The Voice Behind the Speech: Young Women in UN Conventions

by Lorna Israel and Carol Bello

The youth are caught in a definition-overlap. The 1985 International Youth Year promoted the idea that youth are ‘persons between 15-24 years old.’ The Convention on the Rights of the Child considers children as those in the 0-18 age bracket. The ‘age of majority’ in most countries is fixed at 18 years old, after which they are considered ‘adult.’

As a product of political regimes (popularly referred to as government or inter-government), this definition-overlap is un-disputed. In fact, it im-mediately settles questions of who or what qualifies as youth. The definitions are barely questioned anymore, not even for the sake of argument. Thus so labelled, the youth could now be spoken to by the very same institutions that created them. Having been spoken to, the youth are now also speaking. But first, a ‘vocal’ mechanism has to be assembled.

The Creation of the Youth in the UN System
The integration of the youth in the United Nations (UN) system can be traced to the early years after the UN was established. The Social Development Division had already carried youth-related activites between 1946 and 1960, its work leading to the creation of the Inter-Agency Youth Liaision Unit (based in Switzerland) and the United Nations Youth Unit (in New York). Together, these two units, were responsible for the holding of the First UN World Youth Assembly in 1970. Nine years later, they were incorporated with the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs (in Vienna).

The Youth Unit of the UN assumed a new responsibility as the General Assembly’s Secretariat for the 1985 International Youth Year. Headquartered in New York, the Youth Unit is part of the Division for Social Policy and Development. It now serves as the secretariat for the United Nations World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, and the United Nations Youth Information Network (UNYIN). To date, the presence of the youth is attested to by at least 23 UN Conventions, Covenants and Recommendations. They have been debated, agreed upon and adopted by member states within a five-decade span (1965-2000). References to young women are spread across these UN documents.

The first UN document on the youth was the 1965 Declaration on the Promotion among Youth of the Ideals of Peace, Mutual Respect and Understanding Between Peoples. But since the 1985 International Youth Year, at least 17 declarations and programme of actions on the youth have been crafted under the guidance of the UN’s General Assembly. Six of them pertain specifically to the youth while the rest are about development issues that have separate provisions on the importance of the youth.

Conventions specifically on the youth since 1985 include the:
* Guidelines for Further Planning and Follow-up in the Fields of Youth (1985)
* Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (1985)
* Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberity (1990)
* World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond (1995)
* Braga Youth Action Plan (1998) and the
* Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes (1998).

The youth are also mentioned in UN Declarations adopted within the last ten years. These are the:
* Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development Agenda 21 (1992)
* Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993)
* Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (1994)
* Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development (1995)
* Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995)
* Habitat Agenda and Istanbul Declaration of the UN Conference on Human Settlements (1996)
* Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Summit Plan of Action of the World Food Summit (1996)
* ILO Declaratation on Fundemantal Principles and Rights at Work (1998), and the
* Special Session on Social Development (2000).

The youth’s ‘imagination, ideals, and energies,’ which framed the 1985 International Youth Year, became the organising concept for integrating the youth in the UN system. It subsequently guided and has been repeatedly invoked in succeeding UN Conventions and Platform for Actions, youth-oriented or not. Since then, the youth have been rendered ageless, perpetualised as ‘imaginative, idealistic and energetic.’

Every preamble of the latest UN declarion or platform for action on social development issues bears the memory of a previous one (as can be seen in the tendency to use “recall that,” “cognisant of,” “bearing in mind that,” etc). Declarations pertaining to the youth also commit to their memory declarations asserted in non-youth declarations, conventions and programme of actions.

To a large extent, the language informing the declarations and conventions on the youth echoes that which can be considered ‘adult.’ And because ‘youth’ and the ‘adult’ are of the same coeval time (sharing the same time zone and memory plane), it is nearly impossible to sift and isolate the ‘imagination, ideals and energies’ of the youth. What can only be filtered out is the very term youth. The declarations of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond is an illustration, as highlighted in the following excerpts:

The General Assembly,
Recognizing that young people in all countries… are resource for development and key agents for social change…

Bearing in mind… the challenges and potentials of young people are addressed by policy will influence current social and economic conditions and well-being and livelihood of future generations…

Acknowledging that young women and men in all parts of the world aspire to full participation in the life of society…

Acknowledging the contribution that non-governmental youth organizations could make…

Recalling its resolution 45/103 of 14 December 1990, in which the Secretary-General was requested to prepare a draft world youth programme of action towards the year 2000 and beyond…

Invites, once again, Member States to include, whenever possible, youth representatives in their delegations… with a view to stimulating participation of young women and men in the implementation of the Programme of Action…

To say that the General Assembly is a male and adult-centric space in the UN is to state the obvious. What needs to be made obvious, however, is how the youth have been symbolically ‘adult-erated,’ that is, made part of a global development agenda formulated by adults and continuously spoken and referred to by adults themselves. The World Programme of Action for Youth benefited from meetings, consultations and forums attended by the youth that fall in the definition-overlap. The final and official document that was eventually publicised betrays how such forums are largely ceremonial in form and substance: it was the adults in the General Assembly talking to each other about the youth. Member-states could include in their delegation a youth representative (who need not necessarily be an age-defined youth). But because an adult was talking to another adult, this option was conveyed as an ‘invitation.’ In practice, of course, an invitation can always be declined.

Attempts to surface the youth inevitably end up in the rhetorical question of what makes the young different, or what are their specific needs and concerns. The question is rhetorical especially when articulated within the definition-overlap of youth. Inadequacies in explaining this question tend to end up in the assertion to ‘integrate the needs and concerns of the young,’ an implicit admission that indeed the question is rhetorical. ‘Listening to youth’s voices’ has become the favourite means to attaining integration. Presumably, the youth’s imagination, idealism and energies could be vocalised. If so, then they must work up their vocal chords.

The Silence of Young Women’s Voices
The preparatory meeting for the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) for the Asia-Pacific Region was held in Nepal. The behind-the-scenes of meetings such as this are rarely made public, always thought to be best left behind in the back-ground. To do so would be to incur accusations of being divisive, disruptive and if one is young, of being immature and not knowing any better. This is because the discordant voices are usually articulated and left behind the scenes—they are drowned in the synchronicity of what is generally presented to the public.

The gathering was thoroughly animated by ‘adult’ women and men articulate in English and equally articulate in asserting what was on their minds. The outspoken ‘adult’ women appeared impressive and brimming with expertise, equally oblivious as the men to the many others who may also have something to say. The general atmosphere in this situation made Carol feel inadequate and prayed that no one would call her ‘my dear child’ by any one of the adult women present in the meeting. “I wanted to speak, but feared that I might say it in the wrong manner. Also, I thought I might offend the ‘mature’ ones, including the woman from the funding agency that sponsored the meeting.”

If other young women in that meeting felt the same way as Carol, she did not detect it. “I found the level of discussions and debates repetitive, tiring and alienating. Young women simply listened with no visible reactions on their part.”

According to Hudson (1994), young women’s attempts to be acceptable are likely to be undermined by the widely accepted perception that they are immature. Gilligan and Brown (1992) explain that young women experience the loss of their voice because they ‘fear upsetting.’ In order to overcome this, young women would resort to silence or speak in a ‘carefully moderated voice.’

In a separate study, Brown (1998) argues that young women eventually learn how to speak through the voices of other people, which render them ‘ventriloquists.’ A young woman in this forum fits the findings of these studies: she spoke in a very mature manner (serious) and appeared like a mature woman (dressed formally and wearing cosmetics). Another spoke about how she was victimised by sexual trafficking. Her overall appearance was suggestive of femininity, weakness and vulnerability.

