When the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations convened in New York City in mid-September, those striving to get attention for specific agendas presented their causes at satellite conferences around Manhattan. Members of The Elders, a contingent of independent global leaders focusing on “peace and human rights,” made appearances at the Clinton Global Initiative [...]

Gloria Steinem has frequently spoken about the importance of sharing stories, using the imagery of communicating oral narratives around an ancient campfire. She has done that with her own personal history in the HBO documentary, Gloria: In Her Own Words.  Responding to questions asked by director Peter Kunhardt and co-producer Sheila Nevins, Steinem has added depth to readily [...]

This piece was cross-posted at CultureID Sexual trafficking.  It’s hard for people to wrap their minds around the scope of the problem.  A new film, The Whistleblower, presents an on the ground retelling of the story of Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz), a Nebraskan police officer who became part of the United Nations police team in [...]

This piece was cross-posted from WMC The democratic spirit of the Arab Spring uprisings is alive and well in the determination of women protesters in Iraq, who are seeing their rights slip away under the current administration. Although the focus of many media reports has been on Egypt’s Tahrir Square, there is another Tahrir Square [...]

Cross-posted with permission from Marcia G. Yerman With the assassination of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab Province in Pakistan and an outspoken opponent of religious extremism, the divisions within Pakistani society are once again in the news.  Perhaps there is no better time to see the documentary Bhutto, which not only tells the story [...]

Cross-posted with permission from Marcia G. Yerman When it was announced that the TED enterprise—which features global conferences with idea innovators and change agents—was gearing up to present a TEDwomen conference, there was immediate push back.  Reactions included, “Why are women being siloed? Why not more diversity and gender parity in the TED conferences that [...]

Cross-posted with permission from Marcia G. Yerman As part of a move to create a space for an “exchange of dialogue,” Patricia Duff founded the organization The Common Good.  Her goal is to make sure that people are willing to keep an open ear and have conversations that “aren’t limited to sound bites.”  The group has [...]

Cross-posted with permission from Marcia G. Yerman Who gets to decide what the narrative for women in politics really is?  Is it the female candidates who choose to run?  The media that interprets them to the public? The platforms they align themselves with? Currently, women comprise only 17 percent of Congress.  Women of color are completely [...]

Cross-posted with permission from Marcia G. Yerman In March of 2008—Women’s History Month—I attended a press conference given by a women’s NGO promoting the premise that the skills of leadership can be mentored and passed on to women, in order to effect change in their communities. This was over a year before the Kristoff-WuDunn book, [...]

Cross posted with permission from Marcia G. Yerman With charitable organizations struggling for donors in the current economic climate, a just released October report from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute highlights a giving sector that may be getting short shrift. The new study, Women Give 2010, is the first of its kind to compare philanthropic giving [...]