Awakened Woman e-magazine
goddessaltar.com

 


The Daily Grit:

News from the Trenches

by Diane Rae Schulz

via newswecanuse.com, by Rose Aguilar

 WINGS on the Air

In 1985, Frieda Werden launched a syndicated radio show dedicated to giving women a voice on the international scene. The Women's International News Gathering Service (WINGS) was begun with the help of Western Public Radio in San Francisco where Werden was operations manager. She was asked to create a radio project. Her boss supported the project until he realized it was an all-woman project, then decided he couldn't endorse it.

As a result, Werden left, taking WINGS with her. For the first year and a half, she and her co-producer, the late Katherine Davenport, kept the operation going without any funding. "We couldn't stop just because we didn't have any money. If we sat around and waited for more funding, we would have lost the momentum," Werden said. 

The first WINGs program was broadcast over U.S. public radio satellite in May 1986. Today, WINGS is on the Pacifica radio satellite. The program currently is available on 120 stations worldwide. More than 40 reporters produce 52 programs a year. Contributors are always paid, even when money is tight. "I feel that it's important to value women's work," she said. 

In 1995, at the women's conference in Beijing, most of the countries in the world signed a document, the Beijing Platform for Action, in which women's access to media was identified as one area of critical concern. Unfortunately both China and the U.S. have been very reluctant to adopt the Beijing Platform. China believes that media should be under complete control of the government; in the U.S., it's the corporations that exert control. Hence neither country really provides much opportunity for women to report their activities. 

There is a great need to show women taking action, not as victims, but as powerful actors, sharing their incisive analysis of what's going on and moving forward to make a better world for everybody. 

To find out if WINGS is in your area, go to: http://www.wings.org/affiliate.html 

To tune in online, go to: http://www.amazoncityradio.com/news/weekly

Return to top

Women and the WTO

via newswecanuse.com, by Rose Aguilar

11/30/99

As a result of international organizing, thousands of women from all over the world converged in Seattle to demand that the World Trade Organization (WTO) be more accountable to the people, and specifically to oppose expanded free trade negotiations. The central message that women advocates sought to convey was that the WTO ignores women, creating great suffering for them and their children throughout the world.

"When it comes to trade policies, women are faceless, voiceless, and missing from any WTO analysis of trade liberalization," says Marceline White, Senior Policy Associate with Women's EDGE, coalition of international development organizations based in Washington, DC. The absence of a woman's perspective allows the WTO agreements to put agreements in place without regard to the impact these policies may have on women. 

"In many ways, globalization and freer trade have exacerbated existing gender inequalities," says White. A recent report from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) states: "Displacement, commodification, and modern day slavery of poor women have become even more intense and widespread in this period of globalization." For example, peasant women in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, who make up the majority of subsistence farmers, have watched as their small farms were displaced by multinational corporations, whose interest in creating large-scale commercial crops for export eliminated the balanced food crops needed by native communities. 

Meanwhile, throughout urban areas in the developing world, women are trapped in jobs that are low-paying and often bad for their health. These jobs, 80% of which are held by women in the "export-processing zones", are not covered by environmental or health protections. In addition, sexual harassment is common.

A group called Seeds of Liberation performed a dance ritual as a form of protest.  According to Ratna Roy, a Seattle-based dancer and activist, the ritual was inspired by Vandana Shiva's writings on biopiracy. Four women portraying Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe planted seeds provided by the World Bank, then became entrapped in mosquito netting representing their estrangement from the land. Finally they freed themselves and reclaimed their land.  

"Seeds of liberation is a ritual that expresses a refusal of corporations' claims to own seeds, medicinal plants and other forms of knowledge -- knowledge that has traditionally been held by women," says Vancouver-based activist and Seeds of Liberation dancer Denise Nadeau.  

The gathering in Seattle may not have succeeded in blocking the course of free trade as charted by WTO ministers, but momentum for long-term change is building. Says Martha Ojeda, "The only positive thing to come out of the WTO's free trade agreements is the international solidarity movement that has formed to show them they are wrong." 

