Work From Home Jobs Sunderland

Teaching/Learning Gender and Sex Through Systems Thinking in Asian and African Philosophy

By Josephine Acosta-Pasricha, PhD

This is an academic paper presented twice in Asian Philosophical Conferences, recently rethought and reframed, reinvented and reengineered through Systems Thinking, for use by philosophy professors teaching feminism, gender studies and women studies.It is now specially relevant with the establishment of UN Women, the UN Entity for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls by January 2011. Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile 2006-2010, a doctor of medicine, defense specialist and divorced/single mother of three children, is the first UN Women head, appointed as undersecretary general of the United Nations on 15 September 2010.The Millennium Summit, which came out with Millennium Development Goals in 2000, has celebrated its 10th anniversary on 20-22 September 2010 at the United Nations in New York. The heads of state/government and the representatives of 192 countries attended and assessed what their countries have done in ten years and what they still have to do for the next five to ten years. US President Barack Obama said in 2009: "We will support the Millennium Development Goals and approach next year's summit with a Global Plan to make them a reality and set our own sights to the eradication of extreme poverty in our time."At the United Nations in 2010, President Obama presented a New US Global Development Policy that is founded on three criteria of winner countries -- good governance, economic stability and results/outcomes. This is "soft power" in action -- the ability to set and attain goals without the use of force.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also distributed "A Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health" - a strategic handbook that contains policies, processes, programs, best practices and actions to help countries cut maternal mortality and infant mortality by two thirds by 2015.Policies are rules for selecting any means towards a goal or defining function. Processes are sequences of actions directed to goals. Programs are combinations of actions directed to a particular goal. Practises are repeated actions. Actions are one time choices of means. (Russell Ackoff, et. al., 1976)"Stand up, take action and make noise for the MDGs" also happened around the world on 17-19 September 2010.So "Wake me up when the data is over" (Lori Silverman, 2006).Wake me up when the Millennium Document 2010 has been signed, which promises US $26 Billion for maternal and infant health care for 2011 alone, and US $40 Billion for the next five years to the Global FundThen, we can do Story-Telling with MDG warriors on the ground as in People Power People for change management and transformational leadership.

Teaching/Learning Gender and Sex Through Systems Thinking in Asian and African Philosophy

By Josephine Acosta-Pasricha, PhD

visiting scholar in Systems Thinking

Organizational Dynamics, SAS Graduate Studies

University of Pennsylvania

Happy Canada Day, July 1, 2011Update: Kate might have a baby girl!

Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, make their first overseas visit as married royal couple to Canada. Presentation of national flags to new Canadian citizens, Noon Show, music, pageantry, fireworks, flypast, also a link up with Canadian Forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Six year old cancer patient, Diamond Marshall is hugged bythe Duchess of Cambridge. Diamond alsowrote a letter to her favorite princess. "My name is Diamond. I am six. I was named afterPrincess Diana.My mommy Memory is in heaven with her. I have cancer. I spend a lot of time at the hospital. I watched you get married from my bed. There you looked pretty. I like playing princess dress up. My favorite princess is Aurora, who is yours? I would really like to meet you. Do you want to meet me too? Thank you for reading my letter."

Diplomacyby Design(er): Maple leaf fascinator, red and white colors of Canada, dress wrap by Reiss

Royal purple jerseygown by Issa London

At BAFTA in Hollywood, Kate stuns in a lavender Alexander McQueen gown

Kate, Duchess of Cambridge dons on chef outfit in a cooking workshop at the Institute of Tourism.

The New Romantics: The double kiss, the dress, the Wedding of the 21st century

Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, invited representatives of their Charities -- women, children, the sick, disabled and marginalizedto their wedding on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey. They also encouraged guests to give to favorite charities inlieu of wedding gifts. .

INTRODUCTION

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and it becomes the earthshaking event of half a century. Change is coming. Change is.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Yemeni human rights activist and journalist Tawakkul Karman

Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee

Statement of the Problem

The problem of this paper is how philosophy can promote gender equality and empowerment of girls and women, as mandated by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations -- through Systems Thinking.

