The Forgotten Language That Only Women Once Knew

Ever had the sneaking suspicion that women speak in different tongues? If you were a Hunanese peasant woman in 20-century China, there was a kernel of truth to the old joke. Inside a hilly, remote village of Jiangyong County, unschooled women and girls developed a mysterious system of writing called Nüshu to express their innermost thoughts and passed around favorite songs, prayers, traditional tales, birthday letters and wedding congratulations to each other in coded script.

The communications were hidden in plain sight from the men, who largely disregarded Nüshu — which means “women’s writing” in Chinese — as frivolous, not bothering to learn a word.

Similar female scripts arose in Japan and Korea too, but only Nüshu bore a certain mystique. When women died, they had their favorite works burned or buried with them. So we don’t know exactly when Nüshu began, but we know that women were using the script around 200 years ago, when girls weren’t expected to go to school and long before they received any formal education. 

read more here @ OZY

Petra Oderbrecht

From the Daily Tribune:
"A German-born woman is breaking new ground in Indonesia by running for parliament in next month’s general election, and is learning some tough lessons about politics along the way.

Petra Oderbrecht has lived in Indonesia for 20 years and is hoping to win a seat in the central parliament representing the resort island of Bali for the nationalist Democratic Renewal Party.

The first white candidate to contest an Indonesian election said she decided to run because she wanted to contribute to her adopted country, a sweeping archipelago in Southeast Asia with 234 million people, mainly Muslims.

Her priorities are equal rights for women and respect for cultural diversity in a country with significant Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu and animist minorities."

Women in Business in Asia

Further to my recent article "Women in Business in the Middle East":

From The Star Online:
"Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said that as of June this year, women made up 21% (2,873) of the total exporters registered with Matrade and there was a huge potential for them to grow in this area.

She also said that in small and medium-scale enterprises, only five per cent of financing totalling RM94mil went to SMEs owned by women. Dr Ng said that at decision-making level at the work place, 20% were made up of women, adding that the number was moving up."


This certainly is encouraging - and I am still interested in statistics from other countries as well.