62-year-old Diana Nyad ends Cuba-to-Florida swim bid

Diana Nyad at TEDMED2011 (Photo credit: Klick Pharma)

News for Tuesday 21 August is taken from The Independent

Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt in nearly 35 years to swim across the Straits of Florida today, her dream of setting a record thwarted by storms, jellyfish stings, shark threats, hypothermia and swollen lips.

The swimmer was pulled from the water at 12:55 am, her crew reported, as a thunderstorm raged and winds and waves tossed support boats. Her team had previously tweeted that she came out of the water at 7:42 am, and offered no explanation for the change.

In a blog posting, crew member Candace Hogan wrote that Nyad angrily shook her head after being pulled from the water and planned to return to finish the swim after the storms subsided.

“When can I get back in?” Hogan quoted the swimmer as saying. “I want full transparency that I was out. But I have plenty left in me and I want to go on.”

Nyad, who turns 63 on Wednesday, was making her third attempt since last summer to become the first person to cross the Florida Straits without a shark cage. She also made a failed try with a cage in 1978.

She started this effort Saturday in Havana and lasted longer, and made it further, than in her previous tries, her team said. She swam this time for more than 41 hours.

“She realized that the obstacles against this swim were too great and agreed at dawn to return to Key West by boat,” Hogan said.

Another team member, Vanessa Linsley, told The Associated Press the swimmer encountered a triple threat of obstacles.

“Instead of getting hit with one doozy they got hit with three,” Linsley said, “They got hit with the weather, they got hit with the jellyfish and they got hit with the sharks all at the same time.”

Nyad was stung nine times by box jellyfish on Monday night alone, the team blog reported.

Overnight was the second straight night of storms encountered by the swimmer. Yesterday evening, the swimmer’s crew was improvising ways to prevent hypothermia and to fend off further swelling of her lips and tongue. Though she’s swimming in 85-degree Fahrenheit (29.5-Celsius) waters, because that is lower than the body’s core temperature, it will reduce her body temperature over time. Her team said she had been shivering.

“We all know her mind can handle it,” Candace Hogan, a crew member traveling with Nyad, wrote on the swimmer’s blog. “But there will always be a point where a human body can’t go any farther. What no one knows is where that line is drawn in Diana Nyad.”

Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Straits in 1997, but she used a shark cage. In June, another Australian, Penny Palfrey, made it 79 miles (127 kilometers) toward Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt.

Nyad has been training for three years for the feat. She is accompanied by a support team in boats, and a kayak-borne apparatus shadowing Nyad helps keep sharks at bay by generating a faint electric field that is not noticeable to humans. A team of handlers is always on alert to dive in and distract any sharks that make it through.

She takes periodic short breaks to rest, hydrate and eat high-energy foods such as peanut butter.

Related articles

• Diana Nyad, 62, Once Again Attempting Swim from Cuba to Florida (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• Diana Nyad ends Cuba-to-Florida swim bid (metronews.ca)
• Diana Nyad pulled from water in Cuba to Florida swim (king5.com)

Female artist Abrams finally awarded own retrospective

News for Wednesday 15 August is from Women’s Views on News

Emma Caddow
WVoN co-editor

Jewish female artist Ruth Abrams is being honoured with her own retrospective at the Yeshiva University in New York.

The late artist was regarded as a contemporary to some of recent history’s most acclaimed painters – such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Her contemporaries in Abstract Expressionism were widely recognised for the misogyny expressed in their paintings.

Although described by the New York Times as a “woman unfairly neglected in a macho era” back in 1986, the Brooklyn born artist has still never had an exhibition of her own – until now.

The retrospective aims to restore her place in history alongside her contemporaries in the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Abrams was famous for her “Microcosms” series, painted during the 1950s to 1970s, which explored the immensity and limitless of outer space.

In a time when the possibility of space travel was opening up, many male Abstract Expressionists conveyed the magnitude of the topic by using large-scale canvasses.

But Abram created paradoxically tiny pieces, as small as two by three inches, to convey the impression of infinite space.

Curator Reba Wulkan said: “These tiny paintings brought her work to a new level.”

The university will display more than 70 of these small-scale works – many for the first time.

The exhibition will also showcase large-scale color landscapes, still lifes, abstract portraits, collages and other work from Abrams’ 40-year career.

Yeshiva University Museum holds the largest institutional repository of Abrams’ work, together with a significant archive of her letters, press clippings and personal papers.

The director, Dr. Jacob Wisse, said:

“It’s a privilege for us to bring this fascinating and overlooked artist to the attention of the public.