"The WTO is an undemocratic aggregation of power," says Gillian Gilhool, legislative organizer for Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in Washington DC. "We want to educate people about the corporate power behind the WTO and the need to assert people's rights to challenge this corporate power."

original article at http://shewire.chickclick.com/articles/11221.html, by Jennifer Soriano, independent reporter.

condensed from http://www.newswecanuse.com

Return to top

   

Cyber-Women Start to Roar

condensed from BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : 11/15/99

Not so long ago, Internet heavyweights like America Online Inc. (AOL) virtually blew off the female half of the population, reports Marlene McDaniel, chief executive of Web upstart Women.com Networks Inc. ''We were told they just didn't think there was a market for women on the Internet,'' she says. 

Now times have changed. As of 2000, women account for 49% of the online population in the U.S., researcher Jupiter Communications reports. Because six out of 10 "newies" on the Net are female, Jupiter estimates women will outnumber men online in less than two years. 

The growing number of women surfers is forcing the Net to change the kinds of Web sites being launched, how and where advertisers pitch their wares, and how information is delivered. What's really hot this year is family, beauty, health, home furnishings, and pets. "A new set of commerce categories has been created,'' says Candice Carpenter, CEO of iVillage.com, a website geared to women. ''This was made possible by women getting this critical mass.'' 

A new study, released on Nov. 10 by Women.com, in conjunction with Procter & Gamble Co. and Harris Interactive, notes that women are always pressed for time, so they tend to be very focused when seeking information or performing tasks on the Web. Thus, the survey concludes, women prefer a handful of organized sites over surfing the web. ''The best thing you can do for women is to streamline,'' says Fiona Swerdlow, an analyst at Jupiter.

The study also finds that 83% of women online are the key decision-makers in major family issues regarding finance, health care, and education. They will eventually be the Net's biggest spenders. Women.com's stock has soared 80% above its initial offering price on Oct. 14. The website is one of the fastest-growing on the Internet. Other sites focused on women are generally expected to flourish. AOL, whose audience was 84% male five years ago, is now dominated by women, with channels dedicated to lifestyles, shopping, and family. 

original article by Linda Himelstein in San Mateo, Calif., with bureau reports

Return to top

 

Women Can Rule!

exerpted from a Fortune magazine online five-part article

10/25/99

 

Fortune magazine's most recent annual ranking of the 50 most powerful women in American business names Carly Fiorina, 45, the first female CEO of one of America's 20 largest corporations, Hewlett-Packard, as it's Number One candidate. According to their report, Fiorina began by drilling down to the board's concerns: What kind of company should Hewlett-Packard be? What kind of person should run it?

"I've demonstrated an ability to pick up quickly on the essence of what's important. I know what I don't know. And I know that our strengths are complementary. You have deep engineering prowess. I bring strategic vision, which HP needs," Fiorina is quoted as saying.

More than half of the Power 50 newcomers are technology stars. They include Joy Covey, the finance-chief-cum-strategist at Amazon.com; marketer Jan Brandt, who built America Online into cyberspace's No. 1 brand; and Dawn Lepore (No. 36), the tech wizard behind the transformation of a bricks-and-mortar brokerage, Charles Schwab, into the category killer of online stock trading.

Power is hard to get, but most important in the corporate world is versatility, not functional expertise or pedigree. Flexibility is the key.

Joy Covey, chief strategist at Amazon.com, is a great example of this principle. Amazon.com is unconventional, expansive and high risk. "It may not seem logical, but trust me. I know where I'm going. And it's far, " says Covey. With her 173 IQ, she graduated at 19 from California State University at Fresno and took the CPA exam, finding work at the accounting firm of Arthur Young for a while, and then attending Harvard to collect an MBA and a law degree.

When she began at Amazon.com, it was an untested online business. "I thought, wouldn't it be great to build one of those new business models like Microsoft or Intel or Dell?" Her work with Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has propelled the company into businesses far beyond books. Says Bezos, "She's doing what a CEO would normally do."

Another example is Nina DiSesa, who has transformed McCann-Erickson, one of the largest ad agencies. "Competing in a man's world is what I want to do. I'm very much in touch with my male side. I'm really competitive, and I find confrontation stimulating. But I keep those qualities in check. I use my feminine traits -- empathy, collaboration." She feels that, "Being a woman in this job is important. I'm dealing with big egos, big personalities. Fragile, high-maintenance people. If I didn't have a strong nurturing component, I couldn't do it."

