Dear Eco-Fem
As Susan Ryley Hoyle has mentioned my paper on Attendance of NGOs at
International (environment) Conferences: Why the Women Stayed at Home, I am
posting it now. I hope it reaches you safely. Please feel free to quote it
or use it in any way you think appropriate. I would love to receive your
responses to it.
Margaret Sargent
NGO ATTENDANCE AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
or
Why did the Women Stay At Home?
Margaret Sargent*
The main reason why I undertook this research project is that at the United
Nations Conference on Climate Change held in Kyoto in 1997 there were
almost no women's organisations represented, and that it is important to
avoid a repetition of this in the future.
The conference was planned as the occasion when at last all nations would
agree on legally binding commitments to reduce the gas emissions in the
atmosphere that are causing global warming. The scientific evidence
presented to the United Nations on greenhouse warming (IPCC, 1995) is now
accepted by all the nations, and so is the urgent need to adopt strategies
to deal with this problem.
Non-Government Organisation (NGO) members numbered about 4,000. These
included many women, but generally they were sharing the efforts of
environmental bodies mostly led by men.
No women's perspective seemed to be presented (except by some of the
Japanese NGOs). I determined to investigate the reasons for this by
electronic networks in the hope that women's views would be better
represented from now on. Here is a summary of the discussion paper that I
circulated with the research questionnaire:
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION PAPER
As in other UN conferences, the coming together of cultures, the
activism of NGOs, the intellectual and political struggle, the UN process
were all fascinating. But I missed the networking of women.
Was Kyoto a success?
Japanese hospitality and conference organisation were superb.
Their NGOs from all over Japan worked successfully to advance their
environmental rights and their reluctant prime minister was unable to
resist their demands.
Australia, on the other hand, lost face for its
unwillingness to join the compassionate consensus of nearly all
delegates. In the Kyoto Protocol, the western developed (rich) countries
agreed to legally binding commitments to reduce their emissions of six
greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels within the next
10-14 years. Australia was treated as a bit of a joke for arguing it was a
special case and insisting on increasing its greenhouse gases. Indeed the
NGO daily newsletter, Eco, remarked that the Australian delegation might
really assist emission reduction by returning home to join the bushfire
fighting back in Sydney!
From a broad world viewpoint, in Kyoto the UN embarked on a long
term process essential for the world's future, and adopted a position from
which agreement on gas reduction by industrialising developing countries
such as China, could successfully be achieved in future negotiations.
(Let's hope the Australian government will be brought into line, too.)
Women's organisations
Before the conference no women's networking had taken place and I
was unable to find any women's organisations who were attending the
conference. When I reached Kyoto there was no obvious way of locating any
that might be participating. The available programs of NGO meetings, all
unofficial, contained few mentions of women's events. I briefly reviewed
possible reasons for the absence of women's organisations.
Conclusion
For a successful outcome at Kyoto a broad political world
perspective was needed, but comparatively few people were trying to work
out strategies towards the best prospect for all the planet's inhabitants.
There was a predominance of men and the shared values for most participants
were political power, and corporate profit. Surely women's organisations
would have been expressing values related to quality of life, future
generations, health and well being, and the human rights especially of
disenfranchised groups such as women, children and older people. Strategies
would have emphasised cooperation rather than competition.
Women's Non-Government Organisations
I attended NGO meetings and met very able and committed environmental
women. I went to Japanese grassroots women's meetings where I found
difficulty in understanding the discussion (in spite of some familiarity
with the language). Not till the second week did I encounter the friendly
networking members of the Japan Association of University Women, who found
a skilful personal interpreter for me for their seminar! They themselves
made no claim to represent a truly international organisation, but they
gave me information about the Japan Women's Global Environmental Network
(GENKI), that has worked with several South-east Asian Women's groups. I
also read about an organisation called Women's Witness that supported the
small island states (AOSIS) whose very existence is in danger from rising
sea levels due to global warming.
>From previous conferences I know that women's organisations round the world
have very varied primary agendas, such as the independence of an ethnic
group, equal pay for equal work, or opposition to certain so-called
development projects. Many western, educated feminists would not
necessarily accept all these agendas as relevant to the women's movement.
