Women's Voices. Women Vote: Unmarried women are "a surging force in American politics"
Katharine Daniels
Founder & Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA - Every year this nation’s priorities move further and further away from the concerns of the majority of American citizens, making daily life harder and harder. The prices we pay for housing, utilities, medications, transportation and food are all going up. Meanwhile, big business interests, profiting every time we lose, monopolize our policymakers’ attention. While companies boasting record profits are rewarded with tax breaks, ordinary citizens struggle each day to get basic needs met for themselves and their families.
In 2004 65% of women voted. Despite this high participation rate, the turnout was predominantly married women voters. Twenty million unmarried women stayed home on Election Day. Page Gardener developed Women’s Voices. Women Vote to improve unmarried women's participation in the electorate and policy process. Last month I interviewed her to learn more about the campaign. I found out that marriage is one of the top four determinants in whether women in this country vote. I learned that unmarried women form the fastest growing large bloc of voters. I was told about the unique economic circumstances unifying unmarried women. They earn less, have less health care, and more of their children live in poverty than any other bloc of Americans. I learned that more than ever they are interested in this election. They want change and will be turning out to vote. And Women’s Voices. Women Vote is doing everything they can to make sure this happens. Page Gardener recognizes that 20 million unmarried women not voting – single, divorced, separated or widowed – means there is an important missing voice in our democracy.
• Unmarried women represent a fast-growing voting bloc with the power to effect change at the polls. Photograph courtesy of WVWV. •
According to Gardener, unmarried women are “sick of the way things are going, and they want this country to go in a new direction.” These women feel America is not doing enough about problems on the home front, the problems most significant in their lives. They struggle financially, their lives are difficult, and they want our leaders to make them a national priority. The good news, Gardener finds, is that they are making their voices heard in record numbers at the voting booth. In 2006 they were the largest “change” voters. As their power becomes more evident, it will be harder and harder for policy makers to ignore their calls for adequate housing, healthcare, and other domestic issues affecting them.
While domestic issues are the primary concern of unmarried women voters, like married women, they are incredibly patriotic and concerned about this country. They are concerned about family values, security issues and they mirror the concerns of the total population in many ways. As this population grows, however, it is their unique economic circumstances that set them apart and which creates the huge and growing cohort. “We’ve got this enormous growing demographic group and they have an agenda on their own, they are redefining the electorate, and they are redefining how we should look at America and the public policy agenda of our elected officials,” Gardener told me.
Last week’s caucus in Iowa, according to a January 4 press release, serves as an indication that unmarried women are in fact utilizing their power. Unmarried Women Caucus in Record Numbers, reported that unmarried women did turn out in numbers greater than their overall share of Iowa’s population – a feat only married women used to achieve. “While unmarried women are 22 percent of the eligible voting age population in Iowa, network entrance polls report that they were 28 percent of participants in the Democratic caucus…Married women, by contrast, were in line with their proportion of the overall population, accounting for 29 percent of the eligible population in Iowa, and accounting for 29% of Democratic caucus attendees.” (Statistics from the Republican contest had not yet been released at the time of this press release.) According to Gardener, “The 28% of Iowan women on their own who caucused is the first example of the critical role unmarried women will play in the national discussion, demanding the attention of the Presidential candidates."
Women’s Voices. Women Vote has made the significant discovery that unmarried women are “a surging force in American politics.” Their power is not only in their numbers but also in their unified desire for change. In my conversation with Page Gardner, it came as no surprise to learn that her organization will have successfully registered over a million unmarried women during this election cycle. We can all do our part by joining Women’s Voices. Women Vote’s online campaign “20 million Reasons” and help register unmarried women to vote. Page Gardener also pointed out that it is important for media organizations like The WIP to write about unmarried women in America. “As these women see their lives reflected in the conversation around civic participation through articles in the newspaper, through the media…it is validating and [it] is also motivating. So, the more that we can reflect their lives and say… ‘we know you are out there, we know how powerful you are,’ the better, in terms of getting them to participate.” If unmarried women voted at the same rate as married women, over six million more voters would have gone to the polls in 2004.
Imagine the democracy. Imagine the power.
About The WIP This article is brought to you by The Women's International Perspective, an international online news website written by a global collective of women writers.
