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Arm Boyles looks at issues surrounding the
entrance ofwomen into leadership roles at the local, national, and international levels
around the world.
WORLD WATCH
lthough they continue to face many extremely serious prob lems, it is clear that women have made great progress towards achieving equality with men during the twentieth century. It is remarkable to think that less than a hundred years ago women still did not have the right to vote and had only recently entered the realm of higher education, while today women comprise half of the undergraduates in Western universities and in 1993 earned fortyfour percent of doctoral degrees in American universities. They have moved in large numbers into many professions, such as medicine, law, and scientific research, that were not previously open to them. Between 1983 and 1996, the percentage of women lawyers and judges in the US. doubled to twenty-nine percent, and the percentage of female physicians rose from sixteen to twentysiX percent. Yet there is still much progress to be made. While women now vote in most of the world’s countries, women politicians are still vastly outnumbered by men; in business, only one in ten corporate officers is a woman, and fewer than three percent of all chief executive positions are held by women. The exclusion of
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women from these influential areas of civil life means that their voices and Views are still not widely heard.
In many places in the world, however, such problems would be enviable. While the economic, social, and political situations of women have improved in some countries, the global picture is sobering. Of the more than one and a half billion people on the planet identified as the “rural poor,” women comprise at least seventy percent of this number. And while women make up approximately half of the world’s population and perform twothirds of the work, they earn only one—tenth of the world’s income and hold in their own names less than one—hundredth of the world’s property.1 Girls make up sixty percent of the 140 million children around the globe who never attend frimary school, and two-thirds of the 100 million school dropouts.
Addressing the challenges women face at the close of the twentieth century is central to the well-being of all, whether the challenge be the “glass ceiling” in a business corporation or the means to feed their children even one meal. As Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), has said:
The current international system has constructed a world of inequality, instability and conflict. To change this, the international community must generate new development thinking and practice, a new ethics of governance and new processes of leadership. Women must be part of this new process in order for it to work. Women have a high stake in creating new mechanisms and systems that are equitable and sustainable. Until they are present at the deeision-making table, their concerns will remain marginalized ‘special interests’.3
This observation recalls ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words in 1912, when
1. Janet Momsen, Women and Development in the Third World (London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 1—2.
2. John Rowley, “Judgement Day,” People and the Planet, Vol. 7, No. 5 (1998), p. 3.
3. Noeleen Heyzer, “Bringing a Gender Perspective to Global Governance: An interview with Noeleen Heyzer,” in Development 199524 Journal of SID, pp. 44—45; p. 45.
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He stated unequivocally, “Women have equal rights with men upon earth; in religion and society they are a very important element. As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs.”4 It is a grave mistake, then, to relegate women’s concerns to the realm of “special interests.” In 1985 the Universal House of Justice wrote of the pernicious effects of inequality, saying:
The denial of. . .equality perpetrates an injustice against one half of the world’s population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations. There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavor will the moral and psychological Climate be created in which international peace can emerge.
F ollowing from this statement, we may well ask what form women’s greater involvement in wider society will take in order to create such a moral and psychological climate, and how they will change the way that society and its institutions function. Central to such questions is the role of women as peacemakers.
Since the early years of this century, when women struggled to gain the vote, the expectation has always been that their participation in politics would usher in a new era of peace. Francis Fukuyama takes up this issue in his essay “Women and the Evolution of World Politics,” published in the September/October 1998 issue of F oreign Affairs. Women, he asserts, have made a difference in the political sphere, but the “feminization” of politics in developed countries is not necessarily a good thing. But while feminization has made these nations less aggressive, Violent, competitive, and adventurous,
4. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, 10‘h British ed. (London: Bahá’íPublishing Trust, 1961), p. 133; cited in Women: Extracts from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu ’l—Bahd, Shoghi Bahá’í and the Universal House of Justice, compiled by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice (Thornhill: Bahá’í Canada Publications, 1986), No. 20, p. 11.
