Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive From: sgastete@u.washington.edu Subject: ILLITERACY: WOMEN WEAR THE CHAINS Date: Sun, 11 Dec 1994 01:13:50 GMT ...................................................................... TITLE: ILLITERACY: WOMEN WEAR THE CHAINS By Joanne Levine New York, N.Y. Nov. 10 (WFS) -- An elderly New York City woman recently teetered on the brink of death for no apparent reason. After hours of questioning, hospital doctors handling her case determined that illiteracy spurred the crisis. For several weeks, she had ingested too much medication because she could not read a prescription label. She is not alone. Almost one-quarter of the world's population, or 905 million individuals, cannot read, according to the most recent statistics in World Education Report, a study released last year by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Women account for 65 percent of the globe's illiterate population. "Illiteracy means loss," said American best-selling author Susan Isaacs, at a recent forum devoted to women and literacy held at the United Nations headquarters in New York. "It is a loss of magic and loss of friendship," she said. "But it is even worse than loss. Illiteracy means slavery. Women become dependent." U.N. studies show that education raises income, promotes health and increases productivity, especially when the students are women. Most adult rural women from developing countries, however, are poor and overworked. Few have access to programs that would teach them to read. In other cases, access is not enough. Social traditions that discourage the education of women may present a higher barrier. Bharati Mukherjee, an Indian novelist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, recalls how her mother had to fight against society and her in-laws by learning to read and passing this skill on to her daughters. Mukherjee remembers her mother stashing away part of her monthly allowance to buy books secretly. "If any of us were caught reading books, my grandmother would confiscate them," she says, explaining that reading and ideas threatened her illiterate grandmother's sense of right and wrong. Recognizing that illiteracy, whether through poverty or social oppression, is a universal problem, the U.N. has pushed to include education as one of 10 critical areas of concern to be addressed at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing next September. Other international institutions are also doing their part. The World Bank, for example, issues special loans to fund literacy and other educational programs. The bank has doubled the amount it lent for these purposes from $500 million in 1990 to $1 billion in 1993. Still, as actress Jane Alexander, chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, pointed out at the U.N. forum, "There is much to do to empower sisters and brothers with this basic human gift." Illiteracy rates among females in some South Asian and African countries reach 80 percent. In Nepal, 93 percent of women over 30 live without being able to read. Illiteracy means dire consequences in the struggle against poverty. A direct link has been established between reading and women's standing in society, according to documents released in preparation for next year's World Summit for Social Development in Denmark. Studies also show that educated women tend to have fewer children, helping to slow population growth. In Brazil, for example, uneducated mothers have an average of 6.5 children as opposed to women with a secondary education who bear, on average, 2.5 children. Approaches on how to stem population growth stirred much controversy when delegates from around the world convened in Cairo in early September. Studies presented there showed that educated women tend to make more independent decisions and to stand up for themselves instead of turning toward men for advice and permission. In developed countries, proportionately more women can read. But men still have better access to higher education. Moreover, girls are not encouraged to explore scientific and technical areas. These are skills needed for many careers of the future. Lack of them will keep women out of higher paying jobs. If the illiterate in all areas of the world encounter difficulties with basic survival, they are also shut out from enriching their lives culturally and gaining the knowledge needed to spark change. Among the literate, those most gifted with the use of language -- writers -- have often been at the forefront of documenting and challenging social conditions. "I come from a country known for its poets, clowns and dictators," poet Marjorie Agosin from Chile said at the U.N. forum. "Many of those who have fought for human rights have done so through the magic of words." To make her point, she recited a poem about women taken hostage by the government never to be seen again. Mukherjee draws the same conclusion from her personal experience. The knowledge she gained from books sparked an interest in the world and a desire to break away from the rigid constraints of Indian society. She says, simply, "Books seduce you to look beyond the controlled perimeter of a compound." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WFS's network of over 100 women journalists produces approximately 500 articles a year, written from a women's perspective in English and Spanish, with a special focus on developing countries. Every week all the WFS articles are compiled into a "Bulletin" and sent via e-mail to your Internet address. 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