ICRW Series on Gender Issues in Global Development

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The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is hosting a series of events this year as part of their 35th anniversary. See below for a quick preview of topics. There is a cost to attend each. Details are in the attached document.

March 8 —  “Breakthroughs & Collaborations: Innovations Changing the Game for Women

June 8 —  “Ending Violence Against Women: Investing in Solutions”

September 8 —  “Climbing the Ladder: What It Will Take to Advance Women Economically”

December 8 —  “How We Know It’s Working: The Critical Role of Monitoring & Evaluation

G/TIP: Remembering Ambassador Richard Holbrooke

From: Karl, Ann [mailto:KarlA@state.gov] On Behalf Of Tip Outreach
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 5:21 PM
To: Tip Outreach
Subject: G/TIP: Remembering Ambassador Richard Holbrooke

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In Memoriam

Richard Holbrooke

(1941-2010)

[E]nding this crime so monstrous is not a political issue; it is an American imperative, and a human responsibility.  This is why there are still modern-day abolitionists.  And this is why the rest of us should join them. 

 – Richard Holbrooke, 2008               

At this week’s memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shootings, President Obama reminded us that we should strive to make our actions worthy of those who have fallen and those who like Congresswoman Giffords – are still fighting for life.  Together, we mourned the loss of and commemorated the lives of a judge, committed citizens who had come to see their representative, and a precious child who embodied our hopes for the future.  As the President pointed out, the victims of last week’s shooting believed in the American ideal of open and responsive government in which honorable public servants work on behalf of an engaged citizenry.

This afternoon, many of us at the State Department attended a service to celebrate the life of a man who exemplified the best of public service Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.  Many of you may be familiar with his storied history from Vietnam, his service as one of the youngest Assistant Secretaries in history and the only person to lead two different Regional Bureaus, his central role in ending the Balkan wars, or his recent work as Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.  But most people don’t know about Richard Holbrooke’s heartfelt commitment to fighting modern slavery.   

Last year, Ambassador Holbrooke learned of a group of workers in Pakistan who were being held in debt bondage.  He did not write it off as a local dispute or beneath his notice.  He did not write it off to an entrenched social system in Pakistan, or fear that raising the issue would introduce a dischordant note into his critically important discussions with the Pakistani Government.  Rather, Ambassador Holbrooke did what he did best a whirlwind of a week ensued with a combination of cajoling, working the phones, sending people off to meetings, and energizing the bureaucracies of two countries through sheer force of will.  The result?  Almost 200 people who had been held captive through force and threats are now free.  Because of Richard Holbrooke. 

This was not an isolated incident.  Throughout his career, Ambassador Holbrooke saw not only the geopolitical stakes and the back and forth of negotiations, but the people that mattered, even in a hidden issue like modern slavery.  His own words express it best:

“One must never forget that slaves are first and foremost people.  Their lives are filled with sorrow and injustice – but also . . . they are touched with humor and joy.  Just like regular people.  Just like free people.”    

Here at the State Department and at our embassies around the world, American diplomats strive to live up to his challenge, and his example.  Whether it is engagement with the host governments, support for civil society, or even uncovering and responding to trafficking cases, our diplomats are making a difference.  That’s how we strive to honor the memory of Ambassador Holbrooke.  That’s how we try to live up to the expectations of the public we serve.  We mourn for the fallen, and recommit ourselves to be worthy of their example. 

Sincerely,

Ambassador Luis CdeBaca

This email is UNCLASSIFIED.

Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning

At TEDxPSU, Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.

 Ali Carr-Chellman is an instructional designer and author who studies the most effective ways to teach kids and to make changes at school. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/ali_carr_chellman_gaming_to_re_engage_boys_in_learning.html

The Institute for Inclusive Security's 12th Annual Policy Forum on Tuesday, January 18, 2011

On the role of women as Peace Negotiators. Registration is due by Friday, if you’re interested in attending.

