Spring 2007 NEWS from the Center - Center for Women Policy Studies

NEWS
from the Center for Women Policy Studies
Center for Women
Policy Studies
Spring 2007
A NOTE FROM
OUR PRESIDENT
Dear Friends:
I hope you will share our
enthusiasm for the Center’s
continuing work for women’s
human rights with our national
network of splendid state
legislators in all 50 states.
We concluded 2006 with a great
flurry of activity — reflected
in these pages. The words
and pictures only begin to
capture the essence of:
n our first-ever Foreign Policy
Institute Graduate Seminar
— a very special weekend
at the spectacular Pocantico
Conference Center of the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
followed by A Day at the
United Nations, supported
and hosted by the Better
World Campaign of the
United Nations Foundation
THE UNITED NATIONS, WOMEN,
PEACE AND SECURITY
I
n November 2006, the Center
convened the first-ever Graduate
Seminar for alumnae of our
Foreign Policy Institute for State
Legislators. A group of 15 legislators
joined Center staff and our colleague,
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, at the
Pocantico Conference Center of the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund for a three
day seminar on the United Nations,
Women, Peace and Security.
The Seminar focused on the
essential role of the United Nations
— and the urgency of the United
States’ continued strong support for
the UN. Led by Sanam Naraghi
Anderlini, legislators learned
about the situation of women in
conflict and post-conflict settings
and the importance of women’s
participation in peacekeeping and
as leaders both at the peace table
and in post-conflict governance.
Most importantly, legislators learned
about Security Council Resolution
1325 on Women, Peace and Security
and vowed to apply “the SCR 1325
test” — a term coined by our friend
and colleague, Cora Weiss — to
all legislative and policy proposals.
Applying “the SCR 1325 test” offers
the Center and state legislators
a vehicle both to engage local
leaders on women’s leadership and
continued on page 4
INSIDE
Reproductive Rights and Justice
at Risk — The Center Responds
Thank You!
From Our Friends
Graduate Seminar participants at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund:
seated, L-R: Linda Lopez, Catherine Barrett, Fran Natividad Coleman, Leslie R. Wolfe, Alice Borodkin, Bonnie Brown;
standing, L-R: Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, “Able” Mable Thomas; Merika Coleman, Joan Bray, Phyllis Kahn,
Ada L. Smith, Maggie Tinsman, Karen Fraser, Barbara Mobley, Karen Clark, Jennifer Tucker.
NEWS from the Center for Women Policy Studies Spring 2007
PARTICIPANTS IN THE
GRADUATE SEMINAR AND
DAY AT THE UN
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini leading our discussion of
women, peace and security at Pocantico Conference
Center.
Gillian Sorenson [left] and Deborah Derrick welcome
state legislators to the United Nations.
participation in government at all
levels — and also to engage them as
advocates for the UN’s essential role.
The legislators’ Day at the United
Nations was sponsored by the Better
World Campaign of the United
Nations Foundation and hosted by
Deborah Derrick, executive director
of the Better World Campaign, and
Gillian Sorenson, senior adviser to
the United Nations Foundation.
We spent the day with many of
the UN’s senior officials —
including Deputy Secretary-General
Mark Malloch Brown, General
UN senior officials meeting with legislators, clockwise
from top left: H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa,
Mark Malloch Brown, Alejandro Wolff, Jane Holl Lute.
n
Representative Catherine
Barrett (OH)
n
Representative Alice
Borodkin (CO)
n
Senator Joan Bray (MO)
n
Representative Bonnie
Brown (WV)
n
Representative Karen
Clark (MN)
n
Representative Fran
Natividad Coleman (CO)
n
Representative Merika
Coleman (AL)
n
Senator Karen Fraser (WA)
n
Representative Phyllis
Kahn (MN)
n
Representative Linda
Lopez (AZ)
n
Judge Barbara Mobley (GA)
[former state representative]
n
Senator Ada L. Smith (NY)
n
Senator Toby Ann
Stavisky (NY)
n
Representative “Able”
Mable Thomas (GA)
n
Senator Maggie Tinsman (IA)
NEWS from THE CENTER FOR WOMEN POLICY STUDIES is published by the Center for Women Policy
Studies, 1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 450, Washington, DC 20036. Tel. 202-872-1770
Fax 202-296-8962; Email: [email protected]; Website: www.centerwomenpolicy.org
Board of Directors 2007
Rita Jaramillo, chair
Jacquelyn Lendsey, secretary/treasurer
Leslie R. Wolfe, president
Francesta Farmer
Irasema Garza
Carmen Lomellin
C. Lynn McNair
Karen A. Schneider
Jessie Bernard, in memoriam
Founders
Jane Roberts Chapman
Margaret Gates
The Center for Women Policy Studies was founded in 1972 as our nation’s first feminist policy
analysis and research institution. A hallmark of our work is the multiethnic feminist lens through
which we view all issues affecting women and girls. For over three decades, we have brought
the voices and needs of women and girls to major public policy debates on such issues as:
educational equity, violence against women and girls, welfare reform, work/family balancing and
workplace diversity policies, reproductive rights and health, the women’s HIV/AIDS epidemic
international trafficking of women and girls, and much more.