“We think Abrams’ studies of light, color and scale will be revelatory to people already familiar with the Ab-Ex movement; her intense and sensitive evocations of nature and the human form, and her ambitious studies of the cosmic sphere provide a distinct face of the movement.”

The Huffington Post wrote:

“Between her knowledge of art’s past and courage to thrust her work into its future, Abrams deserves to take her rightful place amongst female artists like Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning and Joan Mitchell.”

Microcosms: Ruth Abrams, Abstract Expressionist will be shown at Yeshiva University Museum from August 12, 2012 to January 6, 2013.

Swim that broke Cold War ice curtain

Diomede Islands: Little Diomede Island or Kruzenstern Island (left) and Big Diomede Island or Ratmanov Island in the Bering Sea. Photo is from the north. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Wednesday 8 August is taken from BBC News

In the summer of 1987, the American swimmer Lynne Cox braved the frigid waters of the Bering Strait to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union. Twenty-five years on, now aged 55, she recalls how her actions in the waning days of the Cold War eased international tensions.

“I wanted to open the border so we could become friends,” says Cox. “The difficulty was that nobody believed it could happen.”

Her route between Little Diomede Island, in the US state of Alaska, and Big Diomede Island, in the Soviet Union, was just 4.3km (2.7 miles) but it crossed the maritime border of two countries still locked in Cold War opposition, and the water was cold, very cold.

“There was this instant loss of breath,” Cox recalls. “The cold was like a huge vampire pulling the heat from my body. I looked down at my fingers and they were totally grey, like the hands of a cadaver.”

With the water temperature at 3.3C, the only way for Cox, then 30 years old, to survive was to keep moving.

“I put my face in the water and started swimming as fast as I could. I was also looking at my shoulders to see if they were turning blue because that would be really dangerous.”

Cox first had the idea of the Bering Strait swim in 1976 and spent years lobbying Soviet officials for permission to enter their waters.

After being ignored at every turn, Cox finally decided to use “every last penny” of her savings to do her swim.

On the eve of the swim, there was still no word from Moscow, and the military on both sides of the Cold War were jittery.

“We knew something was happening because the Soviets moved two ships the size of football fields up into the Bering Strait,” Cox recalls.

“The (indigenous) Inuits freaked out so they called the (US) National Guard and they sent up jet fighters. Then the Soviets sent up MiGs to check out why the Americans were up there. And I was thinking that this was supposed to be about world peace.”

With 24 hours to go, permission came through from Moscow. President Gorbachev himself had seen a TV report about Cox’s swim and – with the world’s media watching – the Soviet leadership decided it would be too embarrassing to turn her back.

On the morning of 7 August, Cox woke up to find the Bering Strait completely calm. But there was no sign of the Inuit, who would guide her in their traditional kayaks.

“I’m all set to go and my crews are all set to go, but they’re not up and I’m freaking out,” says Cox.

It turned out that the Inuit had been up all night celebrating the prospect of seeing their relatives on Big Diomede for the first time in nearly 50 years. As they slept in, fog closed in and visibility dropped to 400m.

“We couldn’t see anything, we didn’t have radar, we had traditional canoes. Great Diomede is only 6.4km (4 miles) wide so everyone was really concerned that I might just miss the island.”

As Cox started swimming, she was worried to see her support boats making constant changes of course. None of the Inuit was old enough to remember the route to Great Diomede and their only navigational device was a rusty compass.

In the end, one of the American journalists accompanying Cox intervened to put the expedition on the right bearing.

Cox then heard the sound of a motor. And slowly, a Soviet launch appeared.

“I was elated when I saw the skiff emerge from the fog – finally the Russians are here,” she says.

On board was Vladimir McMillan, a half-American journalist for the Soviet news agency TASS, who was jumping up and down, shouting: “Lynne, don’t stop now!”

Cox was heading for a cliff about 50m ahead, but with the fog clearing slightly, she could make out a Soviet delegation waiting further away on a beach.

McMillan wanted Cox to swim to the welcoming committee, but the American medical team urged her to take the easy option and swim to the cliff.

“I kept thinking ‘I’m cold, I would like to finish this swim, but if I don’t touch somebody’s hand what have I done?’” she says. So she headed towards the Russians.

The last 800m (0.5 mile) was the hardest part of the swim because of strong off-shore currents.

“I really did wonder how far I could go. I really did see my fingers go grey. Inside I was evaluating ‘Am I OK? Can I keep going? Can I do it?’

“I had experts around me, but there’s always the risk that you could go into cardiac arrest from hypothermia and it can happen really fast, so I was on edge that whole time.”

The Soviet delegation came into view. Cox reached the shore, but it was so rocky she couldn’t get out on her own.

