Plan courageux et audacieux pour promouvoir à la fois la condition des hommes et des femmes, le Programme d'action de la Quatrième Conférence mondiale sur les femmes repose sur des fondements solides. Il établit un calendrier pour l'égalité qui met l'accent sur les droits des femmes en tant que droits humains, souligne la responsabilité partagée et le partenariat entre femmes et hommes, et en appelle à l'action immédiate en vue de créer un monde juste, développé et pacifique, fondé sur le principe de l'égalité et édifié sur le savoir, l'énergie, la créativité et les talents de la femme. C'est donc d'un point de vue moral et de principe, loin du pragmatisme pur et dur, que le Programme d'action aborde l'émancipation des femmes.

La Communauté internationale baha'ie s'en félicite, mais estime qu'il convient d'aller beaucoup plus loin encore. Pour que le Programme d'action bénéficie du soutien mondial nécessaire à la réussite de son application, le principe sur lequel il se fonde, soit l'égalité des hommes et des femmes, doit être considéré comme un aspect essentiel d'un principe plus large encore: l'unité de l'humanité. Justement replacée dans le contexte de cette unité, l'égalité des sexes doit être comprise non seulement comme une exigence de justice mais comme une condition sine qua non de la paix et de la prospérité. Rien de moins qu'une vision exigeante de la paix et un attachement résolu aux valeurs sur lesquelles elle doit se fonder, elle aura le pouvoir de susciter dans le comportement des individus, au sein des structures administratives, et au niveau de la dynamique interpersonnelle, les changements révolutionnaires requis par le Programme d'action.

Traditionnellement, les religions ont été parmi les plus puissantes sources de vision d'avenir et de valeurs. Toutes, surtout à leurs débuts, ont esquissé un nouveau dessein pour la société, exprimé des valeurs conformes à ce dessein, et inspiré la transformation tant des individus que des institutions.

Parallèlement, il convient de reconnaître qu'elles ont aussi été source de division et de fragmentation sociale. En effet, l'émancipation des femmes n'a pas toujours été l'une de leurs préoccupations majeures, et lorsqu'elle l'a été, a connu des degrés divers de réussite. Si, d'une façon générale, les religions ont eu tendance, dans les premières années de leur existence, à encourager la participation des femmes, l'histoire montre qu'avec le temps un mouvement s'est dessiné au sein des institutions religieuses qui a conduit à l'émergence de pratiques et de comportements propres à faire obstacle au développement du potentiel des femmes.

La religion étant potentiellement une force considérable de progrès, il est instamment demandé aux chefs religieux et aux hommes de foi de se lever par amour pour l'humanité afin de promouvoir ces principes unificateurs éternels - ou valeurs spirituelles - propres à insuffler tant aux individus qu'aux gouvernements la volonté de mettre en  œuvre le calendrier pour l'égalité.

Il y a en premier lieu, le principe de l'unité de l'humanité. Il est au cœur même du principe moral selon lequel il nous faut traiter autrui comme nous aimerions être traités nous-mêmes, norme éthique soutenue sous une forme ou une autre par toutes les religions. Afin d'instaurer la justice, la paix et l'ordre dans un monde interdépendant, ce principe doit inspirer toutes les relations, y compris entre hommes et femmes. Si l'on devait examiner la façon dont les femmes sont traitées à la lumière de cette norme éthique, nombre de pratiques culturelles, religieuses et traditionnelles seraient sans aucun doute largement dépassées.

La transformation personnelle nécessaire à une véritable égalité sera, à n'en pas douter pénible à réaliser tant pour les hommes que pour les femmes. Tous deux devront cesser de s'enferrer dans la culpabilisation et le blâme, afin d'assumer courageusement la part de responsabilité qui leur revient dans la transformation de leur société. Les hommes doivent user de leur influence, en particulier dans les organisations civiles, politiques et religieuses dont ils ont le contrôle, pour y faire entrer systématiquement les femmes, non par condescendance ni par un soi-disant esprit de sacrifice mais parce qu'ils sont convaincus que la société ne peut progresser sans leur apport. Les femmes, de leur côté, doivent s'instruire et aller de l'avant dans tous les domaines de l'activité humaine, mettant ainsi leurs qualités, leurs talents et leur expérience propres au service de l'équation politique, économique et sociale. Femmes et hommes assureront ainsi ensemble la paix mondiale et le développement durable de la planète.

Il incombe aux chefs religieux et aux hommes de foi, où qu'ils se trouvent, d'assumer une responsabilité toute particulière: celle de réaffirmer les principes spirituels éternels qui unissent et relient les cœurs ensemble et libèrent les facultés de l'âme. Portés par l'esprit et la perspective de l'unité de la famille humaine, femmes et hommes sont en mesure de créer, ensemble et dans conformément du calendrier pour l'égalité, un monde pacifique, juste et prospère, propice à l'éducation et à l'épanouissement des générations futures.

