Articles and links on women’s rights have also piled up under the Sunroom Desk Paperweight these past two weeks.
Local blogger KChristieH published her notes from Nicolas Kristof’s talk on Half the Sky. His message: The best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls.
The dire situation of so many women and girls around the world was a theme for several speakers at The Women’s Conference last week. Sunroom Desk has already reported Sir Richard Branson’s comments on Saudi Arabia. Somaly Mam, another featured speaker, spoke tearfully of her entrapment at a Cambodian brothel, her later escape, and her joy in establishing rescue shelters for exploited girls in Cambodia. Her moving testimony, including her stated determination to have some of the girls she rescued go into law enforcement, is online at the end of the morning session video.
Women in the United States still have a ways to go in achieving parity with men on issues of pay and representation, according to the just released Shriver Report.
The New York Times published Joanne Lipman’s op-ed on the report, focusing on stalled progress for women in the U.S.:
When I graduated from college in 1983, women earned only 64 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
Today? Women earn just 77 cents. By other measures, women’s gains have stalled: board seats and corporate officer posts have been flat — or declined in recent years.
How should we in the U.S. work for progress on women’s rights? (Repeating Branson’s charge at The Women’s Conference -) Set a goal of advancing civilization by giving women an equal place in their societies worldwide. As part of this larger goal, resolve to achieve equal pay, representation, and political power here in the United States. Gains in women’s rights here can help others around the world who are struggling with far greater problems than a 23 cent pay gap.