In September 2000, the Millennium Summit was the largest gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, participated in by 150 heads of State or heads of Governments.

The Millennium Summit addressed major global challenges, in an agenda for reducing poverty, its causes and manifestations.

The Millennium Summit came out with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or global targets that the leaders of the world set in the Millennium Declaration.

Such as how to pull 1.2 billion people in 2000 out of extreme poverty, how to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, and how to protect the environment.

Dr. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania

Graca Machel

Graca Machel and her Scholars

Nelson Mandela and wife, Graca Machel

UN Women Director Michelle Bachelet and UST Prof. Dr. Josephine AcostaPasricha

Michelle Bachelet and US President Barack Obama

Prince Charles and Michelle Bachelet

1. The wholemay have one or more defining functions. Thus, a system has one or more functions. A system may also be part of one or many larger containing systems; its functions being the roles it plays with these larger systems.
2. Properties and behavior of each element and the way the elementaffects the whole depends on properties and behavior of at least one other element of the set. Each part in the set can affect the functions of the whole. No part has an independent effect on the whole. Although all systems also have appendices which do not affect the properties of the whole.
3. There is a subset of parts that is sufficient in one or more environments for carrying out the defining function of the whole. Each of these parts is necessary but insufficient for carrying out this defining function. These parts are essential parts of the system. Without any one of them, the system cannot carry out its defining function. Most systems also contain nonessential parts that affect their functioning, but not their defining function. A system that requires certain environmental conditions in order to carry out its defining function is an open system. A system that could carry out its function in every environment would be completely independent of its environment and therefore be a closed system.The environment of a system consists of things that can affect the properties and performance of the system; but over which, it has no control. The part of environment that a system can influence, but not control, is said to be transactional. The part of environment, that can neither be influenced nor controlled, is said to be contextual.
4. The way that each essential part affects the systems behavior or properties depends on the behavior or properties of at least one other essential part of the system. The essential parts of a system form a connected set, that is, a path can be found between any two parts. No essential part of a system has an independent effect on the system of which it is a part. The essential parts of a system necessarily interact, either directly or indirectly.
5. The effect of any subset of essential parts on the system as a whole depends on the behavior of at least one other subset. Like the individual parts of a system, no subset of parts of a system has an independent effect on it. If the parts of an entity do not interact, they form an aggregation, not a system.

In my whole life of almost 60 years, 40 of which were spent as a journalist, I have never gone inside a red-light district.

I have seen the famous red light district of Amsterdam, where the women are on display in glass windows. But it was only from a safe distance inside a moving car.

I have seen the women for sale in the streets of Bangkok. Also from a distance.

I have walked up and down Ermita in Manila, Pasay, Makati, and seen the women of the night sitting by the doorways of bars and parlors and other entertainment establishments. Again, from a distance.

In Kamagayan, Cebu, however, Ihave goneinside the red-light district with social workers. I have met and talked with the prostitutes, the pimps, the mama-sans.

The only people I did not see were the owners and their politician-protectors.

14 to 65!

The stories of most prostitutes are the same, they are young, well-protected daughters of decent fathers, mostly poor farmers and fishermen in the small towns of our country. They have reached only grade or high school. Very few are in college.

Most have run away from home, because ofabsolute poverty and the alluring promises of a recruiter to be given decent work as waitress or saleslady in the city.

But you can establish a profile of the Filipino prostitute. When asked how old they are, they always say they are 18 all the way to 24. But you look at their faces and bodies and many of them look like minors. Their true ages range from 14 up to 65. Yes, sexagenarians are also in demand.

They never tell you their real ages. Just as they never tell you where they come from and their real names. The names of the same persons change every night.

At the very outset, here are women living a life of lies, lying to others and lying to themselves. You look into their eyes, and you see hurt and the woundedness of Filipino women without a positive self-image, without a sense of self-worth, and without self-respect. There is an identity crisis in each and every girl.

Who can accept such a sordid life in such a sordid profession?