As theater, the skits performed here in the village square on market day last July by the residents of this small West African village were among the most basic of productions.

Consider the simple plot featured in one short play, written by the villagers themselves: After selling his crops, a peanut farmer hides the money from his wife and goes to a bar, where he buys drinks for all of his friends and then spends the rest on a woman.

When he comes home, his wife berates him for his excesses. Then his son falls deathly sick -- but there is no more money for medicine. Fortunately, a compassionate doctor donates the needed drugs. In the end, the farmer realizes the error of his ways and resolves in the future to consult with his wife before spending their profits.

Despite the simplicity of the theme, the unprofessional acting and the absence of costumes or sets, this play and others like it have nevertheless been big hits in this remote and underdeveloped province.

Among the fruits of a two-year, three-country pilot project by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Baha'i­ International Community, the plays depict situations that are familiar to the men and women here, striking a responsive chord.

The project aims to stimulate improved social and economic development in the entire community by first uplifting the status of women through the use of traditional media presentations, such as theater, songs, and dances.

"There are many messages in this one simple skit," said Mona Grieser, the international technical director of the project. "There are messages about the responsibility of fatherhood, the importance of money management, and of family partnership. But most important, there were a lot of men in the audience. And it is men primarily that we hope to reach."

Although the UNIFEM/Baha'i­ experiment, which is entitled "Traditional Media as Change Agent," is distinctive for its integration of well-respected ideas about development communication with the promotion of women's equality, its most distinguishing characteristic is the degree to which it strives to involve both women and men in the process.

"What is ground-breaking about this project is that it is set up to involve men," said Pamela Brooke, an independent development communications consultant who was contracted to provide technical assistance to the project in Malaysia.

"Many projects for women involve just women, but it was the feeling of the Baha'i­s that change could be better fostered through a consultative process between women and men," said Ms. Brooke. "Because if you just end up with angry women sitting in the corner, it isn't going to change anything."

With funding provided by UNIFEM, the project has been undertaken simultaneously in Cameroon, Bolivia and Malaysia, where well-developed national and local Baha'i­ communities have provided on-the-ground resources and a network of motivated volunteers.

Signs of Success

The project seeks primarily to change attitudes. And even though attitudes, unlike efforts to provide concrete products like improved agricultural production or better vaccination rates, are hard to measure, there is nevertheless impressive evidence of success -- both in anecdotal and statistical terms.

Here in the Eastern Province of Cameroon, where the project has operated in seven villages, the men have begun to join women in the fields, they are consulting more with them about family finances, and they are allowing them a greater participation in community decision-making, according to surveys and outsiders who have visited the area.

"There is change," said Madeline Eyidi, senior program assistant at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Yaounde, Cameroon, who spent a week in the project area last summer. "The women have traditionally done the farming, but I saw the men starting to participate. They are helping the women. I think the project is wonderful."

According to Tiati ï a Zock, the national coordinator of the project in Cameroon, a survey done in early 1992 among some 45 families in each of the seven villages reported that the men made virtually all of the financial decisions alone. A follow-up survey, taken in 1993, indicated more than 80 percent of the families now make such decisions in consultation between husband and wife. Another telling statistic: in Badan, the number of girls being sent to the village school has increased by 82 percent since the project started.

In Bolivia, the project is now underway in eight villages in the southern central province of Chuquisaca. In the village of Poqonchi, where the project has been going the longest, comments made in focus group discussions indicate that women are now participating more in community decision-making, are more willing to express their desire for education, and are receiving from men more help with their daily chores.

In addition, a woman was recently elected to the Poqonchi sindicato, a local political council. She is the first woman ever elected to the sindicato there and shortly after she was elected, the council passed a resolution urging greater attention to the concerns of women.

In Malaysia, where the project has operated in two villages and an urban community, there are also concrete signs that women are becoming increasingly involved in community decision-making and organization. (Indeed, in all three areas, the number of women elected to local Baha'i­ governing councils has increased since the project began.)

The biggest changes have come in Kampong Remun, a small and remote village in Sarawak, where the project has stimulated a variety of spin-offs. Using the project's methods for identifying community problems, the villagers there have started a vegetable garden, built new latrines, and established adult literacy classes, which are designed primarily for the women but are open to men.

All three efforts emerged from a consultative process that included men and women, said Joo Jong Kung, the national project coordinator for Malaysia. "In the village community, you seldom get the men communicating and consulting together with the women, but the project gave the women an opportunity to bring up the problems they faced," said Ms. Kung.

