonian Rd. Nl, London, England. Socialist Woman is available at £1.50 for 6 issues and 15 pence plus 8Vz pence postage for single issues. Spare Rib, 27 Clerkenwell Close, London ECl, England. A nationally distributed women's liberation magazine covering women at work, at home, in health, art, sex and politics. International subscription rates are Wires: The Women's Liberation Movement National Newsletter. 30 Blenheim Terrace, Leeds 2, United Kingdom. Individual subscriptions are £5 per year, £3 if very poor.. Group subscriptions are £12 per year or £8 if very poor. Published twice a month, it includes news, announcements, and debate within the British Women's Movement. The staff maintains extensive files and acts as an information and referral service, referral service. A Woman's Place, 42 Earlham St. WC2, London, England. An information centre and meeting place for women only and an excellent contact point for women from overseas. The weekly newsletter is available for 15 pence. Women in Eastern Europe, c/o Barbara Holland, CREES, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. A newsletter aimed at bringing into contact all socialists and feminists interested in the position of women in Eastern Europe. Copies can be obtained for $1.00 (US) from Roberta Manning, Boston College, Chesnut Mill, MA 02167, USA. Women's Report, 14 Aberdeen Road Wealdstone, Harrow, Middx., Ha3 7NF England. A bi-monthly feminist magazine of news for women, by women, about women. Subscriptions outside Great Britain and the Irish Republic are £5.00 for individuals and £7.50 for institutions. A sample copy is available for 40 pence. Women's Research & Resource Centre, c/o The Richardson Institute, 158 North Glower Street, London NWl. WRRC publishes a bimonthly newsletter which is available for L5 per year. The Centre maintains a Research Index which now covers over 400 projects, as well as a library of feminist and womanrelated pamphlets and periodicals. Women's Struggle Notes, 217 Wavertree Rd., Liverpool 7, England. Published by the Big Flame group, this journal appears every two months and costs 15 pence. Zero 234 Camden High St. London, NWl, England. Zero is an anarchist-feminist newspaper available for 20 pence per copy. France La Cause*, Rue de la Jonquiere 45, F. 75007 Paris, France. Newspaper in the format of a large, folder poster. A subscription is 50 FF. Choisir, 102 rue Saint Dominique, 75007 Paris, France. Subs: 40 FF/year; 5 FF/issue. L'information des femmes, 14, rue Saussier Leroy, 75017 Paris, France, Prices: 40 FF/year; 3 FF/issue. Monthly journal of the Women's Liberation Movement, covering feminist activity and debate in France and internationally, and a calendar of news events. Nosotras*, c/o Silva, BP 64-06, T. 75006 Paris, France. A bi-monthly in Spanish and Portugese. Nouvelles Feministes*, La Ligue du Droit des femmes, BP 370-75625, Paris Cedex 13, France. A monthly bulletin which emphasizes women and the law. Greece OUT — Outrageous Utopian Thinking, Multi-National Women's Liberation Group of Athens, (MNWLG), c/o B. McNichol, Bouboulinas 8 Kallithea Athens, Greece. Begun two years ago by MNWLG, OUT publishes the group's own articles as well as news gathered from other sources. Subscription: 200 Drachmas or $7.00 a year; sample issue: 20 Drachmas or $.70. India Sthree Sakthi, 6/2 Pilkington Road, Madras 600 023, India. Offset monthly produced by a group of Indian working women and students. Resources & Publications/ 97 Ireland Banshee, Journal of Irish Women United, c/o Irish Women United, 12 Lr. Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. Subscriptions: We are come again as joyful women seeking our full development as people." National magazine for Irish feminists covering abortion, equal pay, etc.) and detailing the activities of Irish Women United. Italy Sottosopra, Gruppo del Giornale, Via Piccinni, 23 Milano, Italy. Subscriptions: 350 lire/issue. National publication which serves as a clearinghouse for articles/reports from feminist groups in Italy. Also includes translations of feminist and socialist/feminist articles from other journals. Effe, Piazzo Campo Marzio 7, 00186 Roma, Italy. International subs: $17/year/air $14/year/surface $2/sample issue. Feminist monthly magazine published by a cooperative of women who belong to different feminist groups. IDOC, Via Santa Maria Dell 'Anima 30, Roma, Italy. IDOC is a monthly bulletin with a Christian emphasis; good for information on Third World and national liberation movements. Individual subscriptions are $10.00 and institutional subscriptions are $20.00. For air mail add $5.00. Japan Agora, Shinjuku 1-9-6, Shinjuko-Ku, Tokyo 160, Japan. Irregular publishing schedule. Feminist Japan, c/o Diane Simpson, 555 Main Street S1802, Roosevelt Island, New York, N.Y. 10044. Subs: $13.80/year; English issue: $2.30. Published six times a year, five issues in Japanese and one in English which includes original articles and translations of articles which appeared in Japanese. Japanese women, 21-11, Yoyogi 2-Chome, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 151, Japan. Price $1.00/year/surface, published semi-annually by the Women's Suffrage Center. General news of interest to women and sponsored by the government. Onna Eros (Woman Eros), Hongo 2-5-10, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. Prices: Issues 1-5, 700/yen/issue; 6-9 780 yen/issue. Watashi