Cebu is the oldest city in the country, the exact place where Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines for the West, and where Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan on April 27, 1521. Cebu is where the cross of Christianity was first planted and the image of the Sto. Nio was given to Queen Juliana.

Barangay Kamagayan in Cebu, is the oldest red-light district in the Philippines.

Welcome to the maze

Archived records speak of Kamagayan district as early as 1906.

Periodical records report it as a prostitution district as early as 1920. And it is plausible, because most prostitution districts in the world, from ancient Greece up to today's modern metropolis, are located at the piers or at the end of the train line.

Kamagayan used to be the end of the train station.

Barangay Kamagayan, which has a barangay center and even a health center that displays prominently information on HIV/AIDs and STD, is composed of three blocks, bordered by the streets of Junquera, P. del Rosario, Jakosalem and Sanciangco. Junquera has been known as the street of prostitution as early as 1920.

Junquera is a one way street, but at night, taxis and cars can go against the traffic into the barangay.

Demographically speaking, there are about 42 casas or prostitution dens here, with about 42 mama-sans or den mothers. As of today, there are 35. They are older women, oftentimes dressed in dusters and playing cards.

There are 60 to 80 pimps working in one night, those who negotiate with the men for the girls. There are certain rules to follow in the negotiation. When a foreigner arrives in Cebu, the taxi driver may ask if the foreigner needs a girl for a night. If the guest agrees, he is brought into Kamagayan, a slum or squatter area, in the same taxi.

The pimps cover the four streets, together with street watchers. The first pimp that the guest or taxi driver talks to owns the negotiation. So the pimps do not fight over the same commercial transactions.

The girls sit on plastic monoblock benches strewn all over the barangay, in street corners, in front of houses or casas, and in the small unpaved plaza. I have also sat on one of those plastic chairs, which is really a childs chair!

When the taxi enters the small plaza clearing, the girls line up.

There can be 10 to 20, or 50 to 70 girls in the chorus line. On heavy days, there can be 250 girls. The cheaper girls are in the entry points of the barangay. The more beautiful ones, the more expensive ones are inside the depths of the barangay.

The headlights of the taxi flood over the girls in the line-up; then, the customer, from inside the taxi, chooses his girl. The girl may go with the customer to his pension house, motel, five-star hotel, or rent any of the casa rooms or cubicles in the barangay.

In a place called City Center, which is actually a market during the day, that turns into a prostitution house for the night, there are cubicles for rent for only P20 to P30 short time. The cubicles are as small as a confessional box, with only a single mattress on the muddy floor. The walls are made of thin unpainted plywood. You can hear whatever is happening inside.

Nauseating sight

The cubicle is the most nauseating sight that an advocate for womens rights and against child abuse could ever see. Even I have never felt the same revulsion before, and I have seen the ancient excavated prostitution houses in Pompeii, Italy, with pornographic paintings on the walls, and chairs and beds based on stone.

How is RA 6393, the law against trafficking of women and children applied in this case? Or RA 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003?How can the latest foreign financial aid against trafficking of humans abolish this abomination?

On ordinary days, there are 100, 300 to 500 prostitutes here. One girl can cost from P300 to P500. But the price can go down to a measly P50 to P100. The first-class prostitutes, who in fact do not sit here, or join the line are priced at P15, 000 to P70, 000.

The official share of this payment from P50 to P500 is 25 percent for the girls, 25 percent for the pimp and 25 percent for the mama-san.

The girls do not get their payment, though. It is listed on paper, and used as debt payment for the food, lodging, clothing, make-up, medicine or drugs that the girls are given. The interest rate is worse than five-six. If the girl has no customer, she is not given food. There are many days, when the girls complain that they have not eaten for the day.

After dinner in the middle of the night, we go around Kamagayan and distribute food to the girls. But they would rather ask for condoms.

The girls are also forbidden to talk to strangers, even to the customers, and specially to social workers. They are fined when they are caught talking to strangers. The fine is charged against their income.

Kamagayan is busy from 8:30 in the evening up to 4:30 at dawn.