5. The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre Publications, 1985), pp. 11—12.
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Fukuyama worries that “even if the democratic, feminized, postindustrial world has evolved into a zone of peace where struggles are more economic than military, it will still have to deal With those parts of the world run by young, ambitious, unconstrained men.” Thus, “in anything but a totally feminized world, feminized policies could be a liability,”6 and “masculine policies will still be required, though not necessarily masculine leaders.”7 At the base of Fukuyama’s argument is the premise that men are inherently more Violent than women, a trait that socialization cannot eliminate and that dominates leadership paradigms in developing countries.
But are women, in fact, “hardwired” to be less Violent and aggressive than men? And do women, if given the opportunity to lead, lead differently than men? Discussions about the gendered brain and evolutionary psychology have occupied a central place in many contemporary discussions about women, the nature of equality, and leadership. While the subject is hotly debated, Karin Klenke, a scholar in the field of leadership studies, explains the difficulties in drawing conclusions on this question from the studies that have been conducted:
Some traits like aggression or dominance which have been linked to leadership are also believed to be sex—linked. In other words, American men presumably are more aggressive than American women. The biological basis of aggression is derived from the presence of the Y chromosome and the sex hormone testosterone, both of Which convey maleness. However, behavioral manifestations of aggression in boys and girls, or men and women, can also be explained culturally and socially, since both sexes display a variety of aggressive behaviors ranging from aggressive verbal acts to criminal behavior.8
Katha Pollitt, in her response to Fukuyama’s article, notes that even for supposedly sex—linked traits, each gender falls along a bell curve, and the curves mostly overlap. (In the case of aggression
6. F rancis Fukuyama, “Women and the Evolution of World Politics,” in F oreign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 5 (September/October 1998), p. 36.
7. Fukuyama, p. 37.
8. Karin Klenke, Women and Leadership: A Contextual Perspective (New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1996), p. 137.
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and dominance, which are believed to be genetically based and which have been linked consistently to male—female differences, some studies have found that biology or sex accounts only for five percent of the variability between people.) Such findings, Pollitt points out, contradict Fukuyarna’s argument that men are Violent and competitive and women are not.9 With genetic differences between men and women in regard to aggressiveness under question, she contends, there is no basis for the conclusion that men and women, inherently, lead differently. While Fukuyarna may worry “that the girls are about to seize power and turn the United States into an international wimp,” Pollitt says:
American women have had the vote for nearly 80 years. So far, they have not even won paid maternity leave or affordable daycare, things taken for granted in other industrialized countries. In light of these failures, the assertion that women will be transforming American foreign policy anytime soon, against the will of those now in control, strikes me as a fantasy second only to the notion that genetics will bring it about. It is more likely that as women become more enmeshed in politics and business, with all their compromises and rewards, whatever modest inclination they may now possess toward nonviolent conflict resolution will be swamped by other factors: vanity, greed, fear, perceptions of national interest, lust for cheap oil.1
In some ways her argument, with its speculative assumptions about women’s easy oapitulation to forces such as vanity and greed, is as unsatisfactory as Fukuyama’s. Her View of the future, while different from his, is equally pessimistic.
A much more positive View of the future and women’s role in shaping it can be found in a great deal of the popular literature recently published on the topic of women and leadership, including titles such as The F emale Advantage: Women 3‘ Ways ofLeaderShip by Sally Helgesen and Helen Fisher’s 1999 best—seller The Natural Talents of Women and How T hey Are Changing the World. These books are based on the premise that women possess special qualities
9. Katha Pollitt, “Father Knows Best,” in F oreign Aflairs, Vol. 78, No. 1 (January/February 1999), p. 124. 10. Pollitt, p. 125.