Wa Onna (I Am A Woman), Higashi 1-2-3-306, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 150, Japan. Prices: 480 yen/issue; 6 months/2880 yen; 1 year/5760 yen. Monthly magazine ("for new women") with moderately feminist orientation. Netherlands Feminist, Uitgeverij DE BONTE WAS, Nw. Herengracht 95, Postbus 10222, Amsterdam, Holland. English editions to be available. Lover, Wederikdreef 21, Nuenen, Netherlands. Internat'l Subs: $8/year/surface $10/year/air. Quarterly review of publications for the Women's Movement (articles on books, reviews of feminist papers, lists of recent publications, etc.). Nieuwsbrief Van Het Feministies Socialistie Platform, c/o Lenie Janssen, 2e Oosterparkstraat 102 II, Amsterdam, Holland. Bulletin includes extensive coverage of both international and local feminist activities. Subscriptions are 10 dutch guilders per year, plus postage. New Zealand Broadsheet, The Feminist Magazine, P.O. Box 47-261, Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand. International subs: $NZ 8/year. Back issues available: full set $NZll.00. National monthly magazine including international newsclips and discussion; reviews of art, books & records; issues of interest to New Zealand feminists. Circle, A Lesbian-Feminist Magazine, P.O. Box 427, Wellington, New Zealand. Subscription price: $NZ 4.50/year. CIRCLE seeks to improve communication between lesbians all over New Zealand... and cover political issues nationally; the arts, interviews; lesbianfeminist crossword puzzle! Spiral, A Women's Arts Journal, P.O. Box 21069, Edgeware, Christchurch, N.Z. Price: $NZ 1.50/issue. Working Women Newspaper, P.O. Box 9012, Wellington, New Zealand. Published by The Working Women's Alliance. 98 /Quest The Pacific Pacific Women's Resource Centre, c/o YMCA Community Resource Center, 2nd Floor, Box 534, Suva, Fiji. The Resource Centre was established in November, 1976; write for details. Scotland Scottish Women's Liberation Journal, 23 Marchment Crescent, Edinburgh, Scotland. Subscription: £l plus 50 pence for postage. Spain Vindicacion Feminista,* c/o Roger de Flor, 96, 2?2a Barcelona 13, Spain. A monthly magazine which deals with issues important to Spanish women. Subscriptions vary based on where you are, from 900 pesetas to 2,250 pesetas. Sweden Hertha, Biblioteksgatan 12, S-lll 46, Stockholm, Sweden. Kvinno Bulletinen, Gruppo 8, Oden Gatan 102, S-113 22 Stockholm, Sweden, Internat'l Subs: $5/year; $1.50/issue. Socialist-Feminist magazine in its 7th year. Switzerland Editions Fempol,* Socinstrasse 2, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland. In German. A lesbian politics journal which includes theory, photos, sexuality and poetry. Femmes Suisses*, c/o Claudine Richoz, 9 rue du velodrome, 1205 Geneve, Switzerland. Issue #5, May 1977 was a special issue on abused women, with reports from Switzerland, Germany and England. Terre des Femmes/SOS Femmes Battues, c/o Genevieve Piret, 3 Avenue Weber, Geneva, Switzerland. West Germany Clio, Feministisches Frauen Gesundheits Zentrum, Postfach 36 03 68, 1000 Berlin 36, West Germany. $5.00/year/surface. A quarterly journal by self-help feminist health activists; thematic information on alternative treatment, menopause, etc. Courage, Bleibtreustr. 48, D-l Berlin 12, West Germany. DM 36. Monthly magazine of feminist news and analysis. EFA — Emanzipation-Frauen-Argumente, Turmhofstr. 10, 5 Koln 90 (Porz), West Germany DM 1,50/issue. Emma, Kolpingplatz la, 5 Koln 1, West Germany. $1.75/issue. DM36/year; DM3/sample issue Monthly feminist magazine. Der Feminist, Christrosenweg 5, 8000 Munchen 70, West Germany. $2.00/issue (published 3 times/year); send money to Postcheck-Konyto Munchen 28035 804. Theoretical-analytic review of political economy and strategy, consciousness raising for a Feminist Party, and book reviews. Frauen Offensive, Verlag Frauenoffensive, Josephsburgstrasse 16, 8 Munchen 80, West Germany, DM 4,50/issue. Monthly magazine of feminist analysis and news. Lesbenpresse, 1 Berlin 30, Kulmerstr. 20a 3. Hinterhof, 2. Stock, West Germany. DM2/issue, general magazine for lesbians. Unsere Kleine Zeitung, Gruppe L'74, Mariainnenstr. 34 Vorderhaus, 1 Berlin 36, West Germany. Published by Gruppe L'74 for lesbians. Special Issues on Women Action Latin America c/o CROSS, 203 D Holden Green, Cambridge, MA 02138. The women's caucus of Action Latin America produced the special issue of the Monthly Bulletin entitled "Revolution Within The Revolution: Women In Latin America" (Vol. 1, No. 3, March, 1972), which includes material from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and Argentina. Blatter Des Informationszentrums Dritte Welt (Blatter Des 1Z3W), Postfach 5328, D- 7800 Freiburg, West Germany. DM 28/year, Students: DM 20. Frauen In Der Dritten Welt (Women In The Third World) was a special issue published in November, 1976. It includes a section contrasting the lives of women in socialist countries with those in nonsocialist countries. Available for DM 2,50 plus postage. Canadian Dimension, Box 1413, Winnipeg, Man., Canada. Women, a special issue of Dimension was published partly to mark Resources & Publications/ 99 International Women's Year. Available for $1.50, the issue includes articles on class, the Women's Liberation Movement, Viet Nam, women and imperialism, working class women, suffragettes, divorce and abortion. Cefres, Centre European Feminih de Recherche