Ms. /Comrade

...In Latin America, they have nowhere to go, and they are offered no vocational training...

...There is something wrong," one speaker said...

...member—perhaps the only dominantly Catholic member—has captured about a quarter of the vote in Northern Ireland, though it was launched only five years ago...

...Most European women must cross a sturdy cultural barrier if they are to achieve equality...

...These codes, derived from the schoolroom, are not literally enforced, but those who depart from them are likely to feel disruptive...

...parties reflected the general position of women in society...

...Participating in the Geneva meetings of the International Socialist Congress last November was a moving experience for me, comparable in its impact to my first encounters with Norman Thomas and with the auto workers' union...

...We have been making these demands throughout the history of the socialist movement...

...More than half of the Declaration to the S.I...

...Many women delegates to the '72 Congress, returning in 1976, spoke about how little progress had been made on behalf of sex equality in the interim...

...Swedish Conference delegates urged women not to put too much faith in the efficacy of laws against inequalities...

...Others spoke of the need, and difficulties, of involving working-class women in politics...

...Our own way (in the U.S...

...Working fathers, as well as mothers, also receive benefits when they need to stay home to care for sick children...

...Then too, some of the traditions of women are not helpful...

...MANY WOMEN spoke about the need for greater women's representation in their parties and in the Socialist International (S.I...

...Swedes are now afraid that a general law against sex discrimination might impede positive steps to improve women's status...

...Mario Soares, activist wife of Portugal's socialist prime minister, spoke against separate women's groups...

...We are so accustomed to such caucuses and so convinced of their legitimacy that few objections are raised...

...Though socialism tends to run in families, nevertheless, the wives of European political figures tend to be much less visible and active than their counterparts in the States...

...There, an astonishing group of peace women have risen from the rubble of Ulster and are leading the most vital and courageous peace army of mainly working-class women that may ever have assembled...

...Economic growth and development by itself, many said, does not result in greater equality...

...The Action Program proposed at the conference asked the ICSDW Bureau to "decide on specific 207 actions and means needed for the achievement of parity and partnership between men and women in family life, in public life, in the labor force, and in all processes of development and political activities...

...2) they can create gifted, charismatic leaders...

...The Social Democratic labour party, an S.I...

...In many countries, including Sweden, women are organized into separate leagues, though many also participate in the main political body...

...The first Social Democratic Women's Conference, held in Stockholm in 1907, voted against special "protective" legislation for women, and socialist women in Sweden and other Nordic countries have opposed such laws ever since...

...Senegalese President Leopold Senghor, poet and Ph.D., insisted that the issue of sex equality was more cultural than economic, and that it should be approached through education...

...However tiresome the speeches (and bad ones invariably outnumber the good, even among socialists), one must bear them in passive and polite silence...

...The Norwegian legislation, however, provides that positive special treatment of either sex because of their inferior status cannot be regarded as discriminatory against the opposite sex...

...During a Helsinki seminar in 1971, the ICSDW discussed the influence of women with Social Democratic parties and agreed that women's lack of power within S.I...

...They are attentive when someone with power or real expertise speaks, but only if the speech is brief and pointed...

...A higher proportion of women work in Sweden than in other countries though a large share of them work part-time (40 percent of all women workers...

...is to set up caucuses of women to lobby for women's interests within the main organization...

...My own impressions are that these groups can be effective caucuses for women, but their militancy is sometimes vitiated by the participation of women who do not actively seek equality with the main organization...

...On the lively issue of birth control and abortion, the conference called for "instruction in sexual knowledge for children and young people, appropriate information on control of conception, easier access to contraceptives, and a comprehensive advisory service...

...4) peace, and an end of violence against their children and menfolk, can activate women as perhaps nothing else can...

...They should not wait to be asked...

...It also scheduled three main themes for discussion, including peace and development along with equality...

...Compared with socialist women in the States, these delegates were more working-class in style, more matronly in appearance, and more interested in social and "how to" issues than in socialist doctrine or intellectual analyses...