“I extended my arm and two Russians in military uniform grabbed me,” says Cox. “I instantly felt this heat from their warm hands. One guy was putting his arm underneath me to steady me. People were throwing blankets and coats on top of me. I didn’t understand anything at all, except they were saying ‘welcome’.”

At the last minute, the Soviets had sent a top-level delegation, including KGB officials and sports stars. They had even prepared a small beach party.

“They had set up tables on the beach for a picnic with samovars full of tea and little biscuits. They were ready to celebrate all afternoon, but I was standing there on the ice thinking, ‘Oh boy, this is getting cold.’”

Eventually, the Soviets let Cox go inside a tent to recover. A Soviet doctor, Rita Zakarova, covered Cox with hot-water bottles, put her in a sleeping bag, and then embraced her. For the American, the moment symbolised the entire trip.

“The whole idea was to have this human contact after so many years growing up afraid of the Soviets, and here was this person basically warming me up to get me back to life again,” she says.

The swim turned Cox into a Cold War celebrity in the United States and the Soviet Union.

When President Gorbachev travelled to Washington to sign a nuclear weapons treaty later that year, he and President Reagan raised a glass to toast the swimmer.

“She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live,” Gorbachev said.

Related articles

• Unraveling her father’s Cold War secrets (stripes.com)
• Olympics: Cold War rivalry could heat up in hoops finals (dawn.com)
• America Still Lags Behind the Soviet Union by Number of Planets Visited (theatlantic.com)

Bolivian women are breaking down barriers to seek political power

Copacabana, Bolivia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Monday 6 August is taken from The Guardian

A growing number of Bolivia’s indigenous women are participating in politics. Though spread across great distances and representing a wide range of experiences, many of these women share a similar history. Most started out leading civil society organisations and then went on to run for local public office, often overcoming resistance within their own families.

“The major obstacles [to accessing a government position] are domestic duties and economic issues,” says Lucinda Villca, a council woman from Santiago de Andamarca, a municipality in the western district of Oruro. Villca is an Aymara mother of nine who used to be one of the native leaders of her quinoa and llama farming ayllu [community]. She is one of four council women who shared their experiences with IPS during a national meeting of women leaders from rural local governments held recently in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

“We go out on the fields early in the morning to help our husbands, tending the crops or taking the cattle out to pasture. We come home at night and we have to fix supper and make some time to weave so we can earn extra money for the house,” Villca says. “With these obligations, there’s no time for anything else. I now have a greater responsibility. As a member of the indigenous council my mission was to work for my community. In this new post I have to work for the future of my municipality.” .

Marina Cuñaendi, a 55-year-old council woman from Urubichá, says: “I used to be a housewife. I’m a Guarani, and like many women in the countryside, I have no regular job. I was working for a women’s organisation when I was asked to run for office.”

Urubichá is one of Bolivia’s poorest areas, despite being located in Santa Cruz, the country’s most prosperous district. According to the last census, 85.5% of its 6,000 inhabitants – mostly Guarani people – live in extreme poverty.

Before being nominated in 2010, Cuñaendi had never thought of holding public office. She planted rice and corn and, in her “free time”, weaved to support her seven children, along with her husband. In Urubichá, she says, women have no time to organise and are marginalised from political life. She admitted that she had to consult her husband and children, who encouraged her.

In San Julián, another municipality of Santa Cruz, Yolanda Cuellar, a Guarani, was deemed to be “too young” to hold a municipal position. She turned 21 a month after being elected council woman in April 2010, on the ticket of the Without Fear Movement, opposing the Movement to Socialism party, which governs the municipality and the country.

“They didn’t trust me because I was young, and a woman to boot. In our municipality, sexism is very strong. Now there are four of us women in the council,” the accountant and mother of two says. Cuellar has her husband’s support. “He understands me and tells me not to quit because people voted for me; he tells me to fight for what I want and not give up just because somebody doesn’t want me there,” she says.

But the women’s lack of political experience and the discrimination by male peers have not made their work on the council easy. Also, being a council woman is very different from being an indigenous leader. “There’s a lot of bureaucracy, which slows down any project, but the worst is the lack of support. Our ideas are ignored and we feel alone. It’s like nobody is interested in doing anything for young people and women,” Cuellar says.

San Julián’s economy is primarily agricultural, but benefits from the commercial and services activities linked to the busy highway that runs through it. However, 57.9% of its more than 70,000 inhabitants live in extreme poverty.