Traffic is heavy on certain days. Especially paydays on the 15th and last day of the month. And when there is a convention in Cebu. Even conventions of interdenominational religions are no exemption.

Most of the clients are construction workers in the lower bracket and foreigners in the upper bracket of the economic ladder.

The heaviest traffic is when Americans go on rest and recreation in Cebu. Then, casas all over the country congregate here. And they can buy whole casas from Luzon, or Visayas or Mindanao and transport them over here.

Waiting for Prince Charming

As I write this, I put to risk the lives of the girls, the social workers, myself and my editors. Because the knee-jerk reaction of government after such an expos as this, is to raid the red-light district and imprison the girls and the pimps. Never have they caught any owner or a prostitution lord.

The girls may be abused by their casa owners and the police.

Gender Equality is a human right. A person has the human right to development. But Kamagayan, the red-light district will be quiet.

Second Order of Change

How can an Idealized Design be formedfor the future ofKamagayan and absolutely poor villages like it?

Jeanette V. Loanzon, Doctor in Economics, Rel. Pol, from Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, MBA from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, and Masters on Economics Education from CRC, now the University of Asia and Pacific, has worked with women and girls in poorgrassroots communitiesthrough incubatingsmall and medium scale businesses with them for decades.

Loanzon writes: "Local development forms the roots of an authentic global village. In a developing country, the government needs much from NGOs so that citizens can have more, know more, and be more."

(Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio)

Hon. Loren Legarda, senator of the Philippines

Gender equality and empowerment of women and children, one of the platforms of His Excellency Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III President of the Republic of the Philippines, 2010-2016.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability and
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Dream High, a metafiction Korean TV drama dares to take up sexual harassment and suicide

It is our position then that we have the mandate, to empower girls and women in Asia and Africa. One of the ways by which we can empower girls and women in Asia and Africa is by Knowledge/Understanding generation, by teachingboth the theory of feminist philosophy and the practice of empowerment, through the lenses of Systems Theory/Thinking.

I have been teaching feminist theory for the past thirty years. I have taught other philosophy subjects, like logic, dialectics, philosophical psychology, ethics, aesthetics, hermeneutics, cultural studies, Oriental culture andstudies, specifically Indian studies for the past forty years. I teach Feminism as a core subject. And even when I am not teaching Feminist Philosophy as core, I always try to include Empowerment of Women in any and all the subjects that I teach. And the transformation of my students, both female and male, in consciousness raising, commitment and compassion is total. I still have to meet a student of mine, who has not gone through some kind of conversion narrative.

THE PRESENT CONTEXT

Since the mid 1950s in the United States of America, however, the word discrimination has acquired an exclusive negative shading, because of its politically loaded use as a term of condemnation. Discrimination has quickly acquired the following meaning: unfair and reprehensible behavior towards a representative of a given race, religion, ethnic group, sex, or behavioral dysfunction.

Lately, it is legally actionable for a citizen to notice or comment upon the distinguishing characteristic of some offended group, even if no unfair action follows, according to George Sunderland, a policy analyst in Washington D. C. in his paper, Discrimination and Differentiation: An Ethical Biological Issue.

We observe that God, however we define Him in different religions and philosophies, has given man and woman the ability to discriminate, to distinguish between good and evil, between right and wrong.

BanZhao 45-116 CE

Consider the oppression and discrimination of girls and women in Asia and Africa, for instance.

In India, despite the Indian Independence Act, declared on August 15, 1947; and the Constitution of India institutionalized on January 26, 1950, that also protects human rights of women, bans the payment of a marriage dowry, and the practice of suti or the wife jumping into the pyre of a dead husband, there is still the common practice of the dowry system, bride burning or murder, sex discrimination in favor of the male and a bias against the female, abortion and sterilization.

In China, there is discrimination in the work place, abortion of female fetuses, preference for boys and men in the family.

In Japan, there is the male oriented emperor system, where only the male can inherit the imperial throne, there are deadly hazards to the health of women, by a highly dangerous technology, there is child abuse and child prostitution.

