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Covering Women's Issues – WOMENSENEWS
Changing Women's Lives
Thursday, March 11, 2010
TODAY'S UPDATE
Buzz is building behind the scenes at the current U.N. Commission on the Status of Women to push ahead the launch of the women's U.N. super agency, thought to have been stalled since it was approved last September, Sharon Ufberg reports today.
'Super Agency' Stirs Buzz at U.N. Women's Session
By Sharon Ufberg
WeNews correspondent
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Buzz is building behind the scenes at the current U.N. Commission on the Status of Women to push ahead the launch of the women's U.N. super agency, thought to have been stalled since it was approved last September.
UNITED NATIONS, New York (WOMENSENEWS)--The headquarters building here is undergoing renovations. The quarters are more cramped and the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, March 1-12, has been more challenging than ever for delegates like me to navigate. There are the U.N. committee meetings, caucus schedules and a plethora of side meetings sponsored by nongovernmental groups in the near and not-so-nearby neighborhood.
The maze-like atmosphere imparts a strong sense of missing out on things, especially when over 200 national and international nongovernmental organizations--and about 8,000 individuals--are actively participating, with dozens upon dozens of people giving formal presentations, statistical reports and recommendations from their countries or regions.
The formal agenda is for countries to report back on their records of achievement on 12 pro-women reform areas outlined 15 years ago at the 4th World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China.
But backstage here at the meeting--called "Beijing + 15"--I've found one general, impossible-to-miss buzz among delegates.
What seems to be on everyone's mind is the highly anticipated U.N. super agency for women, which is supposed to pull all women's agencies together behind the concerted goal of advancing the lives of women around the globe.
Often simply referred to as "the entity," this super agency has been fueling speculation since last September, when the U.N. General Assembly agreed to its general framework. Estimates of budget size range from half a billion to 1 billion dollars. An undersecretary general may be announced in June, according to delegate talk.
But there's no launch date yet and delegates are restless. Many are calling for a global gathering even larger than this one to overcome inertia and set the new entity in motion.
Drumming Support for Women's Conference
They're drumming up support for a 5th World Conference for Women, a nongovernmental organization-driven conference that would provide the first sequel to that historic meeting in Beijing, where women's rights were pulled into the definition of human rights.
Is another huge gathering like that really required to launch a correspondingly huge agency? The rationale among delegates here is that it is, because planning such a meeting will set the new apparatus in motion. It will require the various U.N. women's agencies and affiliated nongovernmental groups to come together under the new super agency framework. In other words, planning a launch meeting for the super agency will also give birth to it.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, an activist, physician and Jungian analyst from Northern California, has come to New York with a mission to secure a commitment for a 5th World Conference on Women, also called 5WCW.
Bolen, a veteran sixth-time delegate from Pathways to Peace, headquartered in Larkspur, Calif., has been meeting with delegates from nongovernmental organizations and governmental representatives from around the globe. She's rallying to get petition signatures calling on the United Nations to set a specific date for the 5WCW, distributing 5WCW buttons, speaking on panels and in women's circles and raising awareness of the urgency and importance of setting a date for the next World Conference for Women.
"I have been watching the momentum build for a 5th World Conference for the last few years," said Bolen. "This year we seem to have reached the critical mass of support to see a 'tipping point' for our success. Gender equality and peace building continue to be our core issues."
Official Business to Review Progress
Meanwhile, the official business here is for U.N.-appointed representatives to review global progress in the 12 critical areas of concern that were outlined in Beijing and are reviewed each year.
The 12 report-card categories involve women's special concerns with: 1) poverty 2) education and training 3) health 4) violence 5) armed conflict 6) economy 7) power and decision-making 8) institutional processes 9) human rights 10) media 11) natural environment 12) the girl child.
Simultaneous sessions of country reports and topics that cover all 12 critical areas of concern are being held in small venues all over Manhattan. These meetings are standing room only and often leave interested participants unable to get in. Delegates are also heading to the sideline sessions, sponsored individually and in collaboration with many of the over 200 nongovernmental groups that are recognized by the Economic and Social Council of the U.N.
Delegates like me--I'm representing Project Kesher, the largest nongovernmental women's advocacy organization in the former Soviet Union--seek out organizations with similar missions and issues to share best practices and brainstorm with one another. This year I am especially interested in the sessions that focused on using new media and technology to empower women and girls.
