Promoting Democracy. Manal A. Jamal

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СКАЧАТЬ their commitment to the committees and the important roles they played in shaping their programs and in meeting the needs of women in Palestinian society. In “Feminist Generations,” Frances Hasso traced the impact of women’s previous involvement in these committees on their later life choices, and demonstrated how the activists had developed a higher sense of self-efficacy and were differentiated by their gender egalitarian ideology.83 Indeed, women who were involved in the committees were likely to make life choices that reflected their greater sense of self-empowerment.

      Programs

      Although the specific programs and activities tended to vary from one region to another, especially between the rural and urban areas,84 many of the programs dealt with women’s practical needs such as literacy classes, health education, small-scale vocational training, the provision of childcare, and the establishment of ventures, such as cooperatives, for producing goods.85 Consciousness-raising was also central to the activities of the women’s committees in both the rural and urban areas. The members usually chose the committees’ topics for the consciousness-raising programs. Health-related topics were also very popular and included family planning, prenatal and postnatal care, and preventive medical treatment for children, such as the importance of immunization.

      All the committees were involved in enhancing women’s economic self-sufficiency, especially through the development of productive ventures such as co-operatives. Some of the goods produced in the co-operatives included baby food, engraved brass, embroidered clothes or linens, hand-woven rugs, knitted sweaters, concentrated fruit juices, frozen vegetables, and bakery products. Members of the FPWAC even established a carpentry factory. At one point, the UPWC managed ninety cooperatives in the Ramallah area alone.86 Most of the committees also took part in the organization of annual cultural bazaars. These activities had two goals: to promote women’s productive capacity87 and to increase reliance on Palestinian domestic goods in place of Israeli and other foreign imports.88

      To facilitate women’s integration into the public sphere, the committees also established nursery schools and kindergartens. By the late 1980s, the FPWAC managed between thirty and thirty-five nursery schools and kindergartens,89 the UPWC managed eighty-six nursery schools and kindergartens, and the WCSW managed fifty kindergartens90 throughout the WBGS. Along with Islamist institutions, the women’s committees were among the main providers of nursery schools and kindergartens in the WBGS.

      The types of program and the related goals espoused by the women’s committees played an important role in the empowerment of its members. By incorporating women and providing them with fora to identify their immediate needs and the opportunity to develop programs to address them, women’s committees helped to equip its members with the skills that are critical for the development of an effective civil society that can contribute to democracy.

      Resources and Funding

      The various committees supported their activities primarily through membership fees, small income-generating activities, occasional seed money from solidarity organizations, and funding from the parent political organization. Because all the committees had more or less the same access to resources, especially through their membership fees, they operated on a more or less equal playing field. The funding discrepancies between the different committees were not significant. Few, if any, of the activists were paid for their involvement in the women’s movement; this ensured that the spirit of voluntarism was the driving force behind civic and political participation.

      The committees created a number of income-generating activities and programs. They all hosted annual bazaars and earned profits from the products they sold. The UPWC hosted occasional fundraising dinners, and also sold agendas, planners, and calendars for profit. Some of the women’s committees also ran cooperatives in the hope they would generate income for some of the women involved. In most cases, however, the cooperatives were not very successful or economically viable.

      The women’s committees also received minimal funding from different donors, including Western foreign donors, often in the form of seed money for specific projects. During the mid-1980s, for example, the UPWC received seed funding to help in the establishment of a baby food production facility.91 Until 1992, the FPWAC received some funding from Oxfam-Netherlands (NOVIB) for the salaries of kindergarten and nursery school teachers, and for teacher training.92 During the 1980s, FPWAC also received funding from al-Najdeh North America, a Palestinian women’s organization based in the United States.93 The women’s committees also received occasional funding from their respective parent political organizations; this was especially the case for the WCSW. Dynamics between the different women’s committees, however, began to sour once certain committees and some members began to receive preferential treatment in terms of access to higher amounts of foreign funding and to political institutions and decision-makers.

      Salvadoran Women’s Organizing

      Salvadoran women’s organizations date back to the 1930s.94 From the 1930s to the late 1960s, Salvadoran women founded a number of charitable organizations, as well as more political organizations. From the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the existing political organizations founded a number of affiliated mass-based women’s organizations that were quite successful in incorporating and mobilizing women in large numbers from all parts of El Salvador. During the latter part of the 1980s and early 1990s, these organizations began to professionalize their operations, but unlike in the Palestinian case, all the mass-based organizations had access to donor funding, and grassroots incorporation was often a precondition for the receipt of foreign donor funding.

      In 1957, women established the Fraternidad de Mujeres Salvadoreñas (Fraternity of Salvadoran Women), which became one of the first organizations to attempt to incorporate women into the political opposition by addressing their specific needs. Although the organization accepted women from all political backgrounds, it was loosely affiliated with the PCS. The organization produced a monthly magazine called Fraternidad (Fraternity), and also carried out a number of cultural, political, and social activities. In addition to providing secretarial and sewing classes, they started a school for members’ children. The group was also active in the protest movement that supported trade unionists and political prisoners.95 The Fraternidad de Mujeres Salvadoreñas would serve as a model for all women’s organizations founded in the 1970s.96

      During the late 1960s and early 1970s, mass-based opposition organizations, known as popular organizations, emerged in El Salvador. These groups were predominately affiliated with the Christian communities or with the PCS. During the latter part of the 1970s and early 1980s, women’s organizations emerged that were more closely affiliated with one of the existing political organizations; these included right-wing organizations in San Salvador, as well as leftist opposition-affiliated women’s organizations that sought to mobilize and address the needs of women in the controlled zones. Finally, during the mid-1980s, more professionalized women’s organizations that were also closely linked with one of the political organizations were established in San Salvador.

      During the late 1960s through the early 1970s, the Popular Church and the broader leftist opposition established a number of women’s groups, and encouraged women to participate in non-women’s groups, often targeting laborers. Of particular concern to the Salvadoran Popular Church was the promotion of women’s equality. The Church leaders encouraged women in different communities to join Christian base communities and self-help groups or trade unions. Women became active in a number of organizations established at that time, the most notable of which were the Federación Cristiana de Campesinos Salvadoreños (Christian Federation of Salvadoran Farm Workers)97 and the Comité de Madres y Familiares de Presos, Desaparecidos y Asesinados de El Salvador “Monseñor Romero” (Committee of Mothers and Relatives of the Disappeared, Assassinated and Political Prisoners, COMADRES). COMADRES was established in 1977 by women who were looking for information about relatives who had disappeared, were imprisoned, or killed.98 Among the first of the organizations targeting women in the labor force was the Asociación Nacional de Educadores Salvadoreños (National Association of Salvadoran Teachers), СКАЧАТЬ