sur I'Evolution de la Societe, c/o Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Bureau 322, 54 Blvd. Raspail, 75006 Paris, France. European Centre for Women's Studies in a Changing Society, has as yet published only a statement of purpose. Their address at the Institute of the Science of Man is a temporary one. Economic Review, People's Bank Research Department, 48 Park Street, Colombo-2, India. Published a special issue on women, edited by Dr. S. Goonatilake. IDAC, 27 Chemin des Crets 1218 Grand Saconnex, Geneve, Switzerland. IDAC is a non-profit collective financed by seminars, publications and contributions. Subscriptions are 4 issues for $6.00 or $10.00 for air mail. They have published a number of issues of interest to feminists including two specifically about women: No. 3: "The Liberation of Women, To Change the World and Re-Invent Life" (Now out of print) and No. 10: "Towards a Woman's World". Latin America & Empire Report, North American Congress on Latin America, Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y. 10025, Subscription: $10.00/year individuals, $16.00 for non-profit institutions. Vol. IX, No. 6 of NACLA's Report was on "Women's Labor" and included an article on Chile by Michele Mattelart, as well as an article on "Women in the Chilean Resistance" by Carmen Castillo. Latin American Perspectives, P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, CA 92517. Special double issue entitled "Women and Class Struggle," contains historical, empirical and theoretical analyses of women in class society and examines the roots of women's oppression as well as the nature of that oppression today. Le Catalogue des Ressources*, Edition Paralleles/Alternative, 47 et 51 rue Saint- Honorie, 75001, Paris, France. A catalogue of the women's movement in French-speaking parts of Europe (France, Belgium, Switzerland) to appear later this year. This will be the third volume; Vol. I was FF 39.50 and Vol. II was FF. 45.. Palestinian Women Develop Their Struggle*, Women's New Service, Australian Union of Students, Women's Department, 97 Drummond St., Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia. Traces the background and growth of the General Union of Palestinian Women (GPUW) formed in 1965. The Palestinian Women at the Heart* of the Struggle, P.L.O. Information Department, P.O. Box 5383-11, Beirut, Lebanon. Special issue of "Palestine Lives!" printed in English, By Aida T., this issue appeared in April, 1975. Schritte ins Offe, c/o Schweizerischer Katholischer, Frauenbund, Burgerstrasse 17, 6000 Luzern, Switzerland. No. 4, 1977 was titled "Feminismus-Beschreibung eines Bewusstseins" (Feminism — Writings about Consciousness). In German. Social Scientist, c/o The Indian School of Social Sciences, Trivandrum, India. Produced a, special issue on women, edited by Jacob Eapen. Women in the Struggle For Liberation, P.O. Box 187, Dayton View Station, Dayton, Ohio 45406. Produced by the World Student Christian Federation in 1973, this is a collection of articles written by women who live in the countries they write about. U.S. $1.50. Women Prisoners, c/o Amnesty International, 53 Theobald's Road, London WCl, England. This report lists women prisoners still being held in countries all over the world. Women's Liberation and Breast Feeding*, c/o Environment Child Health, 2a Drayson Mews, London W8 England. This is a special issue which presents a feminist viewpoint on breast feeding and consumer influences. Feminist Researcher/Writer CaroleAnn Lovin Basch 6469 Western Avenue Buena Park, CA 90621 (714)523-7429 Research for books, films, theses, etc. Fees reasonable. 10 0 /Quest Organizers' Dialogue graphics by Constance Samaras Editors' Introduction: In this issue we have chosen to discuss international conferences in the Organizers' Dialogue. In the past few years, there have been an increasing number of international or multi-regional conferences for or about women. While access to such events is obviously limited, they are nevertheless one of the few occasions beyond an individuals travel — for exchange among feminists from different countries. As we seek to expand feminist ideas and experiences beyond national boundaries, it is important to analyze the possibilities and problems of such events. The most widely publicized international women's event in recent years was the U.N. -sponsored IWY Conference and Tribunal held in Mexico City in 1975. Several of the articles in this issue of Quest refer to that conference, which has also been discussed widely in many places. In this section, we are presenting views on two other important women's conferences both held in 1976 — The Wellesley Conference on Women and Development and The International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women held in Brussels. Unlike IWY, neither of these conferences was sponsored by governments. The following two articles discuss the value of international gatherings and suggest some of the ways that the structure and organization of a conference affect it as much as the content. A Critical Look at the Wellesley Conference By NAWAL EL SADAWI, FATIMA MERNISSI, and MALLICA VAJARATHON In June 1976 a Conference on Women and Development was held in Massachusetts at Wellesley College. Its purpose was to facilitate an exchange of data and ideas among international scholars. The conference was attended by women from over 30 