2
NEWS from the Center for Women Policy Studies Spring 2007
Seminar participants in small group discussion
session at Pocantico Conference Center.
Assembly President H.E. Sheikha
Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, Assistant
Secretary-General Jane Holl Lute
of the Department of UN
Peacekeeping Operations, Simone
Monasebian, Chief of the New
York Office of the UN Office on
Drugs and Crime, and Carolyn
Hannan, Director of the Division
for the Advancement of Women, for
example. We also were pleased to
welcome Alejandro Wolff, Deputy
US Representative to the UN. At
lunch, legislators engaged in lively
conversation with UN
correspondents Evelyn Leopold
of Reuters and Edith Lederer
of the Associated Press.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
AND JUSTICE AT RISK —
THE CENTER RESPONDS:
NATIONAL STRATEGIC
ACTION CONVENING OF
STATE LEGISLATORS
T
he Center concluded its
2006 programs by
addressing a bedrock
women’s human rights issue — the
right to privacy, bodily integrity,
and reproductive freedom. At our
Strategic Action Convening in
December, we brought together a
Strategic Action Convening participants, L-R: (Top row)
Janet Johnson, Linda Lopez, Betty Boyd, Lena Taylor,
(Middle row) Marilyn Lee, Sue Dickenson, Joan Bray,
(Bottom row) Elaine Roberts, James Roebuck.
small group of state legislators
whose courageous support for
reproductive rights and justice
make them — and their colleagues
— the “front lines” in the
battle to retain these rights.
Legislators met to discuss a
difficult, potentially urgent, question
— “will we be ready if and when
Roe v. Wade is overturned?” — with
a stellar group of experts and
colleagues, including Nancy Belden,
partner in polling firm Belden
Russonello & Stewart; Nancy
Keenan, president of NARAL
Pro-Choice America; and, Celinda
Lake, president of Lake Research
Partners. While legislators
enthusiastically agreed that
“prevention of unintended
continued on page 5
3
PARTICIPANTS IN THE
STRATEGIC ACTION
CONVENING ON
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
n
Senator Betty Boyd (CO)
n
Senator Joan Bray (MO)
n
Representative Sue Dickenson (MT)
n
Representative Janet Johnson (AR)
n
Representative Marilyn B. Lee (HI)
n
Representative Linda Lopez (AZ)
n
Representative Elaine Roberts (SD)
n
Representative James Roebuck (PA)
n
Senator Lena Taylor (WI)
NEWS from the Center for Women Policy Studies Spring 2007
A NOTE FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Continued from page 1
n our first-ever national Strategic
Action Convening on
Reproductive Rights — at
which state legislators ‑ the front
line protectors of reproductive
rights — developed strategies to
prepare for the struggles ahead.
With thanks for your generous
support, we are preparing for:
n our 2007 GlobalPOWER
(Partnership Of Women
Elected/Appointed
Representatives) program
— scheduled for May
n our seventh annual Foreign Policy
Institute for State Legislators
— scheduled for September
n our seminars and sessions at the
annual meeting of the National
Conference of State Legislatures
(NCSL) in August in Boston
n our follow up activities in
the states to our Strategic
Action Convening on
Reproductive Rights
n — and much more!
I also am delighted to welcome two
new members to the Center’s Board
of Directors: Karen A. Schneider,
deputy executive director of
communications at Amnesty
International USA, and Francesta
Farmer, senior policy advisor to
Representative Juanita MillenderMcDonald. Both Karen and
Fran are longtime friends of the
Center and are experts on a range
of women’s human rights issues.
Our new Board chair is Rita
Jaramillo, senior liaison for
Minority Community Outreach
at the National Education
Association, former chief of staff
for Representative Ruben Hinojosa,
and former president of MANA,
among many other leadership
roles in women’s human rights.
Jacquelyn Lendsey, president and
CEO of Women in Community
Service (WICS), is our new Board
secretary/treasurer; Jackie also
has a long history of leadership on
women’s issues, including a stint as
executive vice president of Planned
Parenthood Federation. At the
end of 2006, we bade farewell to
two Board members when their
second terms on the Board came
to an end — Bonnie Campbell,
our chair, and Harilyn Rousso.
Their contributions to our work
are immeasurable and they continue
as part of our permanent sisterhood.
And on a personal note, I am
delighted to announce that our very
dear friend and colleague, Professor
Asma Barlas, has been selected to
hold the prestigious Spinoza Chair
at the University of Amsterdam
for the spring 2008 semester. Dr.
Barlas, who is director of the Ithaca
College (NY) Center for the Study
of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity and
professor of politics in the School
of Humanities and Sciences, will
be a distinguished visiting scholar
at the University of Amsterdam.
Please keep an eye on our website
at www.centerwomenpolicy.org for
the latest news about our upcoming
programs and publications. And
please let me hear from you at
[email protected] or
202-872-1770 extension 208.