But I was not looking to find feminist groups, only women-led groups whose
agendas need not necessarily be defined as feminist.
I had missed seeing any women from any international women's coalitions.
But after the Conference, the Women's Environment and Development
Organisation (WEDO) responded that 'we had a team and we had a women's
caucus and a statement in Kyoto. I admit it wasn't as much as usual
but....it was not silence' (Davis, 1998). The confusion and disorganisation
common at UN conferences had made it difficult to locate any particular
organisation in Kyoto and this could account for myself and other
participants not hearing about a women's caucus meeting.
As one participant wrote,
- It was not just women's organisations which were missing, but a
whole lot more besides. The radical green movement was almost entirely
absent, for a start. So were people campaigning for no other reasons than
that they believed in the cause - there seemed to be a lot of paid
representatives of big NGOs getting a free holiday and not fired by any
particular passion. There were some youth groups present, from the climate
train, Korea and Japan, but the overwhelming bias was towards middle aged
men in suits (Member of CAN).
An American male respondent stated,
- Many men stayed at home too. Besides, no representatives of men's
organisations were there at all. Certainly an unrepresentative group to be
making decisions about the world's future!
RESULTS OF SURVEY
The research instruments consisted of a questionnaire, a covering letter,
and a discussion paper. These were circulated through electronic mail
networks based in USA, Australia and Japan. In addition the National
Women's Media Centre kindly dispatched faxes to Australian NGOs. Responses
reached me by email, snailmail and fax. (But every respondent gave an email
address.).
A total of 25 questionnaires were returned, some leaving questions
unanswered, but there were many other responses consisting of comments on
the ideas I had put forward and on the conference in general. Responses
came from five states of Australia, USA, Japan, Indonesia, Netherlands,
Canada, Senegal, and Kenya. A list of respondents follows with * indicating
those represented at the conference:
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women (AFBPW)
Australian Federation of University Women (AFUW)
*Australian Greens
Australian Women in Agriculture
Black Women Advancement Sustainable Development
*Climate Association Network (CAN) - one member
ENDA - Programme Energie
First Woman: East and Southern African Women's Oral History and Indigenous
Knowledge Network
Flower Aceh Foundation
Guides Australia
*Japanese Association of University Women Headquarters (JAUW)
*JAUW Aichi Branch
*JAUW Environmental Network
National Council of Single Mothers and their Children
National Women's Justice Coalition (NWJC)
Queensland Churches Together
Savage Rabbit Design Studio
The Gallon Environment Letter
Union of Australian Women (UAW)
United States Aid (USAID)
* US Climate Action Network (CAN)
Womensport
Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL)
Women's Electoral Lobby, Western Australia (WEL, WA)
Women's Self Build Housing Support
*Women's Education and Development Organisation (WEDO)
World Women In Defence of Environment (WorldWIDE)
Membership
Most responding organisations had a membership of women only, but 3
admitted men or boys (Climate Action Network, USAID and Australian Greens),
and 7 gave no information on this. CAN included many other environmental
groups worldwide, but these were not specifically women's organisations.
This sample consisted overwhelmingly of women's NGOs.
Policy on climate and environment
Eight NGOs reported having main objectives that include environmental
concerns. These 8 did not include any Australian women's NGOs:
- We give and take many environmental informations by linking with the
International Federation of University Women Environmental Network and
contribute to stop climate change (JAUW).
- To encourage the environmental activities of women, promote Agenda 21
(JAUW HQ, Tokyo).
- [We] work to engage women, as half the world's population, in
environmental issues (WorldWIDE).
- Eoclogically sustainable and socially just global society (Australian
Greens).
- [A foundation] with concern women empowering which perspective gender.
The tools of this foundation are struggle and provide women in all life
aspect (Flower Aceh Foundation).
- To foster women's leadership and advocacy skills to transform
. women's concerns about the environment, development, population and
. gender equity into actions, programs and policies in countries around the
world,
. with women as active and equal participants in
decision-making in both the governmental and non-governmental arena
. from the community to the international level.
We aim to
. promote women playing major roles in the growing worldwide movement
. for global security, economic justice, democracy, human rights and
. women's empowerment (WEDO).
