Identifying and Dismantling Patriarchy and Other Systems of Oppression of Women

Identifying and naming Coming from Latin America and as a feminist theologian, I have learned that the ability or the capacity to name the reality, or to read the context, is a first step in the process of doing theology. Theology emerges from context, and naming or identifying where we stand is one important step in moving forward into the next important stages in the process of building awareness. A second step is the mediation of theological or sociological elements that help us to discern the reality. This discernment is an impulse toward the final step in the methodological spiral, which is to achieve change--to implement the action of change and transformation. I am going through this methodological spiral as a reminder that what we really want to achieve through our theological reflections and praxis is change! Our final aim is not just solid theological analysis, but ultimately to see transformation in the lives of women and men. Naming and discerning are important then not just to learn more, or to increase our store of knowledge, but in the end to taste in our daily lives the dream that we pray for in this assembly theme: God of life, lead us to justice and peace! A quick look at women's daily realities gives us a sense of the challenge we face: 70 percent of the poor people in the world are women, and women occupy 52 percent of the most vulnerable workforce. Moreover, while 80 percent of food in the world is produced by women and they constitute themselves as guardians of biodiversity in agriculture, unequal salaries are still the reality in all countries. For example, in Switzerland we find an 18.4 percent pay gap between women and men; in Germany, a 21.6 percent pay gap; and in France, a woman must work 54 days more than a man to make an equal salary (2011). According to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report the reality for women in Korea is also quite challenging: It ranks 111th among 136 countries surveyed and dropped down three notches from last year, despite the election of the nation's first female president in December 2012. The report is based on four categories of women's economic participation and opportunities available to them; educational attainment; health and survival and political empowerment. The overall score for Korea is 0.635, while Iceland topped the list with 0.873, with the runner-up Finland at 0.842. The data shows that women in Korea have been provided with good educational opportunities, with a score in this category of 0.973, but the political participation and distribution was 0.504 and 0.105, respectively. (1) This affirms that while the issue of poverty and exclusion is sometimes blamed on lack of education, providing education is not solving the issue of participation. The solution depends on an intersection of elements and improvements that include education, economic opportunities, and cultural changes--which means we must address the content of teaching. Indeed, education can serve to limit the empowerment of women instead of empowering them. This quick overview of statistics shows that in daily life the supply or lack of access of resources is linked to the distribution of power that condemns the masses to the margins. The rigid social and cultural models and gender roles assigned to women limit their access to power and situate them as the underprivileged in the social division of labour. Access to and use of land and other social economic resources is also governed by these cultural constructions of gender that privilege men. All of this is despite the fact that, according to the most recent report of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "Giving women the same access as men to modern seeds, fertilizer and tools could increase production on women's farms in developing countries by 20 to 30 percent--enough to feed up to 150 million more of the world's hungry people. …