Global Women's Rights Forum

I waited until the last day to see the forum-- the title of the panel and presentation really hit my passion pit: domestic work and women's rights.

The panel was made up of Valerie Francisco, who mobilizes with Gabriela, USA, defending the rights of Filipina women in domestic work and transnational issues; Maria Hernandez, who was representing Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), a Spanish-speaking crisis hotline; Catherine Osborne; Lillian Galedo; and Lois Lorentzen.

These were a collection of women speaking on behalf of the safety issues and hazards/ dangers of being an undocumented domestic worker in the US, what types of policy advocating were taking place, what current bills and propositions in the house and senate of California are and have been on the federal even, too, and most importantly, to recognize the struggles and hardships that women face and survive.

I thought this was all awesome. Not only had I recently started interning at the Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC), but I have started engaging in a lot of advocacy and researching about these issues. It's crazy to realize how invisible society has created these people, how it has pushed them to the margins, how intense, real, and prominent racism and hate are, and also how much lack of choice there really is.

The growing victimization of women (and men), of those undocumented, is growing and getting worse-- but these continue to be silenced. These are traumatized, these live in fear, these often find themselves with no other choice. Are their reasons and actions ethical, then? Are they still being treated with dignity? What is missing? Why? Whose fault is it?

Recently, many groups have united and had created a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. This would assure that domestic workers would ask for and assure: 3 sick paid days, over-work time pay, rest and breaks, and 8 hours of sleep. This bill had already been passed, but vetoed along the way. It was up again for debate the next day in Sacramento-- and these women were sure that it would be passed.

The last thing, and one that left me intrigued, was that one of the speakers called out that "Domestic Violence makes all other work possible."

I felt and still feel, very empowered.

The Power of Women: Corporate Social Responsibility (GWRF Reflection)

I attended the Global Women’s Rights Forum on Tuesday, which addressed the unique ways women can contribute in the corporate world. I was so surprised to learn that only 3% of all CEOs are women. If we are striving for equal opportunity, I think the makeup of business leaders should be reflective of our diverse population. I don’t think this should just be limited to women, but also minority groups of color and LGBT communities. 3% is a shockingly small percentage, when it should be at 50%. I think this relates to the issues of privilege we have been discussing, specifically male privilege. Unearned advantages based on sex in the business world, translates to wage glass-ceilings and underrepresentation of women in positions of power. We like to think that the most qualified and adapt person would get the job, but we fail to ask who is defining the ‘right’ qualities or standards.

Another component to the discussion surrounded women’s initiatives to help other women in business. One of the speakers made an interesting point that, “we can retain our ‘woman-ness’ but still be strong”. I understood her intention to reflect the opinion that we should not try and conform to male standards if our intention is to encourage women in the business field. But I’m not sure what she exactly meant by ‘woman-ness’ and how you would go about defining such a word without being restrictive and leaving other women out. Also her point that we can ‘still be strong’, raised some questions in my mind. So do we have to consciously make sure we are being strong, if we are being too ‘womanly’? Are these qualities in contention? Overall though I thought her message of women using positions of power to encourage other women was extremely effective. Specifically, she mentioned creating a legacy that would benefit other women through the financial support of low-income women with business ideas by investing.

   

-Erika

Global Woman's Right Forum

Patricia Ariza’s talk at the Global Women's Rights Forum discussed many of the themes and ideas we have discussed in our class. Besides the obvious connection to the Cynthia Cockburn readings about Colombia’s armed and social conflict, Ariza also discussed the importance of women having “legitimate” space, and the significance of cultural resistance through theatre. The violence in Colombia has been going on for fifty years, resulting in the internal displacement of millions of people, especially women. Through the use of theatre, Patricia aims to start social dialogue through community-based performance, empower the disadvantaged, restore social memory, and use cultural resistance to battle inequality, poverty, and patriarchy.

By focusing on women’s issues in theatre festivals, Patricia and the women and women’s groups she works with demonstrate how artistic work can be important and relevant when used as a form of political activism. Patricia also spoke about the idea of using a public space and change it for the purposes of women. Groups of women occupy traditionally masculine spaces, such as a public square, and use them in a new ways. Women use their bodies as a means of protest. My favorite part of the discussion was when Patricia showed us how they used a runway for social performances (rather than the traditional fashion show, where woman do not speak and are merely walking hangers). Overall it was a really interesting talk and I enjoyed learning about the perspective of a woman from a Latin American country.

- Jillian 

Gender and Justice: A Conversation on Domestic and the Common Good

For the Global Women's Rights Forum I attended the lecture informing of the issues pertaining to domestic workers in the United States, mainly California. The panel featured 4 women each with their own background and connection with the domestic issue. The lecture included the stories and issues that many workers experience such as being under compensated for their work, overworked with minimal breaks or sick leave, and abuse from employers. Many of the workers were persuaded to come into the country, with the promise of good jobs and equal opportunities. However, although they suffered abuse and mistreatment the workers were terrified to report the abuse because of the threat of losing jobs or deportation. 