The importance of including women in any development effort is, of course, being increasingly recognized around the world. Numerous studies and statistical indicators show that as women become more healthy, more educated, and more involved, the well-being of the entire family improves.

"We believe that as women in the developing world secure economic and social advancement and equality, everyone will benefit," said Marjorie Thorpe, the deputy director of UNIFEM. "It won't only improve the quality of life for women, but it will improve the quality of life for men, women, children, everyone."

A Distinctive Approach

The project takes a multi-faceted approach toward achieving this goal. While various elements of the project, such as the use of traditional media to communicate new ideas, have been tried before, the project is distinctive for its integration of ideas drawn from a wide range of sources -- sources that include the Baha'i­ teachings.

In essence, the project is built around the following components:

• It seeks to involve the people directly in analyzing their own problems, by first training them in the use of modern analytic tools like focus groups and community surveys, as well as in Baha'i­ consultation;
• It then gives direction to that analysis by stressing the importance of a positive moral principle, in this case the equality of women and men;
• It seeks finally to promote change in the community by communicating the results of that analysis through traditional media, such as theater, songs, and dance, which are relatively non-threatening.

"The project," said Ms. Thorpe of UNIFEM, "starts with the premise that traditional media in non-literate societies -- actors, dancers, puppeteers, ringmasters, singers -- the message that they communicate is taken very seriously by the community and, therefore, if the message delivered could be one that enhances the status of women, then it will be an opportunity to begin a dialogue with the entire community -- but in a manner that is non-threatening."

Although the effort is organized by the Baha'i­ communities in each area, it seeks to promote change in the attitudes of the entire population. "One of the advantages of working with the Baha'i­s is that they have very strong links with the grassroots," said Ms. Thorpe, explaining why UNIFEM chose to fund the project. "It is not an organization that is elitist. And because there are grassroots members of the Baha'i­ movement, because the organization has a history of working at the grassroots, they provided a very effective, very useful link for us."

In general, Baha'i­ communities are not isolated from the society around them; instead they are well integrated into the community at large. In the sites for the project, the percentage of Baha'i­s among the population range from less than one percent to about 10 percent.

The Process

In each country, the project began with training sessions at the national level to help local Baha'i­ volunteers build on their own experiences in community-building.

First came a refresher course on the principles of consultation, a distinctive method of non-adversarial decision-making used by Baha'i­ communities at all levels.

"Training in Baha'i­ consultation helps teach respect for the opinions of others, and that is very important to women," said Lee Lee Ludher, a development consultant in Malaysia, "because many women feel that their opinion is not important."

Volunteers were also given training in modern data gathering techniques, specifically in participatory surveys and the use of focus groups as a means for identifying community needs. Training in assessment, record-keeping and organization were also given.

The newly trained volunteers were then sent back to their communities, where they organized similar training sessions at the local level.

The result was the creation of a core group of project volunteers in each village. This core group was usually built around the members of the local Baha'i­ governing council, which is known as the local Spiritual Assembly. A locally elected body charged with overseeing the welfare of the community, Spiritual Assemblies have provided a ready-made body for the task of analyzing the community's needs and then consulting about a course of action.

After local training sessions, project volunteers went out to interview members of the community at large about their concerns. Video and Polaroid instant cameras were used in some cases during this data collection phase, since not every volunteer was literate.

In each country, the analysis was concentrated on how the women's equality (or the lack of it) related to local problems.

"One of the very simple diagnostic tools that was useful in helping these communities to analyze themselves was to ask that they list all of the daily tasks of the average woman in the area," said Dr. Richard Grieser, who was one of the initial trainers in Cameroon. Dr. Grieser is married to Mona Grieser and worked with his wife on most phases of the project.

"Then we asked them to list the daily tasks of the average man," Dr. Grieser said. "And the difference in the work load was always so striking. In fact, the men often got very embarrassed, because the list was never even half as long as that of the women."

Once the local problems had been identified, the community was asked to translate its conclusions into locally appropriate media, such as songs, dances, stories and plays. Local artists and performers were also encouraged to assist. These stories, plays, songs and dances were then presented to the larger community at various festivals, in special evening programs, and other gatherings.

The Same Problems Worldwide

The same basic problems were identified by participants early in the project at all three sites. Project participants, after consulting about the needs of their communities, gave the highest priority to addressing three basic problems: 1) illiteracy among women; 2) the mismanagement of family funds by men; and 3) the unfair burden of work on women.

"The people themselves, they are realizing not only that women have rights in society, but that they have important things to offer," said Mr. Tiati of Cameroon. "For example, many men now recognize that the woman has the ability to manage money, much better than men, who frequently spend too much on alcohol. And so one of the results of the project is that in most of the families that are involved, the woman is now taking custody of the money or at least they are consulting about how the money is spent."

