RAIN Development For Whom? The Anatomy of Freedom What If; Women and Future Technology VOLUME IX, NO. 4 $2.00
Page 2 RAIN April/May 1983 RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology Volume IX, Number 4 April/May 83 Guest Editor Mimi Maduro Staff Rob Baird Ann Borquist Nancy Gosper Steve Johnson Kris Nelson Jeff Strang Special Thanks: To Sarah Cook and Mary Vogel, whose energy added something unique and invaluable to the issue. Graphic Design: Linnea Gilson Comptroller: Lee Lancaster Printing and typesetting: Daily Journal of Commerce Cover Photograph: Joanna Priestly About the Photographers: Joanna Priestly is a partner in the Traveling Image Company and a member ofFILMA, a women’s film collective in Portland. Donna Pollack lives in Portland and has been exploring photography for the past 12 years. RAIN Magazine publishes information which can help people lead more simple and satisfying lives, make their communities and regions more economically self- reliant, and build a society that is durable, just, and ecologically sound. RAIN is published 6 times a year by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a non-profit corporation located at 2270 NW Irving, Portland, Oregon 97210, telephone 503/227-5110. Subscriptions are $25/yr. for institutions, $15/yr. for individuals ($9.50 for persons with incomes under $5000 a year). Copjrright © 1983 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. IN THIS ISSUE. . . Articles The Anatomy of Freedom — by Nancy Cosper.......................................4 The Need for Women in Power — by Margie Hendriksen.................5 Sexism and Militarism: Some Connections — by Ada Sanchez......8 Development for Whom? Women’s Unrecognized Role — by Rosalind Grisby Riker.................................................................................9 Aprovecho: Approaching a Feminist Vision — by Mary Vogel ...................................................................................................10 Women and Spirituality — by Margaret McCrea ................................11 Women Astronomers of the Scientific Revolution — by Margaret Alic ..............................................................................................14 A.T. and AG: One Happy Marriage ................................................19 What if: Women and Future Technology — by Patricia Logan and Lisa Yost ..........................................................................................................23 Some Thoughts About Reading About Technology — by Lane deMoll ..................................................................................................27 Access Information Body & Society......................16 Good Things ..........................28 International Development 11 Peace......................................... 7 Politics ......................................6 Science................................... 15 Spirituality .............................13 Technology............................. 27 Women’s Movement Organizations.....................30 Features Calendar.................................37 Pacific Northwest Bioregion Report ..............31 Raindrops ................................3 Rush ........................................38 Touch and Go........................29 ERRATA Self-Reliant Cities One of the mysteries of doing a magazine: pieces of information just disappear. In our review of David Morris’s Self-Reliant Cities, we omitted the basic access information. The book was published by Sierra Club Books, 530 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94108, 1982, 256 pages, $19.95 cloth, $8.96 paper. Is There a Pothole in Your Future? In the article in the Feb/March RAIN, "Is There a Pothole in Your future?’’, we inadvertently credited a list of municipal services being carried by neighborhood groups to the National Association of Neighborhoods. The list was actually derived from Milton Kotl- er’s "Community Service Partnerships”. Milton Kotler also pointed out that it was not clear that the Center for Responsive Governance is providing technical assistance and conducting research on the subject. They may be reached at 1100 17th St., N.W., Ste. 313, Washington, D.C. 20036, 202/223- 2400. Extending the Rain Family We like to think of RAIN readers as a unique ^oup, a family of people with similar interests and perspectives. Without compromising oiu views, we also need to enlarge our family. We believe that the best source for new readers is our current family of subscribers. On page 38 we have provided a small form for you to give us names and addresses of your friends who might be interested in subscribing to RAIN. We will send them a complimentary copy. If you know of libraries, bookstores, food coops, etc. that might like to carry RAIN, let us know about them, too. Gracias.
April/May 1983 RAIN Page 3 Wilson Clark — As a one-man show, Wilson Clark lacked the credibility of Harvard Business School. Clark’s Energy for Survival became a reference work rather than a bestseller like Energy Future. But Clark’s opus, published in 1974, brought encyclopedic knowledge of energy technology to bear on energy policy issues with an even-handed authority that has illuminated everything written on energy before and since. Clark’s circle was small, perhaps because he courted collaborators and backers more than followers. He did a stint as a Wilson Fellow at the Smithsonian and a few years as Jerry Brown’s energy pointman in California. But he An Appreciation seemed happy to function as a consultant and advisor — a strong indication that he cared more about promoting his ideas than promoting himself. People close to Clark said he listened to everybody’s stories and invested himself in their re-telling. Had he lived,, that singular mountain-moving talent would have put even the younger Wilson Clark to shame. Energy For Survival’s subtitle is The Alternative to Extinction. In 1974, that seemed brash. But there may be no better epitaph for a man of ideas. Adapted from Wilson Clark-An Appreciation, Kathleen Courrier RAINDROPS Winter into spring is traditionally a time of awakening and insight. This harmony carries over with this issue of RAIN — a time to reflect on the women’s movement and its connections to science, mythology, technology, spirituality, peace, and social change. This collection of voices, more than 30 contributors, resonates with strength and questioning simultaneously. Working with the RAIN staff and contributors as "guest” editor for this issue seems ironic — I’ve never felt more at home. Let’s see, beginnings. . .an early winter morning conversation with Nancy Cosper started our thoughts churning on what a RAIN issue about women would look like, interweaving RAIN values and visions. Our exchange continued through the season as our envisioned ideas became tangible. We talked with dozens of women, asking them to share with us the questions they were asking themselves as women, the writings that had stirred their minds and hearts, and the organizations that had influenced their lives. Each woman connected us with another (sometimes many others), the network stretching across the topography. Each voice brought new questions, stirring thoughts and possibilities and support, the process teaching and nurturing us at the same time. It is in this spirit that we share these connections with you. —Mimi Maduro Mimi Maduro, a member ofRAIN’s Board ofDirectors, writes software and hardware manuals that people can understand.