If anyone plans on attending, please let the rest of the Gender CofP know.

Thanks,
Randal

From: Troy Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 9:38 AM
To: Nicole Mechem; Drusilla Menaker
Subject: FW: You are Cordially Invited to The Institute for Inclusive Security's 12th Annual Policy Forum on Tuesday, January 18, 2011

FYI

From: Michelle Page [mailto:michelle_page@huntalternatives.org]
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 7:05 PM
To: Troy Johnson
Subject: You are Cordially Invited to The Institute for Inclusive Security's 12th Annual Policy Forum on Tuesday, January 18, 2011

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Dear Mr. Johnson,

The results are concrete: When more women leaders are involved, peace negotiations improve. For more than ten years, governments and multilateral bodies have acknowledged these critical contributions. Using rhetoric and resolutions, they’ve called for greater inclusion. Yet, the strikingly low numbers of women involved in these processes have hardly increased. Women are the greatest untapped resource for achieving sustainable peace. 

The Institute for Inclusive Security’s 12th annual Policy Forum focuses on the role of mediators in enabling lasting peace. More than 20 experienced mediators from our global Women Waging Peace Network will identify practical approaches for convening more inclusive negotiations. These leaders have mediated conflicts in Afghanistan, Argentina, Burundi, Colombia, Guatemala, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Romania, Serbia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Uganda.

The Forum will commence with roundtable discussions during which experienced women mediators will seek input on their prepared recommendations for elevating the role of women in mediation and designing more inclusive negotiations.

We’re pleased to invite you to our event on Tuesday, January 18, 2011. Please join us for roundtables from 10:00am to 12:00pm and a luncheon from 12:30pm to 2:30pm at the Renaissance Washington Hotel, 999 9th Street NW, Washington, DC. B. Lynn Pascoe, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Jordan Ryan, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), will deliver remarks.

This event is not a fundraiser. We seek your enthusiasm and ideas, not your financial support. Consistent with regulations for US government employees, the value of the lunch won’t exceed $25. 

Space is limited. To reserve your spot, please click here. Alternatively, you can contact Michelle Page at either 202.403.2004 or michelle_page@huntalternatives.org by Friday, January 14, 2011.While this invitation is not transferable, we welcome suggestions of colleagues we might invite.

We anticipate engaging discussions and hope you will be able to attend.

 

Sincerely,

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Social Media and Women's Activism

Pink Panties in the Mail

Submitted by Sabina Panth on Thu, 12/23/2010 - 11:20

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The other day, I received a Facebook invitation to join a global network on ‘16-days of activism against gender-based violence’.  According to the description, the campaign has been helping to raise awareness about gender violence and its effect on women on a global-scale. The Facebook forum is intended for individuals and organizations championing the cause to share the achievements and challenges they have encountered toward building a global alliance.  The global alliance is intended to support the demands made to the states and institutions and the actions that are needed to pressure for better results.  Incidentally, I wrote my previous blog post on the increased use of social media in civilian-led activism and advocacy campaigns.  My membership to this new social networking site made me interested to learn more about how social media is helping to promote the cause of women’s issues worldwide.  Here are some of the examples I have collected, primarily from the Tactical Technology website.

I start with my all time favorite, the Pink Chadi Campaign. Women activists in India used Facebook to campaign against the right wing political party that organized attacks on women in the drinking clubs.  In defense of their rights, the women activists asked supporters to send Pink Chadis (panties) to the leader of the political party behind the attacks.  By the third day of the launch, the campaign had attracted 16,000 supporters on Facebook and within a few months the membership rose to 50,000.  

In Lebanon, an overwhelming public response is said to have been attained from the animated video, ‘Adventures of Salwa’ that was promoted via Facebook to address workplace harassment.  In India, the Blank Noise project used blogs and Flickr to display the images of clothing that the victims of sexual harassment wore (saris and burkas) to counter the prevailing notion that women invite harassment from the clothes they wear.  In Kenya, women have used mobile videos and you-tube to record harassment incidences and seek justice on their behalf.  