Under the 2009 constitution and other laws, women must occupy at least 50% of all elected government positions. To ensure that percentage, candidate lists must be drawn up by alternating between women and men. At present, 43% of the mayors and council persons in Bolivia’s 327 local governments are women, and 96% of them are holding public office for the first time.

Lidia Alejandro, a 50-year-old Aymara council woman from Llallagua, a municipality in the mining district of Potosí, in western Bolivia, also identified inexperience as a factor that puts them at a disadvantage compared with their male counterparts.

“I became a council woman without knowing a thing about how municipal affairs are run. I’m a teacher, but holding office is very different. I couldn’t even speak up at a meeting or give statements to the press,” Alejandro says. “I had to learn as I went along.”  Training workshops helped her, but training takes time, she says, and that causes problems with husbands as they reproach women leaders for neglecting their homes.

Alejandro is troubled by the failure to achieve the goal of lifting the women of her municipality out of poverty due to a lack of specialists who can design projects to meet their needs. Bolivian legislation requires that part of the annual budget at all government levels be allocated to spending on projects that target the needs of women and other vulnerable groups. But most of the allocations are not spent, and the funds are either returned or transferred to other areas. “Women have come to us to complain. ‘How is it that we have four council women and they’re not doing anything for us?’ they say. We’ve tried to join forces, but the truth is that we all have our political loyalties,” Cuellar says.

Natasha Loayza, a specialist with the UN women’s office in Bolivia, says there has been great progress in terms of women’s participation in politics, furthered by the constitution and various laws. “The challenge is to translate this legislation into action, into real and concrete participation,” she says.

The UN women’s office’s Semilla (seed) programme, a three-year pilot initiative that is in its final year, helps women in rural districts exercise their economic and political rights. Loayza says one of the programme’s goals is to motivate more women to participate in politics by showing them the meaningful involvement of those who are already participating.

“Women can now access [public office], but it’s very hard. It’s a colossal task. The women who have achieved positions of responsibility in public bodies can bear witness to the problems they face every day to make their presence felt, and not just occupy decision-making positions on paper,” Loayza says. “We’re still at a point where women have to work hard to really participate.”

The programme is being implemented by the ministry of equal opportunities in 18 rural districts with $9m (£5.7m) in financing from the UN and, so far, has benefited 4,000 women.

Related articles

• A Filmmaker’s Mission: Shining Light on Afro-Bolivian Invisibility (losafrolatinos.com)
• ‘End of Capitalism’: Bolivia to Expel Coca-Cola (thetruthseeker.co.uk)
• Introducing Alejandro Fernández: Afro-Bolivian Activist (losafrolatinos.com)

Argentina’s former first lady Evita Peron honoured on 100 peso note

News for Thursday 26 July is taken from The Independent

Argentina’s iconic former first lady Evita Peron has been honoured in song, in film and currently on Broadway. Now her face will grace the nation’s currency.

President Cristina Fernandez revealed the new 100 peso note on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the death of Evita Peron – the first woman to appear on any Argentine banknote.

Ms Fernandez, whose party was inspired by Evita’s husband, strongman Juan Peron, said the initial printing will be commemorative, but she said she wants all new 100 peso notes to eventually carry the former first lady’s image, replacing that of Julio Argentino Roca, a 19th century president.

“After 200 years it’s the first time that a woman appears on a bill, and if you have to honour the gender, who better than the figure of Eva?” she asked.

Peron was a controversial figure, but one who fought with passion for society to be more equal and just, Ms Fernandez said.

“It’s not that Eva was a saint. It’s not that she didn’t make mistakes… She was a humble woman of the people,” the president said.

“Honouring her with this bill is a way of recovering justice.”

Related articles

• Evita Peron remembered 60 years after her death (dailystar.com.lb)
• Evita fits the bill – Eva Perón to become first woman on Argentinian banknotes (guardian.co.uk)
• Argentina’s leader unveils new 100-peso Evita note (miamiherald.com)

Reed Kessler jumps the equestrian age barrier

Aged 70, Hiroshi Hoketsu is the oldest show jumper competing in the games. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Thursday 5th July was taken from BBC News

In a sport better known for the longevity of competitors who reach the Games well into their 50s, 60s or even 70s, Kessler is 17 and one of the best showjumpers in the United States.

“The publicity for the sport has definitely been growing,” Kessler tells BBC Sport. “I have a public Twitter account  and I’ve had thousands and thousands of people, young kids, reach out and say they’ve just started riding and my story is inspiring.

“I think it’s fantastic and people say I’ve done so many interviews, don’t I get tired? But it’s so good for the sport, I’m happy to do them.”