...Most women, he pointed out, were less fortunate...

...Partnership marriage is a more lively issue in Sweden than in the U.S...

...Many hold elected or appointed posts in their governments...

...Perhaps to avoid the appearance of a caucus, the conference scheduled as many male as female speakers and gave the spotlight to a man, the president of Senegal...

...Though some parties impose quotas, and though several delegates spoke for a 25 percent female quota in party leadership, voiced opposition was as common as support, and no vote on the issue was taken...

...Such behavior is undoubtedly related to the relative powerlessness of women...

...from the Americas...

...Only about 23 of the approximately 200 Congress delegates were women, and only one women serves on the governing Bureau, a post apparently created for Golda Meir and now occupied by Belgian Irene Petry, the most vigorous critic in the ICSDW of the exclusion of women from policy posts...

...In the socialist movement in Chile, he said, many women were involved in politics...

...therefore, problems of poverty and inequality need to be attacked directly...

...The peace women say they will build a decent society, in which all will share, starting from the bottom up...

...Preceding the Congress and blending into it were sessions of the International Council of Social Democratic Women (ICSDW)—the ninth since its reconstitution in 1955...

...Women's status in these diverse nations is naturally varied, so generalities are not easy...

...They were typically organized several decades ago to get women active in politics, the assumption being that women would talk and act more freely in women's than in mixed groups...

...His own wife, he said, was educated, earned a good income, and worked 206 flexible hours...

...That Congress set up a study group to investigate the position of women within member parties, but the poor response by the parties to the questionnaire later sent out only underscored the sluggish attention given to women's issues...

...The associations of these delegates were more likely to be with other public institutions where appointments depend much more on affiliation with parties that have political power...

...The issue is not simple...

...One Norwegian participant (a male) spoke from experience about privilege and the special needs of working-class women...

...she could go home from work when needed, and she could afford household help...

...Congress of Vienna in 1972 adopted "Equality of Women in Politics" as a theme for its agenda (a theme known as the Vienna Resolution...

...Sweden also has one of the largest networks of day-care centers to serve working mothers...

...then you sit at attention while the speaker instructs you...

...Their behavior suggests that they regard most speeches as necessary evils—background Musak rather than the main event...

...The women delegates tended to be party or women's league officials...

...For what it's worth, it struck me at these meetings, and similar ones I have attended, that the collective behavior of women is different from that of men...

...The comments of delegates lead me to the hypothesis that the greater the influence of democratic socialism, the more sexually egalitarian a society is likely to be...

...The Swedes are considering further legislation on partnership marriage, and the sixhour workday, making home life fuller for both men and women, is on the agenda...

...Johns Wood High Street, London NW8 WSJ...

...In other societies, separate women's groups sometimes aid and sometimes impede the progress of women...

...Men are usually far more interested in the informal than the formal aspects of meetings...

...To enable fathers to share child-rearing roles, the Swedes have changed maternity benefits insurance into parenthood benefits insurance...

...Mrs...

...209...

...Many women feel that these groups have outlived their usefulness and that women should function only in the main political body...

...Problems exist even in the best societies, but usually the awareness of them is acute...

...The clergy and the politicians have tried, but only the women offer some hope...

...None seemed to be there simply because of their husband's position...

...When they languish it is mainly because women grow tired of them...

...Seven months of benefits, at 90 percent of earnings, are now provided to either parent after childbirth, and the leave and benefits may be shared by parents as they wish...

...The Chilean also spoke against separate meetings and organizations of socialist women—a controversial issue...

...Other evidence of the power of peace came to me on my Irish trip, following the Geneva Congress...

...it includes unequivocally the basic values of freedom and social justice...

...My Swiss and Irish experiences showed me that there is a vast and untapped reserve of impressive talent out there, in all social strata, among democratic socialist and other women...