The forum was very informative and provided further analysis to our own discussions in class. I remember one of the speakers saying how the line between domestic work and "love" becomes blurred because of employment being involved in the home. Many of the workers gain a strong connection with the families and especially the children. However, they should not be forced to compromise their rights and be treated in an unjust manner. I love that the speakers also gave us many ways that we can become a "voice" for the movement through simple things such as communicating with our own school president, raising awareness by informing others of the issues, and dedicating our time by offering assistance and showing up to events. 

Global Women's Rights Forum: Sisters in Spirit: An Interfaith Dialogue

I attended the Sisters in Spirit: An Interfaith Dialogue event at the Global Women's Rights Forum and the event focused on three women, all of different faiths reflecting on how their faith frames their work. Toni Battle, Bhawana Kamil and Mary Waskowiak all reiterated how faith framed what they did. For Sister Mary, she talked about how faith, spirituality and how making a connection with others and work was important. Bhawana talked about how a form of worship was to do what you want to please God while Toni Battle focused on her multicultural background and her focus on maintaining community through oral traditions. 

Throughout the event a couple of specific points were made that really stood out to me. One was by Bhawana who talked about the relationship between reason and emotion and how that also related to masculinity and femininity. She explained how in today's society, reason is often associated with men, while emotion is associated with women and how we often view reason as supreme while downplaying emotion. 

I thought this forum and more specifically, the point made by Bhawana really connected to the readings and work we have been focusing on, especially the topic of masculinity and how it related to femininity. Her points really connected when she talked about how because emotion is often connected and associated with women, we often downplay the opinion and viewpoints of women which is what we have been focusing on recently. For example, with the Kronsell case study about how men were chosen in favor of women when talking about national security and defense. 

USF Global Women's Rights Forum, Panel: Sisters in Spirit

Speakers: Toni R. Battle (Baptist and Native American faith traditions), Mary Waskowiak (Catholic faith tradition), Bhawana Kamil (Islamic faith tradition).

As an agnostic leftist with a fiercely agnostic upbringing, I'll admit that I was reluctant to attend this particular panel, but as it was the only one that fit in my schedule, I showed up, ready for uncritical panderings and protestations of faith.

What I encountered, however, was a profoundly moving dialogue consisting of a mixture of personal narrative and political opinion that explored a wide range of ways in which the panelists' spiritual beliefs affected their work.  There was a really moving sense of honesty present in the room.  I came to understand that for these women, the call to do social justice work came first, and their spiritual beliefs were simply a continuation of their work, spirituality and social justice synergistically informing their lives.

I was fascinated by the crossover between their views, methods and personal stories, given that they were all in different disciplines and from different faith backgrounds.  It reminded me of a quote from the introduction to a book by Sanam Anderlini, “Although their motivations and ideologies may differ, their vision and demands for the future often converge…They emphasize a holistic notion of peace, defined not just in military security and political terms but also in terms of human security, rooted in a combination of political, economic, personal, community and environmental factors” (p. 9, 2007).

This forum also connected well to the work that Ann Jones did with her Global Crescendo project.  The telling, and most importantly, the sharing, of stories is an intrinsically human activity and can allow us to make deep connections with other humans.  These deep connections, communicated through photo work or live speech, can remind us in an extremely effective way that violence against any one person is violence against a whole network of people, extending all the way back to ourselves.

Anderlini, S. N. (2007). Women Building Peace: What they do, why it Matters. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Sisters in Spirit: An Inter-Faith Dialogue

Last week I attended two events at the Global Women's Rights Forum at USF. On Wednesday, I went to the inter-faith dialogue where Toni Battle, Bhawana Kamil, and Mary Waskowiak were the featured panel. The following day I attended the gender and justice panel addressing domestic work. Because I was unable to stay for the whole of it and for the purpose of keeping this blog post short I will focus on the former program event. 

The Sisters in Spirit inter-faith dialogue was concerned with discussing how the search for social justice is inspired by a certain faith and more importantly by being a woman. Although these women each come from a specific positionally, which is highly influenced by her own spirituality, it can be seen that sisterhood ties them together. Each of them talked about how we are all connected. Toni Battle put it best by saying that we are all relations, you are me and I am you. 

