The Once and Future Action Network (OFAN)

Newsletter No. 3

Science and Technology in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

Science and technology maintains a constant presence in the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, being recognized as an important tool in the advancement of the world¹s women. Although it is not one of the twelve critical areas of concern dealt with in the 1995 Platform for Action, science and technology is recognized as cutting across all areas of women¹s lives, and the document treats it as such.

The science and technology component is particularly strong in the areas dealing with women and the economy, the education and training of women, and women and the environment. In all of this, however, the issue of challenging the direction of scientific research, questioning and redirecting the goals and ethics of the practice of science and technology for which groups like OFAN have been lobbying are not appropriately dealt with in the Platform for Action. It is only in the section dealing with women and the environment that women are seen as part of the process of redirecting practice and research. But even so, this is not the main thrust of the document.

The Platform for Action admits that Œ10 years after the Nairobi Conference, equality between women and men has still not been achieved¹, and undertakes to outline actions to be taken by governments, multilateral financial and development institutions, bilateral corporations, national and international non-governmental organizations and women¹s groups, and private sector entities to change this. Some of the actions recommended relate directly to the formulation of science and technology policies, and the implementation of development programmes which include science and technology.

At the same time that it acknowledges the potential of science and technology to have a positive effect on women¹s development, the Platform for Action deals with the negative impacts which science and technology has on the lives of women. These include excessive expenditure on the military and on nuclear research, communication networks which are used to spread stereotyped and demeaning images of women, and continuing environmental degradation and pollution.

In the areas of concern dealing with education and training of women, women and the economy, and women and the environment the references to science and technology as a tool for women¹s advancement are explicit. However, there are three areas of concern where no specific references are made to science and technology. They are Violence Against Women, Women and Armed Conflict and Human Rights for Women. This, however, does not nullify the assumption that science and technology impacts on these areas.

For example, the increased involvement of women in science and technology can prove to be very effective in dismantling traditional stereotyped roles which lead to the abuse of women. In addition, science and technology can give women the independence they need through income-generating activities, and in this way prevent them from becoming victims of abuse by the men on whom they are dependent.

Similarly, it is a fact, acknowledged by the Platform for Action, that women and children suffer most in situations of armed conflict. Attention is therefore drawn to the need to implement more non-violent methods of conflict resolution, and to promote women¹s contribution to fostering a culture of peace. The issues raised under the section dealing with women and armed conflict underscore the Once and Future Action Network¹s concerns about the allocation of resources, the direction of scientific research, the need to re-asses the ethics of research and development, and the strengthening of the role of women in decision-making and in existing power structures.

Below are excerpts from the critical areas of concern where the science and technology issues are addressed:

A. Women and Poverty

The Platform for Action recognizes that the majority of the one billion people living in unacceptable conditions of poverty are women, and that in the past decade the number of women living in poverty has increased.

Because women contribute to the economy and to combating poverty with both unremunerated and remunerated work, the empowerment of women is seen as a critical factor in the eradication of poverty. Science and technology is identified as one means to this eradication. It is recognized also, that the gender perspective to policy making, for which OFAN and other NGO groups have been advocating, will make a difference in this area.

• [57] Particularly in developing countries, the productive capacity of women should be increased through access to resources, capital, credit, land, technology, information, technical assistance and training so as to raise their income and improve nutrition, education, health care and status within the household. The release of women¹s productive potential is pivotal to breaking the cycle of poverty so that women can share fully in the benefits of development and the products of their own labour.

Governments, national and international NGOs and women¹s groups are to take the following actions:

• [60 (f)] Develop agricultural and fishing sectors, where and as necessary, in order to ensure, as appropriate, household and national food security and food self-sufficiency, by allocating the necessary financial, technical, and human resources...
• (p) Formulate and implement policies and programmes that enhance the access of women agricultural and fisheries producers (including subsistence farmers and producers, especially in rural areas) to financial, technical, extension and marketing services; provide access to and control of land, appropriate infrastructure and technology in order to increase women¹s incomes and promote household food security, especially in rural areas and, where appropriate, encourage the development of producer-owned, market-based cooperatives...
• [63 (b)] Undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technologies;
• [62 (f)] Mobilize to protect women¹s rights to full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technologies.

