By staff contributor Milad Pournik

On Wednesday May 1 the Wilson Center hosted a conference entitled: African Women and Youth as Agents of Change through Technology and Innovation. The event details (including a full webcast) are available here. The event featured eight panelists (listed below) and this blog post presents the highlights from each.

• David Moinina-Sengeh - President and co-founder of Global Minimum Inc. (GMin)
• Diana Kerubo Mong’are - Founder, Planet Green Kenya
• Edith Kirumba - Coordinator of the African Women’s Forum on Science & Technology, African Technology Policy Studies Network
• Isaak Mogetutu - Chief Innovations Officer, M-Farm
• Liz Ngonzi - Adjunct Faculty, NYU Heyman Center for Philanthropy & Fundraising
• Oreoluwa Somolu - Executive Director, Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.Tec)
• Rahel Getachew - Founder and Managing Director, Afrolehar, LLC
• Richard Seshie - Founder, Vivuus Renewables

(more…)

Examining Violence Against Women in India: Changes, Challenges and Futures

When: Thursday, April 11, 2013 | 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Where: The Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, 1957 E Street, NW | Room 602
Washington, DC 20052

Refreshments will be provided
Please RSVP at go.gwu.edu/genderviolence

The issue of violence against women in India was catapulted into international visibility with the remarkable media coverage of the gang-rape and subsequent death of a medical student in Delhi that took place on December 16, 2012. This panelist discussion will attempt to tackle such questions as: Why do women in India continue to suffer sexual and gender violence, arguably to increasing degrees? What are the mechanisms available for prevention, and what are the failures that sustain India’s rape culture? What are the cultural, economic and political issues at stake?

Kavita Daiya, Assistant Professor, Department of English, GW

Deepa Ollapally, Director, The Rising Powers Initiative, GW

Mary Ellsberg, (panelist) Director, Global Women’s Institute, GW

Zain Lakhani (panelist), Graduate Fellow, University of Pennsylvania

Daniel Moshenberg (panelist), Director, Women’s Studies, Associate Professor of English, GW

Aruna Rao (panelist), Practitioner-in-Residence, Global Gender Program, Institute of Global and International Studies, GW

 This event is sponsored by the Rising Powers Initiative’s Asian Economic Challenges series, the Global Gender Program, the Global Women’s Institute, and the Department of Women’s Studies.

By staff contributor Cait O’Donnell

Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) aims to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs. WAND was founded in 1982 as Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament. Since 1991, WAND has focused on achieving security through training, educating, and assisting activists, women legislators, and organizations. WAND’s efforts include: lobbying and legislation; in-person and online training sessions on media, messaging, lobbying, and leadership; the WAND PAC, which supports women who are running for U.S. Congress; and through its WiLL (Women Legislators Lobby) program, a national non-partisan network of women state legislators. More than one-third of all women state legislators are WiLL members, representing all 50 states.

WAND/WiLL hosted a reception on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 to celebrate the historic high number of women in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

The event’s symbol, a chair, has its roots in the following story. When Debbie Stabenow was running for the U.S. Senate for the first time, she admired a pin worn by Arlene Victor (Chair, WAND Board of Directors). Arlene explained that the pin, which was in the shape of a chair, symbolized women’s seat at the table of power. When Debbie became the first U.S. Senator from Michigan in 2000, Arlene gave Debbie her pin. At the 2004 WAND/WiLL Capitol Hill reception, Debbie passed down the chair pin to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who became the first woman Speaker of the House.

Featured honorees included Congresswoman Julia Brownley, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, Congresswoman Lois Frankel, Congresswoman Anne McLane Kuster, Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, Congresswoman Kyrsten Simena, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Migrant Care Work from Two Sides: Care Work in the U.S. and Families Care Workers Leave Behind

When: Wednesday, March 20, 5:00pm-7:00pm
Where: 1957 E Street NW, 5^th Floor, Room 505

Open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP at http://bit.ly/WNoKYn

The Global Gender Program (GGP) at the Elliott School for International Affairs is pleased to announce its first-year Spring Roundtable panel, which is devoted to gender issues in migration and international development. It aims at bringing together scholars, researchers, practitioners, students, and activists to educate the public on the intersections between gender, migration, international development, economics, race, ethnicity, social class, and religion across disciplines. A discussion will follow with questions and answers from the audience.