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that will be a great advantage to them in assuming leadership roles in the coming era. Fisher’s take on the gendered brain is that women think contextually, take a more holistic View of problems and issues, gather pertinent information and connect various details more quickly, weigh more variables and points of View in their decisionmaking process, and see more options for action than men. Men, on the other hand, tend to focus on one thing at a time, oompartmentalize their attention, tune out extraneous stimuli, channel their thinking, focus on the immediate situation rather than the larger picture, and move in a linear path towards the solution to a dilemma. Fisher characterizes the women’s process as “web thinking” and the men’s as “step thinking.”11
To see how such differentiation translates into “the female advantage,” one need only browse through the business section of any bookstore. Much of the popular business literature is based on the premise that effective organizations in the coming century will abandon the hierarchical pyramidal structure, in which most of the real control resides at the top. Instead, organizations will be composed of a web of interlaced systems in which power is diffused and there are many centers of decision making. Fisher, Helgesen, and others contend that women are ideally suited to this new environment and will, in fact, bring further Change as they assume more positions of authority, both in business and in wider society.12
While this View makes for best-selling books, support for the argument of women’s superior leadership qualities based on the gendered brain argument (like the argument about male aggressiveness) is unproven. Again, factors such as culture, environment, and societal norms must be considered in discussions of men’s and women’s leadership characteristics. Klenke contends that gender differences in actual leader behavior are “few and negligible” and that “the scientific evidence fails to support the notion of a distinctive ‘ferninine’ leadership style portrayed by the popular literature.”13 An alternative to dwelling on gender differences, she suggests, is
11. Helen Fisher, The F irst Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World (New York: Random House, 1999), pp. 5—6.
12. See, for example, F isher, p. 53.
13. Klenke, pp. 159—60.
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the active pursuit of equality, which will lead us towards making changes in the social values and organizational structures that comprise the leadership fabric.14
Here, then, we have a broad spectrum of positions on male/female leadership differences: Fukuyama argues that there is difference in male and female leadership styles, arising incontrovertibly from biology. F isher and others also affirm genetic differences underlying distinctive masculine and feminine leadership styles, but see the world evolving to a state that accommodates “the female advantage.” Pollitt, on the other hand, argues that no real seX-based differences have been proven to exist in behavioral traits such as aggressiveness, so there is no basis for the assumption that men and women will lead differently, and if put in leadership positions, women will quickly become as corrupt as the men who now occupy them. Finally, Klenke contends that it is impossible to disentangle genetic, social, and cultural factors in the development of behavioral traits. Furthermore, it is more important to move beyond arguments about them, which ultimately result in new gender stereotypes, towards the pursuit of equality.
Klenke’s emphasis on pursuing equality between women and men is a welcome contribution to the leadership discussion. The promotion of equality is a central principle of the Bahá’í Faith, originating from Baha’u’llah’s statements that “women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God”15 and that God “hath conferred upon all a station and rank on the same plane.”16 Thus, the Bahá’í belief in equality of the sexes rests on a spiritual foundation, which forms the basis of all efforts made within the Bahá’í community to promote the advancement of women. Believing that women and men are equal before God, Bahá’í communities the world over stIive to practice that spiiitual reality on the material plane.
It is important to understand that, for Bahá’ís, equality does not mean “sameness.” In their efforts, Bahá’ís promote recognition of the complementarity, rather than sameness, of men’s and women’s roles. Differences in biological functions of the sexes are obvious,
14. Klenke, pp. 162—63. 15. From a previously untranslated tablet, in Women, No. 54, p. 26. 16. From a previously untranslated tablet, in Women, No. 2, p. 2.
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but Bahá’ís believe that such differences in no way imply inferiority or superiority of one sex or the other. Women’s roles, functions, and Views must be valued in any society that hopes to achieve full, meaningful participation of both sexes in its affairs. Social structures that value qualities such as nurturing and caring in both women and men play an important role in promoting equality and avoiding the limitations that gender stereotyping has imposed on human advancement. Equality is not an end in itself, after all; the goal of achieving “full partnership” of women and men is, ultimately, the progress of all of humanity—“an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced.”17
“Feminine elements” identified by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá include moral courage and the ability “to govern in moments of danger and crisis.”1 8 And while women should “strive to show in the human world that women are most capable and efficient,” they should also not cease to demonstrate “that their hearts are more tender and susceptible than the hearts of men, that they are more philanthropic and responsive toward the needy and suffering, that they are inflexibly opposed to war and are lovers of peace.”19 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated many times that men are more inclined to war than women and that “a real evidence of woman’s superiority will be her service and efficiency in the establishment of universal peace.”20 Furthennore, He said, “as woman advances toward the degree of man in power and privilege, with the right of vote and control in human government, most assuredly war will cease.”21
Whether, in the final analysis, these qualities are innate or socialized is less important than the assertion that the entrance and acceptance on the world stage of women who manifest these qualities will “assuredly” bring peace.