Page 4 RAIN April/May 1983 THE ANATOMY OF FREEDOM Years ago I read a book picturing the universe in 40 jumps, through a series of drawings, beginning with the picture of a child in a chair. Each of the following pictures is a magnification ten times of the previous drawing, and the series examines life from both micro and macrocosmic points of view. To read Robin Morgan’s new book is to take that same journey — a dizzying, exhilarating trip between the micro- cosmic self and the macrocosmic universe. The Anatomy of Freedom: Feminism, Physics and Global Politics postulates that like contemporary feminism, quantum physics has altered our perception of reality. New theories in physics — whose edges blur with traditional Easter mystical thought — tell us that the universe is a dynamic, continuously moving wave of light and energy, and that matter is only its manifestation in space and time. No longer can we call ourselves mere observers, says Morgan; "the New Physics requires utterly new thinking, demanding our participation as much or more than our observation.” Because we are part of a whole which is continuously moving, to participate in that movement — even as observers — shapes what it becomes. "Such a tool,” Morgan adds, "just might be powerful enough to help us reimagine men and women, and to conceive of freedom.” Rather than seeing freedom as a goal, albeit one that might be attainable, Morgan tells us that freedom, too, is analogous to the New Physics as both a state of being and "a process, a continually fluid, dynamic, surprising movement.” In her search to conceive of freedom, Morgan indeed dissects its anatomy, using feminism, physics and global poliby Nancy Cosper tics as her surgical tools to cut to its heart. She writes in coded messages, dialogues with her Dream Self, prose maps, charts, poems, imagery, allegory and metaphor. She asks as many questions as she gives answers, and her best answers turn back into questions. "Whatever gives you the idea that you’re awake when you have the idea that you’re awake?” asks her Dream Self of her Real Self. Morgan draws from classic literature, math, science, politics and religion, stringing her ideas like the shimmering beads in her own analogy of Indra’s Net, a concept from Mahayana Buddhism in which time and space are woven endlessly across the universe and where all things interpenetrate. "Women tend to see the connections, to notice, to estimate gains and losses,” Morgan tells us. In Anatomy of Freedom, Morgan herself deftly makes connections. She moves through what she calls the holographic nature of feminism — a range of interrelated issues including technology, economics, racism, the environment, marriage and family, power and control, aging and death, violence and pornography, and the complexities of sexuality. Morgan explores all of these issues in light of her own very personal experiences, because to her not only is the personal political, but the political has become deeply personal. Yet at the same time Morgan realizes that there are no personal solutions. We are all in this together; freedom, therefore, is something we must all achieve together. Nonetheless, her Dream Self admonishes, "Just because there aren’t personal solutions doesn’t mean there can’t be personal attempts, changes, affirmations.” Morgan returns time and again to the vision of feminism as central to imagining freedom: "...the real task offeminism is for each of us to understand her own human authenticity...feminism is inherent in Third World struggles...feminism is, at this moment and on this planet, the DNA/RNA call for survival and for the next step in evolution...feminism is the key to our survival and transformation...” Like the proverbial blind men’s elephant, feminism is all this and more. "The time has come to give up dreaming of liberty and to make up one’s mind to conceive of it,” says Morgan quoting Simone Weil. Morgan has conceived of liberty, and she encourages us to do the same by consciously participating in our own evolution. But, if Morgan’s book has any weakness, it lies in the fact that probably most of her readers are already participating in their own evolution to a greater or lesser degree. And unfortunately, they aren’t always the ones who could benefit the most from hearing what she has to say. Not withstanding. The Anatomy ofFreedom is an important book. As she has done for two decades, Morgan chronicles the Women’s Movement from where she herself observes and participates. She does so for her own benefit and for ours: "to forget...experience can be to remain in its thrall forever; to remember may be the only way of surviving it, exorcising it...” Indeed, and to which I might add, evolving beyond it.an The Anatomy ofFreedom: Feminism, Physics and Global Politics, Robin Morgan, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 501 Franklin Ave., Garden City, NY 11530, $16.95,1982, 365 pp.
