Led by Bishop Minerva Carcaño (third from left), a father and son join people from various Christian denominations at the constituent office of former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) while lobbying for immigration reform on Capitol Hill, October 8, 2013, in Washington.
Efforts by Women of Faith to Achieve Gender Equality
Rachel Koehler and Gwen Calais-Haase, Center for American Progress, May 3, 2018
For years, women have struggled to gain equality in all areas of life—from the home to the workplace, and especially in positions of leadership.
Despite being 50.8 percent of the population, only 14.6 percent of executive officers in companies are women, and overall, women only earn 80 cents for every dollar men make.
These discrepancies are even larger among women of color. Yet women of faith have historically played a pivotal role in challenging gender inequality, and they continue to defy stereotypes in politics, the workplace, and houses of worship.
Here are five ways in which women of faith are fighting for gender equality at work and in broader society—empowering young women as feminist and womanist theologians, faith community leaders, social justice advocates, and elected officials.
1. Shaping and elevating feminist theology
Feminist and womanist theologians exist in every religion, actively engaging in efforts to achieve gender equality from a perspective of faith and making clear that women’s equality and faith are not inconsistent with one another.
Challenging misunderstandings or misinterpretations of religious texts that have justified segregating society along gender lines, feminist theologians have surfaced the issue of gender inequality in religious communities.
For example, Native American feminist Renya Ramirez wrote an article proposing that gender equality be part of any conversation about the oppression of Native American communities, and she challenges the gender-discriminatory practices that some indigenous nations have traditionally followed.
Zainah Anwar also empowers women of faith as a founding member and director of the organization Sisters in Islam, which seeks to teach gender equality through an Islamic framework. In addition, the Sikh Feminist Research Institute exists to engage the Sikh community in feminist research to understand further the causes of gender-based oppression and how to combat it.
(Read more….)
MUJERES FENOMENALES: The lineup for the spring edition of LEAF is intentionally packed with powerhouse, women-led acts. Included on the roster is Flor de Toloache, the first and only all-women mariachi group in New York City. The collective has been nominated for a Latin Grammy and can count QuestLove of The Roots among its fans. Photo courtesy of the band
LEAF leads the charge for gender equality at music festivals
Alli Marshall, Mountain Express, Asheville, NC, May 2, 2018
httpss://mountainx.com/arts/leaf-leads-the-charge-for-gender-equality-at-music-festivals/
The national campaign 2020 Women on Boards seeks to increase the percentage of women serving on U.S. company boards to 20 percent or greater within the next two years. But the gender gap doesn’t end with the corporate world, and similar initiatives have been launched in the U.K. — such as Festival Republic’s ReBalance — to address gender imbalance in the music industry.
Closer to home, LEAF Festival — long known for its ethnically diverse lineups — decided to accept the challenge in regard to female artist representation. But, asks performing arts director Ehren Cruz, why wait to 2020? The spring festival — held Thursday, May 10, to Sunday, May 13 — features more than 20 percent women-led acts, including its headliners and the entire Lakeside main stage schedule for Friday.
Acts include all-female mariachi band Flor de Toloache, blues guitarist Samantha Fish, indie-folk artists the Shook Twins and sometimes-Asheville-based world-soul collective Rising Appalachia. And, says Leah Song, who fronts the latter with her sister Chloe Smith and will also perform a solo set, “We’re excited to be featured with Ani DiFranco.”
DiFranco, a songwriter, poet and feminist activist, headlines LEAF on her first return trip to North Carolina following the enactment of HB2. DiFranco boycotted the state in response to the controversial legislation that sought to strip rights from transgender people. (The N.C. General Assembly approved a bill repealing HB2 last spring, though the repeal bill blocks cities and counties from enacting their own policies to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination.)
Anyone who’s worked in the music industry in any capacity knows that it’s dominated by white men. “Even when I’m looking to try to round out my lineup, I’d say 70 percent of bands are typically male-driven,” says Cruz. Pushing for female representation means extra legwork, fostering connections, researching who deserves attention and “taking some chances, putting people onstage [who] aren’t ‘proven’ but are awesome musicians.”
He adds, “At the end of the day, it feels right. … It feels like I’m not just taking the easy way out, and it will foster a much stronger lineup in the end.”
(Read more….)
Chhattisgarh police have started conducting workshops to facilitate applications from transgender.
Deccan Chronicle, May 4, 20198
Raipur: In order to promote gender equality, the Chhattisgarh government has decided to recruit transgenders in the police force.
The state police have started conducting workshops to facilitate applications from transgenders. With this step, Chhattisgarh has become the first Indian state to do so.
The applicants are happy with the decision and have been prepping up at the police parade ground in Raipur. They would be recruited under similar guidelines as other two genders.
“Just like other genders, we too wish to serve for the betterment of our country. We are happy with the decision of the state government and will leave no stone unturned to clear tests,” said Divya, who is training with other transgenders in the state capital to enter the police force.
Another aspirant, Sakshi, said, “Earlier we were afraid of the transgenders community. We were told to stay away from them. However, now when we got to know them closely, we have realised that they are similar to us.”
In 2014, the Supreme Court declared transgender people as the third gender and ruled that they have equal privilege over the fundamental rights.
HRH Crown Princess of Denmark
Conference to launch the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023
Council of Europe, Newsroom
In the framework of the Danish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, the international conference “Gender Equality: Paving the Way” will launch the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023. The aim of the event is to address current and emerging challenges which prevent a faster pace of progress to achieve substantive and full gender equality, and to discuss the way forward in implementing the new strategy.
The conference will focus on ending impunity for violence against women and ensuring gender equality and the role of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, women in decision-making, the human rights of women and girl migrants, refugee and asylum seeking women and girls, gender stereotypes and sexism, and the role of men in the gender equality agenda.
(Read more….)
Toula Drimonis in Opinion, Politics, National Observer, May 1st 2018
Gender parity in politics was a hot topic this past week in the Quebec National Assembly, as party leaders were, for the third consecutive year in a row, handed a proposal for a bill from Groupe Femmes, Politique et Democracie. The non-partisan group is calling for parity in Quebec politics – and specifically, asking for an amendment to the Election Act that would force all political parties to ensure women make up 40 to 60 per cent of all candidates by the 2020 election.
The public debate moved on to an even wider television audience this past Sunday when Quebec’s first female premier Pauline Marois joined journalist and author Pascale Navarro and former MNA Yolande James to continue discussing the issue on Tout le Monde en Parle, the province’s most popular French-language talk show.
“When we legislate parity, we find the women, and when we don’t, we find excuses,” @GouvFeminin founder and president, @CarolineCodsi, concluded. #qcpoli #cdnpoli #feminism @toulastake
Watching Sunday’s show was an exercise in frustration. Few issues manage to elicit as much agreement in what the end result should be, while remaining hopelessly divided on what the methods employed to get there are – even among many women. As a result, we remain at an impasse: those who demand forced quotas from political parties because they see it as the only way to true democratic representation (Navarro), and those who prefer to gently nudge progress in the right direction (Marois and Yolande), the way you do a hopelessly slow turtle that keeps turning its head to look at you accusingly because you woke it up from its nap.
The irrefutable fact is this: Quebec women are still woefully underrepresented in the public sphere.
(Read more….)