Only Climate Action Network was oriented towards climate alone: To educate
and mobilise individuals, governments and others in order to avoid
dangerous global climate change (CAN).
Although environment was not a main objective, three NGOs had specific
stated policies on both climate and environment, and 5 had given high
priority to environment over the last two years. Of the remainder, 7
described women-empowering policies, and 6 stated no relevant policy at
present, while the remainder did not respond. The response from Indonesia
indicated a more hands-on approach to their work over the last two years:
Replanting the former clearing of the jungle land with cattles foods
(Aceh).
NGOs that had specifically made preparations for the Kyoto Conference
included WEDO, WorldWIDE, the Australian Greens, and the 3 quoted below:.
[We] approached the Prime Minister on the eve of the Kyoto Conference,
urging his government to support R & D in the control of Grreenhouse gas
emissions (AFAU))
[We] proposed a resolution on chemical pollution to the government in 1992
(JAUW).
[We] engaged in the education of US Citizens and media on the science and
policy of global warming. Worked to strengthen the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (CAN).
Some women's NGOs have awareness but only partial involvement in environment:
- History, oral history, feminist intervention in present and future
creation of democracy and social justice
including environmental justice (First Women).
- We cover all issues of environmental concerns where we can through ad hoc
committees (AFBPW).
- Individual members have been involved in LandCare, but specific
development of policy on this and other issues is being undertaken in the
next two years (Australian Women in Agriculture).
- Environmental balance between the needs of people and the protection of
the environment (UAW).
- The environment that we hand on to future generations should be better,
not worse, than the one we inherited. WEL supports environmental strategies
which involved planning development, controls on possibly hazardous
chemicals and processes, clean food chains, and responsible production
(Women's Electoral Lobby).).
NGO representation at UN conferences
At the Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995, 12 of the NGO respondents had
members present (some attending as individuals), and several were
represented also at other UN Conferences such as Rio.
As for the Kyoto Conference, 10 NGOs were aware that it was scheduled, but
how many actually attended? Apparently only WEDO, the Australian Greens,
CAN, and the three Japanese organisations were represented. What prevented
higher representation of women at this conference?
Barriers to attendance
The cost of attending was mentioned as a factor by 13 respondents so this
was clearly an important barrier for women's organisations, many of which
have very sparse funding, and members living mainly on low incomes. Nine
mentioned other factors, especially finding the time to attend, and also
lack of 'meaningful information' (Australian Women in Agriculture). One
took the view that this was 'not an area of expertise for us' (Australian
Federation of University Women). Another mentioned that, like a number of
other Japanese NGOs, the JAUW Environmental Network was not given
accreditation by the United Nations, even after calling at the UN office in
Geneva, so they had attended under the auspices of the Kiko Forum, a
coalition of Japanese NGOs (now called Kiko Network).
Future strategy
Nine of the 14 NGOs who described their intended activities over the next
two years expected to give environmental matters high priority. One
intended medium and one low priority. A further 3 gave priority to general
women-empowering activities. Only one mentioned the Kyoto agenda:
Ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in the United States,
working in coordination with the other offices of Climate Action Network
across the globe (CAN).
A variety of useful strategies to ensure women's representation at UN
conferences in future was suggested:
o securing funds for attendance (7 responses):
- Collective fundraising to send representatives (National Council of
Single Mothers and their Children).
- Try to raise funds to send a delegate to Argentina in November [for the
fourth UN Climate Change meeting] (WorldWIDE).
- Provide funding for participation of women from both the South and the
North to attend (CAN).
o early widespread diffusion of information about the
conference:
- Use diversity strategies and inform more people (Womensport).
- 1. Be aware well in advance what conferences are coming up, 2. use
multiple lines of communication to lobby for inclusion in national
delegations (AFUW).
o the need for education about the environment:
- Educate women about issues so that they acquire the necessary expertise
(Australian Greens).
- Educate women's groups in both the North and the South about the impacts
of global warming and their role in solving it (CAN).
- Policy statement: To enhance environmental education program in schools,
homes, regions and other situations (JAUW).
