KEY ISSUES FACING THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
7.2 WOMEN'S INVOLVEMENT IN DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
7.2.4 Women Should Have A Space in Development
Population growth and environmental degradation are interdependent. It is often that the burden of income inequalities and environmental degradation affect women, who constitute about half of the total population and who bear the brunt of the inadequacies of social and economic life supports such as a shortage of drinking water. It is women who take a pitcher and walk, sometimes more than a mile, in search of drinking water for the family. Thus, we have a recipe for human suffering- misdistribution of income, demographic and environmental imbalance, and suffering humanity - the brunt of which is borne by women in all societies, much more so in poorer societies (Rajaratnam 1997:6-7).
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Women should be supported and given a chance in development projects, or just be involved.
as men are involved in development activities. Human development is needed to improve the living conditions of poor people by providing them with basic needs and the right to live a meaningful life Human development is based on human well-being and action plans or programmes should aim at providing the opportunity for people to realize their own potential (Coetzee 2001:8).
An effort should be made to accommodate women to ensure that improved services are prioritised and planned in the most appropriate manner. Meer (1997:51) states that making space for women to put forward their needs, and make decisions about resources and the management of their resources, is premised on their being recognised as full citizens. Land is very important for our being and it is an urgent concern for most women. Land, as a resource, will perpetually accord the rights-holder some degree of power and this was clearly shown in villages covered by WIDA. If women should be allowed land rights, it would help to promote their ability to take initiatives (Meer 1997:52). The church should ensure that community activities involve both women and men. If the church does not take a strong stand, women will continue to be neglected in development and this will continue to paralyse the family condition.
Stories in some parts of the country have shown that women have "made a major contribution to development..." (Midgley 1995:122). This is clearly demonstrated within the Panasput village, which WIDA covers. Several women who obtained loans from the government and UNDP have progressed very well in their small businesses and the government has registered their projects. Registration of women by the government as owners of small businesses was not an easy endeavour, as the government was opposed to it. The reason was that once registration had been done, the government would not have a strong say in the small business This would reduce the tax that the government could collect (Panasput women's group 2001).
Midgley (1995:123-124) outlines different approaches to development. 1 believe the church should work for the empowerment approach, as it focuses on the enhancement of the involvement of women in development.
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7.2.5 Empowerment of Women
Johnson (1992:147) points out that, "Besides forming their own organizations, women have also become important figures in certain types of community organizations...and have championed many issue-based struggles against poverty". Because in most cultures women have internalised their oppression and subordination, to enable them to be effectively involved in human development activities, they must be empowered. This means that the women whose interests and aspirations are not represented in the organization, or whose demands are not met by state policies, need to organize, act together and exert pressure on those in authority, to meet their needs. It should be noted that the issues of poverty and powerlessness are linked. The experiences of both of these are related to social division such as class, gender, age and ethnic group. Whenever we speak about poverty and powerlessness, we speak about poor people's lives, which consist of innumerable daily actions that attempt to alleviate hardships and negotiate the distribution of resources and gaining of social power within a particular society.
Women are faced by daily problems such as what they are going to eat, where they are going to get good drinking water, where and with what they are going to get medical care, where and how are they going to get money for children's school fees and uniform. Such struggles may require individual and collective actions to subvert or defeat structures, which reinforce dehumanising factors (Johnson 1992:148; Allen and Thomas 1992:91 and Bernstein el a/., 1992:274). Empowerment assists poor women to act in improving their own livelihoods.
Johnson (1992:148) states that women's empowerment is all about involving women gaining a voice, to have power structures, or to change them" (Johnson 1992:148). Allen and Thomas (1992:91) quote Freire and Shor, 1987, in agreement with Johnson about women's empowerment.
Empowerment: Having or being given power or control. It is generally used to describe the desirable state of affairs in which individuals have choice and control in everyday aspects of their lives: their labour, reproduction, access to resources, etc.
However, there is an immediate contradiction within the idea of individual empowerment, since people tend to be restricted in their lives or to have power over others as a result of social relations and structures outside their own control Paulo Freire, the Brazilian radical educator who promoted the term, argues that empowerment should be thought of in social class terms. The question of social class
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empowerment...makes "empowerment' much more than an individual or psychological event. It points to a political process by the dominated classes who seek their own freedom from domination, a long historical process.
This empowerment works with the bottom-up approach of development, because it recognises that the poor and the dehumanised women are 'conscious actors', who have their own kinds of knowledge and skills, which have been ignored or undermined by agents of development from above. We have already seen that poverty and powerlessness are linked.
Effective action from below has thus to involve empowerment. Poor and powerless women have to gain a voice, and some control over the social and economic processes that affect them, if these women are to improve their productive capacities and quality of life more generally (Johnson 1992:148; Allen and Thomas 1992:91 and Bernstein et al., 1992:275).