In Malaysia, similar problems were found. "One of the big problems that has been highlighted in Malaysia is the lack of education and opportunity for girls and women," said Ms. Ludher of Malaysia. "But since the issues have been highlighted in a non-threatening way, people now realize that this is a problem."

In Bolivia, also, unequal education and work emerged as issues in the focus discussion groups there.

The Next Phase

The idea for the project emerged from a statement by the Baha'i­ International Community to the 32nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The statement addressed the need to change attitudes that reinforce acceptance of women's inequality and said that "a primary target for communication related to development projects for women may well be men."

Impressed by that idea, Ms. Margaret Snyder, then director of UNIFEM, approached the Baha'i­ International Community about doing a joint project. After some three years of conceptual work, the project was initiated in October 1991. It completed its first phase in September 1993.

UNIFEM's total grant to the Baha'i­ International Community for this initial phase of the project was for US$205,000 a relatively small amount in the world of development funding, considering that the project had sites in three countries and ran for a period of two years.

The Community hopes not only to continue the project, but to expand it to other sites.

"Interest has been expressed already by participating Baha'i­ communities in taking the project into another phase," said Mary Power, director of the Baha'i­ International Community's Office for the Advancement of Women, which is administering the project at the international level. "These communities now have a cadre of trained Baha'i­ consultants who can be drawn upon in their home countries, and who can be used as technical resources for other countries as well."

Indeed, the Baha'i­ communities of Nigeria and Brazil launched their own pilot "Traditional Media as Change Agent" projects in concert with the UNIFEM funded effort. In addition, local Baha'i­ communities in Malaysia, seeing the success of their neighbors, have recently started up their own media-based projects on the advancement of women.

The world in the past has been ruled by force... But the balance is already shifting - 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. -- 'Abdu'l-Bahá

So it will come to pass that when women participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world, when they enter confidently and capably the great arena of laws and politics, war will cease. -- 'Abdu'l-Bahá

The intent of this brief essay is to demonstrate, from a Baha'i­ perspective and drawing on the insights of recent feminist legal critique, the depth and breadth of legal and institutional change demanded by the principle of equality, and to indicate, in most summary fashion, the nature of such change as prescribed in the Baha'i­ writings. Religion has always operated as a source of guidance at the level of individual morality. The Baha'i­ writings extend as well to the collective life of humankind, ordaining laws, principles and institutional processes on which to build social and economic structures for gender equality, structures which can only undermine and eventually replace current patterns of subordination.

Reforming laws and legal systems is one vital avenue in achieving equality. In the Platform for Action, strategies for each of the critical areas of concern depend at least in part on enacting and enforcing laws at the national level and on reorienting institutions of government. As has been said repeatedly, however, such changes can only be effective if they occur in tandem with the evolution of personal and social values and attitudes.

Legal and institutional change can be both cause and effect. Laws and institutions change as the result of new attitudes influential enough to muster the necessary legislative vote. In reverse, such change is also strongly conducive to further evolution in attitudes, both through actually enforcing new standards of behavior and through a gradual process of altering social expectations. Laws and institutions which remain unchanged in the face of new social realities have a similar effect, but working instead in the negative direction of supporting an outdated status quo and those who wish to retard change.

Many of the legal reforms necessary to achieve equality are technically simple. For example, laws protecting the civil and political rights of women and prescribing remedies for their infringement are not particularly difficult to draft or apply, given the political will to do so. In some countries, the process of legal reform along these lines has proceeded a great distance in recent times. Women and men are guaranteed equal civil and political rights as well as equality of opportunity in education and employment, under laws which, by and large, are enforceable and enforced. While not yet completely effective, this reform nevertheless has produced societies in which women enjoy a degree of choice and control over their lives unimaginable elsewhere. Despite such advances, it is apparent that equal opportunity is not sufficient. As most women (and an increasing number of men) in such "advanced" societies will attest, women remain, in so many aspects of family and social life, a subordinate class. Recent feminist legal scholars have begun to explain why this is so. They are identifying the need for more complex legal and institutional change, reforms which alter the fundamental assumptions and preferences which underlie our laws and governing institutions. We will return to this theme shortly.

One of the essential principles of the Baha'i­ Faith is equality of the sexes. As explained in this volume's introduction, the Baha'i­ system of values categorically upholds the principle of the equality of women and men in all areas of human endeavor. The Baha'i­ writings envision future societies in which women are participating "fully and equally in the affairs of the world,"¹ as the "peers of men."² Moreover, when this occurs, "when they [women] enter confidently and capably the great arena of laws and politics, war will cease."³

At the same time, it is evident in the Baha'i­ writings that equality does not imply sameness, that "equality of status does not mean identity of function." ⁴ Most notably, great honor and nobility are conferred on the role of motherhood. Mothers have the unique privilege of being the "first educators, the first mentors"⁵ of their children. "O ye loving mothers, know ye that in God's sight, the best of all ways to worship Him is to educate the children and train them in all the perfections of humankind; and no nobler deed than this can be imagined."⁶ If and when a woman is fully occupied with raising children, the husband has corresponding responsibilities for financial support of the family. ⁷ However, the father also shares the responsibility for educating his children, a responsibility so weighty that one who fails to exercise it forfeits his rights of fatherhood. ⁸ Roles and the allocation of responsibilities are not fixed in the Baha'i­ writings; all such decisions in a Baha'i­ family are to be made through family consultation, ⁹ a process based on explicit principles of frankness and mutual respect. Neither husband nor wife is permitted to "unjustly dominate" the other. ¹⁰

The exaltation of motherhood gives rise to two problems in relation to equality, one highly subjective and the other a matter of implementation.

The subjective problem is that reverence and protection for motherhood has often be used as justification for keeping women socially and economically disadvantaged. Deference to woman's "natural and proper timidity and delicacy" and to her "paramount destiny and mission . . . to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother" ¹¹ has led not to placing women on a pedestal but rather in a cage. Moreover, history and experience have convinced many that any distinction in treatment between men and women is a badge of female inferiority - as indeed it has been. On the other hand, there are societies in which women have faced the opposite problem. In Czechoslovakia two generations of women were required by the state to work long hours each day and to put their children in state-run group homes, a practice which many there now conclude has had serious detrimental psychological effects on those children. ¹² As a result, women there now prize most dearly the right not to work and the opportunity to raise their own children. Finding the path to equality would seem to require that we learn from the vast experience of women worldwide and refuse to be constrained or prejudiced by one perspective alone.

The second problem presented by the exaltation of motherhood in the context of equality is how it is to be implemented. Although there is no inherent logical inconsistency in women both being mothers and participating "fully and equally in the affairs of the world," and an average life span should allow ample time for both, it is more often than not a practical impossibility. The incompatibility of motherhood (or parenthood generally, for that matter) and participating fully in the affairs of the world arises rather from the nature of economic and social systems, laws and business practices, radically different as they are in various societies, but nearly all seemingly tailor made to enforce a permanent division of labor between those who care for children and tend to homes and those who produce income in the formal economy and have a voice in public affairs. Much of the recent advancement of women in the work world has been achieved in spite of such obstacles, but often at great personal cost to the women themselves. How can these "two lives" of women be reconciled? The unwavering insistence in the Baha'i­ writings on both indicates that it must be possible.

Here we may return to the insights of feminist legal critique into the meaning of equality and the depth of the legal and institutional change necessary in order to achieve it. Consistent with traditional liberal feminism, advances in equal opportunity over the past 30 years have proceeded on the assumption that equality means freedom to be treated without regard to gender. Although this may be an effective implementing principle in a majority of cases, it falls short of exhaustively defining equality and can be positively damaging to the interests of women in issues related to motherhood. (For example, why is it that a pregnant woman must claim to have a "disability" in order receive certain insurance benefits?) Feminist scholars have revealed convincingly the gender bias in facially neutral systems of rules. They have shown that sexism is a pervasive structural problem in the law, and that inequality is perpetuated by a host of unspoken assumptions which permeate our laws, our courts and legislatures, our legal procedures, and even our inherited forms of legal reasoning. They have effectively debunked the notion that law should regulate the world of public affairs (read: the world of men) but must not invade the privacy of the home, e.g., to protect women from violence. They have shown that although formal legal equality, emphasizing equal rights and equal treatment, may have been appropriate in earlier stages, we must now move beyond the rhetoric of rights. Equality, more fundamentally, is freedom from systematic subordination because of sex. ¹³

The implications of this definition of equality are vast, challenging, as it does, the underpinnings of long-standing traditions and institutions. This definition is consistent with the Baha'i­ vision of equality. Nothing less will enable a practical reconciliation between the public and private lives of women, or do justice to the full range of Baha'i­ teachings bearing on equality.

The systematic subordination of women is starkly evident in each of the following areas: (1) education; (2) violence and abuse at home and in society; (3) discrimination in income-producing opportunities; (4) family decision-making; (5) inequality in, or exclusion from, economic and political power structures; (6) male control of (and unaccountable use of) family income; and (7) sole, socially unsupported female responsibility for child-rearing. The subordination of women in each of these arenas is the result of an almost inextricable combination of laws, attitudes, institutional arrangements and procedures, economic structures, and legal silences. In each of these areas, the oppressive system and structures are undermined by explicit Baha'i­ laws and social principles which address the pervasive inequality which is stubbornly surviving even formidable legal reforms. Baha'i­ laws and principles go beyond the notion of equal opportunity to create societies which systematically and institutionally value both motherhood and the participation of women in public affairs, societies which embody and express both the feminine "ethic of care" and the masculine "ethic of rights," ¹⁴ which strive both to preserve relationships and to promote justice. Some of the specifics of the Baha'i­ teachings may be found elsewhere in this volume in connection with the various critical areas of concern.

A world in which women and men are free to "achieve the greatness which might be theirs" is almost impossible to imagine today, but Baha'i­s are among those who are convinced that each step toward that goal is a critical advance, not only in permitting individual women and men to realize their God-given gifts, but in bringing humankind a step closer to peace.

Martha L. Schweitz has been a professor of international law at Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan, since 1989. She graduated from Stanford University in 1976 and received her J.D. degree from New York University School of Law in 1981. She practiced international business law for five years with Baker & McKenzie in Chicago and taught corporate and international law as an assistant professor at the University of Oregon Law School for three years prior to moving to Japan. She has just completed a one-year sabbatical as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, pursuing research in international economic organizations and the relationship between civil society and international law.

Notes

1. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace (Wilmette, IL: Baha'i­ Publishing Trust 1982) 135 (reprinted in Women: Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice (Ontario, Canada: Baha'i­ Canada Pub., 1986) [hereinafter Compilation on Women] no. 91).

2. Ibid., at 375 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 85).

3. Ibid., at 135 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 91).

4. Universal House of Justice, letter dated 23 June 1974 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 68).

5. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, 1978 World Centre edition, 126 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 56).

6. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, 1978 World Centre edition, 139 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 58).

7. Universal House of Justice, letter dated 23 December 1980 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 71).

8. Ibid.

9. Universal House of Justice, letter dated 9 August 1984 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 74).

10. Shoghi Effendi, letter written on his behalf dated 22 July 1943 (reprinted in Compilation on Women, no. 64).

11. Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. 130, 139 (1873), the US Supreme Court case holding that a woman could constitutionally be barred from practicing law, by interpreting "all persons" in the Fourteenth Amendment to mean "all men."

12. Helena Klimova, Czech dissident and director, "Tolerance," a Prague-based civic group, speaking on "Women in East Central Europe: After the Collapse of Communism" at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, October 14, 1994.

13. Ann C. Scales, "The Emergence of Feminist Jurisprudence: An Essay," Yale Law Journal 95:7, 1373 - 1403, at 1395, using a phrase often cited to the work of Catharine A. MacKinnon.

14. Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982). Gilligan's work has been relied upon extensively in legal critiques of the social/psychoanalytic feminist variety. The terms "ethic of care" and "ethic of rights" are used by Gilligan to distinguish the processes of moral development in females and males, respectively. Stated as simply as possible, the "ethic of rights" describes a process which highly values individuation, and in which maturity is achieved when moral decisions are made on the basis of abstract, universal principles of right and wrong. In contrast, the "ethic of care" is based on understanding moral maturity to be the capacity to demonstrate caring for others; moral decisions are based on the value of preserving relationships and carrying out mutual responsibilities.

It is enjoined upon every one of you to engage in some form of occupation, such as crafts, trades and the like. We have graciously exalted your engagement in such work to the rank of worship... Occupy yourselves with that which profiteth yourselves and others. -- Bahá'u'lláh

Govindamah: Entrepreneur

Her roadside stall faces the T-junction where the road heads off toward a housing estate. It is not what the Chinese geomancy master would call a favorable location - facing an open road which might drain away her fortunes - but it has brought Govindamah luck and more. It has brought her a new challenge and with it the sweet taste of success and confidence. As a 'nasi lemak' (rice cooked with coconut milk) vendor, Govindamah now has a whole new sense of herself.

It all began a year ago. Govindamah's husband lost his job as a van driver and turned to odd jobs to feed his family. They moved into low-cost housing. Vani, their eldest daughter, left school to work in a local factory. But even with Vani's wages, there was still not enough to feed and school their other two daughters and one adopted son. Quarrels had become increasingly frequent. It was during one of her many post-quarrel walks that Govindamah noticed this spot on the road and decided it was time for her to do something.

It took Govindamah a few days to gather enough courage to tell her husband that she had decided to make some packets of 'nasi lemak' to sell at the road junction. He was furious. He abused her, ridiculed her and assured her that she would fail. But the more she countered his criticisms, the more convinced she became that her venture could succeed.

The next morning she got up bright and early, cooked 5 cups of rice, made the 'sambal' (a hot chili mixture) with whatever 'ikan bilis' (anchovies) remained in the house, added pieces of cucumber and laced the 'nasi lemak' with tiny pieces of omelet. She wrapped them into small packets to sell for 50 sen each, placed them in a basket, and crept out of the house, bound for the spot at the T-junction.

She looked searchingly into the faces of passers by. Three ladies stopped and bought packets. Govindamah was encouraged. Soon more stopped and eventually she had a pocketful of notes and coins and an empty basket.

Unable to contain her happiness, she ran home to share her joy with her daughters, who agreed to help her. But the minute her husband walked in, all the excitement stopped. He grumbled about his cold tea and left. Nevertheless, Govindamah prepared her baskets for the next day, barely able to wait for her second round of success.

As her 'nasi lemak' business grew, Govindamah added more products: tea, snacks and cakes. Vani assisted during her off-shift hours. Customers requested a stall with tables and chairs, which Govindamah secured from her cousin in exchange for a 50% share in the business.

The business prospered, but there were problems. When gangsters demanded protection money, Govindamah and her cousin were too afraid to resist. Because they had no license, municipal council enforcement officers often came by threatening to confiscate all their items. They were reluctant to go to the authorities, having heard how difficult it could be to get a license. So there they were: their promising business in jeopardy and nowhere to turn.

The Informal Sector

Govindamah's story is not unusual. Like many other women around the world, Govindamah, faced with a family crisis, became an entrepreneur. She found a niche in the market, worked hard, and succeeded. Women like Govindamah contribute to the economy of communities in almost every country. What's more, they tend to spend their earnings not on themselves but on food for their families and education for their children. However, as her story illustrates, working in the informal sector of the economy has its pitfalls.

In Malaysia, as in most countries, there is no official definition for the 'informal sector'. However, for research purposes the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) has developed a list of identifying characteristics: ¹

• simple technology;
• very little capital;
• no fixed place of business;
• quasi-legality or lack of registration; and
• little record keeping.

Development specialists have noted that "in developing countries, where jobs in officially licensed enterprises are scarce, much of the population makes a living by working outside the official tax and regulatory systems. These people who make up the informal sector, are innovators, skilled at surviving, and sometimes prospering, in a highly regulated environment. Although the informal sector is an important source of jobs, income and even housing, its participants lose their full rights as citizens by operating outside the legal economy." ²

This legal vulnerability affects women particularly because so many are employed in the informal sector. According to a study of the Malaysian economy from 1985 to 1992, an average of 47.05% of women in the female labor force were employed in the informal sector. ³ Of those, the vast majority, 61.2%, were employees, 21.8% were unpaid family workers, 16% were self-employed, and only 1% were employers. Within the informal sector, an average of 26% of all self-employed workers were women. Of all unpaid family workers, 65% were female. ⁴ Thus a significant portion of women's contribution to the economy -- in Malaysia and throughout the developing world -- is unrecognized and uncounted.

Malaysian Women in the Informal Sector

The typical urban or rural woman in Malaysia's informal sector has a primary education and an average household size of five. She entered the sector after she married and began bearing children; now she contributes substantially to the total income of her household. Approximately one third have incurred debt to provide capital for their businesses. Most urban women have worked previously in the formal sector. ⁵

In recent years, a relatively new group has entered the informal sector. They are professionals with good earning power who have opted to go into business for themselves, often working out of their homes. Advancements in information technology and the democratization of work have made it possible for them to work outside the formal sector. Lily and Eng Eng, for example, opted for early retirement from their teaching jobs when they found themselves saddled with more and more administrative work. As home tutors they can focus on teaching and be more involved in the welfare of their pupils. They also have more control over their time. ⁶

Obstacles

Despite their contributions to the overall economy of the country, women in the informal sector face significant obstacles: low pay; lack of access to such resources as capital, education, and training; and exclusion from the policy-making process.

Low Pay

The work women do in the informal sector is often viewed by the women themselves and by others as an extension of their domestic work. As a result, their compensation is based not on labor market rates but on rates for domestic work, which is little or nothing. Even professionals in the informal sector charge lower rates than their counter-parts in the formal sector. Mrs. Ng, for example, does bookkeeping at home in between household chores and looking after her baby. She charges her clients lower rates, as she has little overhead and looks upon this as supplementary income.

Lack of Access to Capital

Women in business in the informal sector have little or no access to loan capital from banks and other financial institutions, as requirements and procedures are biased toward the formal sector and against women. Currently there are 40 government agencies in 14 ministries assisting formalized (registered) small and medium sized industries, offering loans totalling RM1 billion (USD1 = RM2.57) or more, while for the informal sector there are only three major loan schemes. The most wide-spread and most successful of the three, the Ikhtiar Loan Scheme, in 1993 disbursed loans to some 21,000 women organized into 4,303 groups. From its inception in 1986 until 1993, the cumulative total of loans disbursed was RM13 million. More often capital is raised through traditional loan mechanisms such as money lenders, relatives and the 'kutu' - a traditional rotational self-help system.

