As Solanges Vincent from Montreal has pointed out, "the way ahead for women is not to join in the oppressive structures, but to fight the militaristic aspects of society". According to Mme Vincent, feminists who promote a philosophy of education which supports individual achievement within the concept of the survival of the fittest only fall into the trap of the current male systems. If any policy changes for peace and development, or any alternatives to existing systems of international negotiations are to be found, then women must be educated and given management training that will promote the collective interests of women, and that will espouse values designed to transform society by sharing the world's resources rather than exploiting them for privilege, power, and profit.

It would, of course, be totally -- misleading to suggest that the women at the Forum were speaking with one voice, but the overall impression was one of women coming together to take charge of their own lives and in their] own way. I felt that the women of the world were saying much more clearly at Nairobi than at either Mexico City or Copenhagen that women need their own space; they no longer need or want men to control their lives. Too many women of the world have discovered personally that the security guaranteed through military strength only guarantees killing and death. Women are ready to manage their own agriculture, their own cooperative businesses. Women do two thirds of the world's work, it is surely time they had some say in how the world is to be governed.

EQUALITY

One of the most significant developments at the Conference was the sense that the majority of the women present do not feel that they are adequately represented by the governments in power, and women from the United States and Europe expressed this sense as much as women from Africa, Central and South America. Having acknowledged this fact publicly, many women seemed renewed by the Conference and went home ready to re-dedicate themselves to bringing about more equitable systems-systems that acknowledge the different contributions coming from women and women's cultures.

In her book, Ruth sivard points out that the United Nations has been the mechanism for attracting world attention and for setting standards for action for women. She says, "Despite the diversity of experience and status, women have recently begun to come together on common ground what women have found to bind them together is a single thread that winds through all cultures. They share a sense of inequality of opportunity, the injustice of traditionally-imposed second place, whether in the family, social, economic or political setting".

. . . Nairobi . . . a re-
Commitment to new
beginnings of...
ever widening world
non-violent
revolution.

The link between women's advancement and social-economic progress was widely recognized at Forum '85. When women are given training, skills, and education, the nation's productivity thrives. What is good for women is good for society as a whole. Ruth Sivard believes the "silent revolution" is gaining strength, and she says there is an under- current of confidence and co-operation among women that is new to the world and has great promise.

The end of the UN Decade for Women is by no means the end of the World Women's movement. What we experienced at Nairobi was a renewal - a re-commitment to new beginnings of a more inclusive and ever widening world non-violent revolution: a transformative revolution - one that indeed heralds a better world for all planetary people.

Dr. Fulton is President of Mount St. Vincent University and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her concern for the position of women in society relates directly to her acute awareness that the danger of nuclear war must be eliminated. She has been a member of CCLOW for many years.