Education and training on various levels are key in effecting the kinds of changes that will create a Climate in which peace can
17. Women, N0. 25, p. 13.
18. Cited in Women, No. 87, p. 40.
19. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), p. 284; cited in Women, No. 84, p. 39.
20. Promulgation, p. 284; Cited in Women, No. 84, p. 39.
21. Women, No. 85, p. 39.
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emerge. A key element in such a process is the education of girls, Which is given great emphasis in the Bahá’í teachings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “there must be no difference in the education of male and female in order that womankind may develop equal capacity and importance with man in the social and economic equation.”22 He absolutely rej ected arguments against equality based on women’s supposed inferiority of capacity, saying, “Even granted that woman is inferior to man in some degree of capacity or accomplishment, this or any other distinction would continue to be productive of discord and trouble. The only remedy is education, opportunity; for equality means equal qualification.”23
Taken in a contemporary Western context, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statement could well be interpreted as referring to women’s access to higher education or their entrance into “male” professions in greater numbers. In the context of developing countries, however, the practice of such a principle might entail widespread literacy training and family planning, as smaller families allow women opportunities to better their own lives and those of their families, and to contribute in arenas from which they have traditionally been excluded.
The urgent need for basic education for women is borne out by the fact that, according to the 1995 World Education report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), two—thirds of the world’s illiterate adults, or some 565 million people, are women. And the gap between male and female literacy rates seems likely to widen, as almost 25% of primaryschool-aged girls compared to 16.4% of boys in developing countries do not attend school. In regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than half of primary-sohool-aged girls attend school, and the rate drops dramatically for older girls.24 The reasons for non-attendance vary, whether they arise from the family’s inability to pay for school fees, uniforms, or books, or from the need for daughters to work in the home to assist the mother or in the fields to help support
22. Women, No. 79, p. 37.
23. Women, No. 78, p. 37.
24. Cited in Learning: The Treasure Within, Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1996), p. 75.
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the family. In many instances, however, the basic fact is that parents regard daughters as a liability. In China, for example, since government subsidies for schools were removed some ten years ago, the dropout rate in poor rural areas has risen exponentially, and in some locations three-quarters of the dropouts are girls. One mother states categorically, “In our Village, girls are not as important.”25 And since, according to tradition in rural China, girls become part of their husband’s family when they marry, parents see little point in investing in their futures, when their sons are the ones who will stay at home and support them. In contrast, the Bahá’í teachings stress the importance of educating the girl child, since she will be the first educator of the next generation. In fact, if parents lack the means to educate both sons and daughters, the Bahá’í writings say that priority should be given to the education of the girls. Campaigns around the globe specifically set up to send girls to school and keep them there as long as possible have begun to address the basic problem of illiteracy, as experts acknowledge the correlation between women’s educational levels and such societal improvements as health and nutrition and smaller family size.26 The UNESCO report asserts: “The Vicious circle linking poverty to inequality between men and women has to be broken. In more general terms, the education of girls and women would appear. . .to be the basic precondition for active articipation by the population at large in development activities.” 7 Such campaigns address the issue of women and leadership development at the most basic level. But even where illiteracy rates are high, other options exist for training women to be leaders. In India, for example, authorities have instituted a cguota system for women’s participation in village-level governance. 8 In 1993, a constitutional amendment set aside onethird of all Village council seats and Village chiefs’ positions for women. Of those, a certain percentage is reserved for women from
25. See “In China, School F ees Keep Many Children Away,” in the New York T imes Web edition <www.nytimes.com>, 1 November 1999.
26. Learning.“ The Treasure Within, p. 75.
27.Learning: The Treasure Within, p. 76.