April/May 1983 RAIN Page 5 THE NEED FOR WOMEN IN POWER Women must assume their proportionate share of political power. At every level of government around the globe, governments are in the hands of and predominantly controlled by traditional male power elites. In many cases, these elites are not even representative of the full spectrum of the male population—young, poor, laboring, and minority men are underrepresented. In all cases, they are grossly underrepresentative of any sector of the female population. In 1983, the United States Senate was only 2 percent female and the House of Representatives was only 5 percent female. When one (particularly a female one) sees that 51 percent of the population is so underrepresented in positions of power, it is easy to figure out why women Eire faring so poorly in governmental priorities. Women are not only scarce in the legislative branch, but also in the executive and judicial branches. Add to this the underrepresentation in top power positions in labor, commerce, academia, the church, etc., and you begin to fathom the problem. As one commentator put it, if you were to look at a picture of the top officials of the Vatican or the Politburo, they would appear much the same. It is no wonder that with such a narrow distribution of power to such a small and unrepresentative group, their world view, priorities, and problem-solving approaches have led us to a nuc- leEir arms race, world-wide assault on the environment, and massive social and economic injustice in the allocation of resources. This narrowly focused and unrepresentative male elite is epitomized by the Reagan administration, a power group which has not even attempted the pretense of trying to represent an}rthing but the interest of wealthy, older, conservative, white males. Fortunately around the world and in this country, women are beginning to assert themselves politically. Women voters in the United States in statistically signifi- CEmt numbers rejected Reagan more frequently than did their male counterparts. Polling showed that it was not merely Reagan’s anti-women policies they were reacting to but also his aggrressive military policies as well as his un- responsiveness to human needs. This difference in voting behavior has been denominated the "gender gap”. The gender gap exists also in public office where women are not found in sufficient numbers to balance Emd to promote more humane and sane policies. Although women have suffered from the restrictions of traditional role confines, our experience as nurturers is a positive attribute which is greatly needed in the councils of power. We must begin to place large numbers of women in power. Further, we must work to see that the women who represent us do indeed represent our values and are not females who, in order to get elected to office, accept the money and the value systems of the traditional male elite. The Right is well aware of the public’s growing desire to see women in office and will put forth women who work against their own sex when put into power. In 1983, women comprised 13 percent of states’ legislators. As bad as this statistic is, it is a dramatic and rapid improvement in numbers and heralds better representation for the future. There were a number of fine progressive feminist women who sought federal offices in 1982. Unfortunately, most of these new candidates were not suwessful because of a shortage of campaign funds. But these losses by Senator Margie Hendriksen District 20, Oregon are only temporary set-backs. Many of these women will be back to fight another day and will win. The growing number of feminist women in local and state office will begin moving to higher office. New women will replace them. Through the ERA battles throughout the country to elect pro-ERA legislators and to defeat anti-women candidates, a great deal has been learned. Women are becoming a political force in the electorate and in public office. We have the potential to become a tremendous force for positive non-violent and dramatic change if we can effectively mobilize ourselves. Joining feminist organizations that have a political action component is very important. The difference in attitudes between men and women in Although some women have suffered the restrictions of traditional role confines, our experience as nurturers is a positive attribute which is greatly needed in the councils of power. the electorate has been noted and, not surprisingly, differences have also been found in empirical investigations of the attitudes of men and women office holders. In a study of women legislators throughout the country who were compared with their male counterparts, it was found that women, whether they considered themselves liberals, moderates, or conservatives, were consistently more favorably disposed to women’s needs and equity issues than were men who identified themselves with the same ideology. Issues which directly affect women are constantly before legislators, and that is why women must have equal representation in making these decisions. To my sisters: for our part, let us think upon the words of Emma Goldman, who said, "Women’s development, her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself.” This must include women taking over their proportionate share of the governments. The lives we save may be our own and those we love. □□ Margie Hendriksen is an Oregon State Senator.
Page 6 RAIN April/May 1983 ACCESS: POLITICS Women, Resistance & Revolution Sheila Rowbotham Random House, Inc. 201 E. 50th St. New York, NY 10022 $2.45, 1973, 248 pp. Sheila Rowbotham draws a map of sorts, winding her pathways along the Women’s Movement from the thirteenth century through today, tying it together, inexorably, with the working- class’ struggle. She disclaims her work as "a proper history of feminism and revolution”; yet as a feminist and a Marxist, she "traces the fortunes” of women’s liberation along with socialist revolution. The ideas and the facts are complex; but the touchstone throughout is that "the liberation of women necessitates the liberation of all human beings.” She believes emd carefully demonstrates that the roots of women’s oppression lie within the isolation of women’s consciousness. She often illustrates female resistance through the writings of women like Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mme. de Stael, George Sand, Flora Tristan, Margaret Fuller, and Emma Goldman. Wollstonecraft, in the Vindication, did speak for us all as she reflected, "I long for a little peace and independence. . .1 am not fond of groveling.” Like other historians of the women’s movement, Rowbotham sees that the key to freedom from domestic, economic, and sexual oppression throughout history has been the education of women, and that the methodical exclusion of women from society stems from being denied the means of supporting themselves. Equally, that as long as freedom is defined by men, and as long as we are defined by men—we are all incomplete. She implicates the inception of romanticism as the birth of the Barbie Doll consciousness, that the romantic woman cult of the eighteenth century was "a crop of egg-faced, ringleted, bonneted, fragile girls.” They may have been more vulnerable, overall, than the skinny, long-legged cover-girls of today; but the deptendence on male approval is still a strong motivator. Rowbotham views these Barbies as symbols of centuries of female subordination. On one hand, she believes that feminism has been an influential imprint only as long as it has dovetailed with larger radical movements. On