That’s the other thing: Kessler is switched on. As one Canadian newspaper phrased it under the heading “American phenom”, she is a “smart cookie”. When she speaks, it is with the conviction and self-assured clarity of someone in their mid-30s, not a teenage Olympic debutant.

“A million people have already asked me about it, it’s alright,” she laughs as the subject of her age is broached. “It’s been like that my whole life – ‘Oh my God, you’re only insert-age-here’ – I’m used to it.”

Equestrian sports demand more athleticism from the horse than they do the rider so, while competitors must be fit, age is not as detrimental to an equestrian’s career as it usually proves for gymnasts or sprinters.

In turn, that means the elite circuit is home to riders carrying decades of experience at the highest level. To be 17 and among the handful of riders, in a country the size of the United States, that warrant an Olympic place is already an achievement, before the Games have even begun.

“In showjumping my parents have been riding for about 30 years, so I’ve always wanted to ride too and it’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” says Kessler.

“I have pictures of myself at six months old, in a basket on my pony, learning to steer with my stuffed animals.

“I only started at senior level in January,” she adds, casually. “It’s a big transition. My horse had never jumped on that level either so it was both of us finding our feet.

“I couldn’t do the biggest-money classes, the highest level, but I have been doing senior divisions for the past two years. I’ve competed against all of these riders at a lower level.

“We had our last Olympic trial and it’s kind of like going to a mock Olympics. Most people, their first time doing the Olympic trial, it’s meant to be a struggle – but my trainer was very confident, she said I was going to finish in the top three and make the team. I had no idea, until the end, that I could.

“Our chef d’equipe eventually called me and when the phone rang – the phone had rung a million times that day – for some reason I knew it was him. He told me I was ranked third in the shortlist and it was amazing, I was speechless.”

Selection to the team makes Kessler the youngest Olympic showjumper in United States history and is accompanied by two things: a leap in the world rankings from 169th to 81st, and a tidal wave of media attention.

By the time Kessler speaks to us, she has made a break for the UK and is holed up with her British boyfriend - Tim Gredley, also a showjumper – in Newmarket, far from the madding crowd. The break gives her a chance to regroup ahead of the biggest event of her young life.

“I’ve been constantly watched and televised for the past four or five months. So many silly things can go wrong in such a long span of time, it’s a lot of pressure to keep the horses feeling good and keep performing,” she says.

“Now that we’ve finished as strong as we started and been selected, it’s a big load off. When it was over, I slept for 14 hours – I was exhausted.

“Obviously my story is big publicity for the sport so I’ve done a million interviews. The horse has had a few days off so I thought I’d take some time for myself. I’m not over here very long, just a little vacation after all this drama of the past few months.

“Now that I’ve made the team, I’ve got to work even harder. I expect us to bring home medals, that’s what being selected for the team is all about. Making the team is just the beginning – it’s going to the Games, representing our country and winning.”

Related articles

• In 2012, a Host Country With an Equestrian Tradition (london2012.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Kessler impresses (lfpress.com)
• Saudi showjumper Dalma Rushdi Malhas to miss Olympics (guardian.co.uk)

Cyndi Lauper launches project to reduce homelessness among LGBT youth

News for 29 June 2012 has been taken from Women’s Views on News.

Cyndi Lauper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Estimates suggest that in the US, there are between 500,000 and 1.6 million homeless children between the ages of 12 and 17. Further estimates suggest that a staggering 40% of them identify under the LGBT umbrella, despite the fact that LGBT youth make up only 3-5% of the national youth population.Lauper’s ‘Forty to None‘ project, launched this week, aims to help homeless LGBT youth and to raise awareness of the scale of the problem.Cyndi Lauper, the singer best known for telling us ‘girls just wanna have fun’, has turned her attention to an entirely more serious subject.

It is thought that the high number of LGBT homeless is caused by factors such as abuse, neglect and rejection by families which are directly connected to the children’s sexuality or gender identity.

The project’s name reflects its aim to reduce that 40% figure to zero.

Talking about the project, Lauper said: ‘There’s no shortage of organizations focused on ending homelessness or addressing the needs of homeless youth—but everything we’ve learned over the past year has made it clear that runaway and homeless gay and transgender youth are being left behind.

‘There’s a void that needs to be filled. There are kids who are struggling and need real help, and my mission is to get them that help. That’s why we started the Forty to None Project. Because I give a damn, and society should, too.’

The project consists of a five-year plan which will work to drive down the number of gay and transgender youth on the streets through campaigns that will:

• raise awareness about the young people affected
• advocate at the state and federal levels
• strengthen the network of services working on the issue
• train service providers to be more inclusive and understanding of the specific issues these children face
• empower homeless gay and transgender youth through resources and information.

