women

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March 13, 2012 | 11:50 AM | By

Geena Davis in Seattle, calls for the ‘next women’s movement’

"Thelma & Louise" by MGM, Ridley Scott director

Actor and women’s advocate Geena Davis — Thelma in the 1991 hit ‘neo-feminist’ movie Thelma & Louise — was in Seattle Monday evening calling for a renewed women’s movement worldwide.

Women 3.0

“We’re due for a resurgence of the women’s movement,” Davis said to a packed room at Seattle Town Hall. Though the Seattle crowd was by far mostly women and girls, she spoke earlier in the day on the Microsoft campus in Redmond to a packed room of mostly men. The event was sponsored by Global Washington.

Davis, who was in town stumping for her philanthropy, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, spent a lot of time fielding questions and criticizing the way women are portrayed — and perceived — in Hollywood and throughout the media. But her concerns are much more global.

Davis repeatedly emphasized that many, if not all, of the international community’s goals (the Millennium Development Goals) for fighting poverty and improving the welfare of those living in the poorest parts of the world depend upon improving the circumstances of women and girls.

“We need to make people realize that these issues, of social justice and poverty, are women’s issues,” she said. “It’s a mistake to think there are ‘women’s issues’ over here and these other problems over there.”

Meryl Schenker, www.merylschenker.com

Geena Davis, with Chris Grumm, left, Andrea Taylor, center, at Seattle Town Hall

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Justice, Geena Davis, human rights, millennium development goals, women
September 30, 2011 | 10:12 AM | By

The wisdom of educating Rwandan women

I’ve written a lot on Humanosphere about how young people, aka the Millennials, are especially interested these days in trying to make the world a better place. It is definitely a phenomenon.

Last night, at a small gathering in a Queen Anne home, I met some young women from Rwanda who are among those trying to make Rwanda a better place — helped by another young Millennial, American Elizabeth Dearborn Davis, who moved to the central-east African nation to start a girls school.

It’s called “Akilah” – Swahili for wisdom.

Tom Paulson

Rwandan student Allen Kazarwa talks with Sharon Woolf at Seattle fund-raiser for Akilah

“When you tell people you are from Rwanda many just think of the genocide,” said Allen Kazarwa, a 20-year-old student at the Akilah Institute for Women (yes, it’s spelled Allen, not Ellen). Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Akilah, Bill Gates Sr., education, Frank Greer, girls, Rwanda, women
September 22, 2011 | 4:57 PM | By

At Clinton Global Initiative: Landless women at root of many problems

I’ve been reporting this week on the United Nations’ declared support (however vague) for expanding the global health agenda to go beyond the traditional focus on infectious diseases like AIDS, TB, measles or malaria and include non-contagious, chronic disease like cancer or heart disease.

Across town, the Clinton Global Initiative was also in New York City this week and has been exploring how to fight hunger, poverty, unemployment, gender discrimination as well as disease.

One organization from Seattle in attendance here at this high-caliber, invitation-only event, Landesa, is dealing with all these at the same time.

“Land rights are at the root of many of these problems,” said Tim Hanstad, president and CEO of the non-profit organization (formerly known as RDI, Rural Development Institute) which works to help poor people around the world obtain legal ownership of their land.

Tom Paulson

Seattle film-maker Stan Emert talks with Landesa CEO Tim Hanstad at Clinton Global Initiative

Did I mention that the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is pretty high-faluting? Only select folks are invited. People like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Obama, Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi — and actually quite a few people representing organizations from Seattle such as PATH, Microsoft and a creative nerd working on a literacy device.

Media are allowed in, within limits. I got kicked out of a room (where I was interviewing physician-activist Paul Farmer) because I had inadvertently left the media quarantine area. For more on what it’s like to be a journalist at CGI, read this hilarious piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Ralph Gardner Jr.

But I digress. The point is it’s a high honor to be invited to attend the CGI event. It is also often a sign that your issue — aimed at creating a social good — is rising up on the political and philanthropic radar screen.

Hanstad’s been to this luminous event before, but he said there’s no question the issue of land rights for the poor is gaining more recognition. Part of this, he said, is due to the so-called “land grab” going on in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. See this Oxfam spoof video for one view.

“It’s hard to get precise numbers on what’s happening out there, but it’s clearly huge,” Hanstad said. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Justice, Clinton Global Initiative, girls, land rights, Tim Hanstad, UN Week, United Nations, women
August 23, 2011 | 9:31 AM | By

Top 20 “young power” women in US entertainers; Africa’s top 20 intellectuals

Forbes

Forbes magazine recently published its selection of the world’s most powerful women, including a sub-list called the “20 youngest power women” such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Serena Williams and Danica Patrick.

In the U.S., most young women judged to be in power were entertainers, sports stars or supermodels.

In response to this somewhat typical (if not also dispiriting) celebration of American celebrity elite, Nigerian writer Mfonobong Nsehe decided to put together for Forbes his own list of the top 20 young power women of Africa.

Forbes

Ory Okolloh

They are mostly activists, writers, thinkers and entrepreneurs like Kenyan Ory Okollah, founder of the crowd-sourcing website Ushahidi, which allows citizens, journalists and eyewitnesses all over the world to report and/or track incidences of violence through the web, mobile E-mail, SMS, and Twitter.

Others on the list of Africa’s top 20 young power women include Nigerian writer Chimanda Adichie, controversial Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo and Ethiopian shoemaker-businesswoman (founder of Sole Rebels) Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu.

Yeah, but can they dance and sing?

FILED UNDER: Basics, Africa, Forbes, women