the other, she laments that the women’s movement has often depended on the sympathies of sensitive, unintimidated men. "To take their conclusions as in any sense final would be to ignore this and to abstract them from their own space and time. Despite the depth of their historical analysis, the range oftheir knowledge, and the extent of the commotion their writing has helped to create, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were still a couple of bourgeois men in the nineteenth century.” The real struggle has always rested on our own devices. For myself, I was most taken with her assertion that we should stop sneering at other victims (men and other scoundrels) of a society and economic structure that is almost bigger than life itself. That while we should look out soundly for our own interests, the movement for peace and freedom depends on eveprone’s cooperation. For Rowbotham, "it is only when the feminist (or the Black or the working-class militant) understands, perceives, feels themselves as pitted against a total oppressive system rather than simply against the indignity which is done to them through subordination of their own kind, that a revolutionary political consciousness can start to grow.” I recommend this book to all women and men who participate in the struggle to find new ways of living and perhaps, most importantly, to those who do not. —Camille Cole Camille Cole is a freelance writer and grant proposal consultant. Women’s Reality Anne Wilson Schaef Winston Press 430 Oak Grove, Ste. 203 Minneapolis, MN 55403 $6.95, 1982, 169 pp. I’ve always suspected that women and men were grounded in very different cultures. I always had a nagging feeling that I was growing up in a foreign culture; one that didn’t recognize my feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and values. This book was the first thing I have ever read that put all those feelings into words. Anne Wilson Schaef, a feminist therapist and theorist, contends that a female system co-exists with a white male system and several ethnic/racial systems. Her view is that the white male system is the dominant one in our society, permeating all of the processes and patterns of our lives. She likens the dominance of the white male system in our society to pollution. ...when you are in the middle ofpollution, you are usually unaware of it. You eat it, sleep in it, work in it, and sooner or later start believing that that is just the way the air is...' We are so accustomed to being a part of the white male system it is difficult to believe that there is any other way. Yet women have always known that they had different perceptions about the world. Wilson Schaef describes the differences between the female system and white male system in their definitions of time, relationships, sexuality, and power. She is careful to emphasize that these systems are different, rather than right or wrong. This book is not perfect, of course. At times it oversimplifies or introduces concepts that are not fully explored. But for me, it was an affirmation of something long believed—that, indeed, women and men are culturally different. Perhaps, in the acknowledgment of those differences, lies the potential for uncovering a new bit of truth about all of our lives. —Linda Stout Linda Stout, a social worker living in Boise, hopes to survive Reaganism. Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal, and Hilary Wainwright Alyson Publications, Inc. P.O. Box 2783 Boston, MA 02208 $6.95, 1981, 270 pp. Beyond the Fragments explores the meaning of feminism and its relationship to the Left from the perspective of three British socialist feminists. Although the book describes the British reality, we can learn many things pertinent to this country. The issue of not being taken seriously as feminists by some male Leftists is still a problem. Many women, even politically conscious ones, still have self confidence problems, which according to Rowbotham is related to our powerlessness. On the other hand, some things have changed — activists have begun linking the issues of sexism, racism, and imperialism, and have begun working with the trade union movement. The book is divided into three long essays — Sheila Rowbotham’s "The Women’s Movement and Organizing for Socialism”; Lynne Segal’s "A Local Experience”; and Hilary Wainwright’s "Moving Beyond the Fragments.” Rowbotham’s essay is the longest and the most interesting. She expands on some of the ideas developed in her book Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World, blending keen political insight with personal experience. The authors assert that socialists have much to learn from feminists. Many women have shied away from participating in politics because they haven’t felt welcome in the male- dominated groups, where they feel they may be "used” by "cold socialists” who don’t give people recognition for their individual efforts. Further, many women are put off by intellectual £ui-
April/May 1983 RAIN Page 7 alysis and its resulting personal distancing. The women’s movement, emphasizing sisterhood, collectivity and personal experience, has given many women the confidence to change their lives, to begin to overcome the passivity, self-hatred, and lack of trust engendered by a capitalist system. Row- botham believes the development of process to be one of feminism’s biggest contributions. On the other hand, the women’s movement has sometimes been too subjective, lacking economic theory. The solution is to join both movements together into socialist feminism. As a North American socialist feminist, I appreciated hearing about some of the political problems I have in common with my British sisters. I also have been pleased to see how, over the years, things have changed in the Left — the mixed political groups I’ve joined have all been affected by feminism, promoting female leadership, emphasizing the importance of meeting process as well as content, and incorporating personal sharing into meetings and conferences. The women’s movement gave me the courage to change, to develop my skills, and to get involved with mixed groups. Working with political groups. I’ve experienced my share of frustrations, but I’ve also been able to develop my intellectual and communications skills, get support and recognition, and feel a part of history as we struggle through difficult economic and political times. Making changes — personal, social, political — isn’t easy, but we can’t do it alone. —Natasha Beck Natasha Beck is a Portland socialist feminist activist who has done clerical work and currently teaches women’s studies. ACCESS: PEACE Report from Beirut; Summer of ’82 22 minute videotape (Vz or %) or 16mm film (color) Saul Landau, James Abourezk American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee 1731 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Ste. 400 Washington, D.C. 20009 No charge for rental; no purchase available Beirut is bombed and burning. Amal Shamma’s face is thin and pulled tight, and the tension and sadness in her eyes is vivid. Berbir hospital where she is a doctor is being continually shelled by Israeli aircraft causing the war injured to be reinjured. Dr. Amal Shamma is an American citizen working under dire conditions—hospitals under constant shelling and medical supplies cut off because the city is surrounded. She fears that the next loud explosion will be right where she has worked hours to save someone’s life. "Report From Beirut” documents the effects of this terror on the civilian population of the city. Families are separated, wandering