A Global Feminist Critique

By Jill Smolowe

Under a pristine blue sky on the University of Nairobi campus, Africans in bright robes and turbans mingled with denimed Europeans wearing punk haircuts, Muslims behind veils, and Americans in trim safari gear. Thousands of women from some 130 countries poured into Kenya's capital city last week for two conferences to mark the end of the United Nations Decade for Women, one sponsored by the U.N., the other, called Forum '85, a parallel meeting of non-governmental organizations. Many had high hopes that the gatherings would provide a sisterly exchange of ideas and strategies. "You will see something that is not a conference but an encounter, a happening . . . a meeting of the minds of women," predicted Barbadian Dame Nita Barrow, convener of Forum '85.

Skeptics, however, warned that the affair could prove a well-publicized waste of time. The U.S. especially feared that Nairobi could become a reprise of the 1980 conference on women in Copenhagen, where discussions about employment, health and education were sidetracked by heated confrontations among delegates over Zionism, imperialism, racism--essentially every ism but feminism.

At the outset, however, such concerns were forgotten amid a conventioneers' snarl over accommodations. Although Kenya had spent part of its $1.6 million investment to spruce up Nairobi's streets, buildings and dormitories, authorities were unprepared for the huge turnout. In addition to the 3,000 delegates registered for the official conference, some 10,000 arrived for Forum '85. The Forum turnout was more than three times the number expected, and government authorities tried to forestall a crush by announcing that Nairobi's 4,000 hotel rooms would be held for the delegates to the official conference. But the hundreds of Forum participants who had made deposits for hotel rooms were outraged to learn that their reservations were invalid. At the New Stanley Hotel, American Feminists Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan staged a friendly protest in the lobby, with Friedan joining the ousted in a chorus of We Shall Not Be Moved. Eventually, solutions were found: many women tripled up, while some transferred to spartan, $17-a-night dorm rooms on campuses around Nairobi.

As the hotel imbroglio was playing out in Nairobi, the U.S. delegation was in Washington enjoying a White House send-off lunch of veal vol-au-vent and cantaloupe sorbet. At each place setting was a commemorative bronze medallion wrapped in white paper and pink ribbon. President Reagan's remarks to the group included a few fatherly jests about his daughter Maureen, who is to head the delegation, but his message was earnest. The "business of the conference is women, not propaganda," he reminded them.

That will not be easy. While Maureen Reagan has designated four areas to confront at the conference--literacy, development, family violence and women refugees--her 32-member delegation may have difficulty avoiding ideological quarrels with East bloc and Third World representatives. Reagan is also likely to be a magnet for criticism because she is the President's daughter. She has already come under attack at home for the complexion of the delegation, which some feminists say is dominated by white, wealthy Republicans, although several minority groups are represented. The delegation will be missing some prominent members, including former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and Republican Senator Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas. Even before Reagan left Washington, she made headlines by criticizing Attorney General Edwin Meese's decision to withhold a $625,000 grant for a group that runs shelters for battered women. The next day Meese, whose wife Ursula is a conference delegate, said that the grant was "still under review."

The issues scheduled for discussion in Nairobi are far more elusive: equality, development and peace. Those themes, designated at the first world conference of women, held in 1975 in Mexico City, have become catchphrases for a lengthier list of feminist concerns that range from inadequate food to unemployment, from rape to marriage rights. Some statistics on the status of women show gains worldwide in education, employment and health care, but Abzug points out that overall progress has been modest: "The largest strides are in education, and yet two-thirds of the illiterates are still women." Democratic Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder of Colorado, who is not attending the conference, offers a harsher assessment. After the Decade for Women, she says, "there is really nothing to celebrate."

As the twelve-day conference began this week, conflict seemed as likely as consensus. U.N.-sponsored regional meetings held to prepare for the conference produced a divergence of priorities. European and American women were concerned with employment opportunities, equal pay and access to science and technology. In Asia, the overriding concern was the scarcity of economic opportunities for women, which forces many into prostitution. In famine-ravaged Africa, the priority was food production. The Latin America meeting focused on urban growth and the debt crisis. Delegates in Nairobi are expected to ratify a 372-paragraph document of "forward-looking strategies," but 58 paragraphs remain in dispute. The U.S., for instance, dislikes the tone of demands by developing countries for economic redistribution. Some Muslim countries, on the other hand, object to paragraphs calling for Muslim equality between women and men.

Even if the disputes can be resolved, conference resolutions are nonbinding and mostly of symbolic value. Of equal value may be the individual exchanges between women that could provide specific strategies for addressing common problems. Said Leticia Ramos Shahani, secretary-general of the U.N. conference: "After 1985 we will be impatient for action. It is not sufficient just to have an issue. Now we want something concrete. " --By Jill Smolowe. Reported by Jane O'Reilly/Nairobi and Alessandra Stanley/Washington

With reporting by Reported by Jane O''Reilly/Nairobi and Alessandra Stanley/Washington