However, the online presence of social media has not always been successful in translating into an off-line mode.  For instance, the Pink Chadi campaign faced a limitation in the use of Facebook in its on-line campaign.  After the membership crossed the 5,000 mark, the organizers could no longer send messages to group members.  The campaign was also defaced, hacked and eventually deleted from Facebook. The Blank Noise project, on the other hand, was able to bring its virtual presence into street actions, which remains an integral part of its campaign style. 

As to the question of whether and how these types of social media activism have wrought changes in women’s lives, many organizers perceive social media as a platform whereby ‘individuals become empowered through personal experiences in the collective’. “The main impact is internal. People are able to personalize the meaning of their involvement in the collective and undergo personal transformation,” quotes a blog post on the Blank Noise project in India.  Social media activism is also seen by some as a creative, non-confrontational way of conveying and responding to critical social messages. It is seen as particularly favorable to women’s activism as it shields them from the violence that street protests tend to propagate.  Compared with the traditional methods of meeting on the streets and petitioning for a cause, the sheer scope of social media in reaching the public itself is the attraction for its use as an activism tool.
 

Source: http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/pink-panties-mail

Photo Credit: Siti Saad (Flickr)

So now we have to save ourselves and the world, too? A critique of "the girl effect"

by Anna Carella, PhD student in political science at Vanderbilt University

Women have increasingly become the focus of international economic development projects, as exemplified by “the girl effect,” a catchphrase and global phenomenon that suggests that development projects aimed at women will succeed because women are more likely to nurture their families and communities.

The “girl effect” initiative was launched by the Nike Foundation in 2008 and has gained traction in the media (Save a Girl, Save the World,  Saving the World’s Women, and Girl Effect Could Lift the Global Economy) and at the 2009 World Economic Forum, where the girl effect panel ranked as the fourth most popular session. According to President of the Nike Foundation Maria Eitel, the goal is “to eradicate global poverty by investing in girls.”  While this campaign seems like a godsend for those who have been working to improve the lives of women, it may actually be damaging to women. Here’s why:

1) It relies on the essentialist view that women are innately more nurturing than men, and that women’s natural strengths lie in the home as the “chore doer” and “caretaker.” Rather than attempting to increase men’s domestic workload, the girl effect calls on women to carry the dual burden of housework and wealth creation. Why reinforce perceptions about “women’s work” and “men’s work” by claiming that women make better homemakers? Why not instead address the structural factors that underlie men’s apparent disinterest in the health and education of their children?

2) “She will drive 70% of agricultural production. She is an unrealized economic force, accelerating growth and progress in every sector,” claims the campaign. But women in developing countries already make up a larger proportion of the workforce on average than women in industrialized countries, and yet development is stalled. Industrialized countries relied on technological advancements to fuel growth during industrialization, not women. It’s a myth that women will drive growth enough to pull the poorest countries out of poverty: What poor countries need to stimulate sustainable growth are not women taking out loans to buy cows, but better governance and better terms of trade with rich countries.

3) The goal of economic development prioritizes the well-being of the economy over the well-being of women, since gender equality is not pursued for its own good but as a byproduct of development strategies. This may be damaging to women in unanticipated ways—for example, increases in domestic violence have been observed among some female microloan recipients. The campaign assures us that once women start working and contributing to household income, their autonomy will grow. In reality, men may feel threatened by the singular focus on women. The greatest subordination felt by women is within their own home, yet the girl effect has nothing to say about domestic violence, rape, the wage gap, or the many other systemic problems underlying and reinforcing gender discrimination in poor countries (and rich ones too!).

