If Women were
heard…
From Bat Shalom, a
feminist peace organization working toward a
just peace between Israel and its Arab
neighbors:
"As this message goes
out to our friends and allies, we once again
cannot ignore the fact that Middle Eastern
women's voices are virtually inaudible at the
negotiation's summit in the United States.
"If our voices could
carry to Camp David, we would ask that TRUTH,
the first casualty in situations of historic
violent conflict, be invited to sit among the
negotiators at the summit table.
"We would then set a
place for JUSTICE, to ensure that the
negotiations do not attempt to normalize
injustice, but overcome it by creating a new
and more equitable balance of power in our
region.
"And the final place
at the table would be reserved for TRUST -
that each side genuinely longs for and
deserves a secure and viable state for its
people, and that we indeed have the potential
to build the trust between us that will allow
us to negotiate an honorable resolution to
the conflict, and live side by side, in
dignity and humanity, for generations to
come."
Bat Shalom, with The
Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian
women's peace organization, comprise The
Jerusalem Link. Visit their web site for more
information
<www.batshalom.org>6/30/00
via
www.womensenews.org
Women Redefine
"National Security"
Women from Japan,
Korea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the
United States gathered in Okinawa, Japan, to
prepare for a July confrontation with the
members of The Group of Eight, composed of
the United States, Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia, who are
meeting for their own summit on global
security and economy.
A 92-year-old
Okinawan woman danced in protest of the U.S.
naval heliport planned for her island.
San Francisco State
University professor Margo Okazawa-Rey told
the 100 women assembled: "The purpose of this
meeting is to challenge the principle of
'national security' on which the economic
policies of the G Eight are based. These
economic policies can never achieve genuine
security." Instead the Women's Summit
redefined security as a healthy environment:
meeting basic needs such as food, health
care, shelter, education and protecting
populations from avoidable harm.
The summit was hosted
by Okinawa Women Against Military Violence,
which was founded in 1995 when three U.S.
Marines abducted and raped a 12-year-old
girl. The group organized a 1996 island-wide
referendum in which 95 percent voted to
demand that the U.S. bases be removed.
The women agreed that
bombing practice should end in Vieques,
Puerto Rico, Korea and on the Philippine
island of Mindanao. They are also seeking
compensation for environmental damage caused
by the military and "violence against women,
as well as revision of bilateral military
agreements in order to address women's
concerns."
In the Philippines,
Buklod, a rehabilitation center for
prostitutes who had "served" the U.S. troops
stationed there, is documenting all military
personnel's crimes against women for use in
the new International Criminal Court in the
Hague. Okinawan women already have a
comprehensive list of rapes and murders
committed by soldiers dating back to
1945.
But Dorothy Mackey, a
former U.S. Air Force captain and a survivor
of military sexual assault warned the
audience that "the international criminal
court's power and jurisdiction are severely
limited because the United States does not
recognize the court's authority unless it
specifically exempts U.S. service personnel.
She is the executive director of STAMP,
Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by
Military Personnel.
From "Women's Summit
Demands Human Security" By Chris Lombardi,
WEnews Correspondent,
<www.womensenews.org>
_______________________________________________________________
Chinese Women speak
out!
From China, WEnews
correspondents Laura Marble and Marie Tessier
report on two very different, courageous
women's groups, the Tiananmen Mothers and the
Red Phoenix Project.
Ding Zilin, the
founder of the mothers' organization, told
Laura Marble, "I often consider the fact that
people have only one life, only one," said
Ding Zilin. "Life is sacred. But death is
also sacred. If everyone could see life and
death in this way, maybe we could decrease
the number of calamities and
massacres."
Tiananmen Mothers
grew slowly out of Ding's and other mothers'
losses. Ding's son was one of the students
ruthlessly massacred during the 1989
Tiananmen Square protests and immediately
buried in a mass grave. The Chinese
government, three months after the massacre,
stated in the People's Daily, "There were no
deaths in the square."