- We just need to simplify it and start a process......for women in
democracies, anyway. Raising literacy and providing a means to act... many
women's organisations are necessarily busy with "traditional" women's
issues...we have to ask them to add this to their agenda, perhaps through
appeals to health, etc. (WORLDwide).
o other significant political strategies suggested were:
- Make sure [women] are at least half of NGOs' own delegations; lobby
governments to include women in official delegations (Australian Greens).
- Networking between NGOs to make joint submissions/representations (AFUW).
- Through forums such as the Office of the Status of Women Roundtable,
raise issues of great concern and recommend action (Guides).
- Establish NGOs independent from men and local government (JAUW).
Discussion of results
Responses to the questionnaire varied according to the degree of
development of a country, and to whether the central value of a NGO was
environment, women or other. As would be expected, the results show high
involvement in environment in the mostly overseas, environmental NGOs. In
Australian women's NGO respondents, there is overall frequent but low-level
involvement in environmental policy and strategy. An Australian academic
not present at the Conference has reminded me that environment was only the
second last of the areas of critical concern in Beijing! However, some
recent increase in interest may be indicated by the increase from four NGOs
who have given environment priority over the last two years to nine who
intend giving high priority in the next two years. The priority each NGO
gave to environment varied from high to zero, but no one suggested that
environment was not in itself of the highest importance to women (or to the
whole world). Then why did most of the women stay at home?
Some possible reasons for non-attendance mentioned in the earlier
discussion paper are listed below with respondents' comments appended in
italics:
1 Much of the effort needed to reduce the world's carbon dioxide emissions
(the primary objective of the Kyoto conference) is inevitably exerted in
the everyday lives of women in the home. For example, economy in water,
minimisation of waste, sorting it for recycling, conservation of land and
resources, caring for people sick from pollution, mosquito-borne disease,
and preventing these through home measures...
[We aim] to encourage many people to address the problem of global
warming in their daily lives (JAUW).
2 Most people believe they cannot influence the policies of governments and
corporations who have hitherto shown themselves blind to the effects of
climate change. A feeling of powerlessness in NGOs was certainly induced at
the Climate Change Conference by the chairperson's decision to admit NGOs
only to the plenary sessions. On the other hand, this was the first UN
convention where the scientific evidence for global warming was almost
universally accepted (IPCC, 1997). This can be used to strengthen the
pressure on politicians and business executives to make appropriate
commitments.
In Japan still today, many women rely on men and government. We
have to be independent economically and mentally (JAUW).
This is a symptom of the more general issue of getting women into
decision making positions in politics, government and all organisations,
including NGOs. The Greens have policies on gender balance for all
positions (Australian Greens).
3 Essentialism (meaning inherent differences between the sexes) suggests
that women are essentially nurturant towards the environment while men are
innately aggressive towards it. Many feminists avoid this philosophy
because it implies that no future change in people's behaviour is possible.
But avoiding essentialism is not good grounds for recognising that women
and men generally bring different values and concerns to environmental
matters. These values and concerns do not necessarily derive from women's
inherent nature, but they may well result from women's experience in their
lives.
I am approaching this NOT from an essentialist point of view but
rather from a constituency point of view. Women need to make their elected
officials know what they want (WorldWIDE).
4 Many people devote their efforts to minute aspects of the social change
required - for example, survival of whales, uranium mining, economic
growth, or trade prospects of fossil fuel (coal).
5 Almost entirely absent from the discussion in Kyoto were aspects of human
health and greenhouse effects on flora and fauna. The arguments used were
almost entirely economic. Decisions were made with little consideration
being given even to human survival. Perhaps women felt they could not
penetrate this masculine perspective.
6 The conditions of women's lives may prevent conference participation
overseas - for example, poverty, care of children, work requirements,
insufficient educational opportunity, lack of awareness of issues, and
isolation.
- I would imagine women have not spoken out because the whole
debate may seem daunting (WorldWIDE).
7 There may be a perception in women and their NGOs that they should
concentrate on 'women's issues' and not waste their resources on broader
issues, especially those recognised by activist men as needing social
change.
- There are not enough women in many conferences. Women's business
is considered to be in and around the home and not in international
affairs (WEL).
- The emphasis is education and "women's issues"...most women's
organisations don't have environmental issues as a top priority --and
that's essentially how this conference [Kyoto] was framed/promoted
(American Association of University Women).