Benazir Bhutto Assassinated
Benazir Bhutto, first female prime minister of Pakistan and of any Islamic nation.Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, was the first female prime minister of Pakistan and of any Islamic nation. She led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996.
Bhutto, 54, spent eight years in self-imposed exile in Great Britain and Dubai after President Farooq Leghari dismissed her second administration amid accusations of corruption, intimidation of the judiciary, a breakdown of law and order, and undermining the justice system.
She was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison. The conviction was later overturned but she remained in exile until this year.
She returned to Pakistan in October after President Pervez Musharraf signed an amnesty lifting corruption charges.
She narrowly escaped injury on October 18 when a suicide bombing near her convoy in Karachi killed 126 people.
"Soon thereafter, I was asked by authorities not to travel in cars with tinted windows -- which protected me from identification by terrorists -- or travel with privately armed guards," she wrote for CNN.com in November.
"I began to feel the net was being tightened around me when police security outside my home in Karachi was reduced, even as I was told that other assassination plots were in the offing."
"I decided not to be holed up in my home, a virtual prisoner," she wrote. "I went to my ancestral village of Larkana to pray at my father's grave. Everywhere, the people rallied around me in a frenzy of joy. I feel humbled by their love and trust."
Musharraf declared a state of emergency and placed Bhutto under house arrest twice in November as anti-government rallies grew in Rawalpindi. The arrest warrant was lifted November 16.
She filed a nomination paper for a parliamentary seat on November 25 and appeared headed for a power showdown with Musharraf before she was assassinated Thursday.
Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former president and prime minister of Pakistan, who was hanged in 1979 for the murder of a political opponent two years after he was ousted as prime minister in a military coup.
Her brother, Murtaza, was killed along with six others in a 1996 shootout with police at his home.
--Article from CNN.
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Cristina Kirchner becomes Argentine President
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) — The first woman to be elected president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner was sworn in on Monday, taking over the South American nation's top job from her husband.
Kirchner, 54, who is often compared to New York Senator Hillary Clinton, was sworn in before the two chambers of Congress in the presence of 160 foreign delegations.
Chants of "Viva Cristina" erupted from the public gallery after outgoing President Nestor Kirchner handed over the presidential staff to his wife.
A first in Argentina, the transfer of power from husband to wife symbolized the political continuity the new president has vowed to follow.
The first-lady-turned-president made it clear her husband would not fade into the political background. "For me and for all Argentines, he will also continue being president," she said.
"We have been a couple for 32 years. We have had a lot of experiences together. But she is the one who has to make the decisions ... it would be a big mistake if I interfered," Nestor Kirchner told local television.
Nestor Kirchner, who remained popular throughout his presidency, has not explained why he stepped aside for his wife instead of seeking another four-year term.
With the notable exception of the economy minister, the new president will keep most of her husband's cabinet. She also stressed her determination to maintain high growth rates, rejecting calls to let the economy slow down in order to slash inflation.
"Every time that has been said, Argentina ended up in recession," she said, stressing that "Chinese-style" growth, which since 2003 has been close to nine percent, has made it possible to reduce poverty in the wake of the disastrous 2002 crisis.
Experts warn that the prosperity that came about during Nestor Kirchner's government is weakened by high inflation rates. The government says inflation is at 10 percent, but a number of economists insist the figure is above 15 percent.
On Tuesday, the new president will hold talks with International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who attended her swearing-in.
Argentina last year paid back its entire IMF debt of almost nine billion dollars. Kirchner now hopes to sort out the country's debt with the Paris Club of creditors. Argentina stopped payments on that debt in 2002.
The new president will also face a major challenge in battling endemic crime, which polls show is Argentines' main concern.
Cristina Kirchner began her political career as a provincial deputy in 1989, and later went on to become a national legislator, gaining notoriety for her vocal battles with then-president Carlos Menem.
In 2005, she became a senator for the province of Buenos Aires, home to 40 percent of Argentina's electorate. Her left-of-center politics, like those of her husband, are described as Peronist, a vaguely defined political philosophy named after former president Juan Domingo Peron.
An admirer of US presidential hopeful and former first lady Hillary Clinton, the glamorous "Cristina" is the first woman ever elected to lead Argentina.
