As in India and other Asian
countries, slowly and painstakingly, the age-old barriers of class are beginning to show signs of fraying at the edges. And as our societies evolve from a state of naïve consciousness into progressive states of awareness and self-knowledge they face the inevitable, bitter truth that without great effort and without the meaningful participation of all — women, men and young adults — we will remain ‘a little people’ incapable of achieving goals that are an arm’s length away.
It is as an educator that one feels we must address the issue of women’s education and sequentially women’s development and empowerment within the power framework of our respective societies. I believe that as long as education bypasses the development of critical thought for men and women, it remains a non-productive activity. By regimenting a human population to subject itself to a ‘massification’ in terms of quantity, we dehumanise man himself. Education should and must do the opposite.
While empowerment approaches acknowledge women’s inequality in areas ranging from patriarchal hierarchies within the family to national and local policymaking, the challenge for the 21st century lies in questioning fundamental assumptions about the connections between power and development, and, more importantly, finding sustainable solutions to enable the mainstreaming of women in development activity. Nations need to formulate the vision of an alternative future society in which a transformative process can take place, a society where marginalised communities and women in particular finally have a voice, a presence and space in which they have access to opportunities enabling them to build an equitable and just environment for themselves and their children.
This is no ordinary task. For this to happen, a paradigm shift in mindsets as earth shattering as a tectonic shift needs to take place. The way ahead, therefore, is not easy. Despite the many — and there have been many — hard won victories in the past, women in Asia continue to be at the mercy of a medieval patriarchy that places seemingly insurmountable barriers in their march towards self-realisation and empowerment. At the very least, one must take cognisance of two basic challenges that face any attempt to take on this formidable and critical task to sound a word of caution. In societies such as ours where the urban-rural divide creates virtually distinct time zones and economies, the prime challenge will be to accept, first and foremost, that all policies emanating from a meeting of the minds need to stem from the grassroots experience of third world women.
The second challenge is to ensure that a holistic approach be taken towards development and the alternate future that governments and people work towards. Any ‘empowerment’ approach must therefore emphasise gender rather than women’s development since policies choosing to look at women in isolation inevitably fall short of the desired objective, i.e. changes in mindset.
I propose therefore that the government of Punjab consider the establishment of a regional centre of excellence for women and media studies. The centre could be sited within the framework of one of the universities in Lahore with directorates in other cities. Rather than depending on findings from periodic conferences that are much touted and then left to gather dust in seedy back offices, a sustained, constant effort should be made to study, formulate and pursue policies that are crucial for the desired paradigm shift in mindset to take place. A permanent platform pushing for gender reform through the media, through participation of women in peace-building and conflict resolution, through educational curricula and the process of lifelong education, through inclusive good governance and the elimination of violence against women would go a long way in the reconstruction of a society that can take its rightful place among the comity of nations.
(Concluded)
The writer is academic advisor Lahore Grammar School and can be reached at [email protected]