Women need to stand up for their rights

The lives of women have changed significantly ever since I was a graduate student around mid-1960s. In the last forty years gender gaps in education, employment, income, decision making and even in political leadership have been narrowed.

Women’s labour force participation has also equalled to men. Marriage and family patterns have changed, enabling women to have greater voice within the household, which had traditionally been a major site of women's exploitation.

We have travelled far but we still face many challenges.

Challenges ahead

‘Our first challenge is to shape our own identity without being defined by others. This is not always easy as our families and societies are constantly telling us who we should be.

When I began my academic-activist life in Bangladesh around early 1970s, I stood out as a young, single woman pursuing a path unique from other women. What I find remarkable is how quickly the change happened and I was not alone; many other women also decided to fulfil their own potentials.

Our second challenge is to improve the terms and conditions of women's work, both paid and unpaid. Women's  employment rates have increased significantly in the last forty years, but their share of earned income has not been at par with their employment.

A part of the problem is that the conditions of poverty have pushed women into low paid jobs.

For example, in Bangladesh, 80% to 90% of the workers of the garment industry are young women. This industry, which constitutes Bangladesh's main exports, annually earns 9 billion dollars whereas these women workers earn less than a dollar a day while putting in 12-14 hours.

Additionally, the burden of unpaid work in the care economy (i.e. child care, care of elderly family members, etc.) continues to be a problem for women as they expand their participation in paid employment.

Our third challenge is to reduce violence against women. What is worse is that war, political and ethnic conflicts have embraced violence against women as a part of their arsenal. In recent years, rape is seen used as a weapon in conflict situations in Asia, Africa as well as Europe.

Our final challenge is to improve women's presence in political leadership positions. With the exception of Nordic countries, where women have made significant progress, in the rest of the world progress has been extremely slow. Women in US hold only 16% of Congressional seats and 14% of ministerial positions.

In India, which is a model for stable democracy in Southern countries, the progress of women is even slower with a share of 9% in parliamentary seats and 3% in ministerial positions.

Risks involved

However, these challenges cannot be effectively addressed without recognising the emerging risks for women's empowerment.

The first risk is the cutting of government and the public sector roles and relying more on the market/private sectors. This particularly affects poor women's health and education.

From experience, we know that government laws/policies played a critical role in improving women's conditions. Nordic governments’ women friendly social policies and laws, 40/60 principle of political representation, public sector provisioning of health and education have contributed significantly in pushing these countries to the top in women's empowerment index.

The second risk is the alarming class gaps between different groups of women, holding back our overall progress and creating obstacles in building a cohesive political voice.

A few examples of these disparities are: maternal deaths are 1 in 2,500 in the West, 1 in 94 in Asia, and 1 in 16 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Within India only 16% of the poorest families compared to 84% of the richest families have skilled birth attendance.

The third and related risk for women is the narrow constituency base of the women's movements. Working class and poor women have generally not been drawn into them. This gap has considerably weakened the capacity of the women's movement to work as a strong unified political force.

The fourth risk is the backlash from conservative groups, consisting of mostly religious extremists. In recent years, the resurgence of political use of religion has directly threatened women's rights.

Standing up for ourselves

Therefore, our first obligation is to ourselves. We need to stand up for our rights, be constantly vigilant and ever ready promote our rights.

Our second obligation is to assist the less privileged women in our own countries and globally. We still need to volunteer for civic and political actions that address inequities and exclusion.

Our third obligation is to recognise the critical role that education has played in fuelling women's progress. We need to move beyond simple knowledge generation to ensure that quality education becomes available to all of the world's citizens.

Finally, we need imagination to create a vision of a society, economy, polity and world order that will be equal, just and inclusive; and we need to be at the forefront and provide leadership to a shared struggle of women and men to reach that vision.

We need stamina and courage, but above all, we need to be committed and have faith in our own strength to transform the world.

This is an abridged version of Dr. Jahan's address to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on receipt of the Graduate Society Award, June 2008.

Click on the attached file to read the full speech.