In Korea, there is still the division between North Korea and South Korea, and the landmines in between that endanger the lives of children and women, there is militarism, and the unwritten law that the male is the absolute master in life. Recently, there is a string of suicides among the movie and entertainment Hallyu industry, because of depression, stress and a fast-paced public life, making Korea with the highest rate of suicidesamong OECD countries. Six out of nine suicides are women.

In Malaysia and Indonesia, there is religious fundamentalism, worsening communal relations and diminished political freedom.

MurasakiShikibu 972-1014or 1025

Equality, Development and Peace in Asia and Africa.

(Equality, Development and Peace is the Vision of the UNESCO Statement on Womens Contribution to a Culture of Peace, Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 4-15 September 1995)

As a corollary: To put an empowered woman in every home, school, workplace.

MISSION

The Mission of the Philosophy of Education for Women in Asia and Africa is:

To advocate that women achieve full equality with men through suffrage, civil rights and human rights.

To advocate that women end slavery and share in the development goals of men in economics and business world.

To advocate that women be part of the decision making and involvement with the peace process and environmental concerns.

That there is a need for nothing less than total transformation of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, for full acceptance of women.

For a woman may learn to empower herself, each and every woman in Asia and Africa may be empowered in 100 years, but if the other half of humanity cannot accept it, if men do not acknowledge the empowerment of women, there is really no genuine equality.

It is like the Northern Union of the United States of America, declaring the freedom of slaves, and the abolition of slavery during the Civil War, which Abraham Lincoln won, but without acceptance from the Southern Confederacy. When the North declared that the whole union is greater than one state, the South simply ceded from the union.

Thus, emancipation can only be fully realized if all people acknowledge and recognize the covenant. Until such time, there is really no genuine equality.

OBJECTIVES/ CORE VALUES

Our Vision/Mission is a world totally transformed particularly in Asia and Africa where women and men are politically, economically and socially equal to each other.

Our Objectives are threefold:

1. Self Development
2. Development of Knowledge and Skills
3. Communicative Action

I. For Self Development to happen:

1. There must be Development of Self Identity or a definition of the self towards self worth and self respect.
2. There must be Development of Independence, based on the physical, emotional, and financial independence of women
3. There must be Fearlessness.

II. For Development of Knowledge and Skills to happen;

1. A Philosophy subject can go through the Feminist Theory and History of Feminism both in the West and East
2. A Philosophy subject can go through the History of the Asian and African country, emphasizing the lessons learned from colonization.
3. A Philosophy subject can go through ancient philosophical texts, where women have self identity, where there is equality of status between male and female, where women are fearless, like in the Upanishads, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana; Dao de Jing ( Tao Te Ching) attributed to Lao Zi (Lao Tzu), Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), the Analects by Confucius (Kongfuzi/ Kung Fu Tzu), The Art of War by Sun Tze; Zen Buddhism by Daisetz Suzuki, the songs and poetry of ancient Japan and Korea; the Quran, of Islam Malaysia and Indonesia; Ramakien of Thailand; the letter to the Women of Malolos, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, all written by Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippines, the letter to Noynoy Aquino and siblings, Ballsy, Pinky, Viel and Krisby Benigno Aquino Jr., national martyr of the Philippines; the Epic of Sundiata in Medieval Mali, the Epic of Dinga in Ghana, the Book of Kings from Ethiopia, the animal trickters stories from Africa.

III. For Fearlessness to happen:

1. There must be a working out of relationships with the family, resolving definitions of role and expectations as wife in sexual encounters, and as mother in kinship structures.
2. There must be a working out of relationships with the community, in terms of sisterhood, support and networking.
3. There must be a working out of relationships to nature through the Peace Process and Sustainable Ecology.
4. Finally, there must be an integration of all these nine key areas in the Female, towards a whole and entire and new Personhood.

An empowered female is a person who has the capacity to counter the power over others, with the countervailing power over the self or self autonomy.

An empowered woman in every home, school and workplace!

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

These ten KEY RESULT AREAS, must have corresponding PERFORMANCE INDICATORS to test the viability and success of programs towards gender equality and empowerment of women. From the very beginning, the performance indicators must be SMART, meaning specific, measurable, accurate, realistic and time bound.

