Back

The new millenium, in particular the XXI Century, is generally seen as an opening door to peaceful relations between human beings.  It is a fact that human conscience has greatly evolved in the last few years, particularly with more information to groups that used to be on the side line.

Great changes have happened in Latin America in the past few decades.  Only thirty years ago, the ‘march’ and the ‘marches’ that went on in our countries were, above all, to end dictatorship and enter the universe of democracy.

It was in this period that popular education began to flourish in the continent as an instrument for the emergency of the citizen conscience and organization of the social areas, in particular the poor ones.

By coincidence, it was at this time that the women’s movement emerged as one in the international scene, in particular after the First United Nations Conference on Women, Development and Peace, carried out in Mexico, in 1975.  After this, it was consecrated as one of the most relevant social movements of the end of the millenium.

While proposing the reviewing of the unequal relations based on the social roles attributed to men and women, historically surrounded by domination/subordination, the women’s movement made emerge the necessity of reviewing all forms of organization and living in society.  In the context of changing  a universal paradigm, the changing of gender relations for the equality is a proposal that come from women, but is meant for all humanity and is part of the betterment of everyone’s quality of life.

Rede Mulher de Educação was born in Brazil under this context.  In an informal manner, in the year of 1980, and as an official non-governmental organization with no profitable interests, with a home-office in São Paulo.  

Since the beginning, Rede Mulher de Educação has identified itself with an educative space for new relations between men and women, based on the balance and reciprocity.

In a first moment, Rede Mulher was dedicated particularly to a direct action along with popular groups of organized women.  Along the time, it got evolved to a network of popular education, for men and women interested in human relations without any kind of domination/subordination.

Why a network of popular education?

In the historic moment in which popular education gained strength in Latin America, it was specially carried out by groups linked to the continental left, where the ideas of Marx and his followers inspired the group’s direction.  Women brought to this reflection a fundamental review, when they considered life reproduction as important as the production of goods and services.  The consequence of this focal change was a theoretical and methodological review for the ones that conceived the poor, in particular the working classes, as a monolithic block, without considering sexual, ethnic, race, age or religious contradiction.

Popular education, seen from a women’s point of view, contributed greatly to the theoretical and methodological advance of popular education, when it unveiled the social reality of gender relations as a condition to understand the global reality lived by the classes which were directed to.

Rede Mulher was a part of this advance with an educative goal.  This is shown with some of the facts which will now be mentioned.

1983-1986- Knowing in order to Organize:

The participative research-action was one of the most important ingredients of popular education.

Rede Mulher’s first project in São Paulo consisted in gaining knowledge, with the Mother’s Club and the Group of Women from the suburbs: What happens to women when they go out to work and organize themselves for community jobs?  What benefits do they receive?  What other problems are created?  How they position themselves with their condition before the new male and female roles?

This first participative research had as  it’s main result the acknowledgement that women did not have independent organization. Many groups of women had always been organized by other groups and had always worked for the groups that organized them without referring to themselves as women. Some educative material allowed the multiplying of this experience and it’s future application, also with women from rural areas.

1985-1987: Participating in order to legislate:

In 1985, Rede Mulher de Educação organized the First National Meeting of Popular Education and Women’s Movement in Brazil, with the common initiative with the Latin American Network of Popular Education Between Women, from CEAAL- Adult Education Counsel from Latin America.  At that moment, it began the process that resulted in the National Assembly during which a new constitution was elaborated.

At the end of the meeting, in which 90 women from many states participated, some women suggested to continue together to in the making of the Brazilian Constitution and contribute to women’s rights.  Little by little, this initiative became a participative process, in which, after a year, there were, in the whole country, more than 750 groups involved, sending proposals, questions, suggestions and adding more and more women from all over the country. They participated in the collecting of necessary signatures and in handing over of the Popular Initiative on Women’s Rights, in Brasilia.  It’s contents, just like the other popular initiatives, was defended in front of the Assembly inside the National Congress.

This process started another one: in the whole country a great number of popular education workshops on women’s rights were carried out, with women from many types of independent groups and also ones that were organized in union, cooperatives, churches and political parties.  At this time, many men started to get involved in this reflection and also take it to institutional spaces.  Hundreds of groups took advantage of this work and adapted the workshops to the reality of their groups, multiplying what they had learned.

1987-1995-From the kitchen to the world :

It has always been Rede Mulher’s main characteristic, since the beginning, the will and the effort to serve as a facilitating channel, so that women from the popular sectors could inter-connect with other women from national, regional and international levels. Through the systematic information sent by groups, scholarships obtained and other types of support, began the search for a ‘place under de sun’ for women living far way from information. The inter-connection, follow-up and incentive work given to these groups were a strong point in the participation in the national and regional feminist meetings, as well as the participation in the United Nations Conferences, in particular, Rio/92 and Beijing 95.  In the same manner, many training provided reciprocal knowledge among the most different women’s groups.

1995-2000- Courage to Change

Many changes have happened in the national and international scene, since our Network was born.  But, besides, we’ve changed and so has the Network.  Just like what happens to all groups that have concluded their pioneer stage, we decided to go through an institutional development process, which led us to learn new means of living in society, working with the same subjects with different Focal Points and with new inner and outer relations.

Working and advancing to solve the always existing tension between militancy and professionalism, between strategic spaces and day-to-day local work, between work with women’s groups and in mixed spaces.  Today, Rede Mulher de Educação’s self-image comes from a group of Focal Points that are related to each other through common actions, and have in the non-governmental organization of the same name a permanent and catalyzing institutional support.

The many different services: The Cunhary Newsletter (“women’s river” in the Tupi dialect), the publications, workshops, the inter-connection services, the articulation with women’s movements and with the national non-governmental organization’s association and social movements, from other networks with proposals - all of them are ways of being present in Rede Mulher.

2000-....: Changing the World: Female Leadership in the XXI Century.  The last period was a participative process marked with educative quality .  After a diagnosis of the necessities of groups from different states connected to the network, a qualification of multipliers in gender and leadership project was started.

Now a days, Rede Mulher de Educação is an educative network on gender and leadership, for the most different specific themes worked on by the groups, which are, to it, connected: prevention and standing up to violence against women; nutritional safety in the perspective of women; environment and sustainable development; popular economy etc.  It works in the most different spaces: community radios, community day cares, women’s study nucleus, agricultural women’s association, among others.