The survey results raise further telling issues relating to non-attendance:
NGOs have difficulty in working on a large variety of issues and being well
informed on them all:
- We have so many commitments to various issues that we cannot be
as informed as we would like to be (AFBPW).
Leadership involving the exercise of power, and other symbols of power may
have disempowering effects on others.
- When a group of people get together to discuss something
potentially as serious as the future of our planet, the question of power
always raises its ugly head. It must make you feel extremely important to
know that you are making decisions which affect the lives of billions of
people. And of course, men thrive on this ego trip much more than women. It
permeates through to the NGO level in many ways: the exclusiveness of CAN
meetings, the 'we want you to go outside and do an action for us and then
we'll do a press conference later' syndrome, the lack of information
exchange, the sycophancy to politicians, and the assumption of importance
that everyone seems to have. It's very hard not to get caught up in this
collective power craze (Member of CAN).
- Yes- and if you got the right women, one of the first outcomes
would be fewer, better conferences - and they wouldn't be held in 5-star
hotels, making a travesty of much of what they are all supposed to be
about! (USAID)
Adequate conference preparation may be lacking:
- The reason that women's organisations did not attend Kyoto, I
believe, [was that] there was no large scale women's preparatory conference
at which they could rally their ideas beforehand. I attended the Women's
Conference for a Healthy Planet in Miami organised by Bella Abzug and WEDO.
It was completely responsible, I would say, for mobilising women to Rio and
getting the women's perspective put through (individual respondent).
The value of UN conferences for women's and future welfare is not always
appreciated; the role of NGOs, especially in social action carrying
emotional impact, is not always perceived.
- In Australia it is difficult to convey to the women's movement
(possibly because most of them are not actual active members of
organisations) the great value of international standard setting via the UN
(Australian academic).
A Korean environment group carved three ice penguins out of ice
poles in front of the Conference Hall. The melting penguins appealed [for]
if sea level rises then they lose their home (JAUW).
It is common in Australian women's NGOs to have a partial involvement in
environment. In most cases these organisations are working primarily
towards feminist empowerment through activities that they consider of more
immediacy than environmental matters.
Had we known [about the conference] we would not have attended -
but we would have supported Australian women's NGO attendance. NWJC is very
supportive of women's representation in all UN processes (NWJC).
But is this last position tenable if it is conceded that certain world
environmental strategies may be vital for international equity and social
justice, and perhaps even for the survival of the planet? The role of women
in international conferences then takes on a new importance.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WOMEN'S CAUCUS
The women's caucus at many UN conferences has been skilfully organised by
international women's coalitions, supported by dozens of NGOs, often of
small, grassroots formation, all over the world. The Women and Development
Organisation, with the leadership of the late charismatic Bella Abzug have
played a vital part.
Bella believed the infusion of women power into these government
gatherings was critical as blood for haemophiliacs. She knew the power of
the Women's Caucus with hundreds of women from every part of the world,
reviving an institution with passion, conviction and simple truths (Davis,
1998c).
Bella seems to have seen feminisms with varying cultural backgrounds as a
strengthening factor, and not as an essential core for a women's caucus.
WEDO has thus been able to reduce the interference of the colonialism
endemic in a women's movement that embraces differences of class and race.
The first meeting of the Habitat II PrepCom decided that:
a number of cross-sectoral issues should be considered for addition
to the Global Plan of Action. The first of these is "women". Using the
concept of gender-sensitive approaches to human settlements development
implies taking account of the different roles, access to and control over
resources, of men and women in varying national and regional contexts. It
helps to ensure that targeting is appropriate to the needs of men and women
respectively, and facilitates the active involvement of women and men in
the human settlements development process. It can promote between men and
women while making interventions more effective. (Preparatory Committee for
Habitat II, 1996)
The women's caucus at the Habitat II Conference was led by an international
super coalition called Women, Homes and Community, that was able afterwards
to claim, 'We were everywhere and our voices were heard. Grassroots women's
successes claim[ed] space at Habitat II.' (Women, Homes and Community,
1996). The women's caucus was in fact the only group of NGOs with a unified
approach, and contributed to make Habitat II a milestone in that
conference's acceptance of NGOs as active participants in the UN process:
Rule 62 in the Rules of Procedure � NGOs accredited to participate
in the Conference may delegate representatives to sit as observers at
public meetings of the Conference and Main Committees. Upon the invitation
of the presiding officer of the body concerned, and subject to the approval
of that body, such observers may make oral statements on questions in which
they have special competence (UN General Assembly, 1997).