countries. Many participants from Third World countries were critical of the content and structure of the conference. The following article outlines some of these criticisms and suggests alternative approaches to the organization of future international events. The authors, Nawal El Sadawi, Fatima Mernissi and Mallica Vajarathon, are respectively from Egypt, Morocco and Thailand, and have all been involved in women's studies in their own societies as well as international- Other variations of this article have been published in ISIS International Bulletin, (No. 3, April, 1977) and in WIN News, (Vol. Ill No. 3, 1977). The article was brought to our attention by ISIS and we are reprinting'Selections because we feel that it Resources & Publications/ 101 Organizers' Dialogue is an important critique, which provides constructive ideas on how to approach international dialogue and events. Papers drawn from the proceedings of the Wellesley conference and other perspectives on it have been published in the Autumn, 1977 issue of SIGNS, Journal of Women in Culture and Society (V. 3, H 1). The Wellesley Conference on Women and Development was an historical event in women's efforts to transcend national, ideological and political boundaries, representing an attempt to escape the male-imposed divisions and create a powerful international movement. This conference can be called "successful" precisely because it was a painful clash between well-meaning American women academicians who believed themselves to be ahead of American men, freed from colonial and imperialist limitations on one hand, and on the other hand, overly optimistic Third World women who had believed that the impossible dialogue between people of developed/developing nations could be restored by women, between women, and for women. One interpretation of the results of the Wellesley Conference is that it was premised on an assessment which, when closely analysed, was not one of united power but one of naivete, and therefore unrealistic. The notion of united power is based on the false belief that the mere fact of being women is a binding enough characteristic to create instantaneous international sisterhood above and beyond political differences and unequal power distribution. The basic assumption in this naivete is that women are not political beings. This assumption has generated an apparent "sisterhood" which could only, sooner or later, explode with even more damaging and demoralizing results unless we face now the contradictions among women across the world realistically. The conference could have been one step ahead of the UN sponsored International Women's Year Conference where Third World 102/Quest, vol. IV, no. 2, winter, 1978 Organizers' Dialogue discontent was felt and voiced but not analyzed. Wellesley might have offered an occasion to do this, but did not, unfortunately, get to it. We feel that what was wrong with the conference was that it was meant to be an international gathering, when in fact it was an American-planned and organized conference, misleading Third World participants who sought fruitful encounters with researchers of different nationalities. They were reduced to being passive, accomodating audiences rather than participants. The clash between women from developing countries and the conference organizers occurred at three levels. The first level of conflict related to content, or the choice of issues given priority by the conference organizers; the second level centered around the organization and structure of the conference; and the third level was that of personal interaction, or the lack of it. Conflict Over Content It is very revealing that the IWY Conference in Mexico in 1975 was split into two separate groups which happened to fall along the lines of developed and developing. The women from industrially developed countries focussed their attention on the oppressive conditions of women in developing countries; the causes of oppression became secondary. For example, discussion about the effects of so-called "development" and "modernization" on the degrading economic conditions of women in developing countries was not linked to economic/political factors such as the role of the multi-national corporation. When Third World women tried to attract attention to the role of the multinationals, they were accused of being nonfeminist; of imitating the male in his political games; and "splitting the spirit of sisterhood in the Women's Movement." The Mexico IWY Conference pattern was reproduced at the Wellesley Conference, although it assumed its own peculiar characteristics. One of the painful surprises to Third World participants was the absence of papers on American women, be they black, white or brown. One of the topics on which the Third World women expected information was how the development process, geared to the priorities of the multinational corporations, affected American women of different classes and races, and the mechanisms which make American women powerless in the system. This absence made us realize that we were invited to attend a conference where mostly American "scholars" were interpreting for us our condition, our cultures, our religions and our experiences. The absence of papers on American women restored for us the hardly-healed colonial experience wherein the detached outsiders define vour world to you. The absence of analysis of the