Panelists will include:

• Sonya Michel, professor of history at the University of Maryland, College Park, is a founding co-editor of the journal Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, published by Oxford UP. Her research interests include migrant women and care provision in the developing and developed worlds.
• Helma Lutz, professor of sociology and chair of Women and Gender Studies at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. She currently holds a research fellow position at the Woodrow Wilson Center, in Washington, DC. Her research interests include gender, migration, “care crisis,” and “care migration.”
• Tunde Turai completed her PhD at Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest. She is a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ethnographic Institute. She also teaches at the International Student Program of the Corvinus University. She is currently a Fulbright Exchange Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Her research interests include the care system and the social and economic constraints of the sending communities.
• Gabrielle Oliveira, PhD student in Anthropology at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. Her area of interest includes migration, transnational motherhood and care networks between New York and Mexico.
• Drew McCormick graduated from Wheaton College, MA in 2012 and is currently completing a master’s program at SIT (School for International Training) Graduate Institute. As part of her master’s degree she is working as a research intern for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Drew is interested in international development and the role that U.S. foreign policy plays in the lives of women in developing nations.

The Roundtable will be moderated by:

• Natacha Stevanovic-Fenn holds a PhD in sociology from Columbia University. Her area of interests includes migration, remittances, international development, gender and culture. She currently teaches a class on Migration, Gender, and International Development at the Elliott School for International Affairs, in the GGP.

This event is sponsored by George Washington University’s Global Gender Program which is part of the Elliott School’s Institute for Global and International Studies

By staff contributor Cait O’Donnell

On February 28, the Global Gender Program in conjunction with the National Democratic Institute sponsored an event in its Global Gender Forum series on “Getting More Women into Political Office: What Works?”

Mona Lena Krook

Mona Lena Krook, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University provided the keynote remarks on “Electoral Quotas and Beyond: Strategies to Promote Women in Politics.” According to Professor Krook, the new perspective on quotas draws attention to important issues, helps parties compete, and fosters citizen participation. Professor Krook asserted that change does not occur on its own. Quotas are one solution, but others include: legal provisions, parliament reforms, party measures, and civil society strategies. She emphasized a multi-faceted, multi-actor approach as the most promising way forward.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion with practitioners and academics working on women’s political participation. The panel was moderated by Ariana Rabindranath, Associate Director of the Global Gender Program. The panel included: Jennie Burnet (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Louisville), Sara Mia Noguera (Chief of Studies and Projects Section, Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation, Secretariat for Political Affairs, Organization of American States), Megan Doherty (Program Manager for Middle East and North Africa, National Democratic Institute) and  Susannah Wellford Shakow (Chair and Founder, Running Start).

Jennie Burnet’s talk was entitled “Gender Quotas & Women’s Representation in Rwanda: Is More Women Enough?” According to Burnet, quotas have a significant impact on gendered ideas about the public sphere. Increased female representation has brought some change to the legislative agenda in Rwanda, but has neither led to greater democratization nor to greater democratic legitimacy. However, the impact of gender quotas has been broad and deep, with both positive changes (such as: speaking out in public, greater access to education, joint-decision making over domestic resources) and negative changes (such as: increased friction with brothers, male withdrawal from politics, and marital discord). (more…)

Guest post by Kerry Crawford

To view videos from Global Gender Program’s celebration of International Women’s Day, see here.

Jody Williams at International Women’s Day event on March 4, 2013. Photo by Milad Pournik.