through the rubble to find each other. Ibe only water available is from a muddy bomb hole. Children sing loudly to drown out the sound of bombs. More than 18,000 civilians die; more than 30,000 are wounded. The impact of war becomes very real to those of us who have not known war. The purpose of this film is world peace. Anyone who shtu-es this goal would do well to see this film and show it to others. Dr. Amal Shamma raises some penetrating questions about Reagan’s power to stop the war, and the role of the U.S. in the Middle East. It is inspiring to see a strong woman at the heart of this film, going to the heart of an issue, a war—to work for peace. —Linda Sawaya Linda Sawaya, a Lebanese-American and former RAIN co-editor and graphic designer, is a graphic artist at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Reweaving the Web ofLife: Feminism and Nonviolence Pam McAllister, Editor New Society Publishers 4722 Baltimore Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19143 $8.95, 1982, 440 pp. At "seven minutes to midnight” women are coming together with the rage of feminism and the compassion of nonviolence to mend and reweave a web of peace and of life. This collection of poems, essays, and songs by more than fifty contributors has taken the feminist community by storm, and is being reviewed by journals across the country. It challenges feminists to reclaim nonviolence in the face of nuclear war and sexual assault; it urges pacifists to struggle for the empowerment of women as the essential step toward rebuilding our world which has been so ravaged by patriarchy. In our attempt to understand the complexities of violence and oppression in our society, we dis-' cover that our nonviolent feminist resources provide a radically effective means for change. —Penny Fearon Penny Fearon is a former RAIN intern who is currently working with the U.S. Geological Survey. Aint No Where We Can Run; A Handbook for Women on the Nuclear Mentality Susan Koen and Nina Swaim WAND of the Upper Valley Box 421 Norwich, VT 05055 $3.50,1980, 74 pp. 'This book provides an excellent overview of the health, economic, social, and political effects of nuclear technologies on women. A strong feminist analysis coupled with well-documented technical information offers a personal and scientific understanding of nucle2ir weapons production and nuclear power plants. The authors explore the lives, feelings, emd experiences of numerous women who are struggling against nuclear development. Local and national action suggestions and organizing strategies emphasize the wide range of women’s activity on this issue. The book concludes with a list of groups and organizations involved in opposing nuclear technologies, as well as resource lists of relevant books and periodicals. —Ada Sanchez
Page 8 RAIN April/May 1983 SEXISM AND MILITARISM: Some Connections As a brown woman, bom and raised in the U.S., I find connections between racism, sexism, and militarism to be blatantly clear. The threat inherent in nuclear weapons, as with racism and sexism, results from a mentality referred to by Martin Luther King Jr. as a perversion of the "drum m£gor instinct” — twisting natural desires for recognition into quests for superiority and domination. On a personal level, the obsession to possess leads to jealousy, servitude, and sadism. Politically and socially it leads to colonialism, torture, and war. Wife and child beating are on the rise in the U.S., exacerbated by poverty and unemployment. Studies have shown numbers of beatings rising proportionately to increases in unemployment. One conservative estimate puts the number of badly-battered wives nationwide at well over a million. Other studies reveal that unemployment is directly related to high military spending, with women and people of color suffering the most. The resultant widespread cuts in education, health-care, nutrition, housing, crisis centers, aid for abortions, and inexpensive mass transit make the lives of women and poor people even more unbearable. Is it coincidence that along with the escalating rape of the Earth for the mineral resources needed to maintain high technology energy and weapons systems, so too the rape of women is on the rise? According to the FBI, incidences of rape are jumping more quickly than the rate of any other federal crime. Media, controlled largely by white males, sometimes glamorizes the pain of women just as it sometimes glamorizes the deadly effects that the production and use of weapons create. Violent "erotica” often don’t feature sex, only domination and humiliation, similar to the fascinations necessary for sustaining a militaristic society. Mass marketing this imagery encourages aggression and brutality as acceptable ways to deal with "subordinates.” One of the annual Arms Bazaars held in Washington, D.C., included a full-size mock blow-up poster of a woman in a bikini posing next to a cruise missile. That p>oster all too clearly depicts the plight and role of women in America today. A woman’s body is used to sell the newest generation of nuclear weapons, yet that woman’s body is the same one that continues to suffer the most from radiation effects. According to the Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation of the National Academy of Sciences, twice as many women develop cancer as men when one million people are exposed to one rad of radiation. When exposed to continuous doses of low-level ionizing radiation — such as that emitted from uranium mines and mills, nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons production facilities, waste dumps or transport routes, five times as many women develop cancer as do men. The woman in the cruise missile poster is being used to sell weapons that will guarantee large profits for corporations that make nuclear weapons. Yet the cruel irony is that she is the one who suffers the most economically in a military-industrial culture. Military related civilian jobs — construction, engineering, physics, aerospace dynamics — are held predominantly by men. The capital-intensive. by Ada Sanchez rather than labor-intensive, nature of weapons building hurts the economy by causing high unemployment and takes money away from vitally-needed social programs. Legislation that keeps women and people of color out of decision-making roles in industry, government, and religious institutions is as much a priority for sustaining the global military-industrial complex as the building of weapons and foreign bases. The latest versions of such legislative efforts are the Family Protection Act which calls for prohibiting federal funds for schools that teach children about alternatives to traditional sex roles; and the Human Life Amendment, aimed at charging women who have abortions with murder. The advocates of authoritarian policies understand the interrelationship of the personal and the political all too clearly. To maintain their privileged status in society, men must maintain that dominant status in personal relationships as well. Are women and men who work politically for drastic changes as dedicated to working on the power dynamics that make up our everyday lives? Too often it seems that the way we handle our personal relationships reflects a deeply rooted internalization of patriarchal oppression. An unconscious use of the same manipulative tactics that we abhor in societal and political arenas is oftentimes accepted in intimate relations and within ourselves. In contrast to political changes that require a large collective effort, the realm of personal relationships is