Related articles

• Cyndi Lauper Launches National Program for Homeless LGBT Youth (towleroad.com)
• Cyndi Lauper raises awareness of homeless LGBT youth with new scheme (digitalspy.co.uk)
• Advocate For LGBT Homeless Youth Named White House ‘Champion Of Change’ (thinkprogress.org)

Title IX anniversary marked as women qualify for US Olympic athletics team

News for Monday 25th June was taken from The Guardian

Girls taking part in sports at school (Photo credit: dianecordell)

As the second day of the Olympic track and field trials in Eugene,Oregon, loped to a waterlogged conclusion Saturday, two highly anticipated women’s events wrapped their qualifying rounds.

Dawn Harper won in the 100m hurdles, with the perennially popular Lolo Jones squeaking her way to London having taken third. In the women’s 100m dash, Carmelita Jeter handily dominated the field.

The victories these – and so many other – women enjoyed this weekend can be traced in a direct line back to the passage of Title IX.

The 1972 law that is celebrating its 40th birthday this weekend mandated that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”.

Those 37 words had an incalculable impact on the lives of millions of girls and women. In the year that Title IX was passed, only one in every 27 high school girls participated in an organized sport. That number now stands at one in four.

“It’s easy to take for granted,” Amanda Smock, a professional triple jumper who secured a spot on the Olympic team Saturday, told the Guardian.

“When I was growing up I could jump at every opportunity that I came across. As I learned that the women that came before me didn’t have the same ability, I thought: ‘What the heck was that all about?’ How incredibly grateful I am for those who started to pave the way in women’s sports.”

One of those women is Ellen Schmidt-Devlin, a former University of Oregon runner who competed in the 1980 trials in the 1500m race on this very track in Eugene.

Schmidt-Devlin, who was mentored by the legendary track coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, is the producer of a new documentary that takes a dramatic look at the history of her alma mater’s women’s track and field teams of 1985 and 2011.

We Grew Wings is a small film that focuses on the women’s early track program at the University of Oregon, a school and region that has become synonymous with the sport. She is quick to credit Title IX with the successes she enjoyed at the school, and subsequently in life.

“We were the first wave,” she said of her trail-blazing classmates.

But looking back, she said she was surprised to learn that the current crop of young female athletes were unaware of the debt they owed to the landmark legislation.

“Men have learned to turn around and help the next generation,” she said. “We thought we made this big difference. But we turned back around and the women today don’t know their history. And they have a lot of the same problems. That surprised us.”

The documentary she produced, made by the Portland filmmakers Erich Lyttle and Sarah Henderson, focuses on two teams that took home national titles against great odds. In 1985, the Oregon women won the NCAA title in outdoor track. In 2011, the team took the NCAA indoor title.

Devlin-Schmidt, the mother of two grown daughters and a son, spent 27 years as a Nike executive after leaving her sport. But it was thanks to track – and thanks to Title IX – that she enjoyed success after school, she said.

“Leaders of teams, they learn leadership, they know teamwork, they know how to speak publicly,” she said. “They’re gaining all this confidence and they take that to the business world, to non-profits – or even raising families.”

Related articles

• Title IX anniversary marked as women qualify for US Olympic athletics team (guardian.co.uk)
• Title IX Is All About “Hope” (arizona.sbnation.com)
• Title IX Turns 40, Flaws and All (theroot.com)

Girls working for a better world send strong message to the G20 Summit

News for 20 June has been taken from Women’s News Network.

Currently there are 3.5 billion girls and women in the world. This actually means to global advocates that there are 3.5 billion ways to change the world. The G(irls)20 Summit, in its third session, brought together 22 young women as delegates representing the G20 countries, including the African Union, to discuss issues and solutions for economic growth.

Gathering before the official G20 conference kicked off in Mexico City’s ITAM University (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México), only weeks ahead of the G20, girl delegates proposed specific actions for world leaders countering the shortage of food supply, the work for women in agriculture and the rising violence that faces girls and women today.

They came to Mexico City to send a strong message to the leaders who have gathered for the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, opening a critical debate and dialogue on the influence of girls and women as drivers of economic improvement for their communities and beyond. One of the goals — to deliver a document to influence the international Heads of State at this year’s G20 Summit.

“Too often we see decisive economical opportunities get lost when girls and women are underestimated and undervalued”, says Farah Mohamed, President of the G(irls)20 Summit. “By recognizing the important role that girls and women play in building strong economies and stable communities, the G20 has the opportunity to make strategic investments and make decisions that will allow significant results all over the world”.

