Long sprint to equality

Aditha Dissanayake

If you are looking for a celebration of women performing incredible physical feats, surely the Olympics 2012 in London, would have been the place to be. After all, on the day of the opening ceremony it was Queen Elizabeth II, who stole the show, seemingly jumping from a helicopter and parachuting to the Olympic stadium in the company of James Bond.

Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony 2012.

If this is not enough, Britain’s official “poster athlete” for the Olympic Games this year, was a woman - heptathlete Jessica Ennis, who in addition to appearing on countless London billboards was also said to be smiling up at visitors flying to London, from a field along the Heathrow airport flight path. A 173-by-264-foot likeness of the athlete was painted on the grass there.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee proudly pointed out that, for the first time in the history of the games, every country involved was sending a woman to compete at the Games: “This is a major boost for gender equality” said Rogge.

There were other signs too that showed reasons to celebrate. The United States fielded a team with more women than men for the first time in this year’s Olympic Games. Canada’s team broke Olympic records by being 55.96 percent women. (Among the seven athletes sent from Sri Lanka though, only three were women). There were more gold medals available for women than ever before (132 up from 127 in Beijing), while the number of medals available for men had decreased slightly (162 down from 165 at the last summer Olympics). Women’s boxing was also added to the Games, meaning women can now compete in all of the same events as men. And, most strikingly, this was the first year that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei included women as part of their delegation.

Undoubtedly, equality for women at the Olympic games has come a long way since the first games held in Greece where no woman was allowed to participate in any of the events. (The only way a woman could take part was by entering horses in the equestrian events. There are records of several winning women horse owners. As the owner of the horse teams, they were credited with the victory, though they were most likely not present at the events).

Fast forward to the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, where, like in ancient Greece, no women competed. It is doubtful that the fathers of the modern Games at the end of the 19th century, such as Baron Pierre de Coubertin, would have predicted that the opening event of the Olympic Games in London 2012 would be a women’s soccer game between Great Britain and New Zealand. For, de Coubertin, felt that the inclusion of women in the Games would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect.”

In contrast, talking about the London Olympics 2012, Anita DeFrantz, a former Olympic rower and chair of the International Olympic Committee Women and Sport Commission says “I’m proud to say that the Olympic movement is living up to its own ideals of fair play and mutual respect. All the sports on the program have women and men. I’m very proud where we are now that all the National Olympic Committees in the world will have women Olympians.”

DeFrantz says more women took part in Summer and Winter Games from 1998 through 2010 than in all the competitions from 1900 through 1984 combined, and 45 percent of the 10,800 athletes in London this year were women, which according to DeFrantz is a record.

It was in the 1900 Paris Games that women were first allowed to compete in the Games - in two events, lawn tennis and golf. By 1912 women were competing in swimming events for the first time, but none of them were from America, which did not allow its female athletes to compete in events without long skirts. In 1928, women competed in track and field events for the first time; however, so many collapsed at the end of the 800-meter race that the event was banned until 1960. With the introduction of women’s boxing this year, the 2012 London Olympics will go down in history as the first Olympics which had no sport that did not include events for women.

Indian flyweight Mary Kom, who fought in the first world championships in Scranton, in 2001 becoming a national icon, was in raptures as she entered the boxing ring, having waited for more than a decade wondering whether she would ever wear an Olympic uniform. “Every athlete wants to play in the Olympic Games, and these past years, we’ve been waiting and waiting,” said Kom, in an interview. “When will boxing be in the Olympic Games? I waited 12 years because I wanted to play. I’m very emotional, but I’m fighting in the ring. I am winning.”

The same sentiments were echoed by Bahya Mansour Al Hamad the first woman from Qatar to compete at the Olympic Games. Placed 17th in the 10-metre air rifle on Saturday, when she finished her event, she said she was happy, that she had lived a dream. For her as well as Wojdan Shaherkani and Tahmina Kohistani, just taking part in London meant overcoming political, social, religious and sporting obstacles.

Many observers noted that though, Shinoona Salah Al-Habsi of Oman and Sulaiman Fatima Dahman from Yemen were unlikely to trouble the favourites for gold, as they sprinted down the track in the Olympic Stadium wearing colourful hijabs their presence conveyed a sense of progress, a sense of jubilation, a sense of winning a battle when it came to gender equality in the Olympic Games.

Among the bravest of them all was Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi who did not want to miss the Olympics, even though she was just weeks from delivering her daughter. The 29-year-old from Malaysia competed in the 10-meter air rifle event on Saturday, and was placed 34th despite being almost eight months pregnant.

