The improvement of living standards was the subject of a larger display called "Tech and Tools." Food production and storage, and conservation were just a few of the subjects dealt with - demonstrations on bee-keeping; simple, efficient cool stores; solar heat made "Tech and Tools" a very popular area. Representatives to the U.N. conference went to it even if that was the only "Forum" event they saw.

What was Nairobi all about? For me, it was a reinforcement of my awareness that there are no women's "issues" - that everything impacts on women. I found it helpful to be reminded of that in relation to the most basic concerns of life. It was also international recognition of the kinds of pressures that women everywhere face constantly. No more can governments say that they don't understand the impact of policies on women. Each paragraph discussed at the U.N. conference has impact on women, something which could be seen and heard from women at the "Forum." In that way, the two events the "Forum" and the U.N. conference complemented each other. Unlike other conferences where subjects are examined intellectually from a distance, in Nairobi the rhetoric and the subjects of the rhetoric were a fifteen minute walk apart.

Nairobi was also about women understanding that we are dependent on the good will of men, unless we keep working at getting an equal share of power. The distinctions between countries where women have voices in government compared to those where they don't, were so clear, that only those who are unable or unwilling to hear would miss them.

The hopefulness of Nairobi was the awareness that the women's decade did put pressure on governments to act; out of embarrassment, if for no other reason. For us in Canada, the hopefulness of Nairobi was in the part Canada played to make the U.N. conference meaningful.

The Canadian representatives had strategic roles in the outcome of the conference. Only time will tell what kind of impact that will have on us within this country, but it should not be ignored.