B. Education and Training of Women

This section probably has one of the strongest science and technology components in the Platform for Action. The assumptions here reflect two of OFAN¹s key messages, which are Œto provide and monitor equal access for girls and women of all ages to scientific education and technological literacy¹, and Œto recognize the historical role of women in the development of technology and promote linkages between formal scientific institutions and women¹s indigenous knowledge¹.

Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and national NGOs, including women¹s and youth organizations, and educational institutions are challenged to work together on measures for the advancement of women¹s education - in science and technology as well as other areas.

Some of these measures have implications for the direction of scientific training. Special attention is required in this area, as, with a critical mass of women professionals, the possibility exists for the redirection of scientific and technological research and priorities in favour of sustainable development.

The Platform for Action also calls for sufficient resources to be allocated and for close monitoring of the implementation of educational programmes.

• [77] Science curricula in particular are gender-biased. Science textbooks do not relate to women¹s and girls¹ daily experience and fail to give recognition to women scientists. Girls are often deprived of basic education in mathematics and science and technical training, which provide knowledge they could apply to improve their daily lives and enhance their employment opportunities. Advanced study in science and technology prepares women to take an active role in the technological and industrial development of their countries, thus necessitating a diverse approach to vocational and technical training. Technology is rapidly changing the world and has also affected the developing countries. It is essential that women not only benefit from technology, but also participate in the process from the design to the application, monitoring and evaluation stages;
• [78] Access for and retention of girls and women at all levels of education, including the higher level, and all academic areas is one of the factors of their continued progress in professional activities. Nevertheless, it can be noted that girls are still concentrated in a limited number of fields of study.

Among the strategies suggested, Governments and other bodies are called upon to:

• [82 (I)] Make available non-discriminatory and gender-sensitive profession school counseling and career education programmes to encourage girls to pursue academic and technical curricula in order to widen their future career opportunities...
• [83(f)] Promote together with literacy, life skills, scientific and technological knowledge and work towards an expansion of the definition of literacy, taking into account current targets and benchmark;
• [84(c)] Provide information to women and girls on the availability and benefits of vocational training, training programmes in science and technology and programmes of continuing education;
• (e) Diversify vocational and technical training and improve access for and retention of girls and women in education and vocational training in such fields as science, mathematics, engineering, environmental sciences and technology, information technology and high technology, as well as management training;
• (g) Encourage the adaptation of curricula and teaching materials, encourage a supportive training environment and take positive measures to promote training for the full range of occupational choices of non-traditional careers for women and men, including the development of multi disciplinary courses for science and mathematics teachers to sensitize them to the relevance of science and technology to women¹s lives. Develop curricula and teaching materials and formulate and take positive measures to ensure women better access to and participation in technical and scientific areas, especially areas where they are not represented or are underrepresented;
• (j) Increase training in technical, managerial, agricultural extension and marketing areas for women in agriculture, fisheries, industry and business, arts and crafts, to increase income-generating opportunities, women¹s participation in economic decision-making, in particular through women¹s organizations at the grass-roots level, and their contribution to production, marketing, business, and science and technology;
• [85 (f)] Take positive measures to increase the proportion of women gaining access to educational policy- and decision-making, particularly women teachers at all levels of education and in the academic disciplines that are traditionally male-dominated, such as the scientific and technological fields;
• (q) Promote education, training and relevant information programmes for rural and farming women through the use of affordable and appropriate technologies and the mass media - for example radio programmes, cassettes and mobile units.
• [87 (b)] Provide funding for special programmes, such as programmes in mathematics, science and computer technology, to advance opportunities for all girls and women.

C. Women and Health

This section reflects OFAN¹s key message relating to the reassessment and reallocation of resources and the ethics of research, and the need to link formal scientific knowledge systems with that of women¹s indigenous knowledge. However, given the role science and technology can play in improving the health services available to women, the language in this section of the Platform for Action is somewhat weak, as the references to science and technology are implicit rather than explicit.