During the first phase of the G(irls)20 Summit, the delegates talked leadership, media and public relations and how to become politically engaged. They also learned the value of business planning and storytelling to reach the public. As they attended panels and side-conferences given by top specialists they learned how society is changed by women. And how the impacts facing women cause all of society to change. Two of the key discussions covered: “opportunity gained: investing in women in agriculture” and “opportunity lost as a result of gender based violence”.

The ultimate goal of the G(irls)20 Summit is to present their message to the Mexican government as well as the leaders of the G20.”While women comprise nearly half of the agricultural labour force [globally], their potential remains unleveraged. It has been shown that secure land rights [for women] can increase agricultural production by 60 per cent and income by 150 per cent”, outlines the ‘official communiqué’ from the G(irls) Summit.

It is hoped that all delegates will go back to their communities and put their new ideas into practice.

“I think the potential for change is enormous, in terms of bringing together fresh ideas”, said Jeni Klugman, Director of Gender and Development at the World Bank Group, recently to WNN. “The group of girls itself has a lot of credibility because of its diversity and their caliber -they’re very impressive and thoughtful- and by connecting them, by giving them a sense of possibilities, the potential for making significant difference in their lives, and them in turn making significant change in the lives of others, is quite high”.

Delegates for the G(irls)20 Summit have been chosen because of their ‘strong’ will to bring about innovative solutions to problems they see affecting their countries and the world. Magdaly Santillanez, a delegate from Mexico and a high-school student from the state of Sinaloa, currently working on issues of global poverty by applying scientific research to help pilot a new and innovative program for global microfinance.

“…today I write about what we perfectly know: the humankind and our actions to take care of our home, the Earth, where more than seven billion of us live and out of those seven billion, 3.5 billion are girls and women”, Santillanez shared in her recent blog release made to The Huffington Post.

By putting the data in place, Santillanez wants to understand how microcredits and business training together is useful to improve the economic and social situation for those suffering under highest degree of global poverty.

“We must not think that this event is feminist or for women only”, Santillanez emphasized recently in an interview with WNN. “We are half of the world’s population and by empowering a girl or a woman you will improve not only her life, but her family’s and all the people around her as well”, she added.

This same idea resonated among many keynote speakers during the G(irls) Summit. “Men are [also] part of the solution and they’re benefited from whatever we do for women”, said Isatou Jallow, Chief of Women, Children and Gender Policy for the United Nations World Food Programme.

Delivering a ‘heartfelt’ speech during the G(irls)20 Summit outlining the role men can take in preventing violence against women, Jimmie Briggs, former journalist and founder of the Man Up Campaign, recalled having what he calls a, “life-changing moment”. When he met a woman in the Congo region of Africa who confessed to him her tragic story his life changed immediately.

She told Briggs she was gang-raped by the militia during the conflict in Congo, and saw her children and father killed in front of her. The shock of making such close contact with a woman who’s traumatic experience under conflict was so overwhelming to Briggs, caused him to discontinue his work as a journalist. Deciding to start instead the Man Up Campaign, Briggs now aims to activate global youth to stop all violence against women and girls worldwide.

“Women’s rights are human rights”, he declared to all those attending the Mexico City based G(girls) ‘pre-summit’ to the G20 Summit meetings in Los Cabos. Describing itself as a “bold initiative and the first of its kind in that it is both youth led and informed,” the Man Up Campaign is changing lives, both men and women’s lives.

But how can women gain strength in the public sector? And how can this strength improve our world?

Securing women’s access to safety, nutrition and a job with equality standards, opportunities and access to education can make positive impacts on economic growth and social development, outlined the conference. This is an effort that has to be made by all the sectors of society though the conference stressed. It’s essential that the government as well as the private sector and civil society jumps in, stressed the G(irls) Summit.

As Jeni Klugman reminded, there has been progress. According to World Bank 2012 data on gender equality and development, gender gaps in primary education have lowered in almost all countries. Women are also more than half the world’s university students. Over half a billion women have also joined the work force over the last 30 years.

However other gaps persist in many areas reveals the girls summit. Women still have unequal access to education. They also face death more often because of their gender. through gender selective abortion; in early childhood as the ‘less valued girl-child’; and in their reproductive years as they face the ‘real’ dangers of maternal mortality.

“We live in a globalised world where a significant event occurring today in a given place has direct and immediate consequences in the rest of the world”, says Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Relations and G20 Ambassador Patricia Espinosa.

“Undoubtedly, we must either accept our shared future, or we will have none”, she continued.