...including an investigation into the system of quota representation of women in elected bodies, within parties, in trade unions, in local and national governments, and in international organizations...

...This thesis needs rigorous exploration, but the Swedish experience offers some validation...

...Their main occupation is with negotiations backstage: social exchanges, power relations, relevant information, "business...

...New Zealand from the distant East...

...To leave the room, chat with neighbors, read a paper, rise and walk or stand, sleep—is to risk violating the codes of collective conduct...

...Rather few of the women, I would guess, had academic or "intellectual" backgrounds...

...Women pride themselves, as they did publicly at the conference, on their punctuality, attendance, and attentiveness...

...Yet we return again to make the same demands...

...Present were about 25 of the 37 affiliated members: the core European countries, plus Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and the U.S.A...

...Israel and Senegal from the Near East and Africa...

...Women, on the contrary, seldom shake hands and rarely mill around the bar in groups if they can help it...

...As for development, it was reported that of the 800 million illiterates in the world, 500 million are women, and that in developing areas, especially Asia and Africa, women are more vulnerable to hunger and poverty than are men...

...Peace, it would seem, is an issue that mobilizes women as few other issues can...

...The interruption of pregnancy "should no longer be seen as a penal offense, the punishment which has existed hitherto should be replaced by responsible individual decisions of women...

...Many of these Irish peace women are democratic socialists, implicitly or by explicit choice...

...about 80 percent of Portuguese women voted Socialist in the last elections, she said, mainly 208 out of despair with colonial wars and the desire for peace at home and safety for their families...

...The Congress confirmed for me that democratic socialism is not only a great idea but a working reality in virtually every free society in the world...

...3) they can join in common cause with professional and other women...

...In Africa and Asia, he said, women without skills can at least go into agriculture...

...Soares confirmed the devotion of women to peace...

...Somehow women don't count there...

...When they are visible, it is usually because they are standing in their own light...

...These leagues have no counterpart in the U.S...

...They do a lot of hand-shaking, introductions, standing around in groups...

...Women apparently feel that the primary function of meetings is a didactic one...

...But for socialists this is hardly an excuse...

...You schedule speakers, the meetings begin promptly (as does the classroom with the sounding of gongs...

...Real peace, especially as it is understood by the Socialist International, cannot be restricted to the absence of violent conflicts...

...In Senegal, where 80 percent of the population is Moslem, women are equally represented in secondary schools, and monogamy—if selected at marriage—is enforced by law...

...Perhaps only women who have moved in both European and American political circles can sense the strength of the traditional European male bias against women, one that is present even among socialists and pervasive among intellectuals...

...Indeed, their interest in the latter may have been a little too thin at times to probe with sufficient depth the experiences of the diverse societies that were represented...

...While this is changing, American women can at least be thankful that our society is not as conservative culturally as it is politically...

...As Willy Brandt put it at the Congress, "Women must demand more of others, and they must demand more of themselves...

...was devoted to support for detente, limitations of arms, balanced disarmament, and condemnation of terrorism, colonialism, racialism...

...and it was reported that the Italian women had decided not to set up a separate department in their party, and that the Swiss had liquidated their group because the men objected to it...

...They lead in the representation of women in policy bodies, a crucial index of equality, with women about 27 percent of the Swedish parliament, and 40 percent of the Stockholm city council...

...q Note: The ICSDW Bulletin is published at 88a St...

...These separate groups tend, therefore, to be less militant, demanding, and less focused on women's issues than our own women's caucuses...

...Whatever happens there, what we can learn from this movement is that: (1) working-class women can be mobilized...

...Instead, they urged them to organize and politicize women, and to apply constant pressure for equality on the job, in politics, and in the home...

...By general consensus, the Swedes are out front on women's issues, as on many others...

...At the seminar's request, the S.I...

...A Chilean (also male) said that participation among women in Latin America is the lowest in the world...

...They are not to be taken seriously or looked to for authority...

...In Ireland, the men say: only the women can bring peace...