The Platform for Action calls for efforts to be made to increase women¹s access throughout their life cycle to appropriate, affordable and quality health care, information and related services, and to strengthen preventative programmes that promote women¹s health. Governments, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and employers¹ and workers¹ organizations and international institutions, are challenged to take the following actions, among others:

• [107 (h)] Take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful, medically unnecessary or coercive medical interventions, as well as inappropriate medication and over-medication of women. All women should be fully informed of their options, including likely benefits and potential side-effects, by properly trained personnel...
• (i) Strengthen and reorient health services, particularly primary health care, in order to ensure universal access to quality health services for women and girls....
• [108 (n)] Reduce environmental hazards that pose a growing threat to health....
• [110 (b)] Promote gender-sensitive and women-centred health research, treatment and technology and link traditional and indigenous knowledge with modern medicine, making information available to women to enable them to make responsible and informed decisions;
• (c) Increase the number of women in leadership positions in the health professions, including researchers and scientists, to achieve equality at the earliest possible date;
• (h) Provide financial and institutional support for research on safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods and technologies for the reproductive and sexual health of women and men...
• (j) Acknowledge and encourage beneficial traditional health care, especially that practised by indigenous women, with a view to preserving and incorporating the value of traditional health care in the provision of health services, and support research directed towards achieving this aim...
• (l) Monitor human genome and related genetic research from the perspective of women¹s health and disseminate information and results of studies conducted in accordance with accepted ethical standards.

F. Women and the Economy

The question of rethinking the direction of economic structures and the need for greater involvement of women in the process are addressed in this section. Facilitation of women¹s economic initiatives is advocated. Governments are specifically called upon to take action in order to promote women¹s economic rights and independence, including access to employment and appropriate working conditions, access to and control over resources, markets and trade.

One of the strategic objectives under this section is to provide business services, training and access to markets, information and technology, particularly to low income women. Science and technology is identified as essential in the process to eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination, for example.

The repeated references to the concept of Œappropriate new technologies¹ as a means of enhancing women¹s economic development reflects the recognition of different levels of technology, including traditional and informal technologies. Attention is drawn to the importance of informal technologies as a means of enhancing women¹s economic advancement.

The Platform for Action also reinforces a point raised in the 1995 report of the Gender Working Group of the UN Commission on Science and Technology: that development is gendered, and therefore when new technologies are being introduced consideration should be given to their appropriateness and implications for the group targeted.

• [164] ... Women have increasingly become self-employed and owners and managers of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises. The expansion of the informal sector, in many countries, and of self-organized and independent enterprises is in large part due to women, whose collaborative, self-help and traditional practices and initiatives in production trade represents a vital economic resource. When they gain access to and control over capital, credit and other resources, technology and training, women can increase production, marketing and income for sustainable development.

Governments and other relevant bodies should:

• [167 (e)] Undertake legislation and administrative reforms to give women equal rights with men to economic resources, including access to ownership and control over land and other properties, credit, inheritance, natural resources, and appropriate new technology;
• (r) Promote gender-sensitive policies and measures to empower women as equal partners with men in technical, managerial and entrepreneurial fields;
• [168 (e)] Create and modify programmes and policies that recognize and strengthen women¹s vital role in food security and provide paid and unpaid women producers, especially those involved in food production, such as farming, fishing and aquaculture, as well as urban enterprises, with equal access to appropriate technologies, transportation, extension services, marketing and credit facilities at the local and community levels;
• (j) Ensure equal access for women to effective job training, retraining, counseling and placement services that are not limited to traditional employment areas.
• [175 (b)] Develop programmes that provide training and retraining, particularly in new technologies and affordable services to women in business management, product development, financing, production and quality control, marketing and the legal aspects of business;
• (c ) Provide outreach programmes to inform low-income and poor women, particularly in rural and remote areas, of opportunities for market and technology access, and provide assistance in taking advantage of such opportunities;
• (f) Take measures to ensure equal access of women to ongoing training in the workplace, including unemployed women, single parents, women re-entering the labour market after an extended temporary exit from employment owing to family responsibilities and other causes, and women displaced by new forms of production or by retrenchment, and increase incentives to enterprises to expand the number of vocational and training centres that provide training for women in non-traditional areas.
• [177 (e)] Promote gender equality through the promotion of women¹s studies and through the use of the results of studies and gender research in all fields, inter alia, in the economic, scientific and technological fields;
• (f) Support the economic activities of indigenous women, taking into account their traditional knowledge, so as to improve their situation and development;
• (g) Recognize and encourage the contribution of research by women scientists and technologists;
• [178 (b)] Provide business services, including marketing and trade information, product design and innovation, technology transfer and equality, to women¹s business enterprises, including those in export sectors of the economy;
• (c) Promote technical and commercial links and establish joint ventures among women entrepreneurs at the national, regional and international levels to support community based initiatives;
• (g) Give adequate attention to providing technical assistance, advisory services, training and retraining for women connected with the entry to the market economy.
• [180 (g)] Eliminate occupational segregation, especially by promoting the equal participation of women in highly skilled jobs and senior management positions, and through other measures, such as counseling and placement, that stimulate their on-the-job career development and upward mobility in the labour market, and by stimulating the diversification of occupational choices by both women and men. Encourage women to take up non-traditional jobs, especially in science and technology and encourage men to seek employment in the social sector.
• [181 (e)] Improve the development of, and access to, technologies that facilitate occupational as well as domestic work, encourage self-support, generate income, transform gender-prescribed roles within the productive process and enable women to move out of low-paying jobs.