Naturally, the hardest part of having a high-powered career is managing to raise a family at the same time. Shelly Lazarus, the CEO of ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, has been married for 29 years. She has three children. According to Lazarus, "There's a sort of unconditional love that develops when you're a mother. You believe in people, and you accept their weaknesses, their frailties, their moments of irrationality. That's what helps build very strong teams."

And this kind of power does require sacrifice. On the subject of delaying marriage and children, Nina DiSesa says, "I wouldn't have this job if I had had kids." Nancy Peretsman, mother of a 10-year-old daughter, says: "You can have a very successful career and maybe have more than one child. It depends on how many hours your husband works, and how much time he has to help you. It's math."

The "glass ceiling" remains a contested issue. Carly Fiorina was quoted in the press as saying, "I hope we're at a point that everyone has figured out that there is not a glass ceiling." In Fiorina's view, power flows to men and women alike who think of themselves as self-directed free agents. Now that's a nice twist--young businessmen wanting to grow up and be like Carly!

Original article by Patricia Sellers for Fortune magazine online

Return to top

via ABIGAILS-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM

5/10/99

WIN Magazine Turns Two

Even before the Internet officially comes to Syria, a women's e-zine, Women's International Net (WIN), has already published several groundbreaking articles. The articles were written by 20-something Rim Zahra, who runs the first private multi-media center in her native Damascus and accesses the Internet through a server in neighboring Lebanon.

WIN, which turns two years old this month, is distributed free by email and through a website. It has published 119 articles from 59 countries dealing with women in politics, education, feminism, mothering, education, sexuality and culture. Its three purposes are:

  • Furthering knowledge of women's issues worldwide;
  • Bringing together women from all over the world for dialogue and greater mutual understanding
  • Tapping new sources of writing talent and enabling women from different countries to express their views.

Unlike many e-zines, WIN writers are paid for their work and new writers are always welcome. WIN is free of charge to anyone who has an email address. The e-zine's readership is as diverse as its articles, with some 8,000 subscribers in 95 countries.

WIN was founded with no institutional backing, money or computer knowledge. Judith Colp Rubin, co-founder and publisher of WIN and a longtime journalist, discovered that the Internet "is geared precisely towards entrepreneurs of the free press."

One of WIN's recent articles was about Zohra, a young Pakistani woman who went to school despite being the only girl in her class and her family being subjected to virtual ostracism. Now she is teaching in a girls' school in her village, doing her part to decrease her nation's staggering rate of illiteracy among women.

"In our own small way, we, too, feel we are educating women," said Rubin.

View WIN at http://welcome.to/winmagazine

email: winmagazine@yahoo.com

Return to top

 

via womenenvision@isiswomen.org

WOMENWATCH

WomenWatch is the UN Internet gateway to global information about women's concerns, progress and equality. It was initiated by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. WomenWatch is currently an interagency activity with active participation from many UN organizations.

WomenWatch is located at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch.

Beijing Conference Platform Continues

via womenenvision@isiswomen.org

The Platform for Action adopted at the Beijing Conference for Women in 1995 is being actively pursued by women of all nations, as they work with their individual governments to implement its points regarding equal pay, and cessation of oppression and violence against women, among other issues.

  • On February 28- March17, 2000, at the United Nations, New York, USA, the PrepCom II Meeting is being held to complete preparations for the Special Session to review the BPFA.

    Contact: UN Division for the Advancement of Women
    E-mail: womenwatch@un.org

  •  On June 5-9, 2000, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA, the Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century is being held to assess advances and progress made in the implementation of the BPFA.

    Contact: UN Division for the Advancement of Women, Koh Miyaoi, Information Officer E-mail: miyaoi@un.org

    originally posted at: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw

Return to top

 

via http://www.un.org/womenwatch.

Gender-Specific University in Europe Opens

The International Women's University (Internationale Frauenuniversitat -ifu), the only gender-specific university in Europe, will hold its first semester of post-graduate classes from July15 - October 15, 2000. The ifu, a bold innovation by, for and about women, offers an interdisciplinary scope and methodology of academic work, and an intercultural atmosphere across all political borders as well as ethnic and religious divides.