Attributes of being young are generally couched in feminine terms (weak, irrational, emotional, unreasona-ble) while adulthood is equated in masculine terms (rational, logical, expert). Indeed, in an adult-supervised forum like the WCAR, the young are subjected to diminution—of how society victimises them even while their capacity to combat it is extolled. Because they are young, what can only be demonstrated is their victimisation. Notice how Mary Robinson, former Secretary General of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, drew attention to this in her keynote address to WCAR’s Youth Summit:

It is a pleasure for me to address you here in Durban at the closing ceremony of the Youth Summit… One of the ways in which your work here can be carried forward is to make it part of the United Nations Special Session on Children which will take place next month in New York… The fight against racism cannot be won without the whole-hearted support of young people. You are all familiar with the story of Steve Biko…here was a young man who became a symbol of resistance…and inspired millions…We can draw inspiration from many other countries too. For example, next week we will hear from someone whose experience should encourage us… Mariama Oumarou is a 17-year old girl from Niger who was sold as a slave at the age of 15. But she escaped and will be telling her story in Durban as one of the Voices of Victims.

To say that Robinson’s speech reflects privileging of the masculine is, again, to state the obvious. What needs to be made more explicit, however, is how she had deliberately assigned the masculine to a young woman and that in order to dispel doubt about it, she flashed the photograph of a young Chilean woman to prove her point:

I saw for myself how enthusiastic young people are to support the aims of the Conference. I also saw how they can make their presence felt. It happened at the regional preparatory meeting for the Americas in Santiago de Chile last March. In the middle of the official speeches, a young Argentinian woman, Viviana Figueroa, commandeered the microphone from the President of Chile to express the feelings of the indigenous people who were not included in the drafting process. Here is her photo to prove it!

Robinson created the impression that as victims, young women need only to prove it by their ‘voice.’ And if a situation demands that they not conform to the victimology model (of being helpless and suffering victims of cicumstances apparently beyond their control), they would have to produce evidence of this! For further legitimacy, the experience must be described in masculine terms. The dictionary definition of commandeer is clear: “ to seize for military use; to take as if by right.” The sight of Viviana Figueroa commandeering the microphone from the President of Chile was more than symbolic of the masculine.

A similar incident also happened in a workshop on sexual and reproductive rights in Bangkok in 2000. A group of young women, prompted by what they felt was their exclusion from more substantial discussions, "took control of the microphones and overtaking the podium to claim space and make their voices heard." This episode led these young women to form the Network of Asia Pacific Youth (NAPY).

In Huairou, China where the NGO Forum for the 4th World Conference on Women was held, the victimology model was also applied. A play about women’s sexual trafficking was staged and performed by women survivors of sexual abuse aged 14 to 22. Despite the play’s aim to raise the audiences’ and the young women’s consciousness about women’s oppression, it was later found out that many among those who acted in that play extended their victimisation to reality. One of them became a mail-order-bride by marrying an old white European man. Several others broke ties with the non-government organisation sheltering them and went back to the streets, making themselves more vulnerable to sexual violence and discrimination.
The 4th World Conference on Women in 1995 eventually produced the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women. The first sentence in the Declaration requires no further explanation, except to note that this document has been the subject of fierce criticisms or constant reference by women around the world.

We, the Governments participating in the Fourth World Conference on Women.

The same section of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) declares that “voices of all women are acknowledged” and “the hope present in the world’s youth” as inspiring. The preliminary document submitted to the General Assembly made mention of “voices of young women,” but this same phrase is not to be found in the final version. Presumably, their voices have all been subsumed under the over-arching category called women. Indeed, the young women have been ‘adult-erated.’

The girl-child is one of the 12 Critical Areas of Concern of the BPFA for “the girl child of today is the woman of tomorrow.” As the ‘woman of tomorrow,’ “their skills, ideas and energy are vital to the goals of equality, development and peace.” We wonder when is this tomorrow coming? Are the young women being put in a situation where their abilities may be recognised but they are not allowed to participate anyway in spaces decidedly reserved for adult women? The section on the girl child in the BPFA might as well bear the subtitle of “Able but not Allowed: Wait for Tomorrow when You’ve Become Woman.”

Thus, it is no wonder that young women from Canadian Youth-Speak International almost did not make it to the very space that purports to speak for the voices of all women. In their words: “It frustrates us…that when the adult world gathers to discuss sustainable communities and global well-being, young women’s issues are left off the agenda and young women themselves are excluded from the process.” The group was being asked to produce evidence of financial viability, one the UN’s requirements to be able to participate in the women’s forum in Beijing.

Press statements on the participation of young women in the Review of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing + 5) appeared glowing and celebratory. Indicative of how young women merely serve as echoes, one press statement did not even bother to conceal it:

….representative group of young people gathered at the Preparatory Committee on Beijing + 5 in New York, to ensure views of young are included…Today they were the young voices echoing the celebration of women’s rights from 60 countries all over the world.

The statement also betrays how young women actually do not have a voice in this kind of gathering. It further reports:

During the theatre piece, the young people revealed their bright yellow shirts with their logo and handed out flyers in which they state that young women are key actors in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action…

Presumably, the young women’s echoes could be printed in flyers or shirts. The above cited press statement was released by WomenAction, which describes itself as “a global information and communication and media network that enables NGOs to actively engage in the Beijing+5 review process.” On its website, it “generously acknowledges financial support” of the UN’s WomenWatch and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). With Canada’s CIDA lending financial support to WomenAction, it becomes inexplicable now why those young women from Canada Youth-Speak International nearly did not make it to the Beijing Forum.

So much has been said of young women’s voices, and of the need to hear young women’s voices. But how can these be heard when their “inner voice is interfering with their ability to speak?” (Gilligan 1993). Young women’s ability to speak is being silenced by their sense of inadequacy, inexperience and non-ability to speak in ‘adult’ language. But again, this is stating the obvious. Perhaps we should just simply stop our preoccupation with voices. To demand for a voice requires the presence of a listener. If young women’s voices are being bannered as important, who are their listeners? It is time to unplug our ears.

Lorna Israel and Carol Bello are from the Philippines. They consider themselves ‘entertainers and performers.’ Lorna’s space is the classroom in Miriam College while Carol’s is music bars and public events where music is part of the programme. What’s on their mind is publicly recorded. Carol’s, on CDs, and Lorna’s, on paper, painted or printed. Officially, they are outside the UN’s definition of youth, as Filipino citizens, they are, legally, of majority age.

References:
Gilligan, Carol and Brown, Lyn Mikel. Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory of Women’s Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Hudson, B. (1984). “Femininity and Adolescence.” In McRobbie, A. & Nava, M., eds. Gender and Generation.London: Macmillan, 1984.
Canadian Youth-Speak International, <http://www.tgmag.ca/ywg/backgr_e.htm>
Global Framework, Fourth World Conference on Women Platform for Action, <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm# framework.>
Women Action, <http://www.womenaction.org/index.html>
World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, <http://www.un.org/documents/ecosoc/res/1995/eres1995-64.htm>
Youth for Women’s Rights Press Releases, <http://www.youthcoalition.org/site/main_file.php/b5/9/>

Young Women's Participation in International Conferences in the New Information Society

by Jennifer Cottes

The information society, driven by the “new” information and communication technologies (ICTs), has a dangerous potential to further marginalise young women from voicing their concerns. For example, ICTs are key to international conferences for organising and determining participation. Organisers of international conferences see the Internet as their primary tool for inviting and registering delegates, soliciting and posting background papers, displaying the agenda, announcing coinciding events, and delivering timely information on issues related to the subject at hand. The Internet is an efficient tool, allowing organisers to ignore geography and reduce the costs of communication. Often, ICTs are used for consultations, exchanges of information and the building of relationships leading up to a conference, which in turn effects the structure of the overall agenda and the list of delegates. In fact, much of the action taken following the event is a direct result of the actual process of organising the event itself.

