Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Ratification of CEDAW Must Be a Priority


In case you haven’t heard, our Women, Money, and Power Summit was incredible! Keynote speakers Gloria Steinem, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Dolores Huerta, Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Senator Amy Klobuchar, actress Amy Brenneman, and our FM President Eleanor Smeal, were just a fraction of the talented, ambitious and brilliant women in attendance. With women at the conference from over 30 different states, the amount of power, energy, and ideas floating around was overwhelming!

I found all of the workshops I attended to be quite informative, but one in particular, addressed an issue I am really passionate about: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). For those of you who are unfamiliar with CEDAW, it is the only comprehensive treaty that pledges to give women equal rights in all aspects of our lives including political, health, education, social and legal issues. (Check out our FMF page on CEDAW for more in-depth information!)

The panelists discussed the need for us to lobby not only our Senators and Congressman, but to send letters to the President and Vice President, local officials, family members, teachers, ANYONE and EVERYONE just to get the word out. Read up on CEDAW and spread the word. If the United States wants to remain a world leader, we must to ratify CEDAW. If we're gonna talk the talk, we gotta walk the walk.

Photo credit: flickr.com

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