Soroptimist International – A Global Voice for Women

Soroptimist International – A Global Voice for Women: Lifting Women from Poverty Through Lifelong Learning.

Presenters: 

Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, President.

Elizabeth Nyadwe, Vice President Advocacy. 

Hafdis Karlsdóttir, President’s Appeal Chair.

Soroptimist International’s aim is to educate, empower and enable women all over the world and ensure that their voices are being heard. SI have a network of clubs in 122 countries, with each club administering their own projects. Projects that were highlighted were educational programs in Nepal with focus on female leadership, women’s groups, gender equality training, menstruation hygiene, emotional healing, and more. The STEM field in the UK is another project where Soroptimist International encourages girls to pursue a career within engineering, math and technology. 

Long Life Learning for Women is an important project led by Soroptimist International Europe (SIE). Three projects were highlighted involving young women who were empowered in the work field in Italy and Turkey. Female prisoners got work training while in prison, while another project provided job placements for women who had never worked before.

Two other projects that have an ongoing education component is the SPOT project in Malaysia and the Ger project in Mongolia. The SPOT project seeks to fill gaps in Malaysia’s sexual health and education of young people, especially young girls. Despite over 18,600 cases of underage pregnancies per year there is no formal sexual health and education program in Malaysia. The Ger project enables women to grow their own fruit and vegetables and be self-sustainable.

Women, Water and Leadership is a program where women learn how to store, obtain, irrigate, plant, sell their products and manage their business. By managing water resources, and learning water leadership, women gain social and political power.

For more information about SI's work, please visit their website:  https://www.soroptimist.org/

Gender equity in the media! Gender equity in the media! Gender equity in media!

Hmmm...if only it were as easy as in Beetlejuice. Actress Geena Davis and a panel of amazingly accomplished people, such as former NASA astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison backed The Ambassador-At-Large Melanne Verveer and the US Delegation to the 55th CSW’s February 22^nd briefing. I and my colleague Katey Farldelmann represented our Lehigh group at the briefing. Opening remarks were given by Peggy Kerry and a Q&A session ensued after remarks by Melanie Verveer. Again we heard the focus on science and technology, the importance of mobile phones and bringing their access to 300 million women. But also, other important issues were raised such as cook stoves being a larger killer than malaria in some parts of the world because of the fumes. CEDAW’s US ratification and the 5^th WWC were also championed by the group of NGO representatives. A highlight for me was hearing Dr. Jemison support STEM careers for women on the 2-year level as well as on the 4-year or higher level. She emphasized that there is an incredible set of STEM careers with an education of 2 years or less in such fields as biotechnology and aerospace mechanics. Dr. Jemison recounted, “the woman who dressed me in my flight suit was a high school graduate, the first one from her family, yet my life depended on her”. She emphasized that there are important, meaningful careers that women can pursue in the STEM fields on the 2-year level. The need for women technicians is equally important as the need for women engineers.

Finally, Geena Davis talked about the research of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media. It was refreshing to hear a media icon focus on issues in the media rather than issues outside of their area of expertise. Check out a video I took of her discussing her gender research. And if anyone is interested, I have an audio recording of the entire briefing, just post a comment or email me: tnj210[at]lehigh.edu