G. Women in Power and Decision-Making

The language in this section is appropriately strong, reflecting a commitment on the part of UN member states to change the existing status quo as it relates to the decision-making structures. Although very few direct references are made to science and technology, the call for more direct involvement of women in decision-making has implications for the redefinition of priorities, placing new items such as science and technology on national and international agendas, and including new perspectives on mainstream political, economic and social issues.

Recommended actions are in keeping with the activities of some of OFAN¹s member organizations to promote mentoring for young women and girls, and leadership training for women. These actions include:

• [194 (f)] Restructuring recruitment and career-development programmes to ensure that all women, especially young women, have equal access to managerial, entrepreneurial, technical and leadership training, including on-the-job training;
• [207 (a)] Seeking to ensure that before policy decisions are taken, an analysis of their impact on women and men, respectively, is carried out.

J. Women and the Media

The main assumptions in this area of concern relate to the explosion of information and computer technologies which create new opportunities for women¹s participation, and the dissemination of information about women. The pervasive tendency to portray negative and stereotypical images of women in the media, and the need for women to participate more in decision-making roles in the mass media are also addressed.

The increased participation and access of women to expression and decision-making through the media and new technologies are advocated, with the relevant bodies being challenged to take appropriate action in this regard.

• [237] Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge and access to information technology. This will strengthen their ability to combat negative portrayals of women internationally and to challenge instances of abuse of the power of an increasingly important industry. Self-regulatory mechanisms for the media need to be created and strengthened and approaches developed to eliminate gender-biased programming. Most women, especially in developing countries, are not able to access effectively the expanding electronic information highways and therefore cannot establish networks that will provide them with alternative sources of information. Women therefore need to be involved in decision-making regarding the development of new technologies in order to participate fully in their growth and impact.

Governments and other national machinery are called on to take action,

• [239 (f)] Encouraging and recognizing women¹s media networks, including electronic networks and other new technologies of communication, as means for the dissemination of information and the exchange of views, including at the international level, and supporting women¹s groups active in all media work and systems of communication to that end.
• [241 (a)] Encourage the development of educational and training programmes for women in order to produce information for the mass media, including funding of experimental efforts, and the use of new technologies of communication, cybernetics space and satellite, whether public or private;
• (b) Encourage the use of communications systems, including new technologies, as a means of strengthening women¹s participation in the democratic processes.
• [242 (b)] Train women to make greater use of information technology for communication and the media, including at the international level.

K. Women and the Environment

This section of the Platform for Action most strongly reflects the OFAN vision of what science and technology should stand for. It highlights the need to protect and validate indigenous knowledge systems, and to challenge the ethics of science and technology practices which affect the environment. The need to redirect of science and technology paradigms vis-Ö-vis the environment, and for making science and technology accessible to all, regardless of age and ability, are also addressed.