4) The girl effect reinforces the perception of women and more generally people in developing countries as needing “saving.” In the girl effect video above, the viewer is told to “imagine a girl living in poverty.” Then the word “GIRL” is displayed with flies buzzing around the letters, drawing on a stereotypical image often conjured by Westerners to depict sad, impoverished children in developing countries. Such images perpetuate the dichotomy of modern Western world vs. the backwards, charity-dependent rest of the world. In the slideshow, Westerners are invited to “fix this picture,” and told that if they invest in girls they will change the course of history. This message gives more agency to Westerners than to the girls it claims to be empowering.

Women more likely to donate than men

Women more likely to donate than men

PJ staff report | December 23, 2010

Across all charity types, women are at least as likely as men to donate, and for eight of 11 categories, they are significantly more likely to give, a new study says.

For the following charitable causes, women are significantly more like to give than men -- religious institutions; improving communities and neighborhoods; basic necessities; youth; education; health care; international causes; and combined purposes like United Ways or Catholic Charities.

And in the areas of the environment, the arts and a category comprising all other causes, women are just as likely to give as men, the study says.

The gap in likelihood to give is highest for international causes, with women 55 percent more likely to give than men, followed by community causes, where women are 51 percent more likely to donate.

"Women and men are both engaged," says Debra Mesch, director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "But their giving priorities are different. Additional research will help us better understand why women are more likely to give to certain types of organizations."

Unlike many previous giving studies, which typically survey married household, researchers surveyed only single heads-of-household in an effort to eradicate static around gender roles.

Researchers also controlled for differences in age, wealth, education and other factors.

Significance of this Study

The prevailing perception of women's giving is that women are more likely to give, but they give smaller amounts than men. Research in this area offers some support for this belief. Men and women do exhibit different charity choices and patterns of donating money. Males tend to concentrate their giving among a few charities, whereas females are more likely to spread the amounts they give across a wide range of charities (e.g., Andreoni, Brown, & Rischall, 2003; Piper & Schnepf, 2008). That is, "women are more egalitarian in their giving, while men are more strategic" (Brown, 2006). Previous research also indicates that women tend to give to organizations that have had an impact on them or someone they know personally (Parsons, 2004; Burgoyne, Young, & Walker, 2005). Subsequently, much of the empirical research indicates that men and women exhibit different charity choices and patterns of donating money. However, research has been inconsistent as to the differences in charity choice. This study offers a more comprehensive perspective of men and women's giving by examining the likelihood of giving across all charity subsectors, using a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. 

[Alliance] ECA now accepting applications for TechWomen exchange program

From: alliance-bounces+csheng=irex.org@calists.harvard.edu [mailto:alliance-bounces+csheng=irex.org@calists.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Overmann
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 3:13 PM
To: alliance@calists.harvard.edu
Subject: [Alliance] ECA now accepting applications for TechWomen exchange program

Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Ann Stock released today the following information regarding the new Department of State exchange program, TechWomen:

TechWomen: Empowering Women in Technology from the Middle East and North Africa

“We want to harness one of America’s strengths – our excellence in technology and innovation – and use it to build effective and lasting partnerships with rising women leaders in Muslim countries.”
-- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton


The TechWomen program will identify 38 women who are emerging leaders in technical fields, and bring them to the United States in summer 2011 for a five-week, project-based mentoring program at leading technology companies in Silicon Valley, California. Please visit the TechWomen website for Eligibility Criteria and Application Instructions: http://www.techwomen.org/how-to-apply/

The application deadline is February 1st, 2011.


About TechWomen
Bringing the power of global business, technology, and education together, TechWomen will pair women in Silicon Valley with their counterparts in the Middle East and North Africa for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading technology companies beginning in the summer of 2011. Using innovative technologies, cutting-edge content, and social networking tools, TechWomen will foster and develop the next generation of women leaders in the technology field by providing women and girls with the access and opportunity needed to pursue tech-based careers.

TechWomen, a public-private partnership, was developed to implement President Barack Obama’s vision of greater collaboration between the United States and communities with predominantly Muslim populations, as outlined in his June 2009 speech in Cairo.

TechWomen is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE), and implemented in partnership with the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology (ABI).

 

 

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