We have to be aware of this spirit and embrace it to make social change. This directly ties back to this year's Davies' topic of women and violence. To fight this violence, women must acknowledge their lineage and form communities. This makes me think of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace who were successful in ending the second Liberian civil war. Muslim and Christian women came together in a massive move of nonviolent direct action and demanded peace. They came together partly because of sisterhood and motherhood but it was more than this. It was an instance where the connections between people were being threatened, where there was a need to recognize that peace is dependent on the awareness of our ties.  

Global Women's Rights Forum Reflection

Upon attending the last but not least event of the global women's rights forum at USF, I noticed two key points that all speakers touched on regardless of their respective backgrounds/affiliations. All speakers stressed the importance of a "cultural change" in the way domestic work is viewed in the U.S. For multiple reasons, one of which being where the work is performed (the "private" sphere), domestic work and been devalued and made cheap. Secondly, all speakers believed in the transformative political power of testimony, wherein domestic workers tell their stories and demand their rights.

When asked how this talk relates to our course-I remember one speaker explaining that when domestic workers are abused within the home, a common "explanation" is that the home (and what goes on in it) is a private concern and is thus somehow above the law. I think this is a dangerous and highly problematic way of legitimizing violence.

Art+Gender+Culture

I attended the Art, Gender, and Conflict session on March 4^th. Patricia Ariza is one of the founders of Festival de las Mujeres, or Festival of Women. She is a political activist, actress, dramaturg and performance artist in Colombia that deals with social conflict, inequality, poverty, and patriarchy, through the perspective of women. Some of her work relates to the military confrontation between the government and the population for 50 years. More that 4 million people have been displaced from their homes. Most of them are women. In 1966, Patricia created the cultural house, Teatro Candelaria, as an alternative outlet in activism. They perform at least once a month as a group. One of the videos that we saw was a performance about “los desaparecidos,” or the disappeared. They placed pictures of loved ones all over the city to remind others of the military’s brutal actions in search for power.

One thing that I found interesting is that she caters to each of the locations by having local women tell their stories in the “Paz Hare la,” a play-on-words that literally means runway, but has the meaning of “Making Peace”. She doesn’t have a static troupe that travels to different parts of Columbia. That way no show is the same and she empowers women wherever she goes.

This session relates to the power of women and their ability to take power back from oppressive parties. In Columbia, she usually holds meetings and performances in plazas. She explained that she believes that these places, made of cement, represent power and masculinity, and she takes back power by performing in the spaces. This is specifically targeted at the military, which, in itself, is a very masculine environment.

Art+Gender+Conflict - GWRF 3/4/13

The March 4th event of the Global Women's Rights Forum, Art+Gender+Conflict, focused on the works by Patricia Ariza, a playwright, director and actor from Colombia. Ariza was one of the founders of Teatro le Candalaria, a cultural theater house which largely showcased plays dealing with serious political and social issues of Colombian culture. According to Ariza, Colombia had been armed in social conflict for approximately 50 years, alongside issues of inequality, poverty and patriarchy. Women largely shouldered the burden of this conflict, whether as displaced workers or dehumanized and objectified to mere "booty" or "prizes" of war. Seeing this, Ariza was inspired to join the cultural resistance against this injustice via theater. About 22 years ago, she began a festival called "Invitacion Festival de Mujeres" to highlight women's issues in Colombia. The theater festival was done in association with other women's movements across the Colombia, as well as various social movements internationally.

Much of her emphasis on global involvement reminded me of transnational networks discussed in Cynthia Cockburn's From Where We Stand, such as the Women in Black, Code Pink and the East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network. Though the theater group began with only four or five groups of women participating, it rose to 65 groups in 2012. Ariza mentioned that large national and international mobilization was needed to draw attention to women's issues and truly enact change - that the "personal is political" and that it's important to strive for bigger and better events and movements.

The Power of Women: Corporate Social Responsibility

     On Tuesday, March 5 the University of San Francisco hosted an event titled The Power of Women: Corporate Social Responsibility as part of the Global Women’s Rights Forum. The event consisted of a panel of women who discussed either their positions as leaders in corporations or their roles interacting with women’s rights. To begin, Linda Hothem, the Chief Executive Officer of Pacific American Services, LLC, discussed how women in the corporate world have a choice: to become indignant, or to take their obstacles and turn them into a teaching opportunity. Choosing the latter, Linda made sure to use her leadership role to develop and enforce socially responsible practices, like exceeding safety and sustainability mandates,  in her company. As CEO and President of The Better World Group, Wendy James echoed Linda’s commitment to social responsibility. More specifically, Wendy’s speech emphasized the correlation between women in management and increased sustainability and profit in companies. Finally, Erika Guevara-Rosas of the Global Fund for Women discussed how individuals and the private sector can mobilize and network to improve opportunities for women and marginalized groups. Erika continued by linking the development of the latter with pay-offs in the realms of both human rights and profit.