For example, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, corresponding to the Third Goal, which is to promote gender equality and empower women, indicate as one Performance Indicator the following:

To eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and at all levels, primary, secondary and tertiary education by 2015.

The Performance Indicator here is SMART: specific, measurable, accurate, realistic and certainly timebound. So if by 2005, a country among the 189 signatories, still has gender disparity in primary and secondary education, the Key Result Area can be considered as a failure in social justice. Indeed, many countries have failed in this Key Result Area in 2010.So if by 2015, the country still has gender disparity in primary, secondary and tertiary levels, again the program is a failure in social justice.

On the one hand, according to the United Nations Development Programme, as of 2003: Two third of illiterates are women, and the rate of employment among women is two thirds of men. The proportion of seats in parliaments held by women is increasing, reaching about one third in Argentina, Mozambique and South Africa.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: A MODEL FOR EMPOWERMENT

Corazon Cojuangco Aquino 1933-2009

Fearless Cory and Benigno Aquino Jrbefore a military tribunal.

Case Statement One: Power is not a substance that walks up and down the street. Power is an accident, property or attribute called relation. Power is one of nine accidents in contrast to the one self sufficient Substance in the Categories of Aristotle.

Case Statement Two: Power requires a power sender, and a power receiver.

The power sender, by virtue of position and/or resources, is able to exercise effective power over another, called power receiver. The power sender acts as superior to the power receiver acting as inferior.

There are three kinds of power:

• Normative power based on persuasion
• Remuneration based on bargaining
• Punitive power based on force
• For persuasion to work, submissiveness is necessary
• For bargaining to work, dependence is necessary
• For force to work, an element of fear is necessary

For example:

• Racism race and ethnic derivatives
• Ageism age
• Sexism gender
• Clericalism class
• Militarism class
• Imperialism -- class
• Environmental degradation

Case Statement Five: Thus, Empowerment of girls and women involves the capacity of a female to counter power over the other, with a countervailing power over the self or self autonomy.

• To answer the abuse of normative power by persuasion, the female must build a self identity and self respect
• To answer remunerative power by bargaining, the female must develop self sufficiency in the physical, emotional and financial aspects.
• To answer punitive power by force, the female must develop fearlessness.

An empowered woman in every home, school and work place!

First she must inoculate herself against the power sender, and

Aung San Suu Kyi 1945

To do so, we suggest a PROCESS, a module on self mastery as follows:

MODULE ONE: SELF MASTERY

1. Who am I?

2. What makes me happy?

3. So am I a philosopher?

4. Am I a feminime, feminist, female, feminalist philosopher?

5. What makes me decide to be a feminist?

6. What are the qualities that I have that fit a feminist philosopher?

7. What are the qualities that I do not have that a feminist should have?

8. What are the philosophical qualities that I should have, whether I am feminime, feminist, female, feminalist philosopher?

9. Am I an honorary feminist male philosopher?

10. Am I a male feminime, feminist, female philosopher?

Indira Nehru Gandhi 1917-1984

6. "A Literature of Their Own" calls Feminime, Feminist and Female stages, the patterns and phases in the evolution of female tradition, which correspond to developmental phases of any subcultural art.

7. During the Feminime phase, dating 1840 to 1880, women wrote in an effort to equal intellectual achievements of male culture and internalize assumptions about female nature.

In Feminist phase, from 1880 to 1920, or the winning of the vote, women are historically enabled to reject accommodating postures of femininity and use art to dramatize ordeals of wronged womanhood. This is Feminist Socialist Realism.

Women and Human Development

Martha Nussbaum, Ph. D., professor at University of Chicago one of top female philosophers of the 21st century

From Disgust to Humanity, 2010 on Politics of Disgust, sexual orientation and same sex marriage

2. Although women tend to work in this area, not all women philosophers are necessarily feminist philosophers, although there may be feminist implications in their work.

