Gender and ICED

I've spent the last two days in an intensive elective I'm taking this semester called Gender and International Community Economic Development. And intense would definitely be the word to describe it! We covered the world in topics, did group exercises, watched a documentary, chatted with one of our distance classmates from Ecuador over Adobe Pro, debated quite a lot, and even had time to visit a women's empowerment project for Burundian refugees right here in Manchester!

One of our required readings for the course was Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book is heavy on blaming culture for gender inequality (when really the issue is much more multidimensional than that). They are good story tellers, but the reader must remember that the authors are journalists, not researchers.

Picture from the front of Half the Sky

Our visit to "Sewing Confidence," the project for Burundian refugee women in Manchester, was inspiring. They have very recently started, but the change we saw in them compared to the initial community assessment we read of the group was amazing. Many of them came to the U.S. and became clinically depressed because the horrible conditions of their situation, as well their isolation from the community. The initial objective of the project was to get them out of their houses a few times a week, get together with other women who spoke their language, and do something productive with their time. Their sewing skills are getting better and they are now at a turning point in their project. They want more than just to "get out of the house" and are contemplating starting a business or a cooperative to market and sell their products. They have a long way to go, but by the end of the visit, one of the students from our class had agreed to help them work on their marketing skills and business model!

In the end, there were five major themes that came out of our two-day class:

1. Gradualism/Moderation: we must pace the change for women's empowerment - by pushing too hard, or opting for radicalism, many will push right back and nothing will be accomplished;
2. Men's and boy's involvement: men must be involved in gender empowerment, they must be included in questioning their own and women's expectations, roles, and norms;
3. Stories: recognising the value of learning from comparative experience;
4. Difference between situations: cultural norms differ from place to place, so the response to gender inequality must differ from place to place;
5. Leadership and Mentoring: importance of role models, woman-to-woman mentoring, and fostering internal national leadership (e.g. through more women elected officials).

I am tired and a little cranky this evening, so I'm taking the evening off and trying to prepare for three more days of class (and three different courses) before getting back on a bus to come home. My Gender course is not done, I still have a couple small assignments and a final project to do, which is to design a Gender Awareness Training for Men!!! Have any ideas?!