Zonta serves as watchdog for women

Sunday, Nov 09, 2003, Page 4

Zonta International President Margit Webjorn speaks at the organization's Seventh Far East Asia District conference in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Taipei Times: What does the word "Zonta" mean?

Margit Zonta first started in the United States, in Buffalo. Zonta is a Sioux Indian word and it means "honest and trustworthy," which we try to be [laughs].

Taipei Times: What are Zonta's major goals for the new technology age?

Webjorn: We are seeing changes happening in society, and globalization of the economy is a big change, which we feel is in favor for us because we are an international organization. What we try to do is to develop this network in 67 countries in several ways. We try to obtain knowledge about women's conditions in different countries in the world and share it with each other.

The biggest threat I see is the growing gap between people who have access to education and information technology and those who don't.

We see in some countries that women tend to be the weakest group when you have problems, and in the worst case, you have the issue of trafficking in which young girls and young women are simply sold either into outrageous working conditions in factories or for sexual exploitation. That's why we chose an anti-trafficking project in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

We hope that at a small scale we will be a model for how you can address this problem. We are trying to help local communities to resist it.

Then must start talking about the problem. These are often taboo and you don't talk about them but they exist. And if you don't talk about them, it is easy to fool ignorant, young people and when they are offered a job abroad, it sounds fantastic, but if they don't know what's happening in the world, trafficking can be very easy. But if they know, their parents know, their teachers know and society talks about it, they will be able to resist this and not end up this way. It's really ugly.

We were very shocked when this started happening in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. That's why we selected Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was hurt by the war in the former Yugoslavia. But it's happening all over the world, sadly. That's the worst effect of globalization: women are sold all over the world.

But we also try to look at the positive effects, one of which is it enables women to have new jobs, like you have in Taiwan with the new communications industry, and also to have the networking possibilities with women in other parts of the world and learning from each other.

Taipei Times: What concrete measures is Zonta taking against trafficking?

Webjorn: Like I said, we have this project with which we hope to become a model. In addition to that, we lobby. For instance, my own chapter showed a feature film that was made in Sweden. It was based on a real-life story. It showed a girl in Russia who was fooled by this charming man. She thought she was going to Sweden to get a job, but she ended up being sexually exploited. She finally jumped off a bridge because she could not bear to live any longer. We showed that film, had a discussion, brought up the issue and created interest in the matter.

Similar are done by Zonta chapters elsewhere to raise awareness and change legislation. The most important thing is enforcement of the law. Most countries do have laws against things like this, but the laws also must be enforced. We try to be watchdogs, to see to it that the laws are applied. Of course it differs in different countries, and our chapters will act on local conditions.

Taipei Times: Swedish women have probably got the most envied day-care system in the world. How did that come about?

Webjorn: There are several reasons for this. Women have always been strong in the Nordic countries, from the age of the Vikings on. We looked after things when the Vikings went sailing across the world. We also never had a feudal system. We had farmers who were free. They were sometimes poor, but they were free.

The family was a strong, productive unit, and the women were as important as the men. This created a tradition and a way in which people see themselves as being responsible for their own lives, and I think this has influenced women until modern times.

But then during the 1900s we developed a strong tradition of working together in organizations to bring about change in society, and women very early became active in politics. And of course it's the women who have brought about this change, to have this very strong social security system with day-care service for all children, whether parents want it or not. And we have free education; there is no tuition fee at college, or at university up to the graduate level. All this enables girls and women to become strong and independent.

But it also shows that men, once they have the opportunity to be responsible for children, will like it.

When the father takes the responsibility -- a young father who stays at home for a couple of months to look after his baby -- he develops a very strong attachment to this child. So it takes perhaps a few generations, but it's happening. We have a more equal parenthood environment than we used to have.

In addition, we have a very small population, rather homogenous, so it has been easier to find a social system that we can basically agree on. Of course there are differences, but the Swedish people agree on having a high level of social security.

We have come a long way with the political system: half of the government are women, and 47 percent of the parliament are women, which is also unique.

Of course Sweden is far from perfect; no country is perfect. Real equality doesn't exist anywhere, but we have come a long way.

Taipei Times: Is it common for Swedish men to take parental leave? [In Sweden, fathers are entitled to paternity leave].

Webjorn: Yes, more and more. It happens first with the more educated men, and it spreads down through society. It's a change of attitude. It's happening.

For more details about Zonta, see its Web site, www.zonta.org.