A number of actions are recommended for the active involvement of women in environmental decision-making at all levels. Governments, international organizations and private sector institutions are called on to:

• [253 (b)] Facilitate and increase women¹s access to information and education, including in the areas of science, technology and economics, thus enhancing their knowledge, skills and opportunities for participation in environmental decisions;
• (c) Encourage...the effective protection and use of knowledge, innovations and practices of women of indigenous and local communities, including practices relating to traditional medicines, biodiversity and indigenous technologies, and endeavour to ensure that these are respected, maintained, promoted and preserved in an ecologically sustainable manner and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge. In addition, safeguard the intellectual property rights of these women as protected under national and international law. Work actively, where necessary, to find additional ways and means for the effective protection and use of such knowledge, innovations and practices...encourage fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovation and practices;
• (d) Take appropriate measures to reduce risks to women from identified environmental hazards at home, at work and in other environments, including appropriate application of clean technologies...
• (e) Take measures to integrate a gender perspective in the design and implementation of, among other things, environmentally sound and sustainable resource management mechanisms, production techniques and infrastructure....
• [254 (d)] Establish strategies and mechanisms to increase the proportion of women, particularly at grass-roots levels, involved as decision makers, planners, managers, scientists and technical advisers and as beneficiaries in the design, development and implementation of policies and programmes for natural resource management and environmental protection and conservation;
• (e) Encourage social, economic, political and scientific institutions to address environmental degradation and the resulting impact on women;
• [255 (b] Facilitate the access of women agriculturalists, fishers and pastoralists to knowledge, skills, marketing services and environmentally sound technologies to support and strengthen their crucial roles and their expertise in resource management and the conservation of biological diversity;
• [256 (d) Integrate rural women¹s traditional knowledge and practices of sustainable resource use and management in the development of environmental management and extension programmes;
• (f) Promote knowledge of and sponsor research on the role of women, particularly rural and indigenous women, in food gathering and production, soil conservation, irrigation, watershed management, sanitation, coastal zone and marine resource management, integrated pest management, land-use planning, forest conservation and community forestry, fisheries, natural disaster prevention, and new and renewable sources of energy, focusing particularly on indigenous women¹s knowledge and experience;
• (h) Promote the education of girls and women of all ages in science, technology, economics and other disciplines relating to the natural environment so that they can make informed choices and offer informed input in determining local economic, scientific and environmental priorities for the management and appropriate use of natural and local resources and ecosystems;
• (i) Develop programmes to involve female professionals and scientists, as well as technical, administrative and clerical workers, in environmental management...
• (j) Identify and promote environmentally sound technologies that have been designed, developed and improved in consultation with women and that are appropriate to both women and men;
• (k) Support the development of women¹s equal access to housing infrastructure, safe water, and sustainable and affordable energy technologies...
• [257 (a)] Involve women in the communication industries in raising awareness regarding environmental issues, especially on the environmental and health impacts of products, technologies and industry processes;
• (b) Encourage consumers to use their purchasing power to promote the production of environmentally safe products and encourage investment in environmentally sound and productive agricultural, fisheries, commercial and industrial activities and technologies;
• (c) Support women¹s consumer initiatives by promoting the marketing of organic food and recycling facilities, product information and product labeling...with language and symbols that are understood by consumers, regardless of age and level of literacy.

L. The Girl Child

The Platform for Action gives special attention to the well-being of the girl child, taking into consideration the rights set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child which was ratified by UN member states in 1991.

The issues raised in the section dealing with the girl child reiterate and reinforces those raised in earlier section in the Platform for Action. Science and technology is mentioned in this section, as it relates to education for girls and health care, and the collection of disaggregated data to facilitate the design and implementation of programmes to assist girls.

One of the strategic objectives of this section is to eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against girls. Governments and NGOs are called on to:

• [276 (c)] Develop and adopt curricula, teaching materials and textbooks to improve the self-image, lives and work opportunities of girls, particularly in areas where women have traditionally been underrepresented, such as mathematics, science and technology;
• (c) Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which result in harmful and unethical practices such as prenatal sex selection and female infanticide; this is often compounded by the increasing use of technologies to determine foetal sex, resulting in abortion of female foetuses.

The challenge now facing non-governmental organizations such as the Once and Future Action Network, is to ensure that governments of the United Nations member states take steps to implement the Platform for Action, and that it is actually used as a blueprint for the advancement of women in the decade ahead. As NGOs we also should work towards translating these recommendations into concrete action plans and programmes for science and technology that can e implemented at local, national, and global levels. Already, steps are being taken towards this by some of OFAN¹s member organizations, such as UNIFEM, GASAT, IT, IWTC, Approtech Asia, AWIS and Mekweseh. We need to participate in and build on these in order to further the contributions of science and technology.

Next section / Newsletter index / OFAN Home page

For comments on this site and information, contact shuyer@ifias.ca