Habitat II also persuaded some governments to include NGO members as delegates:
[The Commission on Human Settlements] decided that at its future
sessions Governments should consider including partners in their
delegations (WEDO, 1997).
The international women's coalitions ensured that women brought also their
talent for cooperation and symbolic communication to bear in the conference
procedures. The other main factor was the physical presence of many women
eager to collaborate in caucus work.
Subsequently there has been a welcome statement on its functions by the UN
Division for the Advancement of Women:
By awareness and consciousness-raising and the promotion of
international standards and norms, and the sharing of best practices, the
Division aims to strengthen communication between the international and
national policy-making processes and the women of the world (UN Division
for the Advancement of Women, 1998).
Nevertheless more is needed to ensure women's success at UN conferences in
the future:
[Women's] attempts to "put gender on the agenda" of global
environmental politics have resulted in, not the incorporation of gender,
but the addition of women (Bretherton,1998)
As Bella declared after the Beijing Conference,
We have to find ways to not only broaden and strengthen our own
women's movement but also to instruct men on new ways of doing business so
that women really have a seat at the global decision making table (Huairou
Commission, 1997).
In the United Nations it is (optimistically) believed that even small
nations and marginalised groups', by their consultative participation in
conferences, their contributions to platforms of action, partnerships and
membership of political blocs, can achieve their ends through UN processes.
In this the UN, as an honest broker, is considered able to resist the
pressure of major powers (even when the largest of these fails to pay its
annual dues).
In wider society it seems improbable that women can achieve equality other
than by holding equal political and economic power with these forces. Can
the consultative processes of the UN then really substitute for the
possession of equal power? For example, we need to ask 'how strong
activists are in comparison to the forces and priorities of transnational
corporations, fundamentalists and conservatives?' (Davis, 1998b), Greater
scepticism about the possibility of achieving satisfactory outcomes
through the UN process might inspire improved strategies. Women's
environmental consciousness needs to centre on transforming power so as to
bring the implementation of strategies that will sustain the planet.
If Habitat II was seen by some as 'women's issues,' can it be that
environmental conferences are viewed as men's business? Were the presence
of women, women's procedural methods, and the concept of gender equality
all seen as irrelevant to the carbon emissions negotiations in Kyoto? There
is, in fact, a history of gendered environmental matters, so perhaps it is
worth revisiting the underlying misconceptions.
ENVIRONMENTAL GENDER SPLIT
In malestream thinking a split has been presumed between the public
(political and economic) sphere and the private (domestic) sphere of life.
These spheres were viewed as associated with the location of men's and
women's activities respectively. So domestic environmental issues such as
local waste recycling and community organised environmental protection
have been largely left to women and civil society (NGOs) while
environmental matters directly relevant to corporate profits and national
budgets are taken to be the province of men, business and government. Thus
environmental philosophies, values and location of operations have been
over-simplified and attached to stereotyped gender roles. Women and NGOs
are expected to remain involved at the local level in conserving and
nurturing activities, and oriented towards conditions for future
generations. Political and economic discussions at the international level
are based on quite different values, with philosophies of economic
rationalism and globalisation, and oriented towards maintaining profit.
These latter discussions and arrangements are expected to be conducted
mainly by men with their power and 'expertise'. No wonder many found it
quite appropriate that climate change business was conducted in Kyoto with
the virtual exclusion of women and civil society.
There are other contrasts between the values of environmental protection on
one hand and globalisation on the other that may also coincide with gender:
* sustainability v. continued economic growth
* rights of grassroots and underprivileged people v. status quo of power
relations
* non-acceptability of violence and destruction v. acceptability to achieve
ends
* a new economics incorporating environmental values and voluntary work v.
neo-classical economic theory and economic rationalism
* caretaker philosophy and cooperation v. competition and rivalry
* spiritual values and deep ecology v. Earth usable for exhaustion and/or
destruction.