Young women who typically attend such conferences are likely to be the ones who are communicating over the web, who are part of the ‘correct’ networks (on and off-line), and who in general contain knowledge of the issues, and the enthusiasm and capability to work with that knowledge. Maitreyi Doshi and Titilayo Akinsanmi are excellent examples of such young women. Maitreyi is a young woman pursuing a political science degree in India while she teaches IT skills to destitute children. She participated in conferences such as the International Education and Research Network (iEARN, 2000 China), Junior Summit held by MIT Media Lab (1998, USA), the preparatory meetings for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) (2002, Switzerland) and the WSIS Asia regional meeting (Japan, 2002). ¹

Titilayo is a young Nigerian content developer who devotes much of her time to ICTs for development. She was also a participant in the second WSIS preparatory meeting and conferences such as the Nigerian Youth Info Technology Policy Summit 2002, Youth Employment Summit 2002 (Egypt), and Young Women Leaders in ICTs in 2003 (Egypt). In addition to their physical presence, Titilayo and Maitreyi were also participants in on-line consultations and discussions leading up to some of these events. Both these young women have a grasp of gender issues and work to represent youth (male and female alike) of different socio-economic backgrounds. Maitreyi and Titilayo are harnessing the benefits of ICTs as an empowerment tool for themselves and for other youth in their community and abroad.

ICTs have also helped both to gain and share knowledge and to be visible to others with common concerns. Their visibility and influence on-line has led them to be invited and even funded to attend international conferences. Therefore, the use of ICTs has contributed to their capacity to participate in decision-making processes for development, such as those taking place at international conferences.

Various factors influencing disparities in access to ICTs include income levels, education, literacy, language, race, ethnicity and geography. In addition to these barriers, women face additional circumstances commonly referred to as the ‘gender digital divide.’ Although there are more young women like Maitreyi and Titilayo who are empowered by the use of ICTs and work to help others harness the same benefits, the gender-digital divide is very much a reality. “By now, it has become clear that many persistent gender-specific structural inequalities constitute barriers to women’s access, such as education, traditional cultural beliefs and practices, economic inequality, etc.” ² More often than not, it is the wider socio-economic and cultural context that accounts for persistent barriers to women’s access to and use of ICTs.

A synthesis paper for a virtual seminar series on gender and ICTs by the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) listed the common accessibility barriers specific to women:
* lower levels of literacy and education, including training in languages predominantly used in ICT platforms and the Internet;
* less time due to women’s triple role of domestic, productive and community management responsibilities, leading to a much longer workday than men’s;
* less access to financial resources to cover the cost of equipment and access; and
* geographical location because in developing countries, women tend to live in rural areas where infrastructure is less dependable and travel to ICT centres more difficult due to cost, time and cultural reasons, more than men.

Supporters of ICTs for empowerment contend that women no longer have the luxury to ignore ICTs, as these are tools for active participation to improve their situations. For instance, access to information and improved communications can end the isolation of women and improve health, access to reproductive services, economic growth and poverty alleviation. Other studies are also focusing on the role that ICTs play in enabling women and their organisations to access and manage information for the purposes of lobbying, advocacy and organizing for change. By extension, ICT plays a role in enabling women to participate in major international events for these same purposes.

So, why is the physical presence of young women at international conferences important? When asked what makes the issues brought in by young women to international conferences distinct from the issues of women in general, Maitreyi said, “The difference is that these problems are spoken by young women for young women. They have experienced and/or seen these problems and therefore, they are very passionate about solving them. Youth already have so many [general] problems to deal with, and sometimes these specific issues get lost in the list of problems. Therefore it has a greater impact if [young] women are given a chance to speak about their problems.”

Titilayo added: “More often than not, it is the same ‘issues’ but redefined and differentiated by their being ‘young’ (a phase that demands particular attention in itself)... ‘Youth’ is seen as a transitional stage [and] one’s being a woman makes her more open to these challenges or issues.”

The participation of young women in the decision-making processes, such as international confer-ences, is crucial to a transition to gender equity. As young women share their anecdotal experiences, attention can be directed to the most urgent problems affecting them so that the issues do not sink into the interests of other groups. In addition to providing a platform for global dialogue, international conferences offer opportunities for partnerships to form, for experts to come together to make decisions on policies and research—in essence, shape the future of develop-ment. The empowerment of women can be seen as “a process that enables women to gain access to decision-making processes and instances of power [which in turn,]…embodies challeng-ing patriarchy at all levels of expression: social structures and relationships, moral and cultural values and norms, and institutions and power structures.”³ As such, this information is best understood by the collection of anecdotal experiences of young women.

Wessam Abdou, of Alexandria, Egypt, is an example of a young woman embedded in a socio-cultural environment where the knowledge of women is seen as less valuable than that of men, and where women are often considered unproductive members of society. She and her brother, Mahmoud Magdy Abdou, were both volunteers at the Youth Employment Summit 2002 last September.

Wessam is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Fine Arts, while Mahmoud recently obtained his Microsoft Accreditation from a local college. Although his older sister has had more years of education than him, Mahmoud believes it is more likely that he will succeed in his career than Wessam will in hers. (Due to a language barrier, Mahmoud spoke on behalf of his sister.) He went on to explain that because women are not considered productive members of society, it is not within the Egyptian society’s culture for a woman to make decisions. The family makes her life decisions and after she marries, her husband will make decisions for her.

For example, if Wessam wanted to marry a particular person, her family would have the final say. She would not have studied Fine Arts if her family did not tell her to do so. In fact, young Egyptian women would often simply wait for instructions, and if instructions never came, there would be no major changes in their lives. Mahmoud and Wessam grew up in the same household under the same economic conditions, yet will lead very different lives. Wessam has concerns about her life, family and future success, yet she would not have been a participant in an international conference such as YES had her brother not told her to.

It is no surprise that cultural norms and socio-economic conditions may leave young women less predisposed to participate in development decisions, for example, by sharing their experiences at international conferences. However, if societies such as Egypt are to become a nation of empowered women and gender equality, the inclusion of these young women in decision-making processes is essential. ICTs have the potential to educate and engage these young women in dialogue and decisions that directly affects their lives. In the same way, if women do not realise the potential of ICTs and the information society, there is a danger for them to be further marginalised from the development agenda.

ICTs are no panacea to development for gender equality or human development but ICTs have the potential to further enable young women to be included in the decision-making processes in international development, and ultimately, in their community. Against these challenges to gender equality and democratic inclusion in the information society, Titilayo has an inspirational anecdote of her experiences with international conferences and her development efforts: “Its been an interesting experience thus far. I am young, female and black from the South—a very interesting combination. For a long while I did not see it as a ‘barrier,’ but in the last seven months, I have come to realise that in the development work I am building, I have to put in a lot of extra [effort] to make an impact on my generation and others than I ever thought of before. And I will do it. I am fascinated by…how much one life touched can make a difference!”

This article by Jennifer Cottes, the former Web strategist for the 2002 Youth Employment Summit (YES), though based on her experience of the YES conference, does not necessarily represent the views of the YES Secretariat. For more information on the YES Campaign, please visit <http://www.yesweb.org>.

Jennifer wishes to thank Maitreyi Doshi, Titilayo Akinsanmi, Mahmoud Magdy Abdou, Wessam Abdou and Maja Andjelkovic for their contributions.

Footnotes
¹ The summit proper will be held in Geneva in December 2003 and in Tunis in 2005, see <http://www.wsis.org>.
² “Overcoming the Gender Digital Divide: Understanding ICTs and their Potential for the Empowerment of Women,” by Sophia Huyer and Tatjana Sikoska, April 2003, United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). For more information, see <http://www.un-instraw.org>.
³ INSTRAW, April 2003. For more information see: <http://www.un-instraw.org>.