But Ding knew
otherwise and began to defy the government's
censorship policies and told the story of her
son's death to a Hong Kong newspaper
reporter, and then again to ABC News, this
time adding a demand for the government to
reveal what happened and the actual death
toll.
The mothers' petition
now has obtained endorsement from Amnesty
International and organizations in Sri Lanka,
the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India,
Pakistan, the Netherlands, South America and
Central America.
Marie Tessier reports
on the Red Phoenix Project of Shaanxi
Province, which provides college scholarships
for impoverished young village women. "They
selected the name "Red Phoenix" because in
China the mythical bird is a powerful symbol
of femininity and its red color symbolizes
immortality."
The women of the
province wanted to make a difference with a
grassroots, women-run organization to help
women, and so decided to use the region's
beautiful and fanciful embroidery,
traditionally stitched by women with little
or no education, as a way to help other rural
women get ahead.
One thousand women
participated in creating a giant quilt that
was unveiled 5 years ago, at the Beijing
Women's Conference. It sold for 315,000 yuan,
a little less than $40,000, to a Xian
entrepreneur. A news conference generated
more interest and a rush of contributions.
The number of scholarships quickly increased
from 20 to 85 a year. Now about 110 women
receive a 1,000-yuan per year scholarship
(slightly more than $100), renewable
throughout their three to five years of
college.
"These young women
are the future of China," said Gao Xiaoxian,
project director for the provincial Women's
Federation and an internationally known
feminist. "That about says it."
More information
about the project is available at:
http://www.hongfeng.xaonline.com Excerpted
from 2 articles at womensenews.org
A Jamaican Heroine
for teen mothers
A crusader for unwed
teenage mothers in Jamaica, Pamela McNeil
first realized the extent of the problem when
she served as head of the extension program
at a secondary school in the 1970s. "I was
tired of seeing some of our brightest girls
drop out of school because of pregnancy," she
told Camille Taylor of the InterPress Third
World News Agency. Because there were no
support services available, these teenage
mothers never re-entered school, remaining in
poverty and typically having two or three
more babies.
Her Women's Centre
Foundation of Jamaica (WCFJ) provides a place
where pregnant girls could continue their
formal education throughout their pregnancy
with a view to returning to school once they
had given birth. The WCFJ has helped over
25,000 young women to continue their
schooling after their pregnancies.
McNeil has been a
surrogate mother to many of the girls.
Natalie Irving, who came to the centre when
she became pregnant at the age of 17, is now
a member of staff at the WCFJ. She says of
McNeil, "She's a real people person and she's
very persistent. She is stern and she's a
woman of integrity."
Beginning with a
single office in the capital city of
Kingston, the organization now has facilities
in all 14 of the island's parishes and is a
model for similar ventures in several
Caribbean and African countries.
Excerpted from
"Jamaica: The Best Was Yet to Come",
originally posted in IGC Member Conference:
Topic 197 IPS: PROFILE-JAMAICA
South African Women
combat domestic violence
In 1992 Mmatshilo
Motsei of Johannesburg, South Africa started
an organization called ADAPT (Agisanang
Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training
Program) to make the issue of domestic
violence visible and influence the way
institutions dealt with it. Mmatshilo calls
herself a healer, and she began her career as
a nurse. She witnessed first hand the
disparity in available medical treatment for
black women. "I realized at that time that
women, especially black women who are
domestic workers, were being abused both by
their employers and by their partners. I
needed to act."
ADAPT has developed
courses for police and health-care officials
in Alexandra, to sensitize them on how to
deal with victims of domestic violence.
Mmatshilo has also founded Alexandra's first
battered women's shelter, and established a
legal-aid clinic for victims of domestic
violence.
"The ultimate
solution to the problem is a fundamental
change in the position of women in society.
In the long term it's about self-pride and
self-worth and self-love. In this country it
is closely related to self-pride as black
people."
For further information view Ashoka's website
at: http://www.ashoka.org
Indian Woman
recognized in Success Story
WomenAsia.com
recently announced the winner of their
Success Story contest, Angha
Sirpurkar-Childress from Indore, India, who
now resides in the U.S.