     This panel provided an excellent supplement to our class discussions. The repeated connections between women and sustainability voiced by the panelists complimented readings from Cockburn’s From Where We Stand. A significant portion of our last class meeting was dedicated to exploring Cockburn’s note on the association of women’s groups with environmental activism. Furthermore, the panel raised the issue of what women owe one another and how this can help women progress as a whole. This idea, of what one marginalized individual owes another, was reminiscent of past readings, such as those by Ann Jones. Finally, Erika’s broader focus, on human rights in generals, reminded me of the importance of intersectionality. Overall, therefore, this Global Women’s Rights Forum event was an excellent complement to our class on Women, Violence, and War. It both reiterated threads we’ve already tried unraveling, and provided new food-for-thought.  

Cockburn, Cynthia (2007) From Where We Stand: War, Women's Activism & Feminist Analysis. London: Zed Books

Sisters in Spirit

Sisters in Spirit, USF’s interfaith dialogue, featured three panelists, Toni Battle, Bhawana Kamil, and Mary Waskoviak, dialoging about their respective Native-American/Black Baptist, Muslim, and Catholic faiths. After the three panelists shared a bit about their work and backgrounds, a student moderator asked them to respond to the following questions: (1) How does being a woman affect your work? and (2) How does your religion affect your work? I thought Toni Battle’s response to the first question was one of the most relevant to our class. For her, strong interpersonal skills (which are generally associated with women) have been integral to her work educating young African American and Native American youth about their heritage.

Like the women in Cynthia Cockburn’s From Where We Stand, Toni sought open dialogue with the opposition (or in her case, a descendant of the opposition). Although Toni, whose family has lost not one, not two, but three men to lynching, confesses that she would be more comfortable staying far away from the descendant of a lyncher, she draws on her strong interpersonal skills and maintains regular contact with her in order to promote healing. She uses the wisdom she gains from the relationship with the lyncher descendant in her education of African American children, who if it weren’t for Toni, would have no idea about the United State’s atrocious lynching history.

Art, Gender, and Conflict March 4th

I attended the Art, Gender, and Conflict lecture on March 4th where Patricia Arisa (sp?) spoke about the founding and continued work of her ground breaking theater in Colombia, the Casa del Cultura. Patricia is the author of over two dozen books, is an actress, and most importantly, is a political activist in a country that has four million displaced people, most them women, and that is plagued with immense social inequality. Colombia also suffers from perpetual violence; it has been in armed conflict for over 50 years. Patricia pointed out that the paramilitary uses the body's of women as loot. In response to the problems of the country Patricia and her fellow directors (many of them women) write and perform plays that display options and solutions for women. Patricia stated that through this type of work women use their body's to represent themselves in a poetic way in public spaces. For example, the theater puts on a monthly show in central plazas that have historically represented masculinity and patriarchy. In one of the short films, "Mujeres en la Plaza," the Swatchas (sp?), women who have had their children abducted, were joined by other groups of women demanding  that the government tell them the whereabouts of the missing people.

I think one of the most significant ways in which this lecture relates to our class is that these women are discovering the truth about their situations through each other. Patricia shared that through sharing stories with one another women are arriving at truths through conflicting stories told by the government and their own experiences. I have personally been learning a lot about my own situation from reading the stories of other women. Additionally, Patricia shared that this is not just a "feminist" event in Colombia, but rather that this is an event for peace and social justice globally, which, from what I have gathered, is big theme in our class.

Note: I apologize if the spellings of important details are incorrect. The lecture was completely in Spanish and I spelled things phonetically, hence the (sp?).

Domestic Workers Reflection--GRWC 3/7

I attended the GWRC session about domestic workers in the United States (specifically California.) The panel consisted of four women: three who work for non-profit organizations pertaining to issues of domestic workers' rights and one who is a scholar of Catholic social thought. The speakers presented about the issues that domestic workers, almost entirely women of color, face in an industry that is extremely unregulated and private. Many of these workers are overworked, underpaid, and frequently abused. They are often lured into the country under false pretenses and afraid to report any injustices because of the threat of deportation. One of the immigrant groups most impacted is Filipino workers, many of whom find jobs providing care for the elderly. Activist groups had tried twice to introduce a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights into the California legislature, but have been denied.

The presentations did not focus on gender or often mention the sex of the workers, but the subject matter and domestic work itself is extremely gendered. The presentations reminded me of the conversations we have had in class about how undervalued "women's work" is, i.e. cooking, cleaning, and anything associated with being a housewife. The women that we heard about in these presentations work incredibly hard, working long hours in physically demanding jobs, but are underpaid and under-appreciated. The main idea behind the panel is the same as the concept we've discussed in class--in order to begin to fix this oppression and dismissal of domestic work, we must redefine it as real work.