These sessions offer a critical space for delegate activists to find and inspire each other.
This year, for instance, I came across Bijaya Rai Shrestha from Nepal, founder of Pourakhi, a five-year-old advocacy group that helps female migrant workers in her country with legal advice about essential documentation, rights and education about the heightened risks of violence and discrimination that come with foreign employment.
Shrestha attended a parallel session sponsored by the Women Founders Collective, created by Sallie Gratch--a 2005 Women's eNews 21 Leader for the 21st Century--from Chicago. The group is founded on the idea that small, interactive, peer-to-peer sessions quickly establish trustworthy alliances and have a positive effect on one another. The women sat and talked in circles and like many, came away saying the chance for that kind of intimate encounter is one of the major reasons for attending these vast, sprawling, institutional sessions.
Experiencing this passionate and powerful global women's activist network is not to be missed.
Dr. Sharon Ufberg is an integrative practitioner and health care journalist. She can be reached at sufberg@gmail.com and followed on twitter at: http://twitter.com/DrUfberg
For more information:
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1888:
http://www.5wcw.org
Beijing + 15:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing15/participation.html
Those who haven't yet, if you care to, donate now by going to: http://www.womensenews.org/donation
Subject, Article: Younger women face "gender fatigue," subtle bias - Reuters
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS, one living in New York, the other in Florida
Jennie's right on both counts.
Only thing is, people like this author apparently live in the Northeast USA where gender inequity is sometimes recognized. Not so in the Southeast, where most unratified states are. Here, the word “feminist” is eschewed, much like another legit word, “sweat”; it’s impolite.
Here (Florida), we are treated like whiners without legitimate complaints about pay at 72% of men's, more parttime, underpaid, under-benefitted work and any safety-net laws or ERA seen as "entitlements". Like slaves clanging their chains for food. An exaggeration? Probably, because most women in southeastern America don't seem to know they're second-class until it's pointed out with examples.
Many, even then, can't get interested in picking up the phone to call legislators in an unratified state or giving even the most rudimentary support to ERA.
It's just the way it is here, and I betcha most of the nation.
What do we have to do to draw their attention from their grandchildren--don't they want a better life for them?--their fashion shows and bridge clubs?
Or is it cest la vie?
sandyo
From Jennie Charron, NYS charronj@verizon.net
I've lived in many places around the states over the past 20 years. Started in Syracuse NY, moved to Los Angeles, Erie PA, Montgomery County MD, RI, Wichita KS and back to NY (now in their capital Albany). Politics and cultural differences in each area were very eye-opening. My entire family now lives in NC (siblings all in Durham), and although this recent move was to "anywhere we wanted," my family is unhappy that I didn't chose to live there in NC. What I don't say to them is that I didn't move to NC because I refuse to live in an area that thinks women belong in a box and that segregation is ok. It's not an official practice, mind you, but the whites only associate with the whites, the Hispanics with the Hispanics, and the blacks with the blacks.
I personally was raised to treat everyone with respect, that God paints everybody differently, that love is colorblind, and to just work it out and get along. Build a bridge, go over it. After being told that I could never be more than a secretary, I personally had to bust my butt to put myself thru college to create for myself better opportunities. The people that knew me in those states know I personally used my advocacy to make the world a better place for everybody, and I did see oppression everywhere. In LA nobody would hire me for a management job because there were Asian women with PhDs "perfectly happy" (I didn't see it) to be secretaries. In Erie, General Electric worked their employees to the bones and the men were told to have their wives handle the family duties if they ever wanted a raise or promotion (that's a Jack Welch philosophy). For one job there that I really wanted, I was told at the end of the 3rd interview that there would be a 4th interview, a dinner with my husband, just to make sure he was ok with my going back to work.
I didn't marry a man who believed that way, I certainly wasn't going to work for one who did - and he was only 35. In RI we lived in a "Stepford Wife" community (wish we knew that beforehand) where all of the men prided themselves in publicly criticizing their wives. Those women were beautiful and intelligent, some came from serious money, most were respected in their careers, and almost all had an amazing ability to also keep their households orderly, but these guys were never satisfied, and my husband refused to bash me too when he was with them. Being surrounded by that kind of verbal abuse really was the only reason I was ok with our moving to KS.