28. See “In India, Lower-Caste Women Turn Village Rule Upside Down,” in the New York Times Web edition, 3 May 1999.
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the lowest castes, according to their percentage of the population. More than five hundred thousand Villages and more than six hundred million people are affected by this change, designed to help break down the traditional hierarchical caste system. Women who had never previously been given the opportunity to participate in determining the affairs of their Villages have been given a voice and a forum to bring their concerns to their local councils—an innovation that Noeleen Heyzer of UNIFEM has called “one of the best innovations in grassroots democracy in the world.”
While the system is not working in all cases—estirnates indicate that about one-third of the women council members are simply obeying their husbands’ directions—the other two-thirds are gaining valuable experience in governance, seeking funds for community halls, lobbying for medical clinics, fixing hand pumps to ensure a clean water supply, overseeing the installation of streetlights, and other proj ects to improve community life. Many of the lower caste women serving on the councils are illiterate, but they are gaining confidence and are not afraid to ask others for assistance, whether in reading documents, speaking to the men of the Village, dealing with officials, or keeping record books.
While some people object to such affirmative action quotas, it is Clear that in the case of the lower caste women in India, there is no other means by which they would be able to serve as Village council members or chiefs. The quota system can thus be credited for pushing Villages far ahead of where they would be otherwise on the path to achieving equality of the sexes. Other countries, including Peru, Argentina, Germany, and Belgium, are also experimenting with quotas to achieve more participation by women in the public sphere.
But even in countries where the basic educational needs of girls and women are met and where women can pursue education to the highest levels, barriers still remain to positions of leadership. Looking at the culture of Western business corporations, and the “glass ceiling” women find blocking their advancement to the upper echelons of power, a growing number of observers see a need to change the way that leaders are trained, to promote greater acceptance of different leadership styles. Klenke writes:
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Corporations, educational institutions, government agencies, and community organizations must be responsive to the development needs, including leadership development, of both women and men, and incorporate diversity into training programs. They must make a commitment to identify, encourage, and develop individuals with the desire and motivation to lead, and promote new and different thinking about leadership so that women and men can discover pathways to lead themselves and others effectively.29
In her view, “women’s only” leadership training programs, while well intentioned, are off the mark. The real issue is “challenging the dominant cultures in our organizations and institutions” to the point where both men and women leaders will be comfortable in affirming the humanitarian values that have long been associated with women, as well as demonstrating “male” qualities of toughness and drive when appropriate. In such a culture, emphasis on gender stereotypes will be replaced by a genuine consideration of individuals. One writer describes it as developing a leadership that “thinks globally, seeks to embrace all of humanity socially, and acts to create a future out of the particular situation in which it finds itself.”30
It is a small step from the kind of training described above to that based on the concept of “stewardship,” which introduces the moral element into the leadership discussion. Most notable of the volumes written on this theme are Robert K. Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership and On Becoming a Servant-Leader, and Stephen R. Covey’s Principle-Centered Leadership. Covey, for example, identifies aligning oneself with “correct principles,” or “self—evident, self—validating natural laws,” as central to one’s life and actions “at all times in all places.” To Covey, “principle-centered leadership is based on the reality that we cannot Violate these natural laws with impunity.”3 1 Furthermore, he argues, “profound, sustainable
29. Klenke, p. 260.
30. R. Burnside, “Leading creatively into the 21St century,” paper presented at the International Conference on Creativity and Leadership, Lappeenranta, Finland, August 22—24 1990, p. 3; cited in Klenke, p. 264.
31. Stephen R. Covey, Principle—Centered Leadership (N ew York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), p. 19.
