Learn to be free
Female Christian students can identify and change gender inequality in their lives and others' when they put social structures under the microscope, writes Wong Yock Leng.
Gender inequality affects all of us in some point of our lives, whether it is in our family, in our social relations and environment, or in our church.
We often find ourselves in environments that, consciously or unconsciously, reinforce structures that put women second place and ideologies that prevent the realisation of full human potential and dignity.
The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) vision is to voice its objections and protest against unjust power relationships and structures that stop every woman and man from living life in abundance. One of the many tools that WSCF uses to achieve this vision is education.
It is not merely about pursuing academic achievement, it needs to be a form of prophetic or conscientising education that becomes the means of personal and community transformation.
Tree of life: A picture drawn by a woman taking part in sharing "her-story " – a way of explaining how families impact our lives and perspectives. © WSCF
It is prophetic because it critically assesses and challenges existing systems – it is concerned to search out and criticise the popular assumptions on which social hypocrisy and injustice stand.
It is conscientising because it brings a change of consciousness regarding a person's place in nature and society, a capacity to analyse critically causes and consequences and a readiness to act for personal and cultural transformation.
The WSCF runs a women doing theology programme and programmes on issues such as violence against women, the trafficking of women in northeast Asia and achieving women and men's partnership.
There are also WSCF internship programmes through which women students spend three to four months with non-governmental organisations working for women's rights.
These programmes aim to equip the participants with skills that will enable them to carry out contextual, social and organisational critiqueing and campaigning on these issues. It also aims to assist and support young women in SCMs (Student Christian Movement) to formulate national women's programmes and campaign plans.
Real life
WSCF education draws its strength from lived experiences.
The first session of every regional women's programme is the participants' sharing of "her-story".
This enables the participant to reflect on their journey as a woman and on socialisation, oppression and discrimination, strengths and weaknesses. It helps them to have a better understanding of the many oppressions inflicted on other women either in their own context or in a broader context.
Many issues of gender discrimination and oppression experienced by the participants surface in these sharings. The participants get a better understanding of each other and it helps everyone to support and care for one another. The friendships they form help them to journey together in the struggle of gender inequality and women's rights during and after the programme.
On exposure trips, programme participants normally spend two to three days with a particular community and learn together about issues such as the rights of women workers, women living in urban poor areas or internally displaced women.
In one of the women doing theology programmes participants started a boycott of Nestlé products after spending two days with the women workers affected by the unfair labour practices of the company!
Women take part in a gender sensitivity workshop in Bangladesh. © WSCF
Inner change
Participants often say that these programmes and the lessons from them, are organised from the heart. Many felt that the programmes have helped to transform their lives.
A woman on the internship programme who worked with an organisation that coordinates support for women entertainers returning from northeast Asian countries says: "Going to several homestays and working directly with the women made me understand that doing theology must begin from where the people are. This experience helps me reflect on my aims to be a pastor when I graduate in near future."
Another intern working with the organisation says: "I am in the process of being more honest with myself in terms of my commitment to the social movement in my country and women's issues. In the past, there was a lot of rhetoric about commitment to the cause of social justice, but this experience gave me a deeper knowledge of myself – whether my commitment is sincere or just following the current fashion."
Through the in depth understanding of structures and ideology that shape our family and society, people can be transformed, which in turn can transform the oppressions and inequalities affecting lives.
This reflects the SCM spirit of commitment to the Christian faith while constantly engaging in critical dialogues with the church and the Christian theology to eradicate gender inequality. Our vision of the Basileia, where the new heaven and new earth of humanity will reign, can then be realised.
Wong Yock Leng is WSCF Asia Pacific regional women's coordinator.