American women's situation, as this Organizers' Dialogue/103 Organizers' Dialogue relates to development, led to another shortcoming of the conference: the lack of a re-questioning of the narrow classical concept of development, often equated with material and technological growth, divorced from human growth. This issue, which should have been the main focus of a conference labeling itself, "Women and Development," became a marginal issue dealt with in subsidiary discussions. Furthermore, the lack in the Wellesley Conference panels of indepth analysis of economics and money as it relates to international trade and multinational corporations, and of such critically important fachow they affect the lives of women in and outside of the U.S., could have been a valuable contribution of American women to the international conference, because that kind of data is hard, if not impossible, to get in Third World countries. We are the last ones to know what ha^ been done to us. Critique of Organization and Structure The power issue, which was the main cause of the clash between Third World participants and organizers, became clear at the organizational level. A glance at the oftors as health within countries, also illustrates a poor designation of topics. Moreover, no panel was devoted to the important question of credit and women's access to money and banking, which is a key to power. Information on the latest decisions of multinational corporations' activities in and outside of the U.S., and ficial programme of the conference reveals that in spite of the fact that the conference was called "Women and Development," the number of women from developing countries involved at the levels of organizing, panel convening and papergiving was ridiculously small. Third World contribution was minor, especially if you take into account that most in- 104 /Quest Organizers' Dialogue dividuals involved on substantive levels were either Westerners based in or outside of the U.S., or women from developing countries based in the U.S., often for many years. discussions, the women from developing countries could have had more opportunity to contribute. At the very least, increased discussion time would have given Third World It is worth mentioning that the regions of the world where change in women's condition has been a priority for their governments over the last decades, i.e., the socialist countries, were hardly represented at all. The numerical underrepresentation of women from developing countries in the panels could have been partially compensated for by a better time structure. There was hardly any time for discussion. In most cases, the panelists took up all the time and the discussion period often was shortened to a ridiculous span. Moreover, many panelists tried to make up for the length of their papers by speeding up their diction, making it, for us, an heroic attempt to understand the English at all. In spite of the language problem, if there had been equal time for papers and participants the opportunity to correct inaccurate information presented about their own cultures. The insistent requests by Third World women for more discussion time, and their impatience with lengthy reading of papers — full of incorrect information and interpretations of their cultures — were perceived by the organizers as disruptive behaviour. A series of meetings was held by a Third World contingent to persuade the organizers to change the conference structure. After repeated clashes, it became clear that the organizers expected us to sit quietly and listen respectfully to the papers, no matter what their content. When Third World women realized that the organizers were not willing to make any changes in the programme, they decided, as a last Organizers' Dialogue/ 105 Organizers' Dialogue resort, to forego any attempt to participate in decision-making as far as the actual conference was concerned. They chose instead to concentrate on the writing and publishing of the conference proceedings. They spent hours in nightly meetings attempting to restructure the editorial committee, and thereby have some influence on the proceedings. To their dismay, they found that the organizers who were heavily represented on the editing board were unwilling to give in on that issue either. Personal Interaction The organizers did not understand why the Third World women were uncomfortable with their powerlessness to participate in the design of the panels, or to contribute in any meaningful way to the rigidly structured conference. They acted just like the men who organize meetings involving women's issues, without getting the women involved in the planning and policy decisionmaking. For them, power was not the issue because they had it. According to the perceptions of the organizers, blame for the clash which took place lay with the Third World women who failed to "adjust" to the "well-organized" conference. The American organizers had no adjustment to make and considered themselves unjustly attacked by ungrateful Third World elements. Moreover, the response of the organizers to dissident Third World participants was to criticize them on a personal level. By so doing, they gave the impression that what was preventing international dialogue between women was a matter of individuals and personality defects, rather than political differences and questions of global structures, values, choices