My friend had been to a pre-event though and told me that it wasn't all bra-burning and proclaiming from the roof tops. I purchased a ticket and now I'm glad I did.
As a side note, I've already realised that the bra-burning myth is largely a media driven construct to make women thinking for themselves seem like a crazy, dangerous notion. Also it was the Daily Mail who coined the term 'suffragettes' to describe the members of the Women's Suffrage Party. Initially seen as a slightly belittling nickname, the women involved embraced it as it helped gain valuable public attention.
The BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders opened by admitting that she 'doesn't always think of economics in gender terms'. More important to her is the fact we have a 'financial crisis on our doorstep' and many people don't even understand the difference between reducing our deficit and reducing debt. Our government is striving to reduce the deficit and are keen to tell the public they are doing so, while in the background our debt has grown and will keep growing. The economies of former emerging markets like China and India are growing with great speed and their impact in the world market will influence the balance of the future.
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| Stephanie Flanders |
Stephanie pointed out it is micro things that effect our standard of living rather than the bigger issues addressed in the news. 'Ten years ago there was no facebook, no smart phones, no kindles, no Sky Plus. I is very interesting that these things are not seen as luxuries during our current recession. It isn't just the rich who are buying smart phones either, they are mainstream commodities.
Governments are beginning to realise that having a greater number of women in the workplace could be very good for GDP. In Japan, encouraging more women into work could solve the country's economic crisis.
Cathy Turner, an executive from the world of banking, joined the debate saying that women present in the workforce changes it's dynamic. Women generally tend to borrow less to invest in business and, while unlikely to experience the growth and results boom generated by males, their businesses tend to become sustainable in the long term. I personally think this calls into question your reason for the business in the first place. If your intention is to make money as soon as possible then I can see why males do business in the way they do. However if you are genuinely trying to offer a service or product which can improve lives then maybe we should take the female path.
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| Cathy Turner |
Cathy also quoted some telling statistics. 70% of part time jobs are currently held by women and at senior management level, we are still mainly represented by our male counterparts.
Then followed the passion of Jamuben Ayar and her colleague Savita Patel from SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association). Jamuben has been involved with SEWA after being approached in the 1970s. She is now overseer of 20,000 women and her daughter was the first in her village to graduate from school paid for by Jamuben's earnings.
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| Jamuben Khangabhai Ayar [on the left] and Savitaben Patel |
To explain, SEWA has helped Indian women to realise the value of their intricate embroidery work, previously created only for home use or as gifts for their daughters when they were married and leaving the parental home.
An average salary at the time for a male Indian worker was 50 rupees per day and for a female, dispute the fact many were farm labourers, just 10 rupees per day. The villagers were migratory in times of drought and faced periods with little work. They were also used to 'middle men' contractors taking their skills for a very low return. The women didn't even know the true value of their home confined skills. SEWA offered Jamuben and her fellow workers 250 rupees for an embroidery order on the promise that they would do a good job.
They did and it's turned out well for vast amounts of women. In a society where the men would traditionally 'own' the money, women could now decide how they wanted to spend their earnings.
The first choice of many women was to use the money to send their children to school. With the reassurance of regular work, the community stopped migrating and started training and education programmes. Education gave them the opportunity to solve issues like sanitation, proper education for their children and then chance to have two meals a day.
Money brings power, the power of choice. In the case of the Indian ladies, they were being treated as viable people who could be respected as they were now controlling the purse strings. The tradional way would be to refer to things in the context of the alpha male relative to the person/item. This is (man)'s son/daughter/goat/house. The power shift caused a shift in context. Now identifications are made with references to Jamuben herself. Jamuben's son/daughter/goat/house.
To say their story is insipiring sounds flippant. It highlighted to me the importance of valuing yourself and doing so by valuing the skills you command. Everyone has skills and the key is recognising them and realising their true worth.
If you wish you'd seen the full session for yourself, you can, as the Southbank kindly filmed it!
For more from Stephanie Flanders, she tweets from @BBCStephanie and writes for the BBC here.
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