I feel both energized and depressed at once. I am energized by the experience of being with 31,000 women from around the world committed to making life better for women. I am depressed because the situation of many women is getting worse, not better. The United States and other countries in the North are not committed or even interested in changing the status quo in the global economy around the world, and many countries in the South fall farther behind in this unequal race while more women join the ranks of the poor each year. In the end, I remain energized by the commitment, skill and determination of the women I meet as I participate in the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) Forum on Women and the subsequent Fourth World Conference on Women (the official governmental conference).
Young women gather in the Youth Tent. I talk to one, a reporter for Africa Press, who has come on a shoestring to report on Beijing. Having no money, she eats down the street from her hotel in a small local restaurant where no English is spoken; she goes with the owner into the kitchen each day to point out what she wants to eat. She sends reports back by e-mail daily from the communications room set up by 40 women from around the world and made free to women. She thinks Beijing will have an important ripple effect as women go home with new networks and plans to monitor how their governments are implementing the Platform for Action.
Regional tents at Hairou allow women from each region to meet and caucus. Marta from El Salvador becomes my friend. A community worker and Baptist minister, she attended the U.N. preparatory meetings for Beijing and is knowledgeable about the issues, the process and the players. She is working on environmental and economic justice issues because they seriously impact women in her community. I meet her at the airport as we leave, and comment on her three huge and heavy suitcases. "Oh," she says, "these are Spanish language materials being given away at the conference and soap and other sundries from the hotel for my people. We can't afford to buy these." Marta was a leader in several of the 5,000 workshops at Hairou. The other workshops dealt with topics ranging from violence against women to media to health to spirituality.
Four thousand of us go on from Hairou to Beijing for the official conference. There we organize into about 50 caucuses to work on issues ranging from the girl child to human rights to indigenous people. NGOs (those of us who are not government delegates) monitor working groups, try to find out what is going on in closed-door meetings and lobby governmental delegates. In the end the Platform for Action has some key gains for women. For the first time there is a major emphasis on the girl child with articulation of her needs and rights and acknowledgment of the systematic discrimination against the girl child from birth. Actions such as child marriage and child labor are proscribed. Education for girls is seen as the key to their future. For the first time there is a section on violence against women. At the last U.N. Conference on Women in Nairobi, women discussed violence among themselves, but it did not appear in official documents. Governments are committed to condemn violence against women whether in the home or community and to refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligation. Rape and systematic rape, as well as forced sex within marriage, are condemned.
One major conflict at Beijing was over the role of religious and cultural traditions when they conflict with universal human rights agreed upon in the various U.N. documents. Prime Minister Harlan Brundlandt got it right: "It is important to respect the cultural and religious traditions of each country. But there are limits to what countries can expect the international community to accept, even if the customs are deeply rooted in the culture. For example, genital mutilation is just that; it is not exempt because it is said to be part of a cultural pattern."
A surprise victory was the agreement to value and count women's unwaged work in satellite accounts related to the GNP. The United Nations estimates there is $16 billion of unwaged work done globally, of which $11 billion is women's work. Acknowledging this reality in economic terms makes clearer that the global economic system is built on the backs of women.
Right wing groups in the United States have argued that the Beijing document is anti-family. That is untrue. The document addresses the needs and problems of women, their families and communities. A key section says, "Women play a critical role in the family. The family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened. It is entitled to receive comprehensive protection and support. In different cultural, political and social systems, various forms of the family exist. The rights, capabilities and responsibilities of family members must be respected. Women make a great contribution to the welfare of the family and to the development of society, which is still not fully recognized or considered in its full importance."
In the end the Beijing conference affirmed that "women's rights are human rights." Will this Fourth World Conference on Women make a difference in their lives? We know governments will not live up to all their commitments. But I am betting on the 31,000 women who came and on their sisters back home who couldn't come. Their energy and determination to monitor government actions, and work together, will make a difference.
Belle Miller McMaster is director of Advanced Studies and acting director of the Program for Women in Theology and Ministry at the School of Theology.