and priorities. It is a common syndrome in the context of colonial "dialogue" for the oppressor to blame protest and dissent on the presumed character defects, hang-ups and short-comings of the colonized. This syndrome, which was prevalent at Wellesley, needs to be seriously scrutinized by American women genuinely interested in breaking down the male colonial pattern. Recommendations The fact that until now these international gatherings have failed to be really international in the full sense of the word does not mean that the potential is not there. On the contrary, the fascinating thing is that, throughout the world, women feel the strong and urgent need to create international solidarity, and this need could materialize if some changes are brought about in the structure and nature of these women's encounters. There are at least two alternatives for such events: encounters organized internationally and encounters organized locally. Taking the latter first, national conferences, locally organized, where 106 /Quest Organizers9 Dialogue participants from outside would have status of full-fledged participants or observers, could serve two purposes. They could provide U.S. scholars with the chance to feel helpless and awkward in a foreign setting they don't control, which would give them new insights into inter-dependency relations. Such conferences would also give more women access to international gatherings and more visibility to local activists and scholars. For a conference to be genuinely international, women from developing and developed countries have to be involved on an equal basis in the organizing of the conference from its very beginning, starting with stumbling block in the choice of researchers from developing countries. Much insightful research and studies have been done by people in developing countries, often in their native languages, without being published. Publishing is still one of the most safeguarded monopolies of developed countries. Ironically enough, those who publish are not necessarily those who are the more creative and innovative in their thinking, but those who have access to Western-based publishing networks. If a woman has done creative work, no matter in what language, that should be the primary criterion entitling her to participate in meetings. fundraising, topic choice, designation of panel participants, panel convening, etc. 1 his leads us to the question: who should be invited to such conferences? The American academic system has serious hang-ups about publication. It is up to Amejicans to deal with this idiosyncracy. However, it should not become a A broader-based participation will necessitate the use of translation facilities which will help transcend the language obstacle. Funding of such facilities should be considered a priority. Breaking down the language barrier will maximize the contributions of all the participants, particularly of those who do not speak Western languages. This will help to Organizers' Dialogue/107 Organizers' Dialogue create real internationalization of knowledge about women's issues. Another important element which made the so-called international conference so rigid was the exaggerated importance accorded to publication of the proceedings. To invest so much money and effort in bringing together knowledgeable people ought to have broader applications beyond an academic reading of papers to each other. Interpersonal communication between the participants ought to be considered an important component. Free time and flexible scheduling should be characteristic of these meetings. We felt the duty to write about our experiences at the Wellesley conference for many reasons, but particularly because we believe that encounters between people from different cultures and geo-political areas can be very fruitful and highly inspiring. We therefore think that improvement of the methodology of truly international conferences is possible, it people make the effort to understand each other, and take upon themselves the arduous task of critical self-analysis. A Commentary on the International Tribunal By DIANA RUSSELL It is over a year since more than two thousand women from forty countries came to Brussels, Belgium in March 1976 to participate in the First International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. The Tribunal constituted the first attempt by feminists to address crimes against women on an international scale. Focusing on the crimes as personally experienced by women rather than engaging in abstract debates seemed to the organizers particularly appropriate as a first step in moving our struggle into an international context. It was our belief that women's recognition of our common interests in combating the crimes to which we are subjected should help us to more easily transcend differences in nationality, culture, class, race, sexual preference, age, and politics. Was this strategy successful? What did the first International Tribunal achieve? In her opening message to the Tribunal, Simone de Beauvoir declared that women who had gathered together in their separate countries to fight their oppression would "for the first time... become conscious of the scandal of their condition." And we did. Just as we have learned that women have to break out of our isolation within our communities in order to see the political nature of our oppression, so do we have