While in KS, I was told (repeatedly) that God makes women to make babies, so therefore I was totally in the wrong to want to work. KS cured me of the Republican party - when a political party cares ONLY about religion and no longer about fiscal responsibility, there's something wrong.
And now here in NY I see the NY Democrats are totally out of control. I'm not the only New Yorker embarrassed by my federal and state elected officials and their ethics lapses. I'm sure that problem is universal nationwide. But the only way to get things done legislatively, apparently, is to play the Party game. It is no longer about working with everybody and supporting the constituents. Do as I say, not as I do. How many high-profile men continually lie about their affairs, while their beautiful and obedient wife stands by quietly (stand up and throw the jerk out). How man men are unemployed right now during the recession and have to rely on his wife and her pay inequity to get by (stand up for pay equity and an ERA since these are family issues). How many single mothers out there struggle to get by while her father watches with what he considers tough love (stand up to the jerk who put her in that position).
My family in NC thinks I'm crazy for being a feminist. Although my one sister with more professional credentials than you can fit in alphabet soup is acknowledging she has hit the glass ceiling and is actively asking my husband for direction in how to overcome. Even the men in her business circles tell her she could have anything she wants with these credentials, but she has no self confidence. Living in the South now they are taught by their new peers that women have their places. Getting any of them to stand up and take their seat at the table is the problem. Grow a spine, get some girl power! My sisters are no longer the fabulous athlete or the intellectual, but are now defined only by their duties. They've lost their "me-ness", something that women in my generation are fighting to keep, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. My nieces and nephews are all grown, but the girls were raised to never take initiative, that it's ok to stop their education and mope once their new husbands are deployed, to move home with mom and leach off her instead of being self-sufficient, that the mom sacrifices bankruptcy instead of asking those girls to use their military husband's housing allowances to help. One of the girls now lives between Las Vegas and Utah (she knew her husband was a Mormon when they met, but eloping doesn't involve or expose you to somebody else's way of life). She is now learning the hard way that not being able to check off that 4-yr-degree box means only being qualified in her rural area to work at Wal-Mart or a local restaurant and that too will soon be put on hold forever to "have more babies and raise her kids."
I'm babbling my frustrations (sorry), but the point I'm trying to make is that oppression of women isn't just a southern thing - it happens even in New England and across the nation. NOW made a famous quote many years ago that the purpose of a Federal ERA was to give equality to the women in Mississippi, who, without it, might still not even have the right to vote.
Some of you are having successes in your states empowering the younger women with the facts behind the ERA. They now have a fire under their fannies too, and we need to empower them to take leadership in our efforts for ratification. We need to get them to take a more proactive role and a more visible role in our state's efforts. We also need to find some more "famous faces of today" for today's efforts for ratification so that the "current generation" can recognize someone they respect with their words that we need, the ERA today.
This was done for the 2000 get out the vote efforts. It was used again in 04 and 08. 21st century technology is now playing a bigger role in advocacy for many different issues - we can use it to our advantage with the ERA. Armed with knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned, this next generation of women (and men) should stand up and demand equality. We need to get more of them working "the system", personally educating the legislative aides who are also uneducated about the reasons for the ERA. These young people know how to keep in touch instantly using technology and will use those tools with their legislative aide friends. And then when that sweet-looking, grandmotherly Phyllis Schlafly walks into one of their sessions, they will laugh her out of the room with her "so-yesterday" arguments against the ERA.
We need to find new ways to take this mainstream. A lot of us are very tired from doing all the work. We are all growing gray because of it. Now is a chance to empower these fresh faces to finally make the ERA a reality. They need to know that Congress is already working on guaranteeing the ERA in Afghanistan and Iraq, so they need to practice what they preach at home. Congress knows the value of an ERA for these other nations, and we can provide them with counterpoints for the antis here in the US. We all know that as soon as one of your states becomes the first of the last 3, the others will take notice - the whole nation will take notice - and hopefully the others will follow suit, and we'll have the ERA.
So what can I do from my comfy seat here to help in your state efforts? NY is already ratified, and I'm not too sure we don't already have equality guaranteed in our state constitution (but I'm working on that too), so I'd like to be of value to you from up here in the peanut gallery.
Your devoted ERA sister,
Jennie
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