Meeting prior to ICAE World Assembly gathered more than 60 women from different countries

By Giovanna Modé and Tatiana Lotierzo (CLADE)

Even before the VIII Assembly was opened, women were mobilized in a global consultation convened by GEO – Gender and Education Office of ICAE. This meeting took place on 14 June, from 9 am to 5pm, in the city of Malmo, Sweden, and gathered 60 representatives of civil society organizations from around the world. 
The main objective was to promote a space for reflection from a feminist perspective on the multiple crises, the emergence of new paradigms and the role of adult education in the construction of “a world worth living in”. It also sought to strategically organize the participation of women in the ICAE World Assembly, which is beginning tomorrow.  
The session opened with the welcome words by Paul Bélanger and Celita Eccher, respectively the president and the secretary general of ICAE. Bélanger stressed the importance of GEO recognizing the contributions of the women’s movement for ICAE in its entirety. “Today, the issue of gender is everywhere, in health, justice, environment and social issues,” he said. Celita stressed the horizontal nature of the network: “Women who are willing to work without too much protocol or any authority, but well organized,” recognizing as a strength the capacity that is ICAE has today to mainstream gender in all situations.

Old and new global challenges
Participants had the challenge of mapping collectively the global context, considering old and new challenges and the possibilities of alternatives and new paradigms to them, as well as its implications for gender equity.
Gina Chiwela, from the movement People Action Forum in Zambia, noted that in sub-Saharan countries the fact of “being a girl or woman” greatly diminishes the possibility of access to education, as do the scenarios of conflict or poverty.

Another serious warning came from the Arab region. Here, despite the active and outstanding role of women in the recent revolutions that took place in Egypt, Libya and others, the fact of making legal, policy and practice changes is still an open issue.

Bernadette Brady, director of the Institute of Adult Education in Ireland, shared some trends on gender issues that also concern the European region. According to the European Commission report on education, gender gaps are highlighted in specific aspects, such as the teaching profession, which remains predominantly feminine – except for management positions and those in universities, where most teachers are men.  

Yoko Arai (JAPSE-IALLA), from Japan, spoke about the critical context in which her country is now after the nuclear accident, earthquake and tsunami they lived. There, “people forgot about the risks of nuclear energy. In the past, civil society warnings were ignored, but now these same groups become important by sharing information on the Internet. More with regard to education, students should be heard, for only in this way learning can help overcome the disasters,” she said.

Finally, Gigi Francisco (DAWN), from the Philippines, pointed out three global changes that must be taken into account regarding policy: the change in the State, of market and of movements – including women. In the state, she said, one can see new participation mechanisms and regulatory frameworks long demanded by civil society in the 80 and 90 and put us ahead of the issues: “But would it only be rhetoric? How can we demand the implementation of policies?” The second change to think about is on the market; today, the so called “philanthropic capital” gains strength, a phenomenon about which we must ask: “How to deal with this and what does it represent for the permanence of inequalities?” In this scenario, the situation of social movements also changes, often without resources for their actions, they face the ongoing challenge of developing solutions to move forward with their agenda.

New possibilities and paradigms
New alternatives were raised, as the paradigm of “living well”, which only now gains strength in Latin America and the Caribbean, as Nicole Bidegain (ICAE) recalled, by being discussed and incorporated into the new constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador. In this sense, Maria Oviedo, from the Bolivian Campaign for the Right to Education, spoke of the importance of marrying the fight against the colonial model to the fight against patriarchy, based on the unprecedented government experience developed now in Bolivia.
In that country, the living well of indigenous peoples has been generating policies that propose a break with the colonial system, based on the dictates of some skills over others. Simultaneously, feminists from Bolivia had the initiative to add strategies to dismantle the patriarchy, especially in the education system, contributing to a structural change to overcome the asymmetries between men and women, exclusion, discrimination, and hierarchies. Also, they participated in the long process of advocacy on the Law of Education and managed to include in this legal framework many approaches that contribute to the construction of a new educational system.

Francis Quimpo, from the Centre for Environmental Affairs of the Philippines, spoke about the importance of education for sustainability in a changing world. The Pacific Asia especially suffered extreme weather events in recent years and, although most countries had ratified the legal framework for environmental sustainability, neoliberal policies continue to impact on sustainable development and so, is essential to encourage critical thinking, especially among women, for the implementation of alternative economic systems.

Lourdes Angulo (REPEM), from Mexico, presented a new vision about the economy of care and showed that from this perspective, development alternatives open to women. “For too long, the androcentric perspective prevailed: by equating economy with markets and paid work, joined women, who in general are out of this world, and women to non-economic, worthless, invisible”, she raised. The panelist defended a more elongated vision of economy that can give an account of alternative practices, whose axes are not monetization, but a variety of trading styles, with different forms of remuneration. It is therefore an economy built far beyond the resources and financial categories, which also includes non-financial and human categories. “Only from this perspective we can discuss more deeply the senses of well being,” she said.

Finally, Sofia Valdivieso (GEO), from Spain, presented a proposal of indicators to monitor equality in education, recognizing the limits of the indicators of access. Taking into account the existence of different types of inequalities between men and women – namely the unequal in treatment, expectations, conditions, representation and reference models, she argued that “it is necessary to adopt qualitative indicators that, in addition to access, give account of equal treatment and status”.
Faced with these considerations, the participants will work over the coming days with proposals and strategies in the Assembly of the International Council of Adult Education.

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