to break out of our isolation within national boundaries. And just as we have learned that sisterhood is 108/Quest Organizers' Dialogue powerful, so the Tribunal helped us to see that international sisterhood is more powerful. I see breaking through nationalism as a major accomplishment of the Tribunal. We in the U.S. need to pay particular heed to this idea. Americans are often rather parochial and chauvinistic. It is not uncommon for feminists in the U.S. to think that they have more to teach women's movements elsewhere than to learn from them. How many of us know anything about the situation of women and the state of the women's liberation movements in Canada or Mexico, let alone the rest of the world? We, and women everywhere, need to develop a greater sense of solidarity towards women in other countries — to see our sisters' oppression everywhere as an extension of our own oppression. Only then can the strength to be gained from international sisterhood begin to be realized. The struggle is an international struggle and the Tribunal was an important step towards recognizing and actualizing this. One of the crucial lessons of the Tribunal was to show us that, regardless of enormous differences in culture and economy, our situation as Organizers' Dialogue/ 109 Organizers' Dialogue women is remarkably similar. Take the treatment of rape victims, for example. Testimony from France, Denmark, Portugal, Holland, Norway, Japan and the United States reveals that it is always the victim who is put on trial. The situation of battered wives was also almost identical in different countries: women have nowhere to escape to, and receive little sympathy, help or understanding from the police or other agencies. Through an international feminist movement, the women of each country need not reinvent the wheel: we can learn from each other about how we are oppressed, and discuss strategies for what to do about it that have been tried in different countries. According to de Beauvoir, the tribunal was "the start of a radical decolonization of women." This was so because the Tribunal was not only a radical feminist political action, but international as well. Patriarchy is an international system, and its eradication requires an international perspective and struggle. One of the mechanisms developed to facilitate the international mobilization of women around particular issues was the International Feminist Network (IFN). A few feminists in each country have volunteered to distribute requests for support sent them by the IFN Coordinators in Rome or Geneva to the women's movements in their countries. The IFN can help to organize actions in the form of fundraising, publicity, demonstrations, etc. — similar to the international feminist mobilization that occurred in 1972 and 1973 in support of the three Marias in Portugal, and which contributed to their acquittal on charges of obscenity. In the U.S., local Tribunals took place in New York and San Francisco, and related actions occurred in Los Angeles, Denver, Philadelphia and South Carolina. The San Francisco Tribunal inspired a later conference on violence against women, which in turn has given birth to an effective action group, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM). There is no way of knowing all of the actions inspired by the tribunal especially in other countries. However, we do know that there were Tribunals held in Dublin, Ireland, and Munich, West Germany; a women's movement was started in Greece; women are setting up refuges for battered women in Norway, West Germany and Belgium; and rape crisis centers and medical self-help groups are being formed in several countries. And, of course, the recognition of the problems that these actions indicate, has been carried to over forty countries. A British woman, in touch with the women's movement in Spain, told me that the Tribunal had had a very positive effect on the movement there. Large numbers of women turned up at feminist meetings after the Tribunal. Though highly critical of the Tribunal, the Spanish par- UO/Quest Organizers' Dialogue ticipants had been challenged by the opportunity to meet women from other countries where women are less oppressed than in Spain. Merely the idea of an International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women completely organized by and for women, is radical. With the considerable coverage of the Tribunal in both the feminist and the establishment press throughout the world, we can be sure that it has been heard of by millions of women all over the world. Diana Russell, the U.S. representative on the Coordinating Committee for the Tribunal, compiled and edited with Nicole Van de Ven of Belgium, the historical documentary of what happened in Brussels: Crimes Against Women: The Proceedings of the International Tribunal (Les Femmes, Millhrae, CA, 1976). An associate professor of Sociology at Mills College, Russell is the author of The Politics of Rape: The Victim's Perspective (Stein and Day, New York, 1975). MAKARA A provocative, unusual magazine. Articles in recent issues include: Megavitamins Poverty as a Social Disease Tsimsian Oral Traditions Sulphur Housing Strange Men at Bus Stops The Doukhobors All this and Canadian art work and photography, reviews, fiction, poetry, etc. etc. SUBSCRIBE! Name Address 1011 Commercial Drive Vancouver, B.C. Organizers' Dialogue/ill A limited