Women Education by Women in Rural Community: Based on three female organizers experiences in Kaohsiung County

• Main Authors: Wu, Li-Hsueh, 吳麗雪
• Other Authors: 何青蓉
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/08982925634226422575

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 成人教育研究所 === 89 === In recent years, women have played an active role, instead of a traditionally passive one, in striving to share more public resources and become more influential on public issues. This research focuses on the formation process of woman-centred female groups in communities to explore meanings and strategies of women education by rural women. Three female organizers of rural community female groups in Kaohsiung County are the subjects in this research. By using documentary analysis, interviews and observation of the qualitative research methods, this author obtains some important results, as follow: The majority of members of these three groups are mainly from middle-low class, instead of middle class. Besides, the meaning of “grass-roots female group” is to unify female’s collective consciousness and to take collective action to make changes in community resources distribution and power structures. The belief in charity motivates these women to devote themselves to their communities. The strategies to build and organize female groups include consolidating organization, encouraging participation, and overcoming difficulties. In this research, the promotion of women education has been going through four stages: volunteering in doing community service, conducting programs to improve parenthood, enhancing woman’s abilities in group organizing and program planning, offering courses for women to raise their female consciousness. Key factors for the operation and development of woman organizations include: the existing patriarchy context of communities and families, the available of budget and resources, the needs of qualified teachers, the width of information sharing, the capacity of organization, the supports of government, family obligations of the members, and the personal consciousness of leaders. Because both female consciousness and woman empowerment are embedded in the process of the promotion of women education by women in rural areas, this author uses “empowerment” as the core concept to construct a model of women education by women, which has three elements as the bases of the triangular model: women’s participation in the community, women organization, and women education. Three bases of the model enhance one another and form a good circulation. Therefore, this model helps to interprete the charge of the inferior status of women, and the implement of the strategies by these organizers. Finally, this author makes some suggestions on how to organize female groups and to promote women education. Also, some advice are made to the government about the issue of women education.