"Ignorance was and still is a factor in the subservience of women. From their earliest years they tend to be kept in ignorance of schooling possibilities. Later they are kept in ignorance of their matrimonial, social and legal rights... Information is the only guarantee of individual freedom. (p. 20)"

The increased research of women scholars and the expansion of the network throughout the Decade is certainly heartening, but in the dozens of other workshops dealing with education at all levels, it becomes imperative to recognize that if women are educated within the male structures and systems and given the same perspective as men, they will only acquiesce in their own subservience. A fact dramatically illustrated by the actions of the women from Iran who, wearing their heavy dark chadors, were coached outside the workshops by their male companions before trying to disrupt the discussion. Their most bitter denunciations were heaped on feminists for peace, accepting as the Iranian women did the religious philosophy of their male leaders to live by the sword and to die by it.

...women must...
espouse values designed
to transform
society by sharing
the world's resources
rather than exploiting
them for privilege, power and
profit.

PEACE

The overall themes of this Conference remained the same as for Copenhagen (1980) and Mexico (1975) - Equality, Development and Peace. However, a significant shift from the rhetoric of equality to the reality of survival was apparent. In addition to a heavy involvement in matters pertaining to the education of women, much of my time was also spent on issues having to do with world peace and the survival of the planet.

Mount Saint Vincent University had hosted an International Conference on "Women's Alternatives for Negotiating Peace: The Urgency for True Security" in June, 1985. It was attended by 350 women of the world community from 33 countries. The Canadian Women's Coalition for Peace who organized and sponsored the Conference sent their conference statement on peace and their affirmation forward to be part of the proceedings in Nairobi. Many NGO delegates in Nairobi had been at our Halifax Conference, and it was most gratifying to see the leadership given by Canadian women in the "Peace Tent" - a central focus of Forum activities.

Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg from Montreal was indefatigable in her organization of a panel discussion which I chaired on "Women's Education for Policy Change Towards Peace and Development". Our three hour session attracted over 350 delegates who listened attentively for three hours (many of them using ear-phones which picked up translations in five languages - English, French, German, Spanish and Swahili). Panelists included the well known Norwegian feminist Birgit Brock-Utne, peace researcher and educator.

Lyse Blanchard, Director of the Women's Program for the Government of Canada gave a feminist's examination of systems analysis of the decision making process and military thinking. Anne Runyan, who has also devoted herself to researching international peace issues from a feminist perspective, and Dorothy Rosenberg, addressed themselves to questions of how to bring about policy changes particularly in regard to economic conversation of military budgets to spending on social development. Carmencita Hernandez spoke for immigrant women and their exploitation in the spiraling militarization of the globe.

More women the world over are coming to realize that educating women just to participate in and to move up in the patriarchal and hierarchical structures will change nothing. Those who espouse a feminist ideology of equality which demands a woman's equal right along with men to a combat role in the military are only assisting in retrenching the militaristic goals of domination which threaten the survival of the planet.

Out of the many heated discussions on the issue of male dominance and male power structures symbolized by the multi-nationals, banks, and politically powerful groups came a growing awareness that if the world is to survive, women must go beyond all political or religious ideologies to form a new kind of world order - one based on a sense of nurturing and collaboration and cooperation with others and not on competitiveness and conquering.