UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 16, Page 1
January 5, 1995
Administrator speaks at conference in Hong Kong

     While American business and political leaders look to the Far
East for economic opportunities and cautiously press for human rights
improvements in China, a group of internationally recognized scholars
has been at work addressing a problem common to both countries:
violence against women.
     A recent conference on the subject in Hong Kong gave a University
administrator a chance to learn about the different cultural contexts
in which violence against women occurs in the People's Republic of
China and Taiwan (Republic of China).
     "The purpose of the conference was to identify common societal
characteristics that are related to violence against women, while
being sensitive to the different cultural meanings of gender and
women's status," Margaret Andersen, vice provost for academic affairs
and professor of sociology and women's studies, said.
     Andersen was invited to give the first keynote address, about
violence against women in the United States and how that relates to
the status of women in American society.
     The majority of the research presented by scholars from the
United States and China covered different areas, such as the extent of
violence against women and the attitudes people have about it.
     "Chinese scholars are at a point where they are only beginning to
document and study violence against women," Andersen said. "As in the
United States, this is an important step in indentifying the extent of
violence against women and understanding its causes."
     While laws against sexual harassment exist in the United States,
there are no such laws on the books against sexual harassment or
descrimination in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong.
     "In the U.S., sexual harassment law hangs on civil rights
legislation," Andersen said. "Not having had a similar history, women
in Hong Kong, do not have the same legal framework as we do."
     This situation may change if people like Anna Wu Hung-yuk, who
opened the conference, and some of her fellow councilors in the Hong
Kong Legislative Council are successful in getting legislation passed
that makes discrimination in that country illegal.
     The conference gave sociologists, social workers, psychologists
and legal scholars a chance to present surveys, interview studies and
case studies of law to document that such problems as rape, wife
beating and sexual harassment exist in their countries.
     This evidence is especially important because, in many cases, the
culture surrounding the victims has attempted to silence any
discussion of the issue.
     According to Andersen, the social science research of documenting
these abuses and calling them to the public attention was necessary to
bring about meaningful changes and to permit the development of much
needed services for victims of violence.
     Those seeking to bring about these changes have focused their
efforts on legislation, providing services to victims and developing a
program of public education to raise people's awareness of the
problem, she said.
     In China, as in the U.S., economic support for women is an
important part of the solution so that women in abusive relationships
can leave.
     "They are just beginning to establish shelters for battered women
in China," Andersen said.
     Standing in the way of these reforms is a cultural tradition in
China that any woman who leaves a marriage brings shame upon herself
and her family.
     Another problem is trying to get police to prosecute offenders
instead of looking the other way. Andersen said that, while similar
patterns exist in both societies, the discussions between the American
and Chinese scholars exposed cultural differences in the way that
violence against women is perpetrated and how it is recognized.
     "It was exciting to see Chinese scholars, both men and women,
begin to document violence against women as a social problem in their
country." Andersen said. " I was impressed by the fact that if there
had been a similar conference in the United States, I don't think
there would have been as many men present."
     The conference, organized through the Chinese University of Hong
Kong and the Hong Kong-America Center at that university, is part of a
series of worldwide conferences about violence against women that will
conclude with the United Nations Conference About Women next September
in Beijing.
                                                         -Jerry Rhodes