Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.9.3/8.9.0.Beta5/980425bjb) with SMTP id DAA27845; Fri, 30 Jun 2000 03:49:15 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 03:49:15 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <001901bfe267$473619e0$845e17cf@oemcomputer> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "A. Schofield/S.Smythe" <andrewsc@interchange.ubc.ca> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:854] Re: UNESCO, Women and Literacy X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2604 Lines: 51 Thanks for your perspective Kathleen. If only governments and the international community invested in education and health to the extent that women do.Your reminder about the dire conditions in which women live is vital to this discussion and your comments perhaps suggest a need for international development organizations to define more clearly what they mean by "targetting women" and "community development." . When international development programs say they are targetting women do they mean they are targetting employment conditions for women which may allow them to earn a living wage? Are they targetting social systems that you describe that force women and their children into sexual slavery and sweat shops? Are they educating men about the follies of wasting their incomes on entertainment and the like? Or are they targetting individual women through literacy programs that, in Sticht's words, "increase the multiplier effects through intergenerational transfer of literacy" and thereby "increase our return on investment". If the latter is what is meant by "targetting women" then even more questions come up for me: What about the women living these unjust social and economic realities today? Are they being passed over for the next generation? If women have the lives you describe and I know from living many years in South Africa that they do, then where does the "increased personal income" come from so they can invest in their children and who among them has time to "transfer literacy" to their children? There is piles of research out there that shows that literacy is not a single thing that is transfered from mother to child in a direct an uninterrupted flow. To what extent is this research reflected in current international development initiatives? Does anyone know? Thanks for this important discussion, Suzanne ----- Original Message ----- From: <KathleenBombach@aol.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 5:55 PM Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:852] Re: UNESCO, Women and Literacy > Dear Suzanne: > Actually, there is emerging research that has actually looked at how > increased personal income in third world countries is used. Men invest in > their own entertainment and pursuits. Women invest in health care and > education for their children. In the international development community, > there is growing interest in community-based programs that target women in > order to have greater impact on long-term development. > You can find some of this research at the World Bank. > Kathleen Bombach
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