The announcement
states: "Angha is returning to India this
Fall to begin building a Woman's Support
Center that will provide a place for Indian
women in crisis to live, and will offer
workshops and training in technology and the
skills needed to be financially independent."
One of her goals is to set up an 800 number
"where women from anywhere in India can call
to get psychological and legal assistance
with domestic abuse and related problems."
She is collaborating with Ruth Paul, who
lives near New Delhi and runs Kriti
Handcrafts and Exports.
Says Ruth: "We don't
have good resource centers for women in
India, and it's hard to get funding. We need
to find more women like Angha who share our
vision, and can help us."
If you are interested
in further contact with Angha or Ruth, they
may be contacted by email: Angha:
angha@hotmail.com, and Ruth:
ruthnpaul@satyam.net.in
Excerpted from
announcement at WomenAsia.com
Get
Out and Run
Research
by the White House Project Education Fund, a
project of the nonpartisan Women's Leadership
Fund, found that young women are more likely
to consider running for office on the local
level, where they see officeholders as more
able to accomplish goals and where politics
does not hold the negative stigma attached to
national politics.
The
report, entitled "Pipeline to the Future:
Young Women and Political Leadership," will
be used to develop strategies aimed at
nurturing political interest among young
women.
"We
can get young moms, young Latinas, young
African-Americans, we can get a lot of young
women who have not been fully represented in
this system to run for political office if we
use the right tools," said Women's Leadership
Fund President Marie C. Wilson in a recent
week-long gathering of Girls Nation. Girls
Nation, begun in 1948, is an annual event
where two female high-school seniors from
each state learn firsthand how the federal
government works.
"We
can get a lot of young women to go to school
board, to go to county boards," Wilson says.
"You don't have to start with the Senate. You
can get young women to do this if we are very
smart about the way we bring them in."
Successful women in politics should encourage
young women to join them. They should also
lay the groundwork for younger women's entry
into politics and eventually into top
leadership positions, including the
presidency,"said Wilson.
For
more information, see
http://www.womensleadershipfund.org
from
"Politics Turns Young Women Off - Issues
Excite Them" by Deborah Mesce,
womensenews.org
Girls
get comfortable at the keyboard
Given
the opportunity and a supportive environment,
girls demonstrate that they don't inherently
lack confidence around technology--they've
been lacking access."
Sarah
L. Rasmusson reported recently for WEnews on
the proliferation of girls-only computer
clubs nation-wide. The Grand Street
Settlement, on New York City's Lower East
Side, was "founded in response to a 1995
community survey indicating that girls were
underserved, the program created a space of
the girl's own where they can develop and
master computer skills.
Other
community organization include 25 YWCAs as
well as the national Digital Clubhouse
Network based in Sunnyvale, California. Many
of the girls involved have received "both
subtle and unmistakable messages that the
hard sciences, like computer technology, are
male preserves," reports Rasmusson.
The
Grand Street girls clearly enjoy their
achievements for their own sake, but their
projects also increase their confidence and
self-image. "Since the majority of
computer-related jobs are still
male-dominated," Grand Street's LaQisha
Jackson said, "we celebrate sisterhood
here."
Excerpted
from "Equal Time in Girls-Only Computer
Clubs" by Sarah L. Rasmusson,
womensenews.org
Teen
Voices -- an American success
story
In
1990 Alison Amoroso and a group of friends
launched Teen Voices, a quarterly magazine
that portrays girls aged 12 to 19 in all
their shapes, colors and sizes. Teen Voices
publishes the work of young women that is
intelligent, affirmative and sensitive to
their own vulnerability.
Unlike
other mass market magazines like Seventeen,
Teen Voices focuses on issues that mainstream
magazines avoid, such as incest and teenage
motherhood, rather than boy problems, dieting
and makeup.
"Most
magazines are exploiting that age group,"
said Amoroso, now a psychologist, who checks
all copy for age and gender appropriateness.