Beyond Age: Young Women and Diversity

By Lalaine Viado

I am always amazed at the consequence of my attempts toward self-introspection to create a portrait depicting who I am. Very likely I would discover, as has always been the case, that I become more than the singular person that emerges from a geometric white canvass or a silvery mirror bouncing off a reflection I know as me. The picture always changes in every adventure, depending on specific prisms and backdrops I view myself against, and the time I have set out to do so. I become a fully metamorphosed individual, a continuously transforming being. In an instant, the views from which to see me, and the eyes that see me, change. I am simply not a permanent portrait that captures, reflects and estimates the entirety of me.

Then again, why launch a project that appears so complicated and difficult as creating a self-portrait when I know by now that no Mona Lisa resides in that frame? I simply have seen that I am many persons rolled into one and that no roll of fabric could capture me fully. I am not only a Filipino, woman, mother, sister, daughter, Catholic, young, activist, etc., etc.—I am all of these and more. Why risk limiting my self in creating a definitive self-portrait, which is sure to happen the moment I try to? The truth of the matter is, I have to draw a select few of my identities, thus highlighting them over the other aspects of my being, to pursue a politics magnifying their presence in society and countering the absences and diminution rendered to them in various fields.

Chronological Disorder
I was well within the regional women’s movement in Asia Pacific at 25 before I became part of the Network of Asia Pacific Youth (NAPY). As I told a close friend, I became an “adult” first before I realised I was also young. In an environment of ageism and prejudice toward young-hood, I have so much desired to leave this “transitional stage.” I was told, and have always felt it to be so, that as soon as you pass such a stage and become “older,” you should be perfectly adept, whether in decision-making, in the personal choices you make, in your chosen work, and in others. In sum, you are accorded full respect and recognition. I could not wait for that to happen. The irony is, when you get even older, another challenge sets in because as an older person, you are only as good as a decrepit force and an attenuated voice in your own environment and in society as a whole. How you then fear becoming old!

Scrutinising privileges assigned to chronological ages comes to me as problematic. One is simply too young or too old to find that rightful place one had hoped for. In the meantime, youth is presented as a “not-yet-there stage,” ironically suggesting an impatience to finally hit the mark of adulthood. Youth as both a concept and practice becomes a disability to overcome.

Age As an Identity
A ramification of this painful concept of youth can be seen within the women’s movement. In a sea of women in the women’s movement, several young women realised the need for separate work that does not see its constituencies as one homogeneous group. The early members of NAPY challenged the constitution of this movement as primarily that of middle-aged women and decried exclusion of young women in what appears to be a predominantly adult-only process.

In those times it became more apparent to me that age could be an organising entity with which to set into motion what could be a social action or movement. Age was perhaps an entity, whether consciously or unconsciously, that likewise organised the women’s movement in the past.

Two years ago, I formally learned that the way to organise around a particular common entity is called the “politics of identity.” Sunila Abeysekera describes the politics of identity as “when a particular group that defines a particular identity for itself on the basis of a feature such as sex, sexual orientation, occupation, etc. to intervene in politics… Women’s politics is also an example of the politics of identity.” 1 My own understanding of the politics of identity is a process of assigning power to, or the recognition of, an underprivileged identity on a par with the power given to others. It does this while rooting out the causes of disempowerment in general toward a celebration of diversities resulting in social justice and development.

A Means, Not An End
The politics of identity, however, is only a means, and not an end in itself. Organisations formed on the basis of age, for instance, often settle for “youth” as their organisational premise. There are too many girls’ and young women’s associations, clubs and sororities, but the politics with which to challenge power within the larger society is simply not there. Identity-based politics leads to address power and disempowerment in the context of justice, and organisations merely skirting around age are but organisations in gestation.

While the process is never identical for social and political movements, the most vibrant organising around the politics of identity, I believe, almost always starts from the negative, that is, identities rendered as objects of oppression, exploitation, subordination and discrimination. The vibrancy of movements, I have observed, is achieved mostly from using frameworks of what is there to work against. Underprivileging on the basis of race, religion, class, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation and other categories are henceforth challenged. Whatever the rate of success of such work achieves, it should at least begin with coexistence and respect for diversity on different levels.

The specific direction of fighting systems of underprivileging and oppression should serve as the trail that sets the spirit of young women’s movements ablaze. Age may be the organising entity, but it is the struggle against those painful experiences brought about by age and the recognition of the power to subvert such experiences in the context of social justice that demarcate youth organisations across a wide spectrum.

Maybe Tomorrow
There has been too much raving about the power of young people on many fronts. Jose Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero, saw youth as the hope of the nation. As in most cultures, young people are regarded as the “future.” But the conferment of such value is not without a glaring contradiction of the way young people are regarded.

Especially in Asia-Pacific cultures, particularly Philippine culture, youth is a difficult stage that does not have any identity, except when juxtaposed against childhood and adulthood. An example of this is when several governments proposed to delete the word “youth” in all paragraphs of the document serving as concrete output of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) held in Durban South Africa in September 2001. Those who took the floor reasoned that the youth are already included in either “children” or “adults” in the document.

Such denial of youth’s existence was for me incomprehensible, in light of a WCAR Youth Summit held likewise in Durban a few days before the formal sessions. After investing remarkable amounts of money to pull through a world youth summit and after a two-day euphoria about the power of youth and their stakes in the future, the WCAR process declared youth in fact non-existent. The proposal for deletion, by luck and lobbying, never pushed through, but yes, surely, the futures of the world are just not here at the moment.

Youth is so defined—or undefined—that it becomes largely a state of limbo, if not a problematic stage. It is not talked about in social sciences, other than in discussions on drug addiction, unwanted pregnancies, social anarchy, etc. Youth is prejudiced; it is for instance readily lumped together as a sector hooked on drugs, even though there are adults, as another social group, as much hooked. It is difficult to make sense of the declarations of school textbooks and of society in general that youth are social liabilities even as they say the youth are the future of any given country.

Young women receive the same messages within the women’s movement. They are always consigned to the future, and such utterances are often both direct and indirect. Those that are not directly articulated can be gleaned from the classification of young women as a sub-sector. The youth’s being the future is so often told in women’s gatherings, and even in personal conversations, that the statement is insulting. When I hear this, I am offended at having just heard I am not yet good enough for today. Such awful regard might have actually been “useful” as a reason for providing young women opportunities via concrete and holistic programmes building their capacities and arming them with confidence in facing the challenges of today and the future. Only passing it off as a general comment, however, undoes all these.

The danger in these rests upon the conscious and unconscious validation of youth as an inadequate stage. It implies ineptness which, while may be true, nevertheless effectuates a command to young women to succumb to hierarchies favouring “older women” that can unbelievably turn into “authorities” deserving the subservience of others to what they consider training and mentorship initiatives. I am not against training and mentorship per se, but against the way hierarchies are so placed that justify docility and subservience as part of on-the-job training. The effect of this is best captured by Sara Longwe’s definition of PhD—pull her down—during a talk at my university years ago in reference to older women’s relationships with the younger ones within the movement. On the merit of having a PhD degree, older women gain legitimacy over pulling her down further in the guise of mentorship and training.

But Not Today
The tragedy of not yet living in your own time lies not just in the length of the wait, but also in having to carry handbags and luggage of documents for the “fully grown” women during the “wait.” I am not sure of the other regions, but from this side of the globe, come to any women’s conference, whether in Bangkok or New York, and you will see the young women from women’s organisations heavily bur-dened, not by the predica-ments of the future, but by tons of documents on wom-en’s rights for shipping back home to be arranged in the shelves when these young women return. Young wom-en dominate the logistics of the women’s movement, but they remain in the margins of the very logic that established the movement—the empowerment of all women.

