Faculty Viewpoint: How does change happen?
Prof. Kelley Ready

How does change happen? This is a question that three SID alums, Rebecca Pearl, MA 01, Alice Macharia, MA 04, and Sabina Path, MA 01, and I pondered over four days last October along with 2000 feminists and human rights activists (both women and a number of men) from 120 countries. The venue was the tenth international forum of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) in Bangkok, Thailand.

Each day began with a plenary where eminent development and gender rights luminaries explored various aspects of change -- assessing what we have changed, how the situation around us has changed, how we need to change, and how change happens. These were followed by over 130 workshops that explore topics that you would expect (leadership, trafficking, microfinance, governance, feminism, economic development), offered practical skills (mainstreaming gender, a hands-on workshop on the human rights-based approached, methods for evaluating gender equality, the use of soap operas and other media for social change) and emerging issues (sexuality and development, linking global trade and violence, fundamentalisms, women and disability).

Having attended the previous AWID conference three years ago (with a delegation of SID students, including Alice), I noticed two shifts. The first was that the issue of sexuality and sexual diversity was much more prominent. It was not only mentioned in each of the plenaries but at least one speaker on each "came out." These women were from all over the world, such as Sri Lanka and Fiji, places where living as a lesbian is an extreme challenge.

In a workshop on gender, sexuality and law reform in Muslim societies, one of the presenters talked about the work of Women for Women's Human Rights, an organization that works with grassroots Muslim women in Turkey. Her description of how the women open up to discuss experiences and thoughts they have never shared was extremely inspiring.

Alice and Rebecca noted the lack of many workshops on the environment. I am proud to note SID alum were on two of the workshops on the topic. Alice and Rebecca organized a session on integrating gender into biodiversity conservation. Rebecca also presented on a panel that looked at linking poor rural women, gender, and the environment to the global women's movement.

The task of promoting women's rights is complex. Even at this conference, it was noted that the AIDS pandemic and the women who are living with HIV/AIDS did not receive the attention they deserved. Young women also demanded more of a voice. But the forum provided a precious space to examine the behaviors, policies, and institutions that need to change for women to achieve their rights.