The first couple insisted she alone will make the decisions.
This article from: AFP
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Daughters of Wisdom: Tibetan Nuns Inspiring a Feminist Movement Through Their Isolated Monastic Life
by Jessica Mosby
The WIP"Free Tibet" has become part of our lexicon due to countless bumper stickers adorning Volvos and fundraisers featuring Richard Gere. Despite the feminist persuasion of many Tibetan supporters, women in Tibet, particularly nuns, are rarely the focus of the movement. After seeing the film Daughters of Wisdom, which is currently on the film festival circuit, I was so inspired by Tibetan nuns and their spunk that I wondered why the “Free Tibet” movement doesn’t focus more on these incredible women.
• Ochi Drolma has been a nun since the age of 14 and is one of Kala Rongo’s founders who helped build its first temple structure. Photograph courtesy of BTG Productions. •
Documentary director and producer Bari Pearlman documents the lives of the 300 nuns practicing Buddhism while living at an all-female monastery in the Nangchen district of Kham, located on the Eastern Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayas. The area is home to over 60,000 subsistence farmers and nomadic herders, most of whom are illiterate and live in extreme poverty. For the women who choose to become nuns, their cooperative life is one of relative ease and security, as their days are filled with work, studying, meditation and rest.
In Tibet, a man who devotes his life to religion is considered a source of pride for his family, but women are not encouraged to join a monastery, even if this is their only access to an education; rather, nuns are considered a burden to their families since they cannot help farm, will not have children who will help farm, nor can they be married off in exchange for livestock. The Kala Rongo Monastery is the only place in Tibet exclusively for nuns, many of whom join the monastery when they are children, to live freely amongst other women.
Buddhism has been resurrected in Tibet since becoming legal again in 1980, when over 20 years of religious oppression at the hands of China’s cultural revolution finally ended. The nuns began building the monastery in 1990. They constructed the buildings themselves, which is quite a feat considering they use antiquated manual tools and wear their formal robes at all times. Nonetheless, it only took them one year to finish their impressive temple. Their construction philosophy dictates that they never hurt any living being. I was inspired by how in synch the nuns are with nature; their lives are completely sustainable.
• Daughters of Wisdom shows the nuns as they go about their daily routines at the monastery. Photograph courtesy of BTG Productions. •
By living an isolated monastic life, the nuns are able to escape the oppressive patriarchy that dominates life in Kham. During class at the Monastic College, the Abbott tells the women that there is no gender inequality in enlightenment. Even though there has not yet been a female Abbot at Kala Rongo, the nuns dream of the day when their teacher is a woman; their feminist aspirations are inspiring, particularly in a country where bra-burning never caught on.
During a profile of Tsering Chodron, one of the founding nuns of Kala Rongo, you see the life that women in Kham are resigned to during a trip to her family’s yak farm. While Tsering spends hours a day leisurely studying or resting, her mother and sisters work from sunrise to sunset herding yaks and maintaining the household. Her family, which lives in poverty, uses every part of the yak: the milk is used to make cheese and butter, the hair is used to make tents and the dung is burned for heat. While the men leave the farm to sell the butter and milk, the women stay home and work. Tibetan women have little in life to aspire to and few opportunities.
Lama Norlha Rinpoche founded the monastery and continues to help fund the nuns through donations. It doesn’t take much money to support Kala Rongo, since nuns each live on about $150 a year. Even though Norlha Rinpoche has been exiled from Tibet and currently lives in the US, he regularly visits Kala Rongo and provides guidance to the nuns. During a meeting he helps them democratically divide responsibilities so that they can run the monastery independently in his absence.
• Tsering Chondon is one of Kala Rongo's founding nuns who chose education and community over a life of hard labor and few opportunities. Photograph courtesy of BTG Productions. •
Considering the hardships the nuns faced in their pre-monastic lives, their accomplishments at Kala Rongo are all the more impressive. Kala Rongo has not only allowed the nuns to obtain an education and live in a supportive female-dominated community, but their study of Buddhism has led many of them to an elevated consciousness. Tsewang Yangtso, a nun who joined the monastery at the age of 16, said that after studying Buddhism at the Monastic College, she is no longer afraid of dying. The nuns seem very happy with their life, often breaking out into uncontrollable giggles – even as they’re in the middle of constructing a new building.