I remember a young member of NAPY who dreads meetings with groups of older women in her own country. She is the centre of attraction, however, and only because she has to take minutes, and everyone checks out with her as they speak. Her presence is marked at the centre of a circle, but the decisions are made elsewhere. She complains, not wanting to sit in the middle, stay silent and act properly, make tea, and call those not yet in. On top of this, she has to struggle against impatience for the future to happen. And these all happen near the UN headquarters in New York, in the midst of the struggle for the mainstreaming of women’s rights and liberation.

Even within the dynamics of youth, young women are at many points facing tensions with their male youth counterpart due to sexism and other things. That they also face female-female dynamics structured not just by generation gaps but also by differences in class, educational back-ground, skin colour and caste, makes it therefore doubly sad. Although inter-generational issues are always presented as the main feature of female-female relationships, these other factors cannot be discounted as outside female-female dynamics.

In some instances, the antagonism between the conflicting interests of the young and the old boil over. Shamillah Wilson recog-nised that a generational gap exists for many reasons, two of them being the fear of young women that older women “won’t see beyond [their] youth and dismiss [their] efforts” and the fear of older women “that [the youth’s] new visions, methods and energy will nullify [their] contributions and make [them] redundant as we take the movement into the future.” 2 I agree to Wilson’s invitation of coexistence with respect for differences because these differences do shape the women’s movement and the overall fight for social justice.

The worst that could happen is when the two “sub-sectors” are pitted against each other, and they lose sight of the very basis of a women’s movement. Territorialism is sometimes employed to bridge anta-gonism, thus the belief that young women are the future and the older are the present. But territorialism is as reprehensible as sexism. It separates young women from older women, as much as sexism excludes women.

Not The Same Either
Heeding the call for a more liberating relationship among women, however, is not just a matter of accommodation. It pertains to inclusiveness that goes beyond ensuring a propor-tionate number of young women in the decision-making structures of the women’s movement or any other movement. Beyond the representative numbers and agency bodies for young women is the conscious acceptance of the diversities that characterise young women. This is inclusive-ness in the finest sense, taking into account all young women, but most especially those most under-privileged because young women cannot be lumped as a homogeneous group. Age is but a mere organising entity, it is not synonymous with homogeneity.

As with the older ones, young women are never one and the same. The differences among them are evident, even just in the exterior, for example, clothing. A young Bangladeshi woman may share the same sari with an immigrant counterpart in the UK, but it may only be just this they share, besides their age. Saris, too, are varied, in the fabrics used, the shapes, even the way they are worn by young South Asian women. The physical features of Southeast Asians, may be similar, but not their concerns. I am always mistaken for an Indonesian or Thai or Malaysian, but I suggest you would know I’m a Filipino or who is one when we open our mouths and move that mother tongue.

Young women across the globe are also worlds apart. We may share solidarity regarding several issues, especially those raised by non-government organisations, but our capabilities and capacities define a totally different landscape for networking and solidarity. Many young women may convey the same messages in chatrooms or by cellular-phone texting, but the infrastructure for such “relating” varies. The young women from North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asian-Pacific are so varied in the kind of worlds they live in. I never did think there was just only one world.

The challenge of diversity indeed lies in celebrating diversity itself—among women, between the old and the young, between the young and the young, and other relationships—toward equality and social justice. Here also lies the challenge of reconstructing a movement that does not defer young women and consider issues and concerns of young women, especially those from the most vulnerable sectors, and does not leave anyone in queue. The same challenge is true for present youth and young women’s organisations.

“Prologue”
Feminism is not dead—unless it stops at confronting patriarchy only. The task of demolishing an ideology centred on the primacy of the penis, with its permutations in this modern, technological generation, is already tall, but feminism may soon be acquiring the impotence it assigns its enemy by just being too focused on it.

Feminism must confront power, and all the ramifications of power working against all women. It must isolate the different manifestations of women’s oppression on numerous fronts because women are not one and the same, and neither are the kinds of power that oppress them. Feminism must confront the many facets of women’s lives and the acceptance of new strategies that empower all and oppress no one, even within its ranks. Feminism is about challenging the world out there to follow in its examples that leave no one in oblivion and instead situates everyone at the core of development and social justice. If young women cannot expect this from the home front, what is there to expect from the world out there? If the theory and practice of justice is failing on the home front, isn’t it time to clean up our backyard? Empowerment and justice, after all, are both a means and an end. Within our ranks and in the larger context of societies, the triumph of achieving our goals is in seeing this happen.

Lalaine P. Viado, 30, has multiple identities. On the youth front, she is the former Co-ordinator of the Network of Asia Pacific Youth (NAPY). On the sexual and reproductive rights front, she is involved with the International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition (ISRRC) and Development Alternatives with Women for A New Era (DAWN). On the communications front, she served as the issue co-ordinator of the five past issues of Women in Action by Isis International-Manila. She can be reached at <lalaine_p_viado@hotmail. com>.

References:
The Intersectionality of Race and Gender in the Asia Pacific: APWLD’s Lobby Training Workshop in Preparation for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Thailand: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), 2001.
2003 Diary. Canada: Association for Women’s Human Rights in Development (AWID), 2003.
“Gender and Racism,” Women in Action vols. 1 and 2. Philippines: Isis International-Manila, 2000.

Footnotes:
¹ Sunila Abeysekera, a Sri Lankan, was one of the lead facilitators for the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) Lobby Training Workshop entitled “The Intersectionali-ty of Race and Gender in the Asia Pacific.” The author served as documen-tor of the proceedings of the workshop, which was held in Chiangmai, Thailand on 24-26 January 2001.
² Shamillah Wilson is a young woman from South Africa and currently the manager of Young Women and Leadership Programme of the Association for Women’s Human Rights in Development (AWID). She is also the best pal for endless coffee sessions and savory conversations on how it is to be a young woman from the South.

Young Women: On the Line

summarised by Maria Ana Manalo Santiago

Two years since its initial attempt to bring a group of Southern feminists to an online discussion, Isis International Manila organised another such virtual meeting of six articulate young women from Indonesia, Philippines, United States and Australia. Women in Action is publishing excerpts of this discussion a glimpse into the minds of young women today: what they are into, their role models, their takes on specific realities, etc.

Technically, the chat experienced a few difficulties only. Two participants lost their connection intermittently. The frustration of real-time chatting among these women, who were generally in the same time zone (except for one), was the difference in Internet connection speed, server reliability and keyboard typing speed.

It was a short, two-hour chat among relative strangers who warmed up to each other almost instantly, discovering common threads and themes, celebrating diversity and respecting their differences as individuals. The excerpts from the discussion have been re-arranged sequentially and edited mainly with the magazine’s limited space and brevity in mind.

<TIME:> Friday, 15 Aug 2003 08:04 to 10:07 + 0800

<SUBJECT:> Chat with a group of vibrant, interesting young women on their takes on feminism, being young women from the Global South, and their professional and personal lives.>

<PARTICIPANTS>
<vhalhen> Vanda Lengkong, programme officer of Church World Service, based in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Activist member of the Indonesian Student Christian Movement.
<emilyfreeburg2003> Emily Freeburg, secretary of the NGO Committee on Youth and interim coordinator of the Youth Advisory Committee to CONGO.
<dumplingpress> Claire Villacorta, zine editor/writer for Jawbreaker, a Philippine-based youth-oriented independent publication that’s both feminist and pop.
<amara_quesada> Amara Quesada, programme officer of the Regional Campaigns of Action for Health Initiatives (ACHIEVE), an NGO that assists workers with HIV.
<shirin_sameer> Shirin Sameer, from the Information and Communication Capacity Building programme of Isis International Manila; a cultural activist, journalist and teacher.
<sheharav> Shehara Viswanathan, an engineer working in telecommunications, and also with the Australian Student Christian Movement and the World Council of Churches’ women’s advisory group.
<mvtcabreraballeza> Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, manager of Isis International Manila’s Media, Information and Communications Services (MICS) programme.
<msmari2> Mari M. Santiago, staff of the Information, Documentation and Resources programme of Isis International Manila, chat moderator.