offer of feminist classics. Volumes I and II of Quest: a feminist quarterly, in convenient, attractive, durable box binders for efficient research, easy reference, safekeeping. Quest articulates and explores feminist issues, in original essays and articles by leading theorists and activists, including: Charlotte Bunch Mary Daly Rita Mae Brown Z Budapest Nancy Hartsock Joanna Russ Karen Kollias Bertha Harris Alice Quinn Cynthia Washington Lucia Valeska Linda Phelps Sandra Flowers Jackie St. Joan Sally Gearhart Joan Landes Volume I, 1974-75: Processes of Change;* Money, Fame & Power; Selfhood of Women; Women & Spirituality. Volume II, 1975-76: Future Visions & Fantasies; Theories of Revolution;* Organizations & Strategies; Leadership. To order, fill in coupon and send check to: Quest: feminist quarterly, P.O. Box 8843, Washington, D.' 20003. □ Please send Vol. I at $25.00 □ Please send Vol. II at $25.00 □ Please send Vol. I & II at $45.00 Name _ Address Zip *These issues available only in complete sets. 112 /Quest Notes For Prospective Contributors About one year before an issue comes off the presses, a theme development committee, composed of some Quest staff members and other interested women prepares a list of questions and ideas which we hope that that particular issue will cover. The list is available to anyone who is interested in submitting manuscripts, outlines for potential articles, poetry, graphics, etc. (Please let us know if you want to receive these lists routinely or only for one theme in particular, and if the latter, indicate which theme.) We accept unsolicited material and seek out writers and artists known to have worked on issues related to our themes. All material submitted to Quest is reviewed by a theme development committee or by at least two staff members. If it is not appropriate for Quest purposes, the manuscript or graphic is returned, provided it was sent with a stamped, self-addressed envelope. If a manuscript is accepted for publication, it is assigned to one Quest editor, who is responsible for working with the author through any processes of rewriting or editing required. Editing and rewriting decisions include gathering comments and suggestions from various Quest staff and development committee members. Our goal in editing is clarity; whatever the author is saying, we work to make it as clear and concise as possible. Authors always receive final edited manuscripts for review and approval before publication. In each issue, we try to provide a balance of different styles of writing, but often we do not receive enough variety in the manuscripts submitted to us. It is important to exchange our stories, our growth, our changes, and our understanding. But often such exchanges take place in verbal dialogue and analysis that never gets on paper. While writing is not easy for most women, our challenge is to find ways to express our experiences and our analysis so that they aid us more in changing society. We encourage you, our readers, to submit a variety of types of writing — essays, journalistic approaches, interviews, tapes of discussions, etc. — so that all of us can learn more from each other as individuals and as a movement. Articles should be double spaced and submitted in duplicate (original plus one copy). Length of submissions should be from 2,500 words (10 typewritten pages) for reviews, responses, and short articles, to, at most, 7,500 words (25 pages) for longer articles. Where appropriate, bibliographic footnotes should be typed at the end of the article. All manuscripts, poems, and graphics should be original, unpublished material and must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Write to us for copy deadlines. Future Issues THE BODY POLITIC Vol. IV, No. 3 Our bodies — how we use, view, and treat them — are basic to our vision. We want this issue to explore body politics in its broadest sense, through articles that discuss: the body industry, from birth to death; feminist and environmental politics; the future of reproduction, and its effect on the female nature; dying; age, class, and body perspectives; health services and insurance and the politics of genocide and labor control. WOMEN IN THEIR COMMUNITIES Vol. IV, No. 4 A critical aspect of community is affinity or identification. A community is a group of people who share something. Some of the things shared are common place, common work, and/or common perception. This issue will explore how we define our communities; how they develop and interact; how well they serve women working on common goals, and how we relate as individual women within them. KALEIDOSCOPE THREE Vol. V, No. 1 Are we connecting our lives to our ideas? This issue will be an open forum for substantive responses to our first four years of publication and for your input to help chart our future. We seek discussion of topics and ideas you consider vital, as well as commentary on previous articles. THE INDIVIDUAL AND REVOLUTION Vol. V, No. 2 What is a feminist revolutionary? How do we make choices about life, work, and politics? Where does our sustenance for revolutionary work come from? How do we relate individual values to revolutionary values? Each of us makes choices and decisions which reflect our basic values about our roles as individuals in making a feminist revolution. The purpose of this issue is to make explicit these unspoken underpinnings of our lives.