Archive for August, 2009

Guest blogpost on The Women’s Media Center’s Majority Post  by Marie Wilson, founder and President of The White House Project, August 28, 2009

This week, The New York Times Magazine dedicated their pages to a special issue: Why Women’s Rights Are the Cause of Our Time. In the lead article, The Women’s Crusade, authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn drove home this powerful statement, “The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution.”

For decades, women in the U.S. and across the world have taken this stance – and have dedicated their time, energy, creativity, and philanthropy to the cause.  From pioneers like Robin Morgan and Charlotte Bunch to the millions of women who have served as advocates, educators, service providers, and donors, making women’s suffering and their abilities as agents of change visible and significant in the eyes of the world has been a widespread – yet largely unnoticed – undertaking.

This week’s Magazine illustrated an invaluable ingredient to advancing the cause of women’s rights: the active participation and support of male allies.

Women like Morgan and Bunch have written prodigiously on these issues; they are held in respect and have been honored for their years of service.  Whole fields of study, as well as industry, focus on advancing women.  Yet the visibility and consideration paid to the issue has been next to nil.

As his writing career demonstrates, Kristof is a bright and sympathetic man, with a talent for delivering complex issues in a “human” way to the general public.  Partnered with WuDunn, an equally committed woman, their work at the Times has finally gotten the attention these issues deserve in ways that writing, traveling, and exhorting has previously proved necessary but insufficient.

While the Times piece is only a first step towards building the understanding and commitment necessary to transforming the role of women throughout the world, it is an important and instructive step.  It is a telling example of why the movement towards women’s social, economic, and political parity greatly needs male allies – especially those in power within the media landscape who can not only fuel change, but bring their brothers along.

This is a theme that we have seen time and again.  Two years ago, The White House Project – along with The Council of Women World Leaders and the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum, supported by The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands – held the historic International Women Leaders Global Security Summit.  It was the largest gathering of women leaders on the issue of security to ever be held in the United States.  From Prime Ministers and Presidents to the biggest names in the non-governmental and private sectors, over 120 women worked together for three days to shift the paradigm of international security.

Despite the historic, timely, and critical nature of the summit, not a single large newspaper would cover the conference.  Nor would they publish an opinion piece by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Summit co-host.  Over one hundred women world leaders taking on the biggest issues of our time was apparently too audacious to be newsworthy.

This is, I think, the second part of the problem: when women are seen as victims, especially those who turn their victimization into power, people respond.  Yet when women are seen as forceful and engaged agents of change, working to prevent suffering and joining in full partnership with men, the media shies away.

What we need moving forward are male allies like Kristof who will not only take up the issue of women’s rights to end their victimization but to promote women as leaders in their own right.  And we need them to recognize and share that this goal is not just for the benefit of women, but for men, our communities, our countries, and our world.

Huffington Post
Marie Wilson / August 26, 2009

“We literally could not have fought this war without women.”

That’s what John Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel, recently said about the contributions of female soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet he could just as easily have been commenting on World War I – a victory supported by over 30,000 women – and the tipping point for women’s right to vote. After decades of battling for suffrage, it was the role of women during war which President Wilson acknowledged in 1918: “We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toll and not to a partnership of right?”

Today, as we celebrate the 19th Amendment and Women’s Equality Day, thousands of women continue to partner with men as soldiers overseas. These courageous women have sacrificed to serve their nation – and through their participation, have proved not only the quality of women’s contributions in war, but the necessity of their involvement.

As World War I ushered in a new era of equality for women because of their service, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan present us with a similar opportunity. Indeed, we stand at the next frontier of justice for our nation’s women: equal participation in leadership – not only within the military – but throughout our democracy and its institutions.

Twenty-first century warfare has transformed the frontlines, and military leaders have circumvented policy to bring women onto the battlefield in order to confront these challenges. Several years into war, it is clear that the gamble has paid off. Representative John McHugh, who previously supported restricting women in combat zones, recently said in the New York Times, “Women in uniform today are not just invaluable,” he said, “they’re irreplaceable.”

Just as women have proven priceless on the warfront – their leadership is equally needed on the domestic front.

Our current situation here in the States – from the flailing economy to the incredible loss of jobs and homes to the failure of services for those in need – threatens not only our national security, but the security of individuals and families every day. Enlisting our nation’s women to serve as leaders here on the domestic front is critical to our success.

As the upcoming White House Project Report: Benchmarking Women’s Leadership illustrates, women are desperately needed on the frontlines of our institutions and government, where decision-makers are determining the nature and direction of our economics, our politics, and our society as a whole. In every sector, women are woefully short of parity in the highest eschelons of leadership; they are only 17 percent of Congress, 17 percent of law firm partners, 18 percent of news publishers, and a mere 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. When they do get to the top, they continue to earn far less than their male counterparts – on average, the wage gap persists at 73 percent. Among women of color, both positions of leadership and salary are even less.

Some might say that the challenges America faces far exceeds the issue of gender parity. Yet without women’s vision and voices, we can never effectively solve the crises that confront us. As we learn from the battlelfeld, diversity in our leadership – with women leading alongside men – is the only way we can succeed. And unlike women’s participation in combat, there is no law prohibiting women from being at the frontlines of leadership – from executive boards and judicial seats to the helms of our media and academic arenas. We need only the political and social will to do so.

Through women’s service in war – the most masculine of our endeavors – our quest for equality advanced greatly a near century ago. Today, women still stand ready to serve, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaders placed their trust in women to lead. It is time we do the same at home.