Global Fund Gets Jiggy!

20 Years of Supporting Women

Last week the Global Fund for Women celebrated 20 years and $65 million of grants to divalicious organizations around the world - and they threw a shindig worthy of such an astounding accomplishment. The classy joint, the excellent eats and the presence of Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were enough to send the night into pro-woman orbit, but here’s what stole the show: the presence of the grassroots activists whose spirit and work trumped the pomp.

Below, a shout out to just a few of the women and their causes:

Zainah Anwar : Malasia Sisters in Islam
Patricia Guerrero: Columbia League of Displaced Women
Prudence Mabele: South Africa Positive Women’s Network
Taida Horozovic: Bosnia and Herzogovina CURE
Hoda Elsadda: Egypt, Women and Memory Fund

We tip our tiara to the Global Fund which helps ignite the words and deeds of these women who dance, fight, sing, organize and strategize all over the world in pursuit social justice.

Onward!

Reporting back from Rajasthan

Diva Tour 2008

Well, the state of Rajasthan, as well as the cities of Delhi, Varanasi and Agra. All 10 of us on this year’s India DivaTour are still shaking the magic dust off our boots and remain bedazzled by all that we saw and experienced. Our trip was chock-a-block with Maharajh history, the Colors festival of spring, mind- boggling old forts, village time, and of course, Divas.  We got to meet with the Bal Rashmi Society, who we first connected with while shooting our India documentary a few years back. Their great work against caste oppression and the disenfranchised communities of Rajasthan continues. Fate got us all doing downward dogs along the holy Ganges in Varanasi (god ground zero) with an amazing yogi who took pranayama to new levels; Ruchira Gupta, and her organization Apne Aap – which combats sex trafficking and the exploitation inside prostitution – welcomed us to the opening of a school in a red-light district on the outskirts of Delhi. One of India’s premier chefs exercised her – and our - culinary prowess with delectable Dahi murg and Aloo jeera, among other dishes.
Hard to capture the complexity, the camaraderie, and the richness of the last two and a half weeks in a single blog, but suffice it to say, there’s already chatter about a next trip….South India, 2010 anyone? 
p.s. Stand by for photos.

Girl Geeks & Other Science & Tech News

As pre-production for Science Divas gathers steam, we here at Divas HQ have been boning up on our Science & Tech reading in our free time. Here’s a round up of what’s topping our reading list this week.

Lack of confidence or an accurate perception of the situation?:
Great article over at the AAAS’s Science site on Nurturing Women Scientists delves into why women are still largely absent in the upper echelons of academic employment despite achieving parity in the lower rungs of education and training.

Geek Girls Kick Ass:
Many of the essays in She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology & Other Nerdy Stuff (put out in 2006 by our friends at Seal Press) echo the findings discussed in the Science article. I recommend this anthology to anyone –female or male, techie geek or hopeless luddite- for true tales from women currently working on the front lines of the scientific frontier who daily navigate the gender gap while attempting to maintain the elusive work-life balance.

For women who want to write about science, technology, and other nerdy stuff:
While perusing the Science and Technology section of this week’s Economist I came across a posting for a cool summer internship in London, the Richard Casement Internship, an interesting opportunity for budding science & tech reporters.  Applicants must be 25 and under and the application deadline is February 22, so if you know any young aspiring diva journalistas (or are one yourself) tell them to apply post-haste.

Steinem cuts to the quick

AD's matriarch sounds off on domestic politics...

Gloria Steinem has cut to the quick on the gender question and has enlightened an issue that we will be talking about for the next 300 or so days. Steinem wrote this opinion piece for the New York Times before Hillary Clinton astonished her own campaign, Barak Obama’s, the pollsters and the media by winning New Hampshire.

I read it before listening for several hours to mostly guy pundits discuss “what’s happening here?” as the New Hampshire returns flowed in, consistently showing Clinton ahead. They were mystified. ”Maybe it’s ‘cause she teared up and women related to that?” “Maybe it’s because the boys beat up on her in the last debate and women related to that?”

It was left to a member of Clinton’s own campaign to say, “Maybe the voters looked at the candidate and decided she was the most qualified.”

I disagree with Steinem on one point: In both Iowa and New Hampshire younger women broke for Obama while older women voted for Clinton. Steinem says it proves that women get more radical with age. I believe it’s because we remember. Younger women should know that their lack of concern over gender derives directly from the fact that for decades the Gloria Steinems and Hillary Clintons have had the courage to be who they are and do what they think it is imperative to do.

Antarctica

Life on the Ice & other science news....

Brrrrr. As the temperature plummets here at Divas East HQ, we are plotting a course for Antarctica - home to penguins and hot bed of climate change research- as part of the new documentary series we’re developing: Science Divas.

In the series we’ll profile women who are pushing the intellectual envelope, and we’ll provide a map for those interested in pursuing a career in science, math, engineering and technology.  As always, we’ll endeavor to capture the grit, realities and passions of the ladies who are doing fieldwork all over the globe.  Watch our site in 2008 for profiles and the full 411 on the series. 

Until then (and continuing our cold theme) you might be interested in a new anthology that just came over our transom, Antarctica: Life on the Ice edited by Susan Fox Rogers.  Yesterday we tuned in for a live-from-McMurdo interview with some of the contributors who reported on global warming, other-worldly silence, and the unique community of intrepid explorers and scientists that forms way down under. They declined to reveal the secret of how a girl pees when it’s 160 degrees below…..Anyone know?

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