Workshop: Gender, Rights and Empowerment in Southeast Asia
This conference will be taken place November 1-2, 2007, Eastin Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
WARI is a Bangkok-based women’s organization devoted to gender research, education and training. It is organizing its 8^th annual gender and Southeast Asia conference on November 1-2, 2007. The event has been successful for the last 7 years. We are looking forward to your participation and to another year of successful meeting. The conference welcomes participants from SE Asia and other countries. We invite interested students, teachers, NGO and GO workers, activists, scholars, consultants, and representatives of UN/donor agencies to participate.
This year, we will have at least two panels devoted to issues of Thai women. Please circulate this announcement.
Gender issues are often resisted in SE Asia and other countries of the global south while gender training programs and discourse have often not been successful. At least four reasons can be cited. One is the resistance of men and bureaucracies headed by men. Two, women’s movements have often been perceived as an imitation of western women’s liberation demanding personal/individual rights. This approach perceived as promoting self-centeredness has not made much sense to most women who still hold fast to traditional obligation toward family and society. In Thailand where patron-client relations prevail, family rather than market or the state is still the safety net. Third, effective gender education is lacking and not adequately supported by donor agencies or the state. And fourth, funding agencies sometimes create contradictory consequences. Policy-wise, they help maintain activists’ programs. But for their own survival, they keep activists busy in the market mechanism of proposal and report writing. This “professionalization” of women/gender issues sometimes encourages middle class entrepreneurship in the name of working for gender justice. The constellation of donors and circles of women NGO clients leave little space for dissent and critical voices. This conformation or complacency to such mechanism sometimes turns once idealist to self-promoting activists/scholars busy in travel, meeting and accounting than continuing their personal and institutional resistance against social injustice or market mechanism.
There are very few courageous voices, but the obstacles to promotion of gender justice are many. The voice of middle class is often heard, but the voice of and attention to marginal women is lacking.
In spite of mental resistance and funding obstacles, WARI wants to continue this dialogue. The aim of the annual conference is to advance gender understanding and to deepen gender, rights and empowerment approaches in order to develop and facilitate their application to emerging social issues and challenges. The conference hopes to foster a network of Gender Education and training (GET Net) to support and help facilitate a continuing dialogue on gender, capacity building and critical human resource development.
The conference would be held right after a seven-day gender-training workshop on gender and human rights in SE Asia. The issues of gender, diversity, culture, education, and rights, along with issues of training and conceptualization are of continuing interest. In addition, we are interested in the application of gender and rights approaches to contemporary areas of HIV/AIDS, violence, and trafficking, and to the case studies of marginalized women such as girl child, migrant women and ethnic minorities. Possible panels are as follows. Additional panels on related issues can also be suggested.
1. Gender, diversity, identity, education and training
2. Challenges of gender and development issues in Thailand, Mekong region and SE Asia
3. Rights-based approach and women’s empowerment
4. Gender issues in HIV/AIDS, violence, and trafficking
5. Issues of marginal women: girl child, migrants, and ethnic minorities
6. Application of CEDAW and MDGs
The conference uses English medium and will be held at Eastin Hotel, Bangkok on November 1-2, 2007. The registration fee is USD100 or 3,500 baht. Scholarship (for Thai and other needy participants) is available to reduce the registration fee to 1,500 baht. Registration form is
attached or could be accessed with other details from our website geocities.com/wari. Last date for registration is April 15, and for paper submission June 30, 2007.
You don’t have to submit a paper to participate. Our email gendertrain@yahoo.com
This year, we will have at least two panels devoted to issues of Thai women. Please circulate this announcement.
Gender issues are often resisted in SE Asia and other countries of the global south while gender training programs and discourse have often not been successful. At least four reasons can be cited. One is the resistance of men and bureaucracies headed by men. Two, women’s movements have often been perceived as an imitation of western women’s liberation demanding personal/individual rights. This approach perceived as promoting self-centeredness has not made much sense to most women who still hold fast to traditional obligation toward family and society. In Thailand where patron-client relations prevail, family rather than market or the state is still the safety net. Third, effective gender education is lacking and not adequately supported by donor agencies or the state. And fourth, funding agencies sometimes create contradictory consequences. Policy-wise, they help maintain activists’ programs. But for their own survival, they keep activists busy in the market mechanism of proposal and report writing. This “professionalization” of women/gender issues sometimes encourages middle class entrepreneurship in the name of working for gender justice. The constellation of donors and circles of women NGO clients leave little space for dissent and critical voices. This conformation or complacency to such mechanism sometimes turns once idealist to self-promoting activists/scholars busy in travel, meeting and accounting than continuing their personal and institutional resistance against social injustice or market mechanism.
There are very few courageous voices, but the obstacles to promotion of gender justice are many. The voice of middle class is often heard, but the voice of and attention to marginal women is lacking.
In spite of mental resistance and funding obstacles, WARI wants to continue this dialogue. The aim of the annual conference is to advance gender understanding and to deepen gender, rights and empowerment approaches in order to develop and facilitate their application to emerging social issues and challenges. The conference hopes to foster a network of Gender Education and training (GET Net) to support and help facilitate a continuing dialogue on gender, capacity building and critical human resource development.
The conference would be held right after a seven-day gender-training workshop on gender and human rights in SE Asia. The issues of gender, diversity, culture, education, and rights, along with issues of training and conceptualization are of continuing interest. In addition, we are interested in the application of gender and rights approaches to contemporary areas of HIV/AIDS, violence, and trafficking, and to the case studies of marginalized women such as girl child, migrant women and ethnic minorities. Possible panels are as follows. Additional panels on related issues can also be suggested.
1. Gender, diversity, identity, education and training
2. Challenges of gender and development issues in Thailand, Mekong region and SE Asia
3. Rights-based approach and women’s empowerment
4. Gender issues in HIV/AIDS, violence, and trafficking
5. Issues of marginal women: girl child, migrants, and ethnic minorities
6. Application of CEDAW and MDGs
The conference uses English medium and will be held at Eastin Hotel, Bangkok on November 1-2, 2007. The registration fee is USD100 or 3,500 baht. Scholarship (for Thai and other needy participants) is available to reduce the registration fee to 1,500 baht. Registration form is
attached or could be accessed with other details from our website geocities.com/wari. Last date for registration is April 15, and for paper submission June 30, 2007.
You don’t have to submit a paper to participate. Our email gendertrain@yahoo.com
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