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cultural change can take place within an organization. . .only when the individuals within the organization first change themselves from the inside out. Not only must personal change precede organizational change, but personal quality must precede organizational quality.”32 Such value-focused approaches to leadership promote a new organizational culture in which a “principle-centered compass” and a sense of stewardship can guide leaders’ actions.33
Just as education and training play an important role in the advancement of women and thus in changing perceptions of leadership, economic issues are also key. Without economic means, how can women advance? The question raises a matter of increasing concern. Women in developing countfies have been most adversely affected by the changes in the world economic system that have resulted from changes in technology and industry, the rise of market economies and global financial markets, and trade deregulation. All of these factors have contributed to the growing “feminization of poverty.”34
The Bahá’í teachings place great importance on the principle that everyone—both men and women—should acquire the means to become economically independent. Baha’u’llah wrote in one of His tablets, “It is enjoined upon every one of you to engage in some form of occupation,”35 and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá urged women to “assist mankind in that which is most needful,” thereby demonstrating capability and ensuring “recognition of equality in the social and economic equation.”36 It is then clear that efforts in this area must go beyond the mere means to earn a living, as important as that is, and must address the whole relationship between material and spiritual well-being.
In the 1995 statement T he Prosperity QfHumankind the Bahá’í International Community identified “a commitment to the establishment of full equality between men and women, in all departments of life and at every level of society” as “central to the success of
32. Covey, p. 265.
33. See Covey, pp. 20 and 22. 34. Heyzer, p. 44.
35. Women, No. 76, p. 36.
36. Women, No. 83, p. 39.
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efforts to conceive and implement a strategy of global development.”37 While the extent to which women have access to “all avenues of economic endeavor” is an obvious indication of whether or not a global development strategy is working, it is not the ultimate goal. “In a world motivated by ideals of unity and justice,” the statement continues,
Society will find itself increasingly challenged to develop new economic models shaped by insights that arise from a sympathetic understanding of shared experience, from Viewing human beings in relation to others, and from a recognition of the centrality to social well-being of the role of the family and the community. Such an intellectual breakthrough—strongly altruistic rather than self—centered in focus—must draw heavily on both the spiritual and scientific sensibilities of the race, and millennia of experience have prepared women to make crucial contributions to the common effort.
Some small steps have already been taken in the direction. Recent development initiatives such as the microfinance movement and the promotion of entrepreneurship have helped women to escape from the Vicious cycle of poverty. At the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, founded in 1976, for example, ninety-four percent of the clientele are women who borrow small amounts of money to invest in some asset capable of generating immediate income. Borrowers repay their loans in small weekly installments; when one loan is paid off, a Client is free to take out another. The bank’s founder, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, finds that “lending to women, who traditionally have the least economic opportunity in Bangladeshi society, was much more beneficial to whole families; and that women were more careful about their debts.”39 By achieving the financial means to feed their children and provide for their families, the women served by the Grameen Bank experience enhancement of their feelings of self—worth.
37. Bahá’í International Community, Office of Public Information, T he Prosperity OfHumankind(1995), p. 15.
38. Prosperity, p. 16.
39. Alan Jolis, “The Good Banker,” in The Independent on Sunday Supplement 5 May 1996; available on the Grameen Bank website at <www.grameen-info.org>.
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The Bahá’í community has also initiated miorofinance proj ects and has found that in these, as well as in other development initiatives, women have consistently demonstrated their capacities to use resources wisely—in investment, repayment of credit, savings, and particularly the use of money, which goes to educate their children, and provide their families with food, medical care, and better housing. As a result, the women have not only improved their sense of self-worth and standard of living but have also raised their status in the eyes of their families, their communities, and the world.40
A unique feature of a miorofinance project begun by FUNDAEC (Fundaoion para la Aplicacion y Ensefianza de las Ciencias, or the Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences), a Bahá’í-inspired development agency in Colombia, is its emphasis on community solidarity. One drawback of many programs is that “the primary focus of most implementing agencies remains on the progress of the individual rather than community. They tend to laud the success of each woman, each borrower, rather than seeing the individual within the context of community.”41 FUNDAEC, on the other hand, has developed training modules on unity, solidarity, responsibility, honesty, conflict resolution, and the attitude of service to family and community. These are required pre—credit training for potential borrowers, and since their inception repayment rates have improved significantly. In this project, women and men are accorded equal status, according to the Bahá’í principle, and are learning to work to gether both for their own individual betterment and for that of the community.