On March 4th the Global Gender Program and Gender at Work co-sponsored a day-long series of panels and talks honoring International Women’s Day 2013 at the Elliott School of International Affairs. Jody Williams gave the morning’s keynote lecture, focusing on her work with the International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict.

Jody Williams is a tireless advocate for human rights and gender equality. In 1997 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her successful work toward banning and clearing anti-personnel landmines through the International Campaign to Ban Land mines. Williams was the 10th woman and the 3rd American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

The International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, steered by the Nobel Women’s Initiative, is – as the name implies – a global coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals working toward an end to rape and gender violence in conflict. Williams emphasized the importance of coming together and forming a coalition to create change, as individuals and organizations are far more influential when they work as a whole.

The campaign is based on three core approaches: prevention of rape and gender violence in conflict; protection of civilians and survivors of sexual violence; and effective prosecution of perpetrators and those responsible for rape and gender violence in conflict.

So why focus on rape and gender violence in conflict when violence against women happens every day in alarming numbers? Williams- and many of the members of the campaign- are quick to remind us that sexual violence in conflict is part of a broader continuum of violence against women. Rape and gender violence do not spring up suddenly at the onset of political or military aggression; rather, a larger and more insidious system of gender inequality breeds sexual and gender violence long before, during, and long after conflict. Focusing on rape and gender violence in conflict provides a valuable entry point through which NGOs and individuals can work to shed light on the continuum of violence against women and create broader and changes in gender relations.

Many creative and inspiring tactics have arisen from the International Campaign to Ban Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict. One Billion Rising united individuals in mass global action to speak out against violence against women and girls. The Stephen Lewis Foundation unites grassroots efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa by supporting women, orphaned children, grandmothers, and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Jody Williams is a captivating speaker, in no small part because of her astounding humility. Selecting one key takeaway point from her lecture is a difficult task. Yet, the most essential lesson that should stay with all of us at all times is that violence is always a choice. Always.

Williams underscored the fact that we need to abandon our entrenched belief that there is something about the human condition that makes us inherently violent. Once we do that ending impunity for atrocities, especially rape and gender violence, may come more easily and the world may be safer for all of us.

If you would like to learn more about Jody Williams, you can read her new book: My Name is Jody Williams.

A stunning line-up of speakers for International Women’s Day Event!

When: Monday, March 4, 9:00am – 5:00pm
Where: City View Room, 7th floor
1957 E Street NW
The Elliott School of International Affairs
Washington, DC 20052

RSVP here: http://bit.ly/ZfJYnC

Nobel Laureate Jody Williams, who has just returned from a trip to Liberia and Ethiopia, will speak about the new Nobel Women’s International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict. Her memoires have recently been published by the University of California Press. Eve Ensler in the foreword says “Jody Williams is many things—a simple girl from Vermont, a sister of a disabled brother, a loving wife, an intense character full of fury and mischief, a great strategist, an excellent organizer, a brave and relentless advocate, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner”.

International Activists and US advocates for gender equality will debate the question:  Is Violence against Women a Problem with a Solution?

• Come and listen to Rabha Elis’s fresh perspective on violence against women in South Sudan!
• Have you heard of sextortion? Joan Winship will describe the findings of a 3-year international research project on sex as cash for services
• How does movement building in meso-America mobilize for action on VAW? Lisa Veneklasen from Just Associates has insights to share!
• Learn about the campaign to pass the Violence against Women Act in the US from Alexandra Arriaga – the Senate down and the House of Representatives to go!
  

What are the connections between gender norms and violence?

Riki Wilchins, a transgender leader who founded the first national transgender advocacy group in the US, will give us insights into her analysis and work linking gender norms and discrimination and violence

What Are Viable Responses?