one of the few spheres in which we have free-will choice and the clear ability to follow through. The day-to-day reality of shaping relationships that are non-authoritarian, cooperative, and tender provides a milieu in which to prepare, experiment, and learn about creating the small changes that will ready us for the larger successes. Openness in relationships and efforts to confront our contradictions and our possibilities are ongoing processes; relearning takes time and practice. To believe that macrocosmic political- economic changes will occur without simultaneously changing ourselves is to ensure that the transformations will never come. The inner skeleton gives shape to the body just as our inner worlds will give shape to a radically different future. Overcoming the existent power structure means living cooperation. Intimate relationships, group living situations, and political organizations are all places in which we can make progress. Cooperatively, we can continue to pool our skills, our resources, and our insights to actualize the vision of a just, loving, equitable society. Food and housing co-ops have given us reason for hope, as have sexual politics groups, where women and men can explore some of the same issues that used to be almost solely discussed in women’s groups. Those are steps forward. But we need to develop stronger political, social and economic infrastructures which encourage working together on related issues, while looking for the common denominators that will strengthen the political causes we have individually chosen to pursue.oo Ada Sanchez is a writer and speaker on military issues.
April/May 1983 RAIN Page 9 DEVELOPMENT FOR WHOM? WOMEN’S UNRECOGNIZED ROLE by Rosalind Grigsby Riker In the rural areas of the Third World live the poorest of the poor, the forgotten resource — women. Women, who provide much of the food, clothing and shelter for their families, eire also responsible for potable water, primary health care, and fuel. Yet their work, categorized as only "household labor,” goes unrecognized in development planning. Despite the fact that rural women in developing countries account for over 50 percent of food production, and that in Africa as well as in the Himalayan region 60 to 80 percent of all agricultural work is done by women, development plans do not reflect their prominent role. For the past thirty years, development programs have been designed primarily by white, male experts in western countries for situations and societies distantly removed from them. Traditional sex roles and cultural differences have been overlooked. Because farmers and household heads are generally men in the United States and Europe (or at least that is the assumption, though many women hold these positions), agricultural progreims for the Third World have been ddfeigned for men. Development programs intended to increase food production have had a disproportionate effect on women. In traditional agricultural systems women tended to participate more than in the "modem” agricultural practices recently introduced in Third World countries. Yet the impact of the new agricultural programs is very complex. In some cases, women are relieved of their agricultural work, while in other situations women must carry a heavier workload. When new technologies are introduced in work traditionally done by women (agricultural or non-agricultural), men invariably take control of the technology and displace women. This displacement has been seen in rice milling, weaving, pottery making, and other hand crafts. Consequently, women may lose their primary source of income for the family and are forced to labor longer hours in lower paid jobs to try to make up their lost earnings. New technologies can also directly increase women’s labor. For instance, the introduction of a tractor to a community may create disproportionate workloads.The tractor enables the men, who traditionally prepare the land for planting, to plow twice as much land in less time. However, the women, who do all the weeding, watering, transplanting, and maintenance, are now required to spend over 16 hours laboring in the fields each day during peak harvest times. Such increased workloads also occur when development programs encourage the cultivation of cash crops. Women must do much of the work needed for the commercial crops as well as cultivate the home garden for family-consumption. This agricultural development tends to displace women from traditional income-generating activities, yet increase their work load on the small farm. Because women are the focal point of household life, when their workloads are increased, there are repercussions for husbands and children. Family stability, nutrition, children’s health and education, and fertility are all affected by women’s status. The new demands on women’s time have had an adverse impact on family nutrition as women substitute quicker but often less nutritious cooking practices for traditional preparation methods. Women may also select less labor intensive food crops, such as maliioc or other tubers, which have reduced nutritious quality. In addition to social pressures regarding family size, fertility may be increased by women’s work loads. During the peak labor season, many women with infants are forced to stop breast feeding, which endangers the infant’s health. Ending lactation hastens ovulation, and within a few months the woman becomes fertile and may conceive again. Then, next year during the peak labor period, the woman would be in an advanced stage of pregnancy, threatening her own health and the health of the unborn child. Infant mortality, a sensitive indicator of societal well-being, may increase under such circumstances. Children’s health, directly related to maternal health and family nutrition, may suffer likewise. Under such stress, family stability may be undermined. Recognizing some of the problems caused by development programs that have not considered the cultural specifics and women’s status, the United Nations declared 1975- 1985 the Decade for Women. The flurry of discussion and literature on women in the past eight years has enlightened us to their plight and increased development planners’ awareness of the complexity of their work. The result of this has been a focus on "women’s employment” programs. Yet these, too, disrupt women’s lives, assuming that the "proper role” for women is in the cash economy. Though the intention of improving women’s skills seems appropriate, that can only be decided in the specific context of the community. Development efforts must focus on small-scale, self- reliant programs where the Third World people who experience the outcome of the program also participate in its design and implementation. The constraints on women must be considered, including legal rights of ownership, inheritance, divorce, and political participation, as well as social status, fertility control, and education. When the people who are affected by a decision have a voice in the decision-making, the negative impacts of projects may be lessened by their own insight. Women, who know their own needs and hardships, must be recognized for the vital work they do and must be incorporated into the process of meeting their needs. Isn’t it time we understood the real value of women, their work, and their wisdom? □□ Rosalind Grigsby Riker is a Research Assocktte with The Institute of Sustainability in Davis, California. She spent last year in rural villages of Sri Lanka doing research on the impact of "green revolution” agricultural technologies on women.
