06 Reflections: Women in the Time of Globalization (March 2007, Adelaide)

Once upon a time, I had the privilege of being the keynote speaker at the International Women's Day Celebration in Adelaide, South Australia.

“A woman should be everything in the house and nothing outside it”

wrote Euripides in 450 BC. in his drama “Μελέαγρος ”

It seems that this observation was valid for centuries, with a few glorious exceptions. It took more than 2300 years for the world to witness fundamental changes in the social and, later, in the professional status of women.

The technological and scientific achievements of the last 200 years have entirely changed the Western nations’ economy and society.

During the last centuries, women’s social activity became generally more accepted. The introduction of the obligatory basic education helped women to massively join the education system and later to enter colleges and universities.

By the 20^th century, women had to learn how to survive on their own. Many families could not depend only on the salary of the man any more, and women were obliged to start to work.

During the last 100 years, women have conquered more and more occupations in fields dominated by men.

Over the last 50 years, women have gained financial independence, more social power and self-confidence and have been involved in almost every aspect of human activity.

All these changes resulted in a revolution of thoughts, in fights for equal rights and in the liberalization and emancipation of women in Western societies.

Women are no longer "everything only” in the house. They stepped out and became active participants, at all levels, of society through Various movements, through their professional work and through their skills in their everyday activities.

Celebrating International Women’s Day today, we shall remember how difficult it was, what a long struggle it took for women to achieve basic democratic rights in the past, which, by now, have become legally binding in Western societies.

Unfortunately, this does not characterize all the nations in the 21^st century.

Thousands of national and international movements, unions and organizations dedicate or commit themselves to the “liberalization” of women around the world.

The struggle for the basic rights of women in many areas of the world is still on.

The difference between the past and the present is that, in the time of globalization, the majority of women in the world are aware of the nature and the content of their basic rights.

Today, women's movements need less time to collect information, to make decisions and to reach more people to implement Various actions.

Information on many things is available and easily accessible, and the modern communication tools (telephone, telefax, fax, radio, television or Internet) help women's movements, an increasing pace - to go public, to spread news, to ask and receive help nationwide or globally.

In the time of globalization, women's movements have more efficient tools, greater publicity and faster interaction to achieve those results that their pioneers fought for over decades in the past.

Women in power who, due to Various circumstances, became prominent personalities are icons for society.

Politically active women are everywhere. There are women state leaders, prime ministers, ministers, chairpersons of parliament, party leaders, local leaders, presidential candidates, ambassadors, police and military chiefs, etc.

The number of women in politics might be small, but their symbolic and actual presence is already a Victory.

They bring a different attitude to the political arena. Women focus more on listening, understanding, negotiating and achieving consensus. They feel more passionately about issues particularly affecting women.

Women in political power prove that they have the courage, the strength, the determination and the self-confidence of a successful leader.

Women in science show us that they have the brains, the logic and the spirit to search, to develop, to build, to discover and to engineer new things, as well as to improve well-known concepts for this world.

Women who achieve great sports results are heroines in the eyes of younger females. They motivate them to join sports clubs for the love of gymnastics, for challenging themselves to try their limits,

or for following them on their path to become the new female sport heroines of the future.

Women in the show business, the film industry, fashion, etc., represent a different world. A cosmos out of the reach and reality of everyday society.

They play several film characters. They are the “face” of different product advertisements, political campaigns, and charity events.

Their life are on the front line.

We listen to their views through various TV reports, see them in pictures on the pages of gossiping magazines, etc.

So we clearly see that women in show business deeply affect our lifestyle, and in this way, their social impact is huge. Their professional and private life could serve as good or bad living examples. Unfortunately, only a few of them or their managers have understood what real power they have at their disposal.

Women who are icons of society were not born as heroines.

No one is born a hero, but everybody has the potential to become one, and all of us could already be a hero in the eyes of somebody else…

Leader personalities are necessary to show the right path, but the freedom of choice, notably what, why and how to follow, remains ours.