Another facet of the contribution of women to the community is their “confident” and “capable” entrance into “the great arena of laws and politics.” The Bahá’í writings are filled with passages exhorting women to enter with men into “full partnership in all fields of human endeavor,” to “participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world,” to “advance and fulfill their mission in all departments of life.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá foretold, “They will enter all
40. For a Bahá’í perspective on microfinance, see “Microfinance: A Powerful Tool for Social Transformation,” One Country 8.3 (October—December 1996), pp. 2~3.
41. “Microfinance,” p. 3.
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the administrative branches of politics. They will attain in all such a degree as will be considered the very highest station of the world of humanity and will take part in all affairs.”42 In some parts of the world women’s emergence in the field of governance has occurred through the efforts of women’s groups, as in the women’s movement in the West. In other places it is occurring through the intervention of the government, as in the Village councils in India. In even other areas of the globe, circumstances—often tragic—have dictated women’s increased political involvement.
Such is the case in the Villages of the Ayacucho Province of Peru, where the “Shining Path” guerilla movement was born.43 The traditional lifestyle of the Villages was disrupted with the abduction or murder of great numbers of the men; as a result the women have become the de facto heads of thousands of families, assuming much more responsibility than had traditionally been their lot. Taking part in local government, farming the fields, and playing a central role in village life, the women have banded together to form “rnothers’ clubs,” which grow food communally, distribute donated food, form Village banks that provide small loans to farmers and entrepreneurs, and refer women to government medical clinics where they are learning about family planning. They are reconstructing their destroyed Villages in a tightly organized grid so that health, sanitation, and educational services can be delivered more easily.
The fact that the women took the lead in resisting the terrorists has changed men’s attitudes and shifted the balance of power in the region. Women now serve in greater numbers on Village councils, where they can lobby for tougher laws against family Violence and more job opportunities for their female constituents. More than ten thousand women were widowed during the Shining Path struggle, but they have acquired confidence and have taken action to provide for their families and better their communities.
While changes are occurring slowly at the grassroots level of governance in countries throughout the world, progress is also apparent at the national level in a number of countries. Throughout
42. Women, No. 91, p. 42. 43. See “A Revolution Peru’s Rebels Didn’t Intend,” in the New York Times Web version, 29 August 1999.
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the twentieth century, only twenty—two women have served as heads of state or government around the world;44 the world’s first woman prime minister, Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, was elected only in 1960. Other women who have risen to top positions in their national communities in the years since include Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Isabel Peron, Margaret Thatcher, Benazir Bhutto, Corazon Aquino, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, Gro Harlem Bruntland, Mary Robinson, and Mary McAleese. The number, while small, continues to grow, and women are assuming other senior government posts as well. As of 1999, for example, some fourteen foreign ministers of various countries were women, and leaders of both parties in New Zealand’s Parliamentary elections were women.
Of all the regions of the globe, Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands have the highest percentage of female politicians in their legislatures, averaging more than twenty-five per cent. In contrast, figures in the United States are much lower. Even after “The Year of the Woman” in 1992, when a record number of female candidates sought elected office, women held only six of one hundred Senate seats and 47 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. One explanation for such low numbers is that even in countries where more women are entering the political arena, they are still perceived as not “tough enough” to hold office, not as good as men at handling crises, and not as capable at handling big budgets. On the more positive side, voters do regard women as more in touch with and caring about people, better listeners, and better negotiators.45
It is, perhaps, not surprising that advances are slowest to occur on the national level. National institutions are more entrenched than newly evolving international structures, and the smaller size of local-level structures makes them more adaptable to grassrootsinspired change. The uncertainty of nation states regarding their role in the emerging new international order may also result in greater conservatism as they attempt to maintain the status quo.
At the international level, women have had somewhat more success in rising to higher-level positions in organizations such as the
44. Fisher, p. 152. 45. C. Lake and L. DiVall, “Voter cynicism is a boon for women,” USA Today (18 November, 1993), p. 15A; cited in Klenke, p. 209.