Questions Have Answers

1. One central question for feminist philosophers has been the extent to which philosophy is biased towards a masculine viewpoint, when the majority of past philosophers have been men. Can philosophy be trusted to be neutral on the question of sexual difference? It may be a historical accident that philosophy has been an activity associated with men. If, however, it is more deeply permeated with masculine values, feminists ask whether such values are indelibly or contingently imprinted into the practice of philosophy. Such questions implicate the basis of philosophy itself. Notions of reason, truth, and knowledge, and the way that philosophical inquiries often seem to fall into distinctions of mind-body, order-chaos, or rely on hierarchies of terms, are called into question.

2. Feminists also point out that such distinctions often map on to, or presuppose, sexual difference, aligning masculinity with reason and order. This issue is of significance because it has bearing on topics such as personhood or self-identity and epistemology. If the association of reason with masculinity is reinforced by social structures, then a particular type of experience is being validated at the expense of other possible viewpoints, and such a bias should be corrected.

Problems Have Solutions:

1. But problems arise in trying to assess where exactly the bias lies: which aspects of experience belong to which sex; to what extent such differences, if identified, belong contingently or properly to each sex; whether men and women see the world very differently and whether they are very different persons.

2. These issues are often expressed in terms of a distinction between sex and gender where sex is the biologically invariant factor and gender is comprised of social, cultural, or historical variable components. Other ways in which the division has been expressed are as nature-culture, or male-masculine and female-feminine. But making such distinctions does not necessarily resolve all the problems.

3. In the past it has been argued that sex creates or causes gender, i.e. that biology shapes cultural perceptions of difference. But this view has been objected to if it seems to result in a deterministic account of identity which cannot allow for the transformation of perceptions of difference, or attributes essentially different identities or ways of thinking to men and women. Essential difference is not necessarily a problem, but differences may be given unequal value such that women are seen as "the weaker sex".

4. A milder version of the above argument would allow that biological difference contributes to perceptions of difference but is not the only factor, and so cannot be wholly determining. Differences could then be minimized and some equality established. Difference would not disappear altogether, but, with equality of opportunity, would not be used prejudicially against one sex. Thinkers such as Millett and de Beauvoir suggest this approach.

5. However, ideas of equality may already have been shaped in a particular way, based on notion.

The emphasis of Feminist Criticism and Gynocritics is the new female/feminalist in an environment of equality, freedom and collective support, becoming whole and well-integrated, finding self identity and meaning of existence, in ones own consciousness and experience, and not only in sexual relationships or kinship structures.

MODULE THREE: VMOKRAPI

Thus, as a Performance Indicator to gender equality and empowerment of women, we recommend the following:

The Key Result Areas (KRA) by 2015 should indicate a partial liberation of women, meaning:

1. Education ofninety percent of girls from primary grades to secondary grades by 2015
2. Education ofeighty percent of girls and women in college
3. Employment ofseventy percent of women.

Thus, the performance indicators (PI) can be quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed.

I have personally discovered that personal liberation cannot be attained without the socio-cultural context. One cannot work from a vacuum. One has to work with STRUCTURE, with the cultures, philosophies and religions of students and countries where one is teaching.

STRUCTURAL/INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

There is a threefold stage in change management of the institution or system or organization:

consciousness raising or education towards liberation

The material conditions for liberation

The problem of alienation

The method of dialectic thought.

1) Material Conditions for Liberation

When we discuss liberation, we cannot just talk about an abstract idea, we must talk about actual potential or possibilities rooted in reality.

The possibility of womens liberation exists because the material conditions of the world, new technology, and human rightshave evolved so much that there is no longer any need for oppression and the secondary status of women.

By material conditions, we mean, that information technology, scientific discoveries on the human brain, industrialization, liberalization, globalizationand the new economic system which defines the way human beings relate to each other.

For example, many religions perpetuate abusive concepts; like the myth of Adam and Eve, and the fall of man as caused by Eve, or the Orthodox morning prayer thanking God that he was not born a woman.

These myths have to be processed with the students.

2) The Problem of Alienation

In the capitalist society, alienation has three forms: