MY grandfather was a man of considerable prestige, much sought after for his services and advice. The source of this prestige was not wealth; it was the fact that he had ten children. that all of them survived, and that eight of them were boys. t

In that sense, little has changed in the decades which have seen so much change in other spheres. In Africa, as in many parts of the world, a woman who gives birth to three boys will consider herself fortunate, and be much admired, while her neighbour who has three daughters will be an object of pity. If the two meet, both are shy and embar rassed at the great contrast in their fortunes. If the same circumstance arose in those many parts of Asia in which the dowry system still prevails, then the consequences would be even more severe; a family with three girl children might well face financial ruin.

The challenge we face is the challenge of moving to the point at which these all-impor tant differences are of no Importance. It is an immensely long road to travel. The Fourth World Conference on Women, to be held In Beijing in 1995, will be both a milestone and a signpost.

The Lever of Education

The challenge is essentially one of finding practical levers to bring about change in the years immediately ahead. And I think there can be little doubt that the most powerful of those levers is education. An educated woman almost always has more value and status in the eyes of her husband, her family.and her community. She is likely to have more aware -1 ness. more opportunities.

more choice, and more confidence. Even if all else remains unchanged, and even if the educated woman still has no opportunities outside the home, her position Is still likely to be transformed: she is more likely, for example, to share In family decisions about how many children to have, how to bring them up. how to spend money, how to organize domestic life, and how to care for her own and her family's health. Her husband will also treat her In a different, less dictatorial way, find she will be less susceptible to bullying and intimidation by her in-laws. All of this inevitably. If slowly, raises the woman's status, and makes it more likely that the gender conditioning of the next generation will be less severely discriminatory.

Family Planning

The second great force for transforming the Ilves of women in the developing world is the spread of family planning services. The number of children born to a woman has a fundamental impact on her health, on her time and energies, on her freedom and opportunities, and on the chances of her children growing up healthy and educated.

Women's Health

A third lever is direct action to improve the health of women and girls. Too often, females eat last arid least: and If they want to be well thought of and well treated, then they are taught that they must, in all circumstances, consider the needs of others first. When it comes to health, they are expected to simply put up with

by Gertrude Mongella

problems which, in males, would he complained about and acted upon. A girl or a woman is expected to work even if she is quite seriously ill; a boy with a headache will be told to lie down. A woman is expected to bear pain and suffering with fortitude. She is told she will shame her parents if she cries In labour. And she knows that the more suffering she can bear the more she will be praised. Boys — and often men too — are fused over and attended to when they are the slightest bit ill.

This neglect of the health needs of women leads to serious problems and to a further undermining of their position and their capacities. In the developing world, over 40% of worpen suffer from iron-deficiency anaemia, in some, the lack of attention to health and nutrition during childhood and puberty leads to great difficulty during the years of child-bearing and is a major cause of the low-birth-weight syndrome which does no much to perpetuate malnutrition and poor growth from one generation to the next. Worldwide, 500,000 women die every year from the complications that arise during pregnancy and -labour - and many times that number are left with InJuri,es, Illnesses, and disabilities which can be embarrassing, painful, debilitating. lifelong — and which undermine their health and their strength and their opportunities

Women's Technology

A fourth powerful lever Is the kind of technology that lightens the burden on women In the developing world rather

than increasing it. These technologies are not usually expensive. Standpipes and handpumps. small ploughs and tools to help with the weeding and harvesting, powered grain-grinding mills, and cooking stoves that mean that only half as much firewood needs to be collected — these are the technologies that could save millions of women hours of drudgery every day. improving health and releasing time and energy for more productive purposes.

By and large, the technology already exists. But there is too big a gap between those who create it and those who need it. and there is too'much bureaucracy in the attempt to make technology available to poor and often Illiterate women. The result is a plethora of appropriate-technology exhibitions and demonstration centres in capital cities — while millions of women expend their time, their health. and their energies in fetching and carrying and pounding.

Synergisms

It is this powerful set of practical, affordable, and mutually reinforcing changes — in | education, family planing, health, and women s technologies — that could do most to bring about the beginnings of a transformation for many millions of women in the de veloping world

Gertrude Mongella is the Secretary ie neral of the Fourth World t'on/erence on Women ro he held in Beiltnq tn September 1995 After holding »eieral mintt tertal potus tn the Government of Tanzania she served as her roun try s High Commissioner to Inrita before taking up her present op pointmeni