On her way through the mixed zone, where athletes and reporters meet, she paused when asked about what Rogge had said during the opening ceremony.

“Women and men can do whatever they can do,” Mohd Taibi said. “It’s not like men can only do the rough jobs, the challenging jobs. Women, also, can do. Maybe they (should) open their mind...and start to believe that … men have the strength, but women have endurance.”

It is doubtful even de Coubertin would have disagreed.

[email protected]

Saudi Arabia plans new city for women workers only

Businesswomen behind 5,000-job scheme designed to give women greater independence while maintaining segregation.

A women-only industrial city dedicated to female workers is to be constructed in Saudi Arabia to provide a working environment that is in line with the kingdom’s strict customs.

The city, to be built in the Eastern Province city of Hofuf, is set to be the first of several planned for the Gulf kingdom. The aim is to allow more women to work and achieve greater financial independence, but to maintain the gender segregation, according to reports.

Saudi women walk inside the Faysalia shopping centre in Riyadh

Proposals have also been submitted for four similar industrial cities exclusively for women entrepreneurs, employers and employees in Riyadh.

Segregation of the sexes is applied in Saudi Arabia, where Wahabi sharia law and tribal customs combine to create an ultra-conservative society that still does not allow women to drive. Saudi women are said to make up about 15% of the workforce, with most in female-only work places. Although the number of mixed gender workplaces has increased these are still few. The proposals follow government instructions to create more job openings for women to enable them to have a more important role in the country’s development.

The Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon), which is developing the women-only industrial city at Hofuf, said it hoped the city would open next year. Prince Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, minister of municipal and rural affairs, had approved the plan, a spokesperson said.

“I’m sure that women can demonstrate their efficiency in many aspects and clarify the industries that best suit their interests, nature and ability,” said Modon’s deputy director general, Saleh al-Rasheed.

The Hofuf development is expected to create about 5,000 jobs in textiles, pharmaceuticals and food-processing industries, with women-run firms and production lines. Modon said the Hofuf industrial site was a suitable location given its “proximity to residential neighbourhoods to facilitate the movement of women to and from the workplace”.

In a statement it added that the site was equipped “for women workers in environment and working conditions consistent with the privacy of women according to Islamic guidelines and regulations”.

The project has been proposed by a group of Saudi businesswomen, said Al Eqtisadiah, the business daily, quoting the business woman Hussa al-Aun. She told the paper: “The new industrial city should have a specialised training centre to help women develop their talents and train them to work at factories. This is essential to cut unemployment among our female graduates.”

The oil rich kingdom has one of the world’s largest disparities between male and female employment, with a gap of 23%, according to a recent Gallup poll, arabianbusiness.com reported.

An increasing number of firms were insisting that women had to be unmarried to qualify for employment; this violated the kingdom’s workforce regulations, reports said.

“Some private companies are stipulating conditions such as a woman shall be recruited only if she is single or not pregnant if married,” Hatab al-Anazi, a ministry spokesman, is reported to have told the paper Arab News. “[That] is against the regulations approved by the ministry.”

Saudi Arabia attracts constant criticism from human rights groups for its systemic discrimination against women.

Last September King Abdullah, who has taken some tentative steps towards loosening strict gender segregation, announced that women would be able to vote in the 2015 local elections and for the consultative assembly.

In January the government enforced a law allowing Saudi women to be employed in lingerie and cosmetic shops, following a campaign by the women’s rights activist Reem Asaad. Previously women had to purchase underwear from male shop assistants. The plan is that by the end of this year women will replace men in stores selling abayas, the traditional black cloak worn by women.

Last month a poll of working women in Saudi Arabia by YouGov and Bayt.com found 65% wanted to achieve greater financial independence through their careers.

Those under 25 also wanted to make use of their educational qualifications.

Bolivian women are breaking down barriers to seek political power

Gender, ethnicity and even age can be an obstacle for women who want to get involved in politics in Bolivia, but a growing number are ensuring their voices are heard

A growing number of Bolivia’s indigenous women are participating in politics. Though spread across great distances and representing a wide range of experiences, many of these women share a similar history. Most started out leading civil society organisations and then went on to run for local public office, often overcoming resistance within their own families.

A Quechua leader at a meeting on rural women in Bolivia.

“The major obstacles [to accessing a government position] are domestic duties and economic issues,” says Lucinda Villca, a council woman from Santiago de Andamarca, a municipality in the western district of Oruro. Villca is an Aymara mother of nine who used to be one of the native leaders of her quinoa and llama farming ayllu [community]. She is one of four council women who shared their experiences with IPS during a national meeting of women leaders from rural local governments held recently in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

“We go out on the fields early in the morning to help our husbands, tending the crops or taking the cattle out to pasture. We come home at night and we have to fix supper and make some time to weave so we can earn extra money for the house,” Villca says. “With these obligations, there’s no time for anything else. I now have a greater responsibility. As a member of the indigenous council my mission was to work for my community. In this new post I have to work for the future of my municipality.”. Marina Cuñaendi, a 55-year-old council woman from Urubichá, says: “I used to be a housewife. I’m a Guarani, and like many women in the countryside, I have no regular job. I was working for a women’s organisation when I was asked to run for office.” Urubichá is one of Bolivia’s poorest areas, despite being located in Santa Cruz, the country’s most prosperous district. According to the last census, 85.5% of its 6,000 inhabitants – mostly Guarani people – live in extreme poverty.

Before being nominated in 2010, Cuñaendi had never thought of holding public office. She planted rice and corn and, in her “free time”, weaved to support her seven children, along with her husband. In Urubichá, she says, women have no time to organise and are marginalised from political life. She admitted that she had to consult her husband and children, who encouraged her.

In San Julián, another municipality of Santa Cruz, Yolanda Cuellar, a Guarani, was deemed to be “too young” to hold a municipal position. She turned 21 a month after being elected council woman in April 2010, on the ticket of the Without Fear Movement, opposing the Movement to Socialism party, which governs the municipality and the country.

“They didn’t trust me because I was young, and a woman to boot. In our municipality, sexism is very strong. Now there are four of us women in the council,” the accountant and mother of two says. Cuellar has her husband’s support. “He understands me and tells me not to quit because people voted for me; he tells me to fight for what I want and not give up just because somebody doesn’t want me there,” she says.

But the women’s lack of political experience and the discrimination by male peers have not made their work on the council easy. Also, being a council woman is very different from being an indigenous leader. “There’s a lot of bureaucracy, which slows down any project, but the worst is the lack of support. Our ideas are ignored and we feel alone. It’s like nobody is interested in doing anything for young people and women,” Cuellar says.

San Julián’s economy is primarily agricultural, but benefits from the commercial and services activities linked to the busy highway that runs through it. However, 57.9% of its more than 70,000 inhabitants live in extreme poverty.

Under the 2009 constitution and other laws, women must occupy at least 50% of all elected government positions. To ensure that percentage, candidate lists must be drawn up by alternating between women and men. At present, 43% of the mayors and council persons in Bolivia’s 327 local governments are women, and 96% of them are holding public office for the first time.

Lidia Alejandro, a 50-year-old Aymara council woman from Llallagua, a municipality in the mining district of Potosí, in western Bolivia, also identified inexperience as a factor that puts them at a disadvantage compared with their male counterparts.

“I became a council woman without knowing a thing about how municipal affairs are run. I’m a teacher, but holding office is very different. I couldn’t even speak up at a meeting or give statements to the press,” Alejandro says.

“I had to learn as I went along.” Training workshops helped her, but training takes time, she says, and that causes problems with husbands as they reproach women leaders for neglecting their homes.

Alejandro is troubled by the failure to achieve the goal of lifting the women of her municipality out of poverty due to a lack of specialists who can design projects to meet their needs. Bolivian legislation requires that part of the annual budget at all government levels be allocated to spending on projects that target the needs of women and other vulnerable groups. But most of the allocations are not spent, and the funds are either returned or transferred to other areas. “Women have come to us to complain. ‘How is it that we have four council women and they’re not doing anything for us?’ they say. We’ve tried to join forces, but the truth is that we all have our political loyalties,” Cuellar says.

Natasha Loayza, a specialist with the UN women’s office in Bolivia, says there has been great progress in terms of women’s participation in politics, furthered by the constitution and various laws. “The challenge is to translate this legislation into action, into real and concrete participation,” she says.

The UN women’s office’s Semilla (seed) programme, a three-year pilot initiative that is in its final year, helps women in rural districts exercise their economic and political rights. Loayza says one of the programme’s goals is to motivate more women to participate in politics by showing them the meaningful involvement of those who are already participating.

“Women can now access [public office], but it’s very hard. It’s a colossal task. The women who have achieved positions of responsibility in public bodies can bear witness to the problems they face every day to make their presence felt, and not just occupy decision-making positions on paper,” Loayza says. “We’re still at a point where women have to work hard to really participate.”

The programme is being implemented by the ministry of equal opportunities in 18 rural districts with $9m (£5.7m) in financing from the UN and, so far, has benefited 4,000 women.

-Guardian.co.uk