Listen to a range of responses from:

• The international Safe Cities initiative and with GROOTs International’s Sandy Schilen
• Sheepa Hafiza will tell us about BRAC’s work in Bangladesh to build community awareness and community mobilization for prevention
• Joe Vess from Promundo will share strategies of men’s activism and transforming masculinities in addressing violence against women
• Keguro Macharia, a Kenyan by birth, who works in black diaspora studies and queer studies, will share pathways of stories and imaginings

Come and watch the award winning film “In the Name of the Family” by Shelley Saywell on honor killings in North America.

Agenda

• 9:00 -9:30 | Coffee
• 9:30 – 9:45 | Welcome by Aruna Rao (Co-founder and ED of Gender at Work & Practitioner in Residence, Global Gender Program, Elliott School)
• 9:45 – 10:15 | Keynote Lecture
• -Jody Williams (Nobel Prize Winner on the Nobel Women’s Initiative International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict)
• 10:15 – 11:00 | Questions/Discussion
• 11:00-12:00| Panel Discussion: Is Violence Against Women a Problem with a Solution
• -Rabha Elis (Women’s Development Group, South Sudan)
• -Joan Winship (International Association of Women Judges)
• -Lisa Veneklasen (Just Associates),
• -Alexandra Arriaga (Futures without Violence, US)
• -Facilitated by Joanne Sandler, Gender at Work
• 12:00 – 12:20 | Talk
• -Riki Wilchins (USA) on Links between Gender-Based Violence and Traditional Gender Norms
• 12:20- 12:45 | Questions/Discussion
• 12:45 – 2:00 | Lunch
•  2:00 – 3:00 | Panel Discussion: What responses work to end violence against women? Against LGBTIQ?
• -Sandy Schilen on safe cities (GROOTs)
• -Keguro Macharia (University of Maryland)
• -Joseph Vess (Promundo)
• -Sheepa Hafiza (BRAC)
• -Facilitated by Lisa Veneklasen (Just Associates)
• 3:00 – 3:15 | Closing Remarks and Thanks by Barbara Miller (Director, Global Gender Program, Elliott School)
• 3:30 – 4:00| Refreshments
• 4:00 – 5:00 | Film Screening: In the Name of the Family – Honor Killings in North America a film by Shelley Saywell

This event is co-sponsored by George Washington University’s Global Gender Program which is part of the Elliott School’s Institute for Global and International Studies and by Gender at Work

Getting More Women into Political Office: What Works?

When: Thursday, February 28, 2013,
Where: 10:00 AM-1:00 PM Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
1957 E Street NW
The Elliott School of International Affairs
Washington, DC 20052

Open to the public; please RSVP here.
Light lunch will be served following the program.

Keynote address:

• Mona Lena Krook, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University “Electoral Quotas & Women’s Representation in Rwanda: Is More Women Enough?”

Panelists include:

• Jennie Burnet, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Louisville “Gender Quotas & Women’s Representation in Rwanda: Is More Women Enough?”
• Megan Doherty, Program Manager for Middle East and North Africa, National Democratic Institute “Women’s Political Participation in Libya: Quotas as a Key Strategy for States in Transition”
• Sara Mia Noguera, Chief of Studies and Projects Section, Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation, Secretariat for Political Affairs, Organization of American States “Can Election Observation be a Tool to Promote Women’s Political Participation?: the OAS experience in the Americas”
• Susannah Wellford Shakow, Chair and Founder, Running Start “The Importance of Starting Early”
   

This event is sponsored by the George Washington University’s Global Gender Program which is a part of the Elliott School’s Institute for Global and International Studies Co-sponsored by the National Democratic Institute

The Global Gender Program (GW) and Gender at Work’s celebration of International Women’s Day will feature keynote speaker, Jody Williams. Jody Williams is the Nobel Prize Winner on the Nobel Women’s Initiative International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict. The day’s first panel will discuss: Is violence against women a problem with a solution? The second panel will discuss: What responses work to end violence against women? The event will end with a film screening of In the Name of the Family: Honor Killings in North America.

This event is co-sponsored by George Washington University’s Global Gender Program which is part of the Elliott School’s Institute for Global and International Studies and by Gender at Work