Equity vs. equality

This week I participated in a three day long course in "Gender related violence" organized in Baruta, the municipality that I live in, originally aimed for people who work within different public institutions, police and lawyers. I was invited because I wrote an email to the municipality asking about their politics concerning the problem. It turned out that they didn’t have a specific or strategic plan for how to manage these issues, but according to article 29-30 in the new law (see last post) they are obligated to work with prevention and also to create different service possibilities for women who are victims of violence. So, this course was a first step in that process, that is, to make these people aware of the problem, it's magnitude and complexity, and to prepare them to handle it in their work.
The discussions were many and loud, but very dynamic and progressive. One specifically interesting aspect was the seemingly unanimous opinion… or maybe I should describe it as perception, of the whole gender issue as being a question of “equity” and not about “equality”. No one in that room wanted equality, since it was expressed as a general truth that the differences between women and men inhibit this from being possible. Equity in this sense is referred to as an equal valorization of performances, work, etc. of women and men, whereas equality would be a 50% share (or divide) of everything in society between women and men.
Maybe the mere fact that they just didn’t go deeper into this sensitive area can increase their possibilities to act more efficiently. And probably within their respective fields of work, that is the most important thing, since a huge problem in Venezuela regarding violence against women, is the lack of proper institutional service and competence of the workers. But to solve the fundamental problem behind the violence against women, one needs to focus on the organization of the society and on the educational system, and within these areas channel other perspectives on “women-men”, feminine-masculine, power structures within the families and within the society, etc. This was also the general conclusion of the whole course, still without having touched the underlying questions of “What IS femininity and masculinity?”, “How far do the social constructions of these concepts reach?”, among others.
I think these questions are very important indeed since I do believe that many people are caught up in the traditional way of perceiving what is “right” or “normal” and what is “wrong” or “abnormal” when it comes to the attributes and attitudes of women and men. I would like a more open discussion about those issues, based on curiosity and criticism, in Venezuela as well as in Sweden. But for now… in Venezuela… trying to tackle the immense problem of gender based violence… well, maybe the work just needs to be put in action, and then...as women in Venezuela reach stronger positions and gain more and more self-consciousness, they can decide if they want to raise these specific issues, or maybe completely other issues that women here feel are urgent.

Thursday was the last day of the semester and my last day at the University of Simón Bolívar. So I am now on vacation, and in two weeks I'll be starting my intern-ship with an environmental organization in the centre of Caracas and work there until the end of July.
The photo is from the final presentation in Ecology, me and my group are proydly posing infront of our poster. It was a project about predation of crabs and snails on mollusc and cirripedios living on the roots of mangrove trees... Ok. If anyone wants to know more about that, you just let me know eh'! =)

Ele, Ale and me!