On invisible mode: <irenerchia> Irene R. Chia, online chat/Women in Action issue coordinator; and <sulat_mulat> Aileen Familara, Isis International-Manila’s Information and Communication Technology Development Officer.

Mari Santiago: Hello everyone! All of the expected participants are online now so we can now start the discussion. Introductions first, ok? I’m Mari Santiago, your moderator for this online chat. I’m a Filipina, a staff of Isis International Manila, 37 years old, but very young at heart. Amara, can you go next?

Amara Quesada: Hi, good morning, everyone! Everyone calls me Mara. I’m 27. I work for Action for Health Initiatives Inc., an NGO in the Philippines working with migrant workers with special focus on health. I coordinate the Regional Campaigns Programme which has campaigns in the Asian region.

Shirin Sameer: Hi, everyone! I’m Shirin from India. I’m 25 years young and I work with Isis International Manila.
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza: Hi, Emily! How are you? Mavic here. I’m an observer, though later I’ll go on invisible mode.

Emily Freeburg: Hi, Mavic! I’m good. I am about to go to Morocco. I am in Seattle now, but will fly to NY tonight— it’s a global week. Hi, Shirin! Hello, Philippines! Hi, everyone! I have never really done this before. I’m glad it’s working. I am Emily, 23, from Seattle, but presently living in New York and working for various NGOs. I met up with Isis at the women and media events of some UN meetings this past year.

Claire Villacorta: Good morning everyone. I’m Claire Villacorta. I’m based in Manila. I’m 28. I self-publish and write for a small-scale feminist pop zine called Jawbreaker.

Vanda Lengkong: Hello all, sorry for being late. I’m Vanda Lengkong from Indonesia, 24 years old, cool and cute, full of smiles. I work with the Church World Service.

Mari: Our discussion for today will focus on young women’s involvement or non-involvement in the women’s movement. To start off, how did you get into your current advocacies/lines of work?

Amara: After college, I immediately started working for a women’s NGO—Women’s Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO Inc.). That’s where I got acquainted with so-called feminism. After nearly five years and with three NGOs behind me, I believe that my advocacy work, both personal and professional, is still deeply ingrained with the feminist values I’ve picked up.

Shirin: My mother and father have been involved in the human rights movement since their youth. Their work inspired me to learn more about the issues involved. I have been involved ever since and I’m not likely to go back.

Emily: I studied international development and creative writing, did research on NGOs in Latin America and then, got an internship for a Franciscan NGO in New York. I’ve always been interested in being a writer, so I followed what women writers were doing. A lot of women team up for publishing and I think that is really interesting for creative and political reasons. I started to notice what stories about women were missing, and what wasn’t being represented. I have always thought women’s voices were missing in the classroom, in the media, and other spaces.

Vanda: I joined a Psychosocial Mental Health Training of the Church World Service. After that, they asked me to be one of their staff in North Sulawesi. During that time, several areas in Indonesia were suffering the effects of the armed conflict, causing a significant rise in the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) in my area.

Claire: I keep up with a lot of forms of mainstream expression (pop, teen magazines) and what it has to offer. I was sort of raised on teen magazines, but the vacuousness it retained throughout the years is appalling. So, with the female reader in mind, my partner and I decided to put out Jawbreaker, a zine (a self-published magazine) that didn’t underestimate its readers. It’s youth-focused, and wears our influences on its sleeve. It’s our way of connecting with young people.

Mari: Amara, why “so-called feminism”?

Amara: The concept was fairly new to me then. Now that I’ve been around NGOs for some time, the whole concept has evolved into my own perspective of feminism. The way I look at it now is unlike before, but this is still evolving.

Emily: How did you view feminism before?

Amara: It appeared to me that feminism, then, was mainly about telling women that they are oppressed and men are to blame for it.

Shirin: In India and elsewhere in Asia, there are women who refuse to accept the word “feminism.” They associate it with colonialism. They have their own definitions.

Mari: How do you define feminism? How do women’s issues and feminism figure into your present professional concerns and personal lives? Do you consider yourselves feminist?

Emily: I used to be turned off by the word because I thought it was a 40-year-old white women’s movement in the U.S. Then, I went to Guatemala, saw the women there and realised how badly the world needs a women’s movement… People don’t realise feminism is for total social justice. Growing up, I was never comfortable with the word feminism because I thought race concerns were much more important in the U.S. But if feminism is about empowering everyone, keeping class and race on the forefront, then I can call myself a feminist. I can embrace the word.

Shirin: I completely agree. I think it starts at the personal level—with parents, brothers, boyfriends, friends. Then, it goes to the next level of people who are not related to us directly, but who influence our lives or with whom we interact, then, to an even wider level. Feminism has a meaning, the context of which changes at each level. Also, it is linked with everything else. Feminism is not a water-tight compartment. For example, if a woman is getting sexually harassed at work, isn’t just a question of women’s rights, but of society’s culture as a whole. Feminism is a struggle for a more just and egalitarian society and, therefore, it is part of the social justice movement.

Vanda: I do agree with Shirin, it depends on our perspective on feminism. People, even women, just think that feminism is a movement of women against man. However, I do consider myself a feminist because I’m a woman. I also live and exist with others (man) and, together, we struggle for justice for all.

Claire: We had to look for feminist resources on our own. I felt disconnected from local feminist initiatives. Much of what I learned was through music and cultural expressions going on abroad that I’d read about in magazines and zines. They called it “riot grrrl,” a jumping point for feminist discourse. Young girls would talk about personal issues like public safety, being violated, about how much privilege went to males and the double standard it reflected when girls tried to do things. On a personal level, I always believed in not succumbing to dominant standards of femininity. It seems that I get more flak from leftists who think we’re not addressing issues that are “deep” enough. In a small spoken word gig that we had, there were girls who discussed date rape or about wanting to be sexualised on their own terms. Then this lefty guy said that we weren’t even getting to the bottom of the whole thing when it came to violence against women. What did he expect? We were trying to initiate something, keep it on the level where it’s relevant to these young women, considering that not many of us even talk about these things openly.

Amara: The problem with the left, at least in my experience in the Philippines, is that they totally lack the feminist perspective. I agree with Vanda, whether we’re old or young, perspective is very important. It has to be based on the concrete experiences of women. It is also very important that we keep on studying the evolving context of women. I consider myself a feminist. For me, feminism is simply understanding the situation and contexts of women and working to change a situation that puts women at a disadvantage. When I say, working for changes, I mean not only in our line of work, but also in our daily personal lives.

Mari: There seems to be a general reluctance toward the term “feminist,” especially among young people. How do you explain your feminism to your peers/people of your generation?

Claire: I wouldn’t introduce myself as feminist either, but I do make it known that I practice feminism. I try to encourage people that it is not, and should not be, a dirty word. I get a bit conscious in attaching the word to myself, especially since I’m not involved with direct [mainstream] feminist advocacy. In my case, the practice of feminism is a social responsibility on a day-to-day basis.

Amara: It’s funny, but even women I’ve worked with in women’s NGOs refuse to be called feminists. I asked why, and one said she didn’t want to be associated with the older feminists she knows. Eventually, we are the ones who define what we are.