Unequal access to economic opportunities can greatly limit a woman’s power as decision makers in their own households, as well as their own society. Although general household financial wealth has gone up 5.14 percent in Mexico since 2004, according to the Paris based OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, that works to help governments work together to solve problems that face women everywhere, “Women are still less likely than men to participate in the labour market”, outlines the OECD.

Jeni Klugman, from the World Bank, explains the issues of women and inequality more closely. “They’re a real drag on development, that’s why last year over 25 billion dollars were invested in gender-informed projects”, she said. One of the programs funded by the World Bank in Mexico is the GEM – Gender Equity Model, run by the National Institute for Women.

“Mexico has made substantial progress in recent years in reducing gender gaps in education, reducing the maternal
mortality rate, and increasing women’s participation in the labor force. Yet much remains to be done.Women in Mexico still represent only 35% of the labor force”, says a 2010 outline of the GEM program.

Working to bring equal opportunities for men and women to the table throughout the region, 300 Mexican organizations have already been certified as ‘gender equitable’.

According to their report: “Participating firms have eliminated pregnancy discrimination from recruitment practices, communication has improved, and 90% of participating organizations reported that workers’ performance and productivity have increased”.

Other sources are saying that women are seeing improvements in regions including Mexico. “Mexico continues to climb the rankings, gaining two positions this year because of an improvement in the wage gap”, says an October 2011 report by UNESCO.

“Things can change”, Klugman outlines. “Not by itself but with the work of civil society, political will and domestic policy and the private sector”.

Some of the most inspiring advice for the G(irls)20 Summit came from women in the private sector only days before the G20 Summit. The last panel,  called “Women in Mexico”, stressed “never giving up and being fearless”. The G20 ‘pre-summit’ was left with a simple idea: “If you don’t try, you have already failed”, reminded Nicole Reich from Scotiabank Mexico.

Related articles

• Farah Mohamed: The G(irls)20 Summit Meets the G20 Summit, Once Again (ismailimail.wordpress.com)
• G(irls)20 Summit 2012 (savethechildren.typepad.com)
• World Leaders Gather in Mexico for G20 Summit – Voice of America (voanews.com)
• G(irls)20 Summit: 3.5 Billion Ways to Change the World (thenextwomen.com)
• G20 summit: leaders pledge to increase efforts to revive growth and employment (telegraph.co.uk)
• Miliband: G20 summit made ‘no progress’ (itv.com)

The women who played crucial roles in crushing Watergate

News for 17 June 2012 has been taken from BBC News.

(Original headline: Women of Watergate)

In 1972, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein began to investigate and expose all the president’s men involved in the Watergate scandal. But as their book by the same name shows, the reporters were helped by several women who played crucial roles in revealing the White House’s dirty tricks campaign.

Image: The Guardian

Debbie Sloan – The wife
Hugh Sloan, the treasurer for the CRP resigned from his post soon after the Watergate burglary. His wife, Debbie, was hailed as her husband’s moral backbone and a driving force behind his decision – a depiction she has routinely played down. She invited Woodward and Bernstein into her home, and her husband became a valuable source. Now a grandmother living in Michigan, she recalled the year her life changed completely.

Image: The Guardian

Judy Hoback – The bookkeeper
Watergate watchers know about Deep Throat, the anonymous source made famous in All the President’s Men. But another unnamed informant, “the Bookkeeper” was an even more important source for the reporters. An employee at the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), Judy Hoback was a young widow when Woodward and Bernstein came knocking on her door. Now known as Judy Miller, she is close to finishing her last bookkeeping job and retiring in Florida.

Image: The Guardian

Marilyn Berger – The reporter
Veteran diplomatic reporter Marilyn Berger didn’t set out to become part of the Watergate story. But the information she discovered – gained after a former Post employee turned White House insider tried to impress her over drinks – helped prove a connection between political “dirty tricks” and the Nixon administration. When she shared what she learned with the Post reporters, she became part of the story. Now in her 70s, Berger is a mother for the first time, raising a young boy from Ethiopia.

Image: The Guardian

Martha Mitchell – The campaign worker
The wife of attorney general John Mitchell and an early member of CRP, Mitchell sounded a frequent warning about the committee’s misdeeds. But her outsized personality and rumoured drinking problem led many to disregard her. Later, psychologists coined the phrase “Martha Mitchell effect”, used when people are diagnosed as mentally ill because they’re telling a truth that seems too outrageous to believe. In 1974, she sat down with veteran broadcaster David Frost to tell her story. She died two years later.

Related articles

• The Women Behind Watergate [Watergate] (jezebel.com)
• Move Over, Deep Throat (lewrockwell.com)
• The De-Watergating of American Journalism [Journalismism] (gawker.com)