"We're saying it's hard growing up and here's
a way to feel more normal. Here is what other
girls are saying."
"We
want to provide good services, and we make
sure the ads don't disrespect girls in any
way," said Amoroso. Schools, books, a
toll-free "respect line", pen pals,
information on alternatives to animal
dissection, organic feminine care products
and a holiday gift guide of T-shirts and CDs
run in the latest edition. "We try to
encourage them to value characteristics, who
they are, what they do for communities, how
they treat family members, not just physical
value."
Excerpted
from an article from American News Service by
Mieke H. Bomann
All
in the family
Hazel
Clark, 22, Joetta Clark-Diggs, 37, and their
sister-in-law Jearl Miles-Clark, 33 are
making Olympic history. This is the first
time that three women from the same family
will compete in the same event at the same
games. At the American national trials, two
sisters and a sister-in-law from the Clark
family of New Jersey came in first, second
and third in the 800 metres, guaranteeing
them places at Sydney in
September.
Joe
Clark, the father of Hazel and Joetta, gained
national fame for turning around one of the
country's most desperate schools in New
Jersey, and became the subject of a Hollywood
film, Lean On Me, in which he was played by
Morgan Freeman.
All
three women are coached by JJ Clark, Jearl's
husband and the brother of Hazel and Joetta.
Referring to their historic achievement,
Hazel Clark said: "My sister and I are very
close, but I just had to go out and run my
race."
Excerpted
from original article sent via
ABIGAILS-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Sisters
triumph on the courts
Two
days after winning the women's singles tennis
championship, Venus Williams and sister
Serena captured the Wimbledon women's
doubles title, the first time sisters have
won.
"It's
great because it's the millennium Wimbledon,"
Venus said. The sisters have also won two
Grand Slam mixed doubles titles apiece. With
Serena's singles victory at the 1999 U.S.
Open, the pair now hold a total of nine Grand
Slam championships.
After
the sisters accepted the winner's trophy,
they hugged each other and paraded around
Centre Court to a standing ovation from the
near-capacity crowd of more than 10,000. At
several stages, spectators shouted, "C"mon
sisters!"
Excerpted
from an Associated Press article.
via
ABIGAILS-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
The
Fabulous Feminists' Award Goes
To…
Announcement
from Women Leaders Online
<www.wlo.org>
Throughout
this year, we are highlighting your
nominations for Fabulous Feminists - those
who made a difference for equality. We have
launched this project to compensate for the
"Missing Women Syndrome" suffered worldwide
as media leaders and academicians chose their
persons of the year/decade/century/millennium
- nearly 100% of the nominees are white men.
If you have nominees for Fabulous Feminist,
please send the details to wlo@wlo.org with
"Fabulous Feminist" in the Subject
line.
Our
nominee this alert is Beate Sirota Gordon,
who was responsible for bringing
constitutional equality to Japanese
women.
Gordon
was born in Vienna and lived in Tokyo until
she moved to the United States in 1939 to go
to Mills College. While Gordon was in the
U.S. studying and working, the Japanese
government imprisoned her parents because
they were Jewish.
After
the war, Gordon returned to her home in
Japan. First, she found and rescued her
parents, who had been relocated to a rural
area and were suffering from
malnutrition.
Then,
she began her work in the Government Section
at the General Headquarters of the Supreme
Commander, General MacArthur. The 25
employees of the Government Section were
charged with researching and writing the new
post-war constitution for Japan.
As
the only woman among the 25 drafters, Gordon
was determined to make sure that Japanese
women were treated fairly by the new
government. In less than a week, she and the
other workers had written the new
constitution for Japan - a code of laws that
gave women constitutional equality. GOOD
HEAVENS,THAT IS MORE THAN WE HAVE
NOW!
Japanese
women have benefited greatly from the work of
Beate Sirota Gordon. Just think how much
better off U.S. women would be if there had
been a woman in the room when our own
constitution was written.