Shirin: In India, many women, even those fighting for equal rights, do not call themselves feminist because of its colonial connotations. Even today, a lot of feminist discourse is dominated by white women in the West. It is no surprise then that women of colour do not like associating themselves with it. There is a need for a struggle within feminism to break its racist history, as well as its domination by really old women. I think that one cannot be a feminist if one is racist.

Vanda: Yup, that’s right. We appreciate the hard work of the feminist movement before, but we should now contextualise this. Is it still relevant or not? Should we reformulate our understanding of it in relation to our realities?

Emily: There are many injustices in the U.S. to deal with, as well as those that they create in other countries. Here, people think there isn’t much left to do in terms of asserting women’s rights. People are more focused on other movements with other names, even though so many women in the U.S. are poor.

Amara: Feminism incorporates the gender perspective as well as the human rights perspective. In my experience, whatever issue I come across with, my analysis is still from a feminist perspective. We have to recognise that whether it was largely a white women’s movement, or one of old women, feminism was and still is a struggle against an oppressive system.

Shirin: Yes, but it has this troublesome history of speaking for others. Many brown women think that the white women have for so long spoken on their behalf. Feminism is a stream full of knowledge. We must drink from it, but we must open our horizons and become part of an even larger movement.

Emily: I think inherent in feminism is emphasising that many more people have voices and should be heard.
Intersectionality of Oppressions
Mari: We know there are many other kinds of subordination that silence different voices, e.g., race, caste, class, religion. How does this play out in your own contexts?

Amara: In my line of work, I’ve seen how these other issues further oppress women. Take the case of women migrant domestic workers. They are women from a third world country doing the kind of job not respected anywhere and not even recognised by laws as work. The sad thing about the experience of these women is that they are in no position to assert themselves because they have internalised the weakness imposed on them by race, by their economic status and by being women.

Shirin: One kind of oppression contributes to the other; they feed on each other. Caste encourages sexism, racism encourages caste. Those who fight oppression are not concerned with feminism alone as it is commonly understood. For instance, for a black woman raped by her colonial master, the issue is not just that she is a woman, but that she is black. How can you separate one from the other?

Claire: I can choose my line of work, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t experience the power play in different spaces. Example, I used to be part of an underground music scene, an environment that’s male-dominated, mostly middle-middle-lower class. As they busted their asses off to find jobs, I didn’t have to worry, being more materially privileged than they are. Still, I felt that they had the privilege of space and public safety. They could go to areas in Manila where I wouldn’t feel safe and secure.

<Yahoo! Messenger: sheharav has joined the conference.>

Shehara Viswanathan: Hello all! This is Shehara from Sydney.

Mari: Welcome to the discussion, Shehara. Please introduce yourself.

Shehara: I am 29, an engineer and I work in telecommunications. I’m from the Australian Student Christian Movement and was also on the World Council of Churches’ women’s advisory group. As a woman of colour who has lived in Australia since I was 9, it has been an interesting experience.

Mavic: Hi, Shehara. This is Mavic, also from Isis. We were discussing the many kinds of subordination and how it intersects with your identity as a young woman. We’re now actually following Amara’s point that you’re worse off because you are poor; you do not belong to the dominant religion; you are a lesbian; and, on top of it, you are a young woman.

Claire: I thought my Catholic school upbringing was pretty oppressive. I was in a classroom with girls who had lots of money. I came from an upwardly mobile family, but these girls tend to look down on girls who didn’t wear designer labels. There was also “girl competition.” These girls could not grasp the idea of “individuality”. They all had these dominant notions of male-female power play. And if you were to call or strike up a conversation with a boy, you’d be branded a flirt or easy. It was hard for me to find kinship with these girls, which was why it wasn’t easy for me to learn about feminism. We had absolutely no resources on feminism. The most ironic thing is that we had supposedly feminist nuns in our school.

Shehara: I have been thinking a lot about the levels of violence and power. One of the most obvious in the world at the moment is the oppression of Muslim people. Unfortunately, Muslim women are much more obvious and are often easily identified for abuse.

Religion
Amara: In the Philippines, whether it’s Islam or Christianity, religions are largely anti-women. The Catholic Church is the largest and most powerful, and the government just follows its dictates.

Shehara: Generally, the problems with religion in terms of feminism are not truly religious problems, but “man-made” issues of tradition and power disguised as religion. While a lot of terrible things have been done in the name of religion, so has a lot of good.

Shirin: There are movements of reform within religion. Due to a feminist reading of the Koran, people now agree that abortion is not irreligious. So, it is good that Islamic feminists were able to prove this. But I think that if they weren’t able to, we should still insist on what is just. Religion can be empowering, but it is not all we have. One bad thing is that it creates walls. So, Hindu women are separated from Muslim women by an artificial wall. But then, it unites them, too, because the oppression cuts across (religions).

Emily: My religion—Unitarian Universalist—is practically dominated by feminists. It’s a very different place to be than being a Muslim or Catholic.

Vanda: Education is the most important thing because if someone is well-educated, she or he will “protect” himself/herself from whatever kind of injustice.

Mari: What are other distinct issues facing young women today in your countries? Shehara, could you talk a bit about your experiences as a young woman of colour living in a white-majority country? Vanda, could you tell us a little more about what’s happening in Indonesia?

Shehara: Living in Sydney, I am surrounded by people of many cultures and I have not encountered any obvious racism. My bar is quite high, though, as I left Sri Lanka as a result of racism after the riots in 1983. I am Tamil. I think a common theme between all Australian women—young and old—is violence. Other main issues facing women are inequality in the workplace and, for indigenous, migrant and refugee women, a variety of issues related to isolation, racism and violence in their communities.

Vanda: Here in Indonesia, most of the districts are still male-dominated. Women’s oppression can be seen in rape, trafficking and domestic violence. Many young women do not realise that they are trafficked but some of them justify it by invoking “economics.” Another issue is religion, because one “big” community thinks they have power to pressure the minority.

White is Beautiful...Not
Emily: There are many different young women in the U.S. Some have access to education and some do not. People think it’s such a rich country that everyone has a fair shot. Also, the girls have huge body image issues and the situation seems to be getting worse.

Amara: Responsible sexuality is a big issue. More and more young women are getting pregnant—teen pregnancies resulting to unwanted babies or unsafe abortions. The problem here is caused by lack of correct information on sexuality. Young women do not really know their bodies. Also, in the Philippines, all young girls want fair skin.

Shehara: There is racism in Australia, but there isn’t a feeling among dark people that they want to be white. There is a difference between fashion whiteness and racism whiteness. As a black woman in Sydney, I never understood the concept of whitening creams as all my white friends wanted my colour. It is only when I travel to Sri Lanka that people make comments about how dark I am. I find it amusing. So, being lily white isn’t as important as it is in India. In Australia, there are also issues of anorexia, bulimia, etc.

Shirin: Yes, you are right about tanning, but the racism is still there in terms of feeling. So the brown people in Australia still want to be “white.” I lived in Australia for a couple of years and saw a lot of brown immigrants trying to ape the whites because it means a higher status somehow.

Body Image
Mari: Claire, are you still here? I agree that body image is a “universal issue.” In your countries, how does media reinforce the existing body-image standards?

Claire: Body image is a big issue with me. Many clothes stores are sizist because “Filipino sizes” are small. There are some efforts to put up plus-size clothing stores, some more stylish than others, but it’s hard to assume that people have the same taste. Women’s magazines and teen magazines sell thinness as the ideal.

Shirin: But even this “plus-size” business means that we assume that the standard size is thin!

