Commission On the Status of Women Parallel Event
Exploring Inner Resources in the Context of Equal Participation and Shared Responsibility Between Women and Men”
At the United Nations, the Fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women explored the theme “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS.” From March 2nd to March 13th, delegates from both governmental and non-governmental sectors engaged in workshops, panels, discussions, and sessions with the general assembly to feedback on the work being done around the world relating to the theme.
The Brahma Kumaris explored the theme from the perspective of the utilization of one’s own “inner resources” in equal participation and shared responsibilities between men and women in a panel discussion. The discussion drew upon the experiences of three accomplished young women from Mexico, Canada, and the USA.
The moderator for the panel was Paola Cubas, a researcher for OECD’s Global Project Measuring the Progress of Societies. She effectively set the stage for inner resources as those values, virtues, principles and personal powers that help us to live our lives in a more effective and enjoyable way.
The first panelist was Abigail Uc, the General Director at the Institute for Developing Mayan Culture in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. She was sent as a representative of the first female Governor of the Yucatan, thirty-six year old Ivonne Aracelly Ortega Pacheco. In a country where those who occupy government seats are predominantly male, Abigail proudly, respectfully and with great care presented to us the governor’s vision for the present and future of the Yucatan and Mexico at large. The vision has been given the title New Citizen Majority in part because there is under-representation of women and youth, and it is the youth sector that represents over half of the population of Yucatan. Yucatan is seeing social, economic, and regional gaps that are dividng the country unlike any time before. The governor believes that women and youth can and will play an integral role in constructing social justice in the areas of health, education, and productivity.
Abigail’s presentation set a clear foundation for recognizing the need to use one’s inner resources in order to overcome social and political inequalities.
The next presenter was Erica Corbett, a researcher from Canada who spent several months in Africa working within the program Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS. Erica’s research was to investigate male involvement in women’s reproductive health choices as a way to improve PMTCT outcomes. There is a need to improve the knowledge and attitude of support men have about the program, HIV/AIDS, and the women who are participants in PMTCT. There is great stigma in Africa surrounding HIV/AIDS and the men, women, and children who are infected. The need for programs like PMTCT is very great. So, what is then equally as great is the need to gain interest from community members in participating in, and supporting this program. On a personal note, Erica shared that what seems to gain participation and support in these programs is her own use of inner strength and the value that she has for her research and PMTCT. Erica conveyed that her commitment and value for her research and PMTCT helped create integrity for the program and trust from participants.
The final panelist was Nalishha Mehta, an International Trade Union Educator and Trainer from the USA, who shared a values based approach to the work she does at a local, national, and international level. Through storytelling, Nalishha clearly demonstrated that a contrast exists between the roles we play as employees and the inner qualities or values that exist within each one of us that motivate us to take jobs or take on tasks. The first story was set in Nalishha’s office in Washington DC where stress and tension were growing over a period of time amongst her co-workers. She did an activity with them where she guided them to first identify the different roles that they play in their lives. Next, she instructed her co-workers to step back from the role and identify the quality that enabled them to play that role. She finished by encouraging her co-workers to focus on that quality for the remainder of the day. The feedback from her co-workers was filled with their own personal insights and appreciation for recognizing these inner qualities.
Nalishha then took us to Indonesia where she had a dialogue with the female employees on women’s leadership in the work place. As far as their own ability and capacity to lead, the women felt that other women would accept them as leaders, but that the men would not. When Nalishha addressed the male employees, they disagreed and never saw woman’s leadership as an issue before. These dialogues continued between the men and women and the eventual outcome was that as the women - and men - began seeing the capacity for leadership within themselves and developed a healthy self-image, others became more willing to accept them as leaders in the workplace.
The final story that demonstrated this need to recognize and utilize our inner resources took us back to the recent Presidential Election in the USA. Nalishha noted that during that time many people working in her office, and in Washington DC in general, were spending a lot of their own extra time; their physical and mental energy, on campaigning for the then president-elect Barack Obama. These people identified so strongly with their role in the campaign that once the election was one, they lost their sense of purpose. Nalishha’s aim was to demonstrate that when we act at an external level, pulling from physical resources, then the success we achieve will only be short lived. There is a need to pull from an internal level and use the inner resources that we have recognizing that these do not disapear when the task is done but that they have been strengthened through use and are now available to use for whatever elase we may want to accomplish in the future. In fact these inner resources are an ongoing renewable resource and this brings the experience of true success.
After the panel discussion, the Brahma Kumaris ended the event with a reflection commentary that guided all who were present in the room to identify the quality, the value within them that brought them to be present at this Commission for the Status of Women. Each participant was guided to reflect on that quality and keep it in their awareness for the remainder of the day.
Submitted by Colleen
