Paul Harrison in his book The Third Revolution Penguin 1993 sees women's education as a link to both reducing population AND caring for privately owned land. More and more males are forced to leave the family plots in search of outside incomes. In Kenya, women form the backbone of the soil improvement schemes. In Australia, women still earn less than men, spend more time caring and making houses into homes, and spend more time in the home with children. In most 'developed' worlds Women are the primary spenders, they are the main consumer power, and determine the path of most consumer waste.
Women are in prime positions to observe the effects
of a poor environment on human health and happiness, and they can appreciate
changes the most. They see the results of poor water quality, insufficient
and inadequately nourishing food, stress, and fatigue.
In developing worlds women and children regularly endure long hours of
farm and home care. They work in direct contact with the aged, and the
ill and nature herself. The fight to save those in your care is powerfully
instinctive. One of our correspondence students works in a UNICEF village
near Orissa, India. She wrote in search of something more they can do to
reduce the appalling infant mortality.
Women are often the first to benefit from improvements, and unafraid of work to spare them long term ills or extra burdens. (Such as reducing water consumption to avoid carrying extra water through to keeping perfumed sachets of herbs in drawers to prevent silverfish holes).
Permaculture is easy for women, more natural to them than the less-sustainable answers. Few women have enough disposable income to do a lot of damage on the land. They also have a little less brute strength. Women are practised at thinking, observing, collaborating, forming teams, managing families and communities and motivating others! They come to Permaculture interested in maximising the natural attributes of elements and climate: gently working with nature. The force of Nature is intimate to mothers, and so are the realities of finding food and shelter.
It was initially surprising that over 85% of our enquires for the Correspondence Design course come from women.
What was even more intriguing was that a lot more women sought to include their partners in the discount-for-couples incentive than the men! Men have to take a risk with their partners, invest in them and build their natural skills in the same way they would build hopes for their children's future. The rewards will be closer to home too. What good is a lot of money in the bank and wife busy spending it anyway? Permaculture women assess the environmental impact of their expenditure and consumption too. They are encouraged to spend less of their hard-won cash and look to spend money on reducing the load or the debt.
Working families are often trapped with a great house by a great debt. One environmentally sound option is to employ other people in a caring way, and share the surplus as you share the load. Time and resources are valuable to most people and so their education needs to be geared for high quality tuition. In cultures where women control most of the family money, permaculture courses should be directed to meet their needs. Child care should be offered and flexibility in times for classes or study.
Stories
from Women in Permaculture Pauline