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United Nations, the European Union (EU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the International Labour Organization, where they have been instrumental in pursuing women’s issues.46 Why have women been able to rise more quickly in these fora? Some writers posit that where women depend on the broad support of the public for election to public office, it is more likely for their aspirations to be frustrated by an electorate still under the sway of gender-based stereotypes. On the other hand, women stand a greater Chance of success in organizations Where people are appointed to senior positions on the basis of their abilities and experience. Another factor in women’s advancement in this arena is that international organizations are generally perceived as lacking power, and so have been less attractive to men. This was seen clearly in a 1980 study focusing on the significant number of women in high-level positions in the European Parliament, where they have had success in raising issues of concern to them and have influenced policy in the EU institutions.47
At the United Nations, a 1999 survey revealed that women direct the agencies responsible for human rights, health, refugees, Children, population growth, and food aid. Women also serve as representatives in troubled areas such as Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as Deputy Secretary-General.48 And while even in the United Nations organization women lag behind men in top administrative positions, the situation is better than in business organizations or the political sphere around the world. Whatever the shortcomings of its staffing, the Vital role of the United Nations in fostering the advancement of women at the grassroots level throughout the world, and thus in promoting the well-being of all the world’s peoples, is widely recognized. Noeleen Heyzer notes: “Sustainable human development cannot even be conceptualized, much less implemented, when the costs and benefits of development are borne
46. Klenke, p. 215.
47. H. Hérburger and F. Rath-Hérburger, Europa ’S Frauen Gleichberechtigt? Die Politik der EG Lander: Gleichberechtigung der Frau I'm Arbeitsleberz (Hamburg: Verlag Otto Heinvetter, 1980); cited in Klenke, pp. 220—21.
48. See Nina Damton, “It’s a Woman’s World,” Civilization magazine Web edition (June 1999) at <www.civmag.com> for brief profiles of each of these women.
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inequitably by men and women. The UN has a key role to play in advocating for global policies that benefit women and in building consensus for the implementation of such policies.”49
Civil society, which is exerting an increasingly strong influence upon governments and international organizations such as the UN, provides another new leadership context for women, as Helen Fisher points out:
Governments are being supplemented, even somewhat undermined, by new social forces. Extragovernmental entities such as multinational corporations, the global financial marketplace, the Internet, international judicial tribunals, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) are increasingly able to control huge sums of money, sway public opinion, and influence the policies of national governments. . ..
Of all these forces that challenge the state, the one that will give women the most access to power and leadership is the growth of nongovernmental, nonprofit organizations: civil society.50
The rise in influence of organizations of Civil society, particularly NGOs, has provided a globally networked forum in which women can effectively present their Views and promote action on issues of concern, powerfully extending their range of influence. Says Fisher: “With their people skills, their compassion, their penchant for web thinking, and their networking abilities, female leaders in Civil society will bring hope to children, minorities, the disadvantaged, the sick, the elderly, and other women. And they will focus their attention on far-reaching societal and environmental illsconcerns of the female mind.”5 1
It is a truism to say that today the stage of the world is set for a new social order based on values such as the global recognition and protection of human rights, freedom, democracy, free trade, privatization of industry, sustainable development, and protection of the environment. In such order, women must both contribute to and benefit from such development on an equitable footing to men,
49. Heyzer, p. 45. 50. Fisher, p. 140. 51. Fisher, p. 166.
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and their role in bringing about the development of all peoples, without regard to gender, ethnicity, race, social class, or religion, is critical.
The Bahá’í writings are clear about the effects consequent to the participation of women in human affairs. During His travels in the West, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “. . .it is well established in history that where woman has not participated in human affairs the outcomes have never attained a state of completion and perfection. On the other hand, every influential undertaking of the human world wherein woman has been a participant has attained importance.”52 At this stage in our evolution, what is more urgent than achieving sustainable human development?
In 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá commented that “force is losing its weight and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine, and more permeated with the feminine ideals—or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced.”53 From the lowest to the highest levels of human society, in all walks of life and professions, we are slowly moving towards the achievement of such a balance. It is clear that women, with, as The Prosperity ofHumankind says, their “millennia of experience” in caring for family and community, are making a profound difference, as they are welcomed as equals at all levels in the global forum.
52. Women, N0. 80, p. 37. 53. Women, No. 25, p. 13.
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