Conquering challenges and becoming who you want to be is the theme of this year’s Pennsylvania Conference for Women.  The Conference, taking place on October 25, 2011 draws thousands of women from across the state and surrounding area who seek connection, information, and inspiration.  Features of the conference include nationally recognized speakers, workshops, panel discussions, and access to the Career Pavilion.

Exciting new additions to this year’s conference include Local Leader “Meet Ups” which will give participants the chance to interact with local corporate, community and civic leaders and Expert Exchange Sessions which offer the opportunity to meet with experts in smaller settings to discuss career or personal development topics.  The Young Women’s Program will continue this year, providing junior and senior high school girls the  opportunity to attend and participate in specially designed seminars.

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to network with other women, learn and engage with a larger professional community.  The conference is open to professionals, job seekers, students and anyone seeking information and inspiration. Register now for the Conference!

Monica stood up to introduce herself. She said, “Uh, um, I’m really sorry that I am not prepared, and like, I hope you can follow along…” She trudged through a painfully delivered speech for the next five minutes. The girls squirmed in their seats, not knowing if she was genuinely having a hard time delivering her speech or whether they were expected to intervene.

When she was finished, Monica and Nickie, another WCI Program Officer, asked the girls what they thought. What did Monica do well? What could she have done better? Thus began the day’s discussions of effective communication and public speaking skills.

We have all been there: excessive use of fillers, poor eye contact, twisting hands, talking too fast, the gamut. These are, as the girls learned, not effective ways to engage an audience. Through Monica’s role-playing activity, the girls learned the ABC’s of public speaking and then put these skills to use in creating campaign videos with Flip cams.

For example, in this video Shayna discusses her group’s campaign against abuse:

Guest teaching artist, Laura Deutch, shared videos created by other teens as good examples of sincere, simple messages conveyed through media. The GALS enthusiastically critiqued the videos, learning from the mistakes and successes of the other teens’ work. They not only critiqued the content of the videos, but also the technical components. Laura led the girls in understanding how to hold a camera, how to position a subject in a frame, how to compose a shot, and what to look for when selecting a background.

Now it was time for the girls to put their “messages in motion”! After working in their groups to create a concise and convincing campaign message, the girls, with Laura’s expertise and their public speaking tips, used the Flip cams to create eye-catching and professional campaign message videos. See for yourself!

In this example, GALS student Lex presents her team’s campaign to promote healthy self-esteem among middle-school aged youth.

Two of our Junior Coaches, Ama and Alexis, GALS’ participants returning from last year, also produced an amazing video of a “fictitious” campaign. When Alexis joined the program last year, she characterized herself as shy, however as depicted in this video, she has found her voice!

Although all the girls had little time to prepare, the videos highlighted their poise and willingness to get up and speak publicly about their campaigns.

After all of the groups created their videos, it was time for peer-