These nuns are free, literally and transcendentally, from the sufferings of life. If only more of us could say that!
About the Author
Jessica Mosby is a writer and critic living in Berkeley, California. In the rare moments when she's not traveling across the United States for work, Jessica enjoys listening to public radio, buying organic food at local farmers markets, trolling junk stores, and collecting owl-themed tchotchke.
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A New Dawn for Nigerian Women? Time Will Tell
by Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi
The WIP
Today there are Nigerians all over the world making valuable contributions to the development of the countries they now call home. Nigerian Philip Emeagwali is credited with being one of the major contributors to the creation of the Internet. Performers Sade and Seal are both Nigerian, as are former NBA players John Amaechi and Hakeem Olajuwon. And in business, Nigeria boasts several moguls: perhaps the most successful is Houston-based oil magnate Kase Lawal, CEO of CAMAC Holdings, the largest Black-owned business in the world, which moves, produces or trades a barrel of oil every second. The Diaspora has driven countless Nigerian professionals including attorneys, doctors and accountants to new homes around the world. Yet Nigeria remains a struggling Third World country in desperate need of professional help. 
• Widespread poverty has led to corruption at even the most basic levels. A common scam in Nigeria is being prevented here as this building's owner warns against those who would try to sell what seems to be an abandoned building to unsuspecting buyers. Photograph by Zouzou Wizman. •
Though his tenure was criticized, Obasanjo was applauded for increasing the number of women in powerful political positions in government. The women he installed include: Maryam Ciroma, the Minister of Women Affairs; Dora Akunyili, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control; Oby Ezekwesili, the Minister of Education; Nenadi Usman, the Minister of Finance; Remi Oyo, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media Issues; Florence Ita -Giwa, the Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters; Funke Adedoyin, Minister of State for Health; Titi Ajanaku, Presidential Adviser on Women Affairs and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Though few in number, these women managed to accomplish a great deal and successfully achieved their positions’ mandated goals. Dora Akunyuli launched such a vigorous war on fake pharmaceutical drugs that several assassination attempts have been made on her life. It is said that her passion and determination to fight this battle come from the experience of losing her younger sister who died after ingesting fake pharmaceutical drugs during an illness. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Harvard graduate with a PhD. From MIT and a Brookings Institute fellow, was the first female named as Finance Minister in Nigeria’s history. She led the influential negotiations that resulted in the cancellation of $18 billion of Nigeria's $30 billion Paris Club debt. Her achievement is an enormous accomplishment, as it is the second largest debt cancellation in the Paris Club's 30-year history. As a result, Okonjo-Iweala ranked 62nd on Forbe’s list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in 2006 and has been invited to speak all over the world.
• Former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala addresses the crowd at this year's TED conference in The WIP's hometown (Monterey, California). Photograph by Pierre Omidya. •
Typically, male Muslim northerners are rigid and resist western culture, believing it too lenient on women and intrusive in men’s roles. Their culture and religion place a very high value on the male gender and encourage them to be chauvinistic, egotistical and unaccountable. Women are consequently treated as second-class citizens. However, Yar’Adua has distanced himself from every stereotypical behavior attributed to Northern Muslim men; the more I know about him, the more impressed I am. But his rise to the presidency was not completely without incident. He is very close to his Obasanjo as they are both members of the same political party and have a history together. Many people believe his candidacy and election rest almost exclusively on Obasanjo’s support and that Obasanjo persuaded other influential state governors to support Yar’Adua with everything from inducements to threats of launching fraud investigations against them. The electoral process was also fraught with charges of election tampering.