The overall theme of the opening semester, "Technology and Culture," will cover the following six project areas:

  • Body - experiences, politics, concepts
  • City - city and gender
  • Information - women entering the information age
  • Migration - women, identities and systems in transit
  • Water - water and life
  • Work - women's work between integration and disintegration, a comparison of Western, Middle and Eastern European experiences.

For inquiries, contact the International Women's University - ifu, Department of Public Relations, Blumenstrasse 6, D-30159 Hannover, Federal Republic of Germany; Tel: (49-511) 120-8660; Fax: (49-511) 120-8693

E-mail: postmaster@ifu.niedersachsen.de

Website: www.int.frauenuni.de

Return to top

via ABIGAILS-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM

 11/10/99

 Neglect for Poor Children Goes Hand in Hand with Anti-abortion stance

In the U.S., the states that have the strongest anti-abortion laws are also those that spend the least on poor children, according to a new study by Jean Schroedel, an associate professor of political science at the Claremont Graduate University in California. Her book, Is the Fetus a Person: A Comparison of Fetal Policies Across the 50 States, will be published in June by Cornell University Press.  

"To put it simply, pro-life states make it difficult for women to have abortions, but they do not help these women provide for the children once born," Schroedel said. 

The study reveals that these states provide less per child for foster care, less for parents who adopt children with special needs, and less for "welfare" recipients. "As you move from the strongest pro-choice states to the strongest pro-life states, the amount of spending in these areas becomes increasingly lower," Schroedel said.

"When I started this research, I really thought I'd find evidence of how pro-life states were respecting the lives of children." But after completing her research she found just the opposite.

For example, Louisiana, which has the most stringent abortion laws, provided an average monthly stipend of $238 to assist in the raising of an adopted 2-year-old special-needs child and $348 for foster care. Hawaii, with the least stringent abortion laws, spent an average of $529 for adoptive care and $529 for foster care. The average total state spending for each poor child in Louisiana was $602, compared to $4,648 for Hawaii. 

original article by William Claiborne, Washington Post

Return to top

via ABIGAILS-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM 

10/19/99

Teenage Activist for Children's Rights

 It's so important to let people know that they can change things, they can make a real difference," Tanya Roberts-Davis said in an interview with Michele Landsberg of the Toronto Star.  

Roberts-Davis, a high school student, spent five weeks this year with children in Nepal who had been rescued from carpet factories. She lived in the girls' dormitory and became their friend. She got them to tell her their life stories and create dramas, songs and dances about their experiences. 

Now she wants to share the girls' stories and poems with the world, thereby raising awareness of their plight. As soon as she can find the right publisher, she hopes to raise funds for Rugmark, the organization that locates child labourers, ages 9 to 14, and offers them a chance at school. 

"I was amazed at their sense of purpose, their optimism and their growing awareness of children's rights. They were able to express their willingness to help earn money for their families, but not to be exploited. The girls especially were very angry about the unfair burden of work they carry compared to the boys."

"My life is a flowing river/ I spend my lonely life in sorrow/All people discriminate against me/Because I am poor," wrote Parwati. 

"Namaste! My name is Samita," writes a 10 year old. Recalling her hard labour as a pre-schooler, she wonders "why did I have the misfortune to be born female." 

Samita's poem reads, in part: "I am an orphan, I am an orphan/I am deprived of my mother's love/Her love has floated away/Like the waters of the river/And the clouds of the sky." 

Roberts-Davis said the children were "exuberant, eloquent, brilliantly smiling." They love their school with its peaceful order and kindness but above all, they love the privilege of learning. 

" Rugmark , which certifies rugs as adult-made, is a very positive approach," she said. A child can be replaced in the factory by his or her own unemployed parent. Rugmark rugs are available in Toronto at Ten Thousand Villages, 2559 Yonge St. The store has a wealth of fairly-traded handcrafted items from around the world.

Rugmark's toll free number: 877-713-3303.

original article by Michele Landsberg, Toronto Star, 10/17/99

Return to top

>>>Next

<<<Back

<<<Contents