Cults & Society
Department: Group Report

Hare Krishna: women

10/12

[continued]

Furthermore, there are important transaction costs which function as barriers preventing our leaders from developing and enforcing policies which would truly meet the needs of ISKCON’s women in an environment which excludes women from upper management.  Basic economic theory informs us that the development of any policy to protect women will bring with it transaction costs including the costs of gathering the information necessary to develop that policy.  Those transaction costs will include both monetary costs and opportunity costs.  If our leaders wish to develop substantive policies to protect ISKCON’s women, rather than allowing the women to participate in management and work out for themselves what they need, then our leaders must be willing to invest both time and money in this project.

These costs will operate as a significant barrier to the development of substantive rights for women in ISKCON.  ISKCON leaders already plead lack of financial resources to explain lack of substantive social development policies in our movement.  Furthermore, our leaders are consistently over engaged, that is, they have less time available than they need to accomplish the tasks already assigned to them.  So there is little realistic likelihood of them as a group, or even more than one or two individuals, making it their business to find out what the women of ISKCON really need and to develop the structures to meet those needs.  Again, we return to the idea that women need participation rights if they are going to have a meaningful role in ISKCON and if ISKCON can truly claim to protect them.

There is another kind of transaction cost that is raised by the exclusion of women from positions of authority in ISKCON.  That cost is the difficulty for women in identifying other women who are spiritual role models.  There are many visible male role models, advanced spiritual leaders, whom we can easily identify because they have visible symbols of advancement.  They have dandas[xxviii]; they have titles such as GBC representative or temple president.  At the very least, they sit on the vyasasan[xxix] during the morning programme and give Bhagavatam class.  The women in our movement, many of whom have been practising Krishna consciousness longer than some of the male role models, are very hard to find.  They lack the visible symbols of advancement.  Thus, it has taken me more than ten years just to begin to identify the women who can act as my spiritual mentors.  Giving women participation rights that permit them to give Bhagavatam class, to run projects and temples, to sit on the GBC, allows the women of ISKCON to find the role models we need to advance in Krishna consciousness.

Cults & Society
Department: Group Report

Hare Krishna: women

10/12

[continued]

Furthermore, there are important transaction costs which function as barriers preventing our leaders from developing and enforcing policies which would truly meet the needs of ISKCON’s women in an environment which excludes women from upper management.  Basic economic theory informs us that the development of any policy to protect women will bring with it transaction costs including the costs of gathering the information necessary to develop that policy.  Those transaction costs will include both monetary costs and opportunity costs.  If our leaders wish to develop substantive policies to protect ISKCON’s women, rather than allowing the women to participate in management and work out for themselves what they need, then our leaders must be willing to invest both time and money in this project.

These costs will operate as a significant barrier to the development of substantive rights for women in ISKCON.  ISKCON leaders already plead lack of financial resources to explain lack of substantive social development policies in our movement.  Furthermore, our leaders are consistently over engaged, that is, they have less time available than they need to accomplish the tasks already assigned to them.  So there is little realistic likelihood of them as a group, or even more than one or two individuals, making it their business to find out what the women of ISKCON really need and to develop the structures to meet those needs.  Again, we return to the idea that women need participation rights if they are going to have a meaningful role in ISKCON and if ISKCON can truly claim to protect them.

There is another kind of transaction cost that is raised by the exclusion of women from positions of authority in ISKCON.  That cost is the difficulty for women in identifying other women who are spiritual role models.  There are many visible male role models, advanced spiritual leaders, whom we can easily identify because they have visible symbols of advancement.  They have dandas[xxviii]; they have titles such as GBC representative or temple president.  At the very least, they sit on the vyasasan[xxix] during the morning programme and give Bhagavatam class.  The women in our movement, many of whom have been practising Krishna consciousness longer than some of the male role models, are very hard to find.  They lack the visible symbols of advancement.  Thus, it has taken me more than ten years just to begin to identify the women who can act as my spiritual mentors.  Giving women participation rights that permit them to give Bhagavatam class, to run projects and temples, to sit on the GBC, allows the women of ISKCON to find the role models we need to advance in Krishna consciousness.

