April 29, 2006

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Texas represent! New Planned Parenthood pres hails from great state

While I've always known our numbers were high, it's reassuring to see more and more Texans coming out of the backwoods closet. Despite beliefs held by some narrow-mided folks (ahem, East Coasters), intelligent, socially progressive Texans DO exist and in that proverbial Texas way, they exist BIG! Please meet Ms. Cecile Richards, daughter of former Texas governer Ann Richards and the new president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Ms. Richards was born in Waco, Tex., and grew up in Dallas and Austin. ... In her previous jobs as president of America Votes, a coalition of 30 liberal-leaning national organizations that spent $350 million on political activities in 2004, co-founder of America Coming Together, a political action committee created to challenge the Bush administration, and president of Pro-Choice Vote during the 2000 election cycle, she pushed for a different electoral result. I'm excited to see what this Texan can do to ensure that reproductive rights are a mainstay for women everywhere.

Get on the bus to end violence against women

As part of a campaign to commemerate International Women's day, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) and partners in South Africa are traveling by bus to spread the message of non-violence to women and raise awareness of new laws and measures that will help women escape domestic and civil violence. "Another aim will be to collect petitions calling on both parliament and the department of justice and constitutional development to consult with civil society around the finalisation and enactment of the Sexual Offences Bill." Who wants to organize a U.S. roadtrip?!?

A woman's life, in numbers.

Numbers often help us put it perspective: 1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women. A baby girl born in the UK is likely to live to 81 - but if she is born in Swaziland, she is likely to die at 39. 70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty are women and children. 21% of the world's managers are female. 62% of unpaid family workers are female. 9% of judges, 10% of company directors and 10% of top police officers in the UK are women. Women comprise 55% of the world's population aged over 60 years old and 65% of those aged over 80. 85 million girls worldwide are unable to attend school, compared with 45 million boys. In Chad, just 4% of girls go to school. 700,000,000 women are without adequate food, water, sanitation, health care or education (compared with 400,000,000 men). 67% of all illiterate adults are women. 1,440 women die each day during childbirth (a rate of one death every minute). 1 in 7 women in Ethiopia die in pregnancy or childbirth (it is one in 19,000 in Britain). In the US, 35% of lawyers are women but just 5% are partners in law firms. In the EU, women comprise 3% of chief execs of major companies. 12 is the number of world leaders who are women (out of 191 members of the United Nations). Men directed 9 out of every 10 films made in 2004. Courtesy of Truthout.org.

Black. White. And stupid.

Black.White.--the show that takes two families, one white, one black, and swaps their skin color to see what happens--premiered last night on FX. And while shows like this present the possibility of challenging our ideas about controversial topics and subsequently expanding our understandings of the complexity of social issues such as race, Black. White. is very unlikely to add significantly to any understandings of anything. With personalities like Bruno, the show is bound to be disastrous: Bruno and his family (partner Carmen Wurgel and her 18-year-old daughter, Rose) are the white family . . . Bruno is creepy on several levels. You could chalk up the fact that he is plainly turned on at first seeing Carmen in her makeup to universal perversities about sex and color . . . . And when he says, "I'm kind of waiting for somebody to say, 'Hey, nigger!' " he does so in a tone that others might use to say, "I can't wait to see V for Vendetta." Clearly we can't hold fast to this show broadening anything other than ignorance. We'll just have cling to the comedic and sociological brilliance of Dave Chappelle.

International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day!

Women call out UN's failure to include women

Hey kids, sorry about the absence, but I've been busy over at the UN. And I'm happy to report that all of our hard work is paying off at this year's Commission on the Status of Women. Our press conference and Open Letter to the Secretary General have garnered incredible media coverage and have a outlets and the UN are picking up women's frustration with gender inequity in all levels of decision-making. In an open letter to Annan, the women said they were "disappointed and frankly outraged" that strengthening the U.N. machinery focusing on women is not a central part of the U.N.'s reform agenda. They also expressed deep concern "that the position of women in high-level U.N. posts has stagnated." During Kofi Annan's speech in this morning's high-level meeting, women filled the room waving purple signs that simply said, "50/50", a reference to WEDO's international campaign that calls for gender parity in all levels of decision-making and parliaments worldwide. It's really invigorating to see the powerful presence of women and their ability to actually make change in what seems to be an increasingly volatile political landscape.

Knowledge saves lives when it comes to abortion

Because information lessens our dependency and increases our power, please read this post by a fellow blogger. Written in light of the recent South Dakota abortion ban, one woman feels its time to call on tactics similar to the Jane Collective of the 1960s--a national collective of women who learned how to perform abortions and subsequently decreased the necessity of dangerous and deadly back-alley abortions. While the numbers weren't accounted for, their work undoubtedly saved thousands of women's lives and is an inspiration for actions that may be necessary as reproductive rights and access to abortion are increasingly blocked. Read more about the amazing work of the Jane Collective. Thanks to Laura.