http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,3604,952106,00.html http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0308-01.htm http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/fpgenderbalancestats.htm http://www.geocities.com/newuniversalearthcharter/universalearth.html (note: this is a revision of an earlier Earth Charter that gave some but less clear attention to the concept of gender balance.) http://www.cld.org/ManilaConference.htm#what http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0%2C11812%2C1068733%2C00.html
Day by day, every day people - both women and men - and officials around the world are beginning to realize that balance of gender in political office may well be the critical variable in keeping and making peace and the balance of life for the planet, especially in the technological and space exploring age humanity has entered. Simply "more women" "soon" is not enough; a more interdependent and specific gender balance analysis is urgently emphasizing that both women and men must work together interdependently as equally represented and officed partners to heal the past, survive and thrive in the present, enjoy the future with real democratic government instead of pretending that increasingly self-and-world endangering pseudo-substitutes are up to the task. An increasing number of observers worldwide - both male and female - have warned that because women were without equal numerical presence in representation for so long, many women became too eager to tolerate or accept partial or marginal gains as "progress", without realizing that the process of marginalizing and tokenizing women has co-opted women to fit into immature, pre-technological, anachronistic and manipulative political models, compromised and stagnated democracy as a whole, and retarded the development of peace culture now essential for a technologized and interconnected small world. A large body of literature has discussed the non-token, non-hypocritical, full representation of women as equally protective of the futures of men and children; and many have indicated gender balance in decision-making office, to be the defining condition as to where and whether democracy, and environmentally sound peace culture that protects men and women and children, exist on earth. For example, the essential differences between vision documents such as the original Earth Charter (2000) and the New Universal Earth Charter (2004) is the greater, more explicit attention to the issue of balance of gender in political office and in economic modeling, more specific attention to the balance of gender as it pertains to Earth's sustainability and fulfillment of endowed potential, and the discussion of gender balance in relation to readiness to succeed in the exploration of space and the Universe of which life on Earth is a part. The New Universal Earth Charter adopts the concepts of gender balance of many cities, states, provinces, countries and other regions and territories, parties, national-meta-national-regional constitutions and global organizations, conferences and assemblies that have voluntarily already achieved greater and full balance of gender in political office, and incorporates the at least 75% of 50-50 presence of both genders in office, that is, at least 37.5% offices held by women as well as at least 37.5% offices held by men, as the standard with which to differentiate future-capable, Earth-sustaining true government, from gender imbalanced proto- or pseudo-governmental officialdoms, whose gender composition was temporarily viable for the past but is ill-equipped for present and future and the pressing need to steward both complex technology and the natural environment beneficially and non-destructively. Of course, the 37.5% presence of each gender is a defining range set by approximate fair and natural deviation from 50-50, and does not inhibit even greater and more perfect unions. Many legislatures and officialdoms, such as those of Wales, Rwanda, Sweden, and Scotland, all the cities of France and many of those of most of Europe, and many national-regional and international-intercontinental political parties, organizations, and global assemblies on every continent have already attained about 50-50 gender balance in office, and many local councils and families have always functioned according to a shared and mutual flexible 50-50 gender partnership in decision-making, with the kind of give-and-take that prevents anyone or any group from becoming too dominant or too passive or submissive for optimal decision-making. Many more countries, states and provinces and cities worldwide, such as Denmark, Finland, Norway, Costa Rica, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, much of India, Canada's Senate, the US California delegation and Washington State and soon other states and cities on every continent, have just about reached or exceeded the 37.5% presence of women as well as men in office. Members of every major continental and global organization gives lip service to it, and it is still possible that many of them mean what they say. All these are part of the reason many say that true gender balanced government already exists on earth. Is the transition to gender balance well enough along to continue to grow smoothly, help Earth avoid disaster in the coming months and years, and set the trend for a more fully whole definition of government on a sustainable earth? All people, as a living part of Universal Nature, and time will tell. Hopefully, it is time that, day by day, national-regional and global gender imbalanced officialdoms and, perhaps even more importantly those people anywhere that legitimize their dangerous imbalance and dysfunction, will realize that it is in their own as well as all people's interest to let go of the fiction that such imbalance is or can be viewed as viable and real government in an age of technology and global connection, and wake up to the real and powerful potential for great good of gender balance in world-wide decision-making, that sustains the planet and can bring this Earth a Universal future. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com