Women in power in the time of globalization could show and teach values, and could serve as good and respected examples to follow. Women in power have more opportunities to use their position for good purposes and this way to actively contribute to the social, economic and spiritual development of the society.

Women, as common members of society, are the heart of the family, providing a stable foundation for men and creating and maintaining what is called “home.”

Without them, there is no society. Their love, passion, tolerance, understanding, and sacrifices hold families together, showing different values to men.

Women bring up the men of the future. Men’s values, attitudes, and opinions on family, relationships, and society partly reflect those of their mothers.

As you saw, so shall you reap. If women spoil their sons, if they cannot give love to their children, other women will pay the high price for these inappropriate attitudes.

In the time of globalization, women have more information and knowledge available on how to bring up a child. Modern healthcare systems help them and their children with common and serious health problems. (Which was not the case centuries before.) Free elementary education and state elderly care institutions also ease their everyday activities.

Unfortunately, in the 21^st century, the economic, social and psychological pressure on women is bigger than ever. Women think they should be the best mothers, partners and professionals at the same time.

Today, women in Western societies have the opportunity to learn and then to practice any kind of occupation.

Most of them could live a totally independent life of men, from a financial point of view as well.

A professional career is a way to challenge and express ourselves, but it should not be seen as the main driving force of our lives. A career is a tool to try ourselves and to secure our financial background.

It helps us to discover what we are capable of doing in any field, under different circumstances.

Career is not everything. Women should not forget that their greatest responsibility and a natural role as well is to give birth to children. ( If it is possible…)

To give birth to children naturally has its time limits. If women have the chance to become mothers and they delay it due to different reasons, they might run out of time. Career waits, motherhood does not.

But being a mother does not mean a total sacrifice. Women are capable of doing everything. They have the special ability to do several things in parallel and with the same level of attention. (Most of the men do not…)

Motherhood is not a barrier to self-realization, but it is an important part of it. It is necessary to have dreams.

Motherhood could only delay the realization, the implementation of these dreams.

So the right timing is important.

Career and work opportunities will always be there. Different ones, but still opportunities.

And women should grab all these opportunities during their life to develop themselves, to evolve intellectually, spiritually and to transform their personality, to become what they are eager or destined to be.

The wiser we are, the better we know ourselves and our environment, the more effectively we can contribute to our family and to society.

Let me bring you one example to demonstrate the power of a simple woman, to show how her character, love, goodwill, belief and sacrifices helped her to find her place and her main role in society.

This person is/was –rest in peace - the Nobel Peace Prize awarded Mother Teresa.

She was born in 1910, in Ex-Yugoslavia, into a family of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God, and she knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ.

At the age of eighteen, she left her parental home, joined a community of nuns, and for 17 years, as a nun, she was a convent school teacher in Calcutta, India. The suffering and poverty of the poorest of the poor made a deep impression on her and, with permission from her superiors, she started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. At 40 years old, she started her own order, whose primary task was to love and care for those people nobody was prepared to look after. Soon her order became an International Society of Missionaries, where today over one million Co-Workers provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in more than 40 countries around the world. Co-workers also try to follow Mother Teresa's spirit and charisma in their families as well.

Through the life of Mother Tereza we can see a great example of how a single, simple woman, though she had no child of her own, saved several children, how her personality became a positive symbol and how her work contributed not only to the welfare of her closest environment but to that of the international society as well.

Concluding my thoughts on today’s subject, I would say that in the time of globalization the economic, social and psychological pressure on women is bigger than ever, but women have more freedom, more opportunities and access to more information and knowledge to find and create themselves in their professional and private lives as well.

Women can be better organized and more effective in their fight for the attainment of their goals nationally and globally.

In the time of globalization, women, with their love, understanding, patience, tolerance, strength and power, still are and will remain the heart and the soul of society.

And women are the ones who have the natural right, the ability and responsibility to bring new life to Earth, which is the greatest gift ever granted to living creatures in the material world.

It is not for me to develop the original saying of Euripides, but objectively, today in Western societies, most probably a woman could be everything in the house and outside it as well.