The outline of gendered perspectives on environment offered here follows on
the earlier work of Gilligan and others, that has some recent empirical
evidence to support it - for example, the in-depth interviews conducted by
Leahy (Ecofeminism, Draft). Among women mainly he found a discourse he
characterises as 'charitable sympathy', that asks 'whether the economy is
so important to us that we can be comfortable ignoring the sufferings of
other species and forgetting about the fate of our children and
grandchildren on the planet.' Some male interviewees, on the other hand
considered their point of view to be 'human nature ... competitive and in
tune with the capitalist economy' - pessimistic realism. He also found a
left-wing environmentalism discourse. The gender value differences should
not seen as based on supposed inherent differences between the genders,
but more on learned differences as a result of the varying life experience
of women and men.
There is also evidence produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that
showed that in general the values of Australian men and women on the
environment are different, and that women's values may be closer than men's
to the concerns of 'environmentalists'. This survey found that about half
of the women questioned were concerned mainly about the environment and
half about the economy. Men, on the other hand, were divided about 40:60
between concern for the environment and for the economy (ABS, 1996). Two
further research studies have confirmed that women are more concerned than
men about the destruction of endangered species, waste disposal, air
pollution and destruction of the ozone layer (Leahy, 1997a; Hampel, 1996).
CONCLUSION
Having gone through the doubts and confusion aroused by post-modernism,
women have generally accepted now that we must never lose sight of women's
differences of class and race. Members of the women's caucus and the
women's movement can and do work with these differences and are stronger
as a result. Following on this sort of cooperation we are successfully
developing a perspective shared by many women across cultures. This
perspective is by no means confined to environment, and women find
consensus on many different matters. Since women's perspective generally
differs from that of most men, it has become vital for women to both attend
international conferences and to strongly present their perspective there.
We cannot allow our participation to be limited by all the factors that
kept women away from Kyoto. In future we must be there.
Notes
* Margaret Sargent, PhD (Sociology). Previously lectured at Universities
of Sydney and Western Sydney. Research principal in projects on drugs,
women, ageing, education, and housing. Now member of Council of Violence
Against Women, and Older Women's Network. First author of The New Sociology
for Australians, 4th ed, Addison Wesley Longman, 1998. Author of some 50
other publications.
References
A. C. Nielsen McNair poll of 1000 voting age residents across Australia for
Greenpeace, quoted in Eco (1997) 2, December.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1996), Australians and the Environment,
Cat. 4601.0, Canberra.
Bretherton, C., (1998), Global environmental politics: putting gender on
the agenda ? Review of International Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 85-100.
Davis, S. C, (1998a). Emao, January.
Davis, S. (1998b), Thinking Aloud, Looking Forward, WEDO News and Views
11,1, 8.
Davis, S. (1998c), Ciao, Bella, WEDO News and Views 11,2.
Eco (19978) December.
FCCC Secretariat, quoted in, South-east Asia Climate Action Network (1997)
, SEA News
Figgis, P. (1998), Taking Paradise Putting Up Parking Lots: the Role of
Women in Reclaiming the Environment, Anne Conlon Memorial Lecture,
Department for Women, Sydney.
Hampel, B., Bodaro, J. and Holdsworth, R. (1996), Gender Patterns in
Environmental Consciousness in Adolescents, Australian and New Zealand
Journal of Sociology 32,2,59-71.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1995), IPCC Second Assessment
Synthesis of Scientific-Technical Information Relevant to Interpreting
Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, UN, New York.
Leahy, T. (1997a), The gendered politics of Environmental Attitudes,
forthcoming.
Leahy, T. (1997b), Ecofeminism is the Theory but What is the Practice?
Draft quoted by kind permission.
UN, Report of the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference
on Human Settlements - Habitat II, para 45a p.22.
UN, Division for the Advancement of Women (1998), The DAW: what it is, what
it does..., 15 July.
UN,General Assembly (1997), Resolution 50/100,WEDO Newsletter May
UN, Huairou Commission (1997), Letter, UNCHS 3,1.
Women, Homes and Community (1996), Splash, August, New York
Margaret Sargent
