REGINA – Nine million women in 70 countries belong to Ursula Goh’s club, but she wants even more.
“One of our main challenges is to get more members because our present ones are aging,” Goh said Oct. 14 in an interview at a meeting of the Associated Country Women of the World, the umbrella body for women’s institutes and other rural women’s groups.
The ACWW president said she understands that younger women today often work a dual day of job and family and these multiple roles leave little time for volunteer organizations.
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But without women of the ACWW informing themselves on issues and then passing resolutions, it would be more difficult to lobby governments to make changes. Goh said resolutions initiated by her group at the grassroots level often make their way to the United Nations, which provides ACWW with consultative status.
While other regions of the international group have suggested resolutions for debate at ACWW’s triennial world meeting in Finland next June, none will come out of the Canadian region.
At the recent Regina meeting, the women of the National Farmers Union proposed two motions dealing with genetically modified seed and its threat to farmers in developing countries who save seed each year. However, Goh and the Canadian national representative at the meeting, Mildred Keith of New Brunswick, said the NFU motions came forward too late. They should have been before the organization last spring to follow proper process. Neither motion was debated in Regina.
Goh said the issues that will be before the conference in Finland include AIDS, domestic violence, trafficking of women and war. The ACWW will also mark the centennial of when women in Finland received the right to vote. They were the first in the world, she said.
Goh said a special challenge for ACWW is attracting Muslim women.
“We are very fortunate because my country in Malaysia is backing the equality of men and women,” she said.
“I must admit some of the countries that embrace Islamic religion face obstacles. Not just religion but culture and deep-rooted tradition. Africa also still has obstacles due to culture.”