Cults & Society
Department: Group Report

Hare Krishna: women

10/12

[continued]

Furthermore, there are important transaction costs which function as barriers preventing our leaders from developing and enforcing policies which would truly meet the needs of ISKCON’s women in an environment which excludes women from upper management.  Basic economic theory informs us that the development of any policy to protect women will bring with it transaction costs including the costs of gathering the information necessary to develop that policy.  Those transaction costs will include both monetary costs and opportunity costs.  If our leaders wish to develop substantive policies to protect ISKCON’s women, rather than allowing the women to participate in management and work out for themselves what they need, then our leaders must be willing to invest both time and money in this project.

These costs will operate as a significant barrier to the development of substantive rights for women in ISKCON.  ISKCON leaders already plead lack of financial resources to explain lack of substantive social development policies in our movement.  Furthermore, our leaders are consistently over engaged, that is, they have less time available than they need to accomplish the tasks already assigned to them.  So there is little realistic likelihood of them as a group, or even more than one or two individuals, making it their business to find out what the women of ISKCON really need and to develop the structures to meet those needs.  Again, we return to the idea that women need participation rights if they are going to have a meaningful role in ISKCON and if ISKCON can truly claim to protect them.

There is another kind of transaction cost that is raised by the exclusion of women from positions of authority in ISKCON.  That cost is the difficulty for women in identifying other women who are spiritual role models.  There are many visible male role models, advanced spiritual leaders, whom we can easily identify because they have visible symbols of advancement.  They have dandas[xxviii]; they have titles such as GBC representative or temple president.  At the very least, they sit on the vyasasan[xxix] during the morning programme and give Bhagavatam class.  The women in our movement, many of whom have been practising Krishna consciousness longer than some of the male role models, are very hard to find.  They lack the visible symbols of advancement.  Thus, it has taken me more than ten years just to begin to identify the women who can act as my spiritual mentors.  Giving women participation rights that permit them to give Bhagavatam class, to run projects and temples, to sit on the GBC, allows the women of ISKCON to find the role models we need to advance in Krishna consciousness.

Cults & Society
Department: Group Report

Hare Krishna: women

10/12

[continued]

Furthermore, there are important transaction costs which function as barriers preventing our leaders from developing and enforcing policies which would truly meet the needs of ISKCON’s women in an environment which excludes women from upper management.  Basic economic theory informs us that the development of any policy to protect women will bring with it transaction costs including the costs of gathering the information necessary to develop that policy.  Those transaction costs will include both monetary costs and opportunity costs.  If our leaders wish to develop substantive policies to protect ISKCON’s women, rather than allowing the women to participate in management and work out for themselves what they need, then our leaders must be willing to invest both time and money in this project.

These costs will operate as a significant barrier to the development of substantive rights for women in ISKCON.  ISKCON leaders already plead lack of financial resources to explain lack of substantive social development policies in our movement.  Furthermore, our leaders are consistently over engaged, that is, they have less time available than they need to accomplish the tasks already assigned to them.  So there is little realistic likelihood of them as a group, or even more than one or two individuals, making it their business to find out what the women of ISKCON really need and to develop the structures to meet those needs.  Again, we return to the idea that women need participation rights if they are going to have a meaningful role in ISKCON and if ISKCON can truly claim to protect them.

There is another kind of transaction cost that is raised by the exclusion of women from positions of authority in ISKCON.  That cost is the difficulty for women in identifying other women who are spiritual role models.  There are many visible male role models, advanced spiritual leaders, whom we can easily identify because they have visible symbols of advancement.  They have dandas[xxviii]; they have titles such as GBC representative or temple president.  At the very least, they sit on the vyasasan[xxix] during the morning programme and give Bhagavatam class.  The women in our movement, many of whom have been practising Krishna consciousness longer than some of the male role models, are very hard to find.  They lack the visible symbols of advancement.  Thus, it has taken me more than ten years just to begin to identify the women who can act as my spiritual mentors.  Giving women participation rights that permit them to give Bhagavatam class, to run projects and temples, to sit on the GBC, allows the women of ISKCON to find the role models we need to advance in Krishna consciousness.