Few women in the informal sector know how to keep accounts in forms financial institutions would recognize. Salmah, Foziah and 4 other ladies, for example, measure their profits by the number of gold bangles and chains they are able to buy for themselves and their loved ones and the savings they have for their Muslim pilgrimage (a goal they set for themselves). These women don't speak the same language as financial institutions. They would, however, be trustworthy clients, repaying every cent borrowed. But which bank would believe them - no collateral, no bank account, no income statement or balance sheet to prove their success and their honesty!

Lack of Access to Training and Education

A recent study ⁷ dispels the belief that for women employment in the informal sector is temporary. The study indicates that most women in the informal sector are not there by choice but have been driven there by lack of skills and education. Mrs. Lai sews pockets on sportswear. After marriage, she became a home worker for a contractor with the garment factory where she used to work. She is paid piece rate. She would like to become a tailor, but without access to training, she has little choice but to keep doing piece work.

Exclusion from the Policy-Formulation Process

Those involved in the informal sector, and particularly women, are, by and large, not organized, so their voices and views are not heard, and they are rarely involved in policy making.

In Malaysia current policy emphasizes formalizing the informal sector, requiring registration of businesses and payment of taxes. To register a small business in Malaysia will cost initially RM2,000 or more; yearly secretarial and accounting services will cost no less than RM1,000.

The truth is that many women like Govindamah would be willing to legalize their businesses and even pay fees and taxes, but they are easily intimidated, officially and unofficially. Thus dealing with licensing authorities and government bureaucracies may prove an insurmountable obstacle. Governments would do well to find a way to involve them in creating the policies that affect them so that the needs of those going into business for the first time are understood and addressed.

Platform for Action

First, the contribution of the 'informal sector' to the economy of every country needs to be recognized and appreciated.

Second, gender-biased practices and other obstacles to the full participation of women in the economic life of their communities must be eliminated. One of the best ways is to involve women in defining economic structures and policies governing the informal sector. Another is to recognize that women are good credit risks. Denying women, especially those in the informal sector, access to resources - including loans, education and training - is both a denial of basic human rights and bad business practice.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, participants in the informal sector of the economy, women in particular, must be involved in reconceptualizing economics altogether, both theory and practice. If women have a unique approach to economic activity, it would most likely be apparent in the largely unstructured informal sector of the economy. For example, preliminary findings in an on-going study of women industrial sub-contractors in Malaysia, show that the business objectives of the majority of women sub-contractors are defined not so much in monetary terms as in terms of values. ⁸

Such a value-driven approach to economic activity might shed new light on alternative approaches to the generation and distribution of wealth and on economic theory itself. The experiences, values and insights of women may, in fact, be the key to the development of economic models for the prosperity of humanity as a whole.

Lee Lee Loh Ludher is a senior administrative and diplomatic officer in the Malaysian Government and editor of the newsletter South-East Asian Focus. She holds a Bachelors degree in Social Science and a Masters in Business Administration and is writing her doctoral thesis on women homeworkers in industrial subcontracting. As a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors of the Baha'is in Asia, Ms. Loh-Ludher is involved in grassroots socio-economic development and human resource development, especially women's development programs in such countries as Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Korea, China and Mongolia.

Notes

1.

This same definition is also used by the Statistical Office of the United Nations Secretariat. The International Labor Organization (ILO) uses a slightly different set of criteria.

2.

Chickering, A. Lawrence and Mohamed Salahdine, eds., The Silent Revolution: The Informal Sector in Five Asian and Near Eastern Countries, (ICS Press, San Francisco, 1991). This same observation was made by Nicholas Ardito-Barletta, at one time General Director of the International Centre for Economic Growth in Panama, quoted in the Preface of The Silent Revolution - The Informal Sector in Five Asian and Near Eastern Countries.

3.

Loh Ludher, Lee Lee (1994), 'The Position and Status of Women in the Informal Sector in Malaysia for the period 1985 -1992'. Unpublished.

4.

Department of Statistics, Malaysia. The Labour Force Survey Reports, 1985-86, 1987-88, 1989-90.

5.

Berma, Madeline and Faridah Shahadan (1991). 'Meeting Women's Needs in Development and Family Welfare in the Informal Sector: A Proposal for action'; unpublished paper. - 'Poverty, Household Status and Women in the Informal Sector: A Structural Analysis'; unpublished paper.

6.

Loh Ludher, 1994.

7.

Berma and Shahadan, 1991.

8.

Loh Ludher, Lee Lee and Susan Chong (1993), 'Women Entrepreneurs: From Petty Trader to Entrepreneur - A Profile of Success.' Unpublished.