Page 10 RAIN April/May 1983 APROVECHO: Approaching a Feminist Vision by Mary Vogel The Aprovecho Institute in Oregon has given me a needed base from which to start connecting my global feminist consciousness with positive practical action to overcome the paralysis of analysis that had beset me. Margaret Thomas, one of Aprovecho’s co-founders, came up with the name Aprovecho, Spanish for "I make the best use of ”, after working in Guatemala. Guatemala is where Margaret, along with a Welsh architect, lanto Evans, another co-founder, first developed the vision for an institute to demonstrate alternatives to consumerism, act as a clearinghouse for information on less exploitive technologies, and do technical research and dissemination. In August 1978, Oregon was chosen as the home for Aprovecho "because it seemed that people were more open to our visions than anywhere else we had been. There seemed to be not only tolerance of but support for innovative social experiments.” Just as the feminist movement helps women take pride in skills and qualities formerly devalued by our culture, so Aprovecho helps Third World people take pride in their indigenous cultures that may have been devalued or cast aside. Aprovecho seeks out indigenous technologies in poor countries for adaptation in rich countries, since people in poor countries have devised better strategies for dealing with the resource shortages we will all increasingly experience. Raising and experimenting with bamboo is one example. Bamboo is used throughout the developing world for everything from buildings to baskets to baubles. It’s easy to propagate, quick to grow, and incredibly sturdy. Aprovecho is growing it at its Rural Center to develop and demonstrate its practical uses in the Pacific Northwest. Aprovecho is best known for developing the Lorena system of fuel-conserving said/clay stoves, now used in a dozen countries. Members see improved stove technology as one element of the comprehensive planning needed to address the deforestation and desertification so rapidly spreading in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I asked Elisabeth Gem, an Aprovecho member with experience working in Africa, how Aprovecho approaches the problem of stove development in poor countries and how this approach might be different than other development agencies in its impact on women. Elisabeth: First of all, we always work in male/female teams so we can reach both women and men. Then we always try to find good allies or counterparts within the culture. And we take the approach that as much as people need to economize on firewood, they also have a need to be respected as intelligent individuals capable of inventively solving their own problems. Whenever possible, we involve the village people in a process of solving the problems they see in their own lives. We can offer technical advice, systems for doing things that we bring from other places, but we see ourselves mainly as mail-carriers, never as overseers. We don’t expect to know more about their problems than they do. We might start by getting together with people informally to ask about firewood. Is it hard to get? How much does it cost? How long does it take to collect? We might talk about why heat radiation is lost on all sides of an open fire, then ask about wind blowing the heat away. How can you stop the heat from escaping? In building stoves we seek their ideas, only helping them to learn the principles rather than giving rigid instructions. Stove technology cannot be successfully introduced without active participation of the village women. This way, not only does it accurately reflect their subtlest needs, but their sense of involvement in the project is essential to its success. This model for stove development and dissemination of ihformation is considerably different from the standard approach. We discovered that much of the guarded nonenthusiasm we were greeted with from officials in the first stages of our Senegal project was a result of attempts to pour in "appropriate technology” imported wholesale from other places. A case in point is that of the solar cookers developed in India for totally different cooking conditions. These solar cookers were introduced to Senegalese villages without adequately involving the local people. They have not been accepted because they lengthen cooking time from around an hour to four or five hours. We encourage local pride in locally-developed stoves and in a distribution mechanism to make innovations of one village available to others through an information exchange. Our model for stove development involves the user in an unending cycle of invention—testing—improvement—dissemination—testing—feedback—invention. I asked Elisabeth what impact Aprovecho’s stove work tends to have on women’s lives. Elisabeth: Women spend less time gathering wood or spend less money on fuel, so they have more time to learn other skills or more money to spend meeting other needs for themselves and their families. They have less smoke in the kitchen, lessening respiratory problems associated with smoke inhalation consequently lessening damage to their eyesight. Safety is improved since there are fewer bums from open flames and less chance of children falling into the fire or boiling pots. Cooking is more convenient since stoves can be made to any height and can have work space on the surface. If fewer trees are chopped down, this improves the climate and hydrology and decreases soil erosion. And stoves allow time for reforestation projects to gain a foothold and help to change the balance toward extending forested areas once again.no —Mary Vogel Aprovecho Institute, 442 Munroe St., Eugene, OR 97402, 503/683-APRO. Mary Vogel is a member ofAprovecho’s Native American Project and Rural Center Management Board where she deals with a broad range of issues in natural resource and land use planning and community development.