Like Obasanjo, Yar'Adua’s selection of women for key positions in essential areas of government - such as Defense, Education, Energy & Power, Environment & Housing, Health, Transportation, Science & Technology, and Women’s Affairs - has been met with approval by many. The successful track record of their female predecessors was surely a motivating factor for the next wave of women in government. Another influential factor in this new trend is Yar’Adua’s desire to secure a place for Nigeria among the 20 leading economies of the world by 2020. He realizes that this can only be possible if he has the right people to help him. The women he has appointed represent some of the best and brightest minds Nigeria has to offer. They are highly educated, have years of experience and possess international perspectives. Only after passing rigorous scrutiny were they assigned ministerial portfolios. Fidelia Njeze is now the Minister of State for Defense. Aishatu Jibril Dukku, once a secondary school teacher and a strong proponent of female empowerment, now serves as the Minister of State for education. Fatima Balarabe Ibrahim, the Minister of Power, holds an MA and LLM from Harvard. Halima Alao, the Minister of Environment and Housing, served at the Kwara State Civil Service at both the Ministry of Works and Transportation and was Minister of State for Education and Health. The Minister of Transportation, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was the first female External Affairs Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria; she holds an architecture and MBA degree from Howard and Cambridge Universities respectively. Adenike Grange, the Minister of Health, was a professor of Pediatrics at the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos. She is the president of the International Pediatric Association (IPA) and coordinator of the Women’s Health Organization of Nigeria. She was also the World Health Organization adviser on reproductive health programs in Nigeria from 1993-1999. She has authored over fifty scientific papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals. Grace Ekpiwhre, the Minister of Science and Technology, has been a career civil servant since 1977 and became the Head of Service before retiring. She was also the Chairman of the Delta State Civil Service Commission, having been nominated by former governor James Ibori, one of Yar’Adua’s best friends. Saudatu Usman Bungudu, the Minister of Women Affairs, a Muslim, is very passionate about women’s affairs. Each of these female ministers has hit the ground running, aggressively attempting to improve situations that have deteriorated for decades; they intend to improve Nigeria’s international reputation. And they are making it clear that their appointments are well deserved. Although the placement of only eight women out of 39 ministerial positions is far below what it should be, this is still a good start for a patriarchal Third World country with a male Muslim president. I believe in time the numbers of women in government will increase as women continue to prove themselves in this male dominated sphere. African women are raised to be selfless, humble and nurturing. They are more flexible than their male counterparts and are able to resolve complex issues to Nigeria’s advantage with people who have something to hold over their heads as evidenced by Ngozi Iweala’s ability to effect the reduction of Nigeria’s Paris Club debt. Nigerian men are raised to be just the opposite. They would have literally been unable to interact humbly enough with our debtors to get the results she did. So is Nigeria ushering in a new dawn? I believe so, at least as far as women are concerned. Men have run the country for so long and it shows: Nigeria is in a terrible state. That’s not to say that no man has made positive contributions to the nation’s development, but in terms of the difference between what should have been and what has been accomplished in 47 years of independence, it’s obvious that their contributions have not been commensurate with the opportunities they were given. They are too often distracted by greed, corruption and unaccountability. It is quite common for an elected official to loot the treasury and go on spending sprees, acquiring wives, mistresses, real estate, vehicles, throwing lavish parties and stashing money in foreign accounts. Currently four former governors are now in jail on corruption charges. I hope that with women in key governmental roles in this regime Nigeria can cultivate the political climate it needs to improve the country’s infrastructure and become a leading world economy. It’s a tall order - these women will need to go back to the basics, starting with infrastructure like repairing Nigeria’s ailing roads, telecommunication and electricity. They will also need to encourage improvement in the transparency and accountability of all elected officials. A positive political environment will benefit Nigerians in Nigeria, and encourage Nigerians in the Diaspora to return and contribute to its growth. Nigeria is in the process of transformation as the current administration attempts to make its vision of Nigeria a reality. If this goal is to be achieved, women in all levels of society must be encouraged to become active participants in decision-making roles. Nigerian women can be successful in any office - many have wanted to contribute to the nation’s well being for a long time, but were helpless to do so before. A female vice-president, female governors, more ministers and commissioners are needed. Time will tell as we watch the progress of this administration; however this is indeed a new era for Nigerian women, who are now being allowed to make a difference. 
• To effect change, women in Nigeria must be empowered to get involved in decision-making positions at all levels. Photograph by Mike Blyth. •
About the Author
Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi is a Nigerian freelance writer, songwriter and the Managing Editor of Glory International Magazine. She has worked in various fields and is currently exploring her creative interests. She is also avid reader and currently lives in Ellicott, Maryland.
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This article is brought to you by The Women's International Perspective, an international online news website written by a global collective of women writers.
