Our 2009 National Young Women’s Leadership Conference has come to an end and in the words of one of our great participants, “the only thing that I am upset about is that it is over.”
The two-day conference was filled with some of our country’s leading feminist voices of all generations and backgrounds and ended on a high note. As student activists filed out of the last plenary session, there were many great discussions about what needed to be done next. The energy was high and everyone seemed fired up and ready to go bring what was discussed at the conference back to their campuses.
Thank you to all of our engaging speakers and participants, you really made this year a huge success!
Showing posts with label day 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label day 2. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2009
NYWLC's Day Two’s Opening Plenary, Feminism Without Borders, Just Wrapped
Day two’s opening plenary, Feminism Without Borders, here at the National Young Women’s Leadership Conference has just wrapped. With increased economic globalization there is an increasing need for women worldwide to come together to fight for the rights of all our sisters.
The plenary speakers did a wonderful job of explaining the historical context of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty aims to give women equal legal standing according to the laws of each nation, and the current situation of Afghan women and girls with the first hand accounts of courageous Afghan activists of various ages.
Did you know? Even though Americans helped to author CEDAW, they are among a handful of nations worldwide including Sudan, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia that have not ratified the treaty. We need to push now for the Senate to ratify this treaty!
We were also shocked to learn that 1 in 6 women in Afghanistan die during childbirth compared to 1 in 2,500 in the US. Afghan women have had acid thrown in their faces while trying to go to school and dozens of schools have been destroyed to prevent women and girls from attending, all while about 85% of the country’s women can not read or write.
The daily atrocities faced by women both domestically and internationally cannot be addressed unless women step up and speak out for themselves. Plenary speaker Mavis Leno summed it up very well by saying, “If women don’t speak up for women, no one speaks up for women. It’s us or no one!”
We will be continuing to blog from the conference and tweeting. Make sure to follow us on the conference twitter widget; we will be using the hash tag #nywlc for all conference-related tweets.
The plenary speakers did a wonderful job of explaining the historical context of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty aims to give women equal legal standing according to the laws of each nation, and the current situation of Afghan women and girls with the first hand accounts of courageous Afghan activists of various ages.
Did you know? Even though Americans helped to author CEDAW, they are among a handful of nations worldwide including Sudan, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia that have not ratified the treaty. We need to push now for the Senate to ratify this treaty!
We were also shocked to learn that 1 in 6 women in Afghanistan die during childbirth compared to 1 in 2,500 in the US. Afghan women have had acid thrown in their faces while trying to go to school and dozens of schools have been destroyed to prevent women and girls from attending, all while about 85% of the country’s women can not read or write.
The daily atrocities faced by women both domestically and internationally cannot be addressed unless women step up and speak out for themselves. Plenary speaker Mavis Leno summed it up very well by saying, “If women don’t speak up for women, no one speaks up for women. It’s us or no one!”
We will be continuing to blog from the conference and tweeting. Make sure to follow us on the conference twitter widget; we will be using the hash tag #nywlc for all conference-related tweets.
Day Two Schedule for Conference
Welcome to the second day of our National Young Women's Leadership Conference. WOOHOO! We are Showing this morning's plenary live today on UStream -- same link as below for yesterday's plenary. It will be live from 10am-11:15am and available after for viewing anytime.
I hope you all were able to catch part of yesterday's Opening Plenary on UStream, or the fantastic tweets from the attendees via Twitter. If not, here are some links to see what you missed:
*See who tweeted the conference: feministcampus.org/follow
*Watch yesterdays opening plenary: www.ustream.tv/channel/feminist-majority-foundation-2009-nywlc
*And don’t forget to read yesterday's blog entries!
Once again we will be tweeting and blogging all day. Enjoy your second day of the conference.
For those of you who are coming to the conference today or following us virtually, here is the line-up:
10:00 – 11:15am - Morning Plenary: FEMINISM WITHOUT BORDERS
Eleanor Smeal, President, FMF; Anushay Hossain, Global Programs Coordinator, FMF; Lorraine Sheinberg, Board Member, FMF; Producer of “CEDAW: The Secret Treaty”; Susan Rubin, Writer and Narrator, “CEDAW: The Secret Treaty”; Lisa Cohen, Chief of Staff, Office of Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-1); Mavis Leno, Chair of FMF Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls; FMF Board Member; Atossa Leoni, Actor, The Kite Runner; Feroza Yari, Women For Women International, FMF Afghan Scholar; Tamana Naveed, High School Student, Kabul, Afghanistan ; Dr. Sima Samar, Chair, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; Founder, Shuhada Organization and Clinic
11:30am – 12:45pm - Workshop Series 3
Standing With Our Sisters Around the World
Exposing Fake Clinics
Debunking the Myths: Women’s Health and Contraception
Change Has Arrived, But There’s Work to Be Done!
Connecting the Dots: Women, Population, and Climate Change
2:15pm - Closing Rally: STAND UP, SPEAK OUT, TAKE THE LEAD!
Wendy Matheny, Campus Program Director, FMF; Grace Mulenga, Vice President, University of the District of Columbia Student Government Association; Shelby Knox, Feminist Organizer, The Education of Shelby Knox; Dolores Huerta, Founder, Dolores Huerta Foundation; Cofounder, United Farm Workers; National Campus Organizers Olivia Ortiz,Emily Kadar, Val Vilott, Allie McDonald, Patrice Guillory, Danielle Geong, and Tania Stewart
4:00 pm - Regional Caucuses
I hope you all were able to catch part of yesterday's Opening Plenary on UStream, or the fantastic tweets from the attendees via Twitter. If not, here are some links to see what you missed:
*See who tweeted the conference: feministcampus.org/follow
*Watch yesterdays opening plenary: www.ustream.tv/channel/feminist-majority-foundation-2009-nywlc
*And don’t forget to read yesterday's blog entries!
Once again we will be tweeting and blogging all day. Enjoy your second day of the conference.
For those of you who are coming to the conference today or following us virtually, here is the line-up:
10:00 – 11:15am - Morning Plenary: FEMINISM WITHOUT BORDERS
Eleanor Smeal, President, FMF; Anushay Hossain, Global Programs Coordinator, FMF; Lorraine Sheinberg, Board Member, FMF; Producer of “CEDAW: The Secret Treaty”; Susan Rubin, Writer and Narrator, “CEDAW: The Secret Treaty”; Lisa Cohen, Chief of Staff, Office of Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-1); Mavis Leno, Chair of FMF Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls; FMF Board Member; Atossa Leoni, Actor, The Kite Runner; Feroza Yari, Women For Women International, FMF Afghan Scholar; Tamana Naveed, High School Student, Kabul, Afghanistan ; Dr. Sima Samar, Chair, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; Founder, Shuhada Organization and Clinic
11:30am – 12:45pm - Workshop Series 3
Standing With Our Sisters Around the World
Exposing Fake Clinics
Debunking the Myths: Women’s Health and Contraception
Change Has Arrived, But There’s Work to Be Done!
Connecting the Dots: Women, Population, and Climate Change
2:15pm - Closing Rally: STAND UP, SPEAK OUT, TAKE THE LEAD!
Wendy Matheny, Campus Program Director, FMF; Grace Mulenga, Vice President, University of the District of Columbia Student Government Association; Shelby Knox, Feminist Organizer, The Education of Shelby Knox; Dolores Huerta, Founder, Dolores Huerta Foundation; Cofounder, United Farm Workers; National Campus Organizers Olivia Ortiz,Emily Kadar, Val Vilott, Allie McDonald, Patrice Guillory, Danielle Geong, and Tania Stewart
4:00 pm - Regional Caucuses
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