April/May 1983 RAIN Page 11 ACCESS: INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Fragment From A Lost Diary: Women ofAsia, Africa, and Latin America Naomi Katz and Nancy Milton, Editors Beacon Press 25 Beacon St. Boston, MA 02108 $4.95, 1973, 318 pp. Western feminist scholars have filled many of the gaps in our knowledge of our ancestral sisters’ history. However, a similar body of information about women of the Third World is not readily available to us. Where recorded history neglects to document the experiences and significance of women in a culture or society, we must rely on liter- atme to expand our understanding. Fragment From a Lost Diary is an an-; thology of stories about the lives of Asian, African, and Latin American women by Third World women and men. Although many of the authors were educated in Western universities and belong to an intellectual class, they write with the cultural and social perceptions of insiders. The first part of the anthology focuses on stories about women who suffer a cultural oppression over which they have no control, save escape by suicide or exile. The underlying force in these stories, as in most Third World literature, is poverty. In these conditions, the value of the daughter is reduced to her bride price; the mother to provide wageearning offspring. These tragic stories are particularly poignant becase they are written about and through the eyes of girls who are so young that they are innocent of sexual double standards, the social effects of poverty, and women’s expected roles. The second part of the collection deals with the transition in women’s lives that arises from changing social values, and the external forces of war and colonization. The final section of stories is concerned with women’s lives outside the traditional private realm. For these women of colonized Africa and Latin America, marital and familial oppression is incidental to the larger social forces of racism and class prejudice. Fragment From a Lost Diary offers us the opportunity to define our feminism from an international, intercultural perspective, helping us understand the struggles of all women—a goal to strive toward. „ —Penny Fearon Development as if Women Mattered: An Annotated Bibliography With a Third World Focus May Rihani Overseas Development Council 1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington, DC 20036 $3.00, 1978 This is an excellent reference book for finding the key writers and thinkers about the issues of women and development. Development As If Women Mattered includes 287 studies with clear, concise summaries. Also, for articles that are not readily accessible, addresses are included for ordering by mail. The studies are collected under subject headings (such as agriculture, industry, health) as well as geographical categories. For the people who are new to the ideas of women in development, this is an invaluable guide for exploring areas of interest. For those who are already familiar with the literature in specific areas, this handbook can easily fill in the gaps. —Rosalind Grigsby Riser WOMEN AND SPIRITUALITY By Margaret McCrea Questions, reservations, and ruminations about women’s spirituality reveled within me. I had thought much about the subject, struggling to formulate my thoughts into words. With a sense of quest and thirst, I pursued the path of exploring the thinking and developments about women’s spirituality. My search continued through several dozen books and periodicals. The highlights of this journey, I would like to share with you. Naomi Goldenberg’s The Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions is a good place to start reading. This book does an excellent job, in a few words and pages, of stating the position of the women s spirituality movement in Western tradition as it now stands. Beginning with the statement that God the Father- Lawgiver is dead, dead, dead, Goldenberg goes on to say that, as when real fathers die, we lose a sense of an outer authority governing our lives and we are called upon to look inwards for spiritual guidance and understanding, which we gain from our own inner and outer experiences. The strength of this book is twofold; it is written in clear language — you won’t find words like "ontological” and "patristic” here — and it introduces the reader to all the major current thinkers on women and religion — Carol Christ, Judith Plaskow, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Rita M. Gross, and many others. After reading this book I returned the others I had borrowed to the library, as I felt that they were peripheral or that I/we had gone beyond them. The weakness of this book is that Goldenberg de- dares that not only is god dead, but so is religion. If religion has served the place of psychology for thousands of years, she reasons, then psychology will in the future serve the place of religion. That’s all very well for a Jungian psychologist to say, and she’s right as long as she s talking about personal exploration, but it leaves me feeling a little cold. Where do we put our need for celebration, for worship and ritual into this scheme? Somehow personal dream- analysis wouldn’t seem to be the impulse that leads to the building of a cathedral to Notre Dame, or that would cause 600 people to stand up and sing an Hallelujah Chorus. From Goldenberg I went to Womanspirit Rising, edited by Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow. This book is the basic textbook for women’s philosophy/theology containing all ^ the "must-read” essays that are the foundation of women s thinking in these areas. It is written almost entirely by women theologians. In spite of-—or because of-—that fact, these articles are courageous and radical. Stating that we have nothing to loose by abandoning men’s religion and everything to gain by exploring our own, these women have
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