Claire: I’m still trying to decide whether plus-size-ness is tokenism. What bothers me is the slant. Even if one is plus-sized, the emphasis is on “flattering clothing.” Sure, everyone wants to look presentable, but flattering? What’s there to disguise? As if I can’t be proud if I’m big, and I am, so I have to make concessions by allowing my clothes to flatter my figure? Whatever!

Emily: I think the media makes everyone wants to look the same, like Britney Spears basically. And Britney is so boring. I think business is just as responsible. Much of what we buy is chosen by corporate interests, and we all end up looking the same. I think creativity is in danger.

Amara: Problem is, girls go for Britneys and Barbies. Any effort to curb these dominant images does not sell, so, media doesn’t take it on. It’s also because young women are at a point where they want to belong. Since we are bombarded with images of what we should be like to be accepted, we go for it, with no questions asked.

MEDIA
Shehara: I know it is hard, but what can we do to make even a small difference? We need to change these attitudes. In schools, we have a lot of programmes to encourage young women to be healthy and proud of their bodies. But, aside from that, what do we do to change this?

Emily: I have access to independent media. People need to realise that they have access to media, to claim it themselves. Activists have the responsibility to get into it, not just complain about it.

Amara: The Internet is a good form of media and a lot of young women have access to it. But let’s not forget the young women from the communities who have no access to information. I think there should be community-based interventions as well.

Claire: There needs to be more independent media that can be made accessible to the mainstream. We have a few independent magazines, but they don’t last long because of funding and the demand to go glossy just to be noticed. If more people thought about self-publishing, it could add to what little is out there.

Emily: There are tons of indy media here in the U.S. I think that happens all the time, just small each time. Or it is hard to see what it adds up too, here at least. But only people interested in indy media see indy media. Nowadays, anyone can make something for the Internet, a zine, a website. Media is exploding and tightening at the same time.

Shirin: Oh, yeah, Emily, you guys have some good independent media, but then the majority don’t see it. That is why people still hate Iraqis. Let’s start our own journal. As they say, every drop counts.

Amara: Packaging is very important. It’s very difficult to get into the mainstream.

Claire: Packaging really helps. There are tons of print zines here, but not all of them are after penetrating the mainstream. Some don’t even want to be known because they serve their own community, like underground music.

Role Models
Mavic: Hi, Mavic here. Who do you think are the role models that young women identify with—and not just physically, and why?

Amara: Our president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is the last woman I can identify with. She is macho. I have a guy friend who did not like Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft because she was much tougher than James Bond. Men are intimidated by her attitude and her strength, so they prefer to concentrate on her body.

Claire: I was reading about how women in the U.S. in the 1960s fantasised about being a female counterpart to James Bond, but knew that they would more likely end up being one of his disposable chicklets, given time and context. Growing up, it was hard to find role models other than pop stars. It was easier to have male role models. As a girl, my role model was Cyndi Lauper. There’s Kelly Osbourne now, because she has a wicked dress sense, and she’s plus-size. Of course, she’s Ozzy’s daughter, too, hehehe!

Shehara: I love Kelly as well.

Amara: When I was growing up, I liked Winnie the Pooh largely because Winnie was neither a girl nor a boy. Funny, I can’t really think of a role model. I guess I was never one to pattern my behaviour after someone else.

Vanda: I like Winnie the Pooh, too. I admire Mother Theresa. She was a great woman, fighting and struggling for justice for poor people. Her compassion for humanity was so intense.

Emily: Amy Goodman (democracy now, indy media, foreign correspondent). She goes out and speaks to people too, and when you see her, she moves you. It’s so important to inspire people in person. My friends who work for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Eve Ensler [author of The Vagina Monologues] because she uses the money she makes to build domestic violence shelters in Africa.

Shirin: I respect Amy Goodman, too, because she has the courage and intelligence to provide us with the alternative news. While the rest of the U.S. media tells us that Iraqis are bad, she goes to find out the other side. She takes up issues ranging from peace to corruption to racism to everything that matters. She is not CNN, thank god.

Shehara: From Australia, Cathy Freeman. Mum Shirl and Lowitja O’ Donahue, who are indigenous women. Indira Gandhi. The outspoken women of Afghanistan… All the witches that were burnt for their natural healing powers.

Shirin: Please, not Indira Gandhi.

Shehara/Vanda: Why?

Shirin: Because she was a dictator.

Vanda: :-)

Shirin: She did nothing for a just and egalitarian society. Being a woman does not automatically make you anti-sexist. Just because a woman became the Prime Minister does not mean equal rights for women.

Shehara: Different opinions, Shirin. Indira was still a female role model for many young women and role models cannot be perfect. That is what we are fighting—the Barbie principle. We want women with all their imperfections.

Mari: Indeed, different opinions coming from different contexts. Live and let live.

Shirin: Yeah, they can’t be perfect, but they shouldn’t be dictators, too. See, this is a kind of fanaticism, too, that’s why people dislike feminism. We seem to think that all goddesses are empowering; they were not.

Amara: Of course, they were not, even the goddesses were male constructs.

Shirin: Not all women are feminists. Margaret Thatcher? Condeleeza Rice? Arroyo?

Shehara: But why is that wrong? They are just different women doing their thing in the world.

Shirin: He, he! The paucity of role models. Okay, and what about our own mothers?

Shehara: Yes, and grandmothers.

Emily: My mom is definitely my role model. She is a partner in an all-male accounting firm. I think we—older and younger women—need to talk about feminism together and we don’t.

Claire: For a time, I didn’t get along with my mother. We get along now. She has admirable qualities, but I guess indirectly, she influenced my direction toward the arts. She was involved in theatre, though I am more into pop culture.

Amara: I love my mother and she was so strong for us, but she thinks my father is god who can’t go wrong.

Shirin: My mother is my best role model. My maternal grandmother was ultra-racist. She disowned my mother because she married a Muslim! I love my mother. I love my father too. And he is a feminist!

Shehara: My mom and grandma are my biggest role models. My fiancé is also a feminist. His mom and grandma taught him well.

Claire: My boyfriend is a feminist too. He’s into girl culture. He’s what I call a “riot colehiyala.”

Mari: Interesting role models... Last 15 minutes, sisters. Just to go back to an earlier question, what do you think of older feminists, our feminist foremothers?

Shirin: Older women are repositories of knowledge, but they also have to continue learning, just like all of us. I want to learn from their experiences, appreciate the good things they did, and not repeat the blunders they committed.

Amara: The older feminists I know refuse to deal with men. Come to think of it, they also refuse to deal with lesbians and gays. I think this goes against the basic principles of feminism, which is human rights and gender sensitivity.

Vanda: They are great. They were the ones who were first to realise that women should struggle for their rightful existence. They started to “open” a new perspective on human beings, especially women’s existence. Our duty now is to push it forward based on our own contexts.

Claire: I know of an older feminist who is awfully dismissive of third wave feminism. And to think that my introduction to feminism was third wave! There are older feminists out there with great ideas and some have managed to keep in contact with what young people are doing.

Emily: Older feminists can help us understand what more there is to do in the struggle. I think as women we oppress women, too.

Shirin: Sometimes I think that they think they have the world figured out already. They are very stubborn and refuse to change or admit that younger women can be intelligent, too, and that they can teach them, too. Feminism cannot be successful if racism, casteism and ageism within the movement do not go away!

Amara: Still, there are some who have kept up with the times, they are the ones I can still talk to. With 15 years of the movement behind them, they still have not become grim and fanatic about the issue. I continue to learn from them.

Mari: Thank you, everyone, for such an engaging discussion. Let’s do this again. We’ll keep in touch and keep you informed about the offshoot of this online discussion and its future publication in Isis International Manila’s Women in Action. Again, thanks and have a good day.