THE INCLUSION OF OTHER WOMEN Lifelong Learning Book Series VOLUME4 Series Editors David N. Aspin, Em, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Judith D. Chapman, Centre of Lifelong Learning, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia Editorial Board William L. Boyd, Department of Education Policy Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Malcolm Skilbeck, Drysdale, Victoria, Australia Yukiko Sawano, Department for Lifelong LearningPolicies,National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER), Tokyo, Japan Kaoru Okamoto, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Government of Japan, Tokyo, Japan Denis W. Ralph, Flinders University, Adelaide,Australia Aims & Scope “Lifelong Learning” has become a central theme in education and community development. Both international and national agencies, governments and educational institutions have adopted the idea of lifelong learning as their major theme for address and attention over the next ten years.T hey realize that it is only by getting people committed to the idea of education both life-wide and lifelong that the goals of economic advancement, social emancipation and personal growth will be attained. TheLifelong Learning Book Seriesaims to keep scholars and professionals informed about and abreast of current developments and to advance research and scholarship in the domain of Lifelong Learning. It further aims to provide learning and teaching materials, serve as a forum for scholarly and professional debate and offer a rich fund of resources for researchers, policy-makers, scholars, professionals and practitioners in the field. The volumes in this international Series are multi-disciplinary in orientation, polymathic in origin, range and reach, and variegated in range and complexity. They are written by researchers, professionals and practitioners working widely across the international arena in lifelong learning and are orientated towards policy improvement and educational betterment throughout the life cycle. The Inclusion of Other Women Breaking the Silence through Dialogic Learning by LENADE BOTTON Group of Arab and Muslim Studies, Barcelona, Spain LÍDIAPUIGVERT University of Barcelona, Spain and MONTSE SÁNCHEZ-AROCA University Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain AC.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN-10 1-4020-3537-3 (HB) ISBN-10 1-4020-3681-7 (e-book) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-3537-1 (HB) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-3681-1 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AADordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springeronline.com Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2005 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed in the Netherlands. To all the women who participated in the elaboration of this book, whose voices you will read. v Table of Contents Foreword xi Introduction xiii Editorial by Series Editors xxiii 1. From Imposition to Negotiation and Consensus 1 1.1. Emerging from silence, emerging from oppression 1 1.2. Dialogic orientation in current social theories 8 1.3. Dialogic orientation as a way towards “feminist liberation” 13 2. From Academic Feminism (of The Élite) to Universal Feminism (for All) 25 2.1. Feminism for all instead of feminism for some 25 2.2. Evolution of social theories: towards a defense of knowledge and abilities 33 3. We Are Women for Transformation, We Are Not Women for Accommodation 43 3.1. Transformation 43 3.2. From submission to imposition: Traditional modernity 51 3.3. Post-modernity and rebellions against modernity 55 3.4. Feminism of the 21st century. Opening dialogues 62 3.4.1. The need for a new feminist perspective 64 3.4.2. The impact of the new social theories on feminism 65 3.4.3. Bases for dialogue and dialogic feminism 71 vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS 4. Creation of Meaning Through Lifelong Learning 7 7 4.1. Increase of women’s participation in the public sphere. And what about the “other women ” ? 77 4.2. From the traditional orientation to dialogic orientation in adult learning centers: transforming difficulties into possibi l i t i e s 82 4.2.1. Centers with a traditional orientation 82 4.2.2. Centers with dialogic orientation 86 4.3. New social formulas for re-enchantment 91 4.3.1. The “other women” in centers with dialogic orientation 91 4.3.2. From mother to mother and autonomous woman 91 4.3.3. From housewife to housewife and representative of grassroots movements 92 4.3.4. From having limited social spaces to going beyond these spaces 9 3 5. From Competition to Complexity: Solidarity 97 5.1. Solidarity 97 5.2. Creating of spaces of solidarity 109 5.2.1. A historical precedent in Spain: “Mujeres libres” (Free Women) 114 5.2.2. FACEPA Women’s Group 119 5.2.3. “Drom Kotar Mestipen” 127 5.2.4. HEURA Women’s Association 132 5.3. Learning from the “other women” 137 6. The Equal Right to Be Different 141 6.1. Equality versus Difference: equality of dif ferences for an inclusive feminism 141 6.1.1. Equality-homogeneity: an erroneous direction in feminist thinking 143 6.1.2. When difference results in inequalities 145 6.1.3. Towards the equality of differences 149 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 6.2. Progressive feminist victories and proposals from the “other women” 155 6.2.1. Feminism and femininity 155 6.2.2. Mother and lover 160 6.2.3. “Housewife” and intellectual 163 6.2.4. Fidelity and freedom 166 6.2.5. “Hijab” and “Western miniskirt” 169 6.3. Dialogue for intercultural coexistence 172 References 177 Index 187 Foreword Why we are the “other women” This book recognizes a reality, our reality, that of the “other women”. Why are we the “other women”? Because we are women who, given the fact that we have not had the chance to obtain an academic education, were silenced and have remained outside of the spaces for public debate about women. This exclusion is worse if we are immigrants or belong to an ethnic minority. Those of us who are housewives, domestic workers or factory workers, because we do not have academic degrees, do not have spaces in which our voices can be heard, where we can say what we want. At times women whose voices are heard, because they have been able to go to university or have been leaders in the feminist movement, speak for all of the other women who have not been able to get a formal education, without asking us what it is we really want or think. Through our participation in educational and cultural centers and associations, many of us have formed associations and women’s groups. In this way, we are creating spaces where we can discuss issues that we are concerned about: solidarity among women, demands for better widows’ pensions, exploitation of domestic workers, etc. And we are organizing ourselves to get our voices, demands and opinions about these issues out there into the public debate. We would like to see all women joined together, everyone in solidarity with each other, and all of us who have not had the chance to study and to be able to participate in spaces for public debate, in spaces where we could express our concerns, demands and find solutions all together. Solidarity among all women is essential for this struggle to be possible. We dream of a day when “other women” do not exist. This would be the day that all women in the world would have equal rights, be heard, and taken into account. We, the “other women”, who have not been heard and silenced, did not have the opportunity to study. Some of us, at best, were able to study in primary school, others did not even learn how to read and write. The only choice we had was to work at a very young age, some of us starting to work as domestics at the age of nine. Our participation in adult education centers and women’s associations has helped many of us to become literate, or get our secondary education degree, and some have even been able to reach university. xi xii FOREWORD The daughter and granddaughter of one of our compañeras, who is over seventy years old, gave her a computer with Internet. Now she says that she will put the sewing machine away and the computer will go in its place. All of these transformations are only possible if, through solidarity, all women recognize us, “other women”, who, although we could not get an academic education, know what we want. All we need is the opportunity to come out of silence. FACEPA Women’s Group1 1 FACEPA is the Federation of Cultural and Adult Education Associations