Finally, as always, we ask for your
financial support of the Center
— to enable us to continue
our 35 years of cutting edge
leadership to promote public
policy that ensures women’s human
rights, safety and security.
Leslie R. Wolfe
NEWS from the Center for Women Policy Studies THANK YOU!
W
e are grateful to the
following individual
donors whose generosity
to the Center during 2006 (and
through February 5, 2007) has
made an invaluable contribution
to our work on women’s human
rights in the United States.
Beth and Mike Abramowitz
The Honorable Martha
Alexander (NC)
Richard L. Beecher
Our special guests at the Strategic Action Convening
on Reproductive Rights. clockwise from top left:
Nancy Belden, Nancy Keenan, Lourdes Rivera of the
Ford Foundation, and Celinda Lake.
pregnancy” is an urgently
important goal, they also insist on
the urgency of emphasizing the
essential principles of Roe v. Wade
— recognizing that this framework
for the larger struggle for full
reproductive rights and justice
often is lost and misunderstood in
the landslide of anti-reproductive
rights rhetoric and policy.
During the final session of the
two day meeting, legislators
engaged in an intensive strategic
planning process and agreed to
carry the messages of the Strategic
Action Convening home to
their legislative colleagues and
community leaders. With the
Center, legislators will convene
state-level Strategic Action
Convenings to engage their
legislative colleagues in addressing
reproductive rights and justice in
the context of women’s human
rights and as a more comprehensive
set of rights and opportunities
than solely the right to abortion,
though that is always a
centerpiece.
Joy Bernard
Beverly K. Binkier
Judy Bloom
The Honorable Donna Boe (ID)
Jane M. Bolton
Ruth Bowman Bowers, Ruth
McLean Bowman Bowers Foundation
Carole Bratton
Spring 2007
The Honorable Beth Kerttula (AK)
The Honorable Jeanne
Kohl-Welles (WA)
Cynthia A. Kondon
Nancy Lang
Marta Jo Lawrence
Mildred Robbins Leet,
Trickle Up Program
Carol Leimas
Jacquelyn Lendsey
Carmen Lomellin
C. Lynn McNair
Jane C. Mendelson
Ayrie Moore
Amoretta I. Morris
Clare Nolan, Sisters of
the Good Shepherd
Sylvia Brown Olivetti
R2 Technology, Inc.
Jenn Remke
Rebecca Richardson
Alice H. Brown
The Honorable Bonnie Brown
(WV), in memory of Sheri O’Dell
Janet and Norman Brown
Wilbur P. Chase
Jane Roberts, 34 Million Friends
Mary G. Ross
Phyllis and Bill Rosser
Harilyn Rousso
Adrea Seligsohn
Mary Rose Curtis
Toni Dunton-Butler, A
Silver Thread, Inc.
Eleanor Elliott
Phyllis and Richard Sharlin, in honor
of the birth of Maya Beth Krooth
Barbara W. Stuhlmann
Carol Campbell Swinston
Holly Fechner
Hope Ferdowsian, in honor
of Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi
Shelly K. Finlayson
Robert W. Gillespie,
Population Communication
Kerry Henly
Lynn Huntley, Southern
Education Foundation
Sylvia Johnson
Todd M. Joseph, Kasnachey Family
Fund, in honor of Shirley T. Joseph
Leah Karpen, League of
Women Voters (NC)
5
The Honorable Nancy Todd (CO),
in memory of her mother,
Dorothy Knox
Jennifer Tucker, in memory
of Mary Ketterer Tucker
and LaSharn D. Tucker
Frederick H. Walton
Jane Wentworth, in honor
of the Center’s staff
Wanda M. Williams
Leslie R. Wolfe, in memory of
longtime friends Eleanor T. Elliott,
Lisa Goldberg, and Harriett Woods.
NEWS from the Center for Women Policy Studies Spring 2007
FROM OUR FRIENDS
n Center founder Jane Roberts
Chapman, and Gordon Chapman,
have launched a website,
www.selfhelprecovery.net. Visit
the site for information about
self help resources for long term
recovery and independent living.
And be sure to subscribe to the
Brain Injury Recovery Self Help
(BIRSH) monthly newsletter by
sending an email to
selfhelprecovery@
usa.net
Democratic Values is available
in bookstores and from
Georgetown University Press.
n Simi Linton’s book, My Body
Politic, is now available in paperback
and Simi has received a grant for
the theatrical adaptation of this
memoir. Check her website at
www.similinton.com to learn more.
n At the invitation of our
friends at Vital Voices
Global Partnership, Center
president Leslie Wolfe met with
splendid and inspirational
women leaders from Ukraine
— who are pictured below
with Wolfe at the Center’s
offices.
n Beryl Radin’s
latest book,
Challenging the
Performance
Movement:
Accountability,
Complexity, and
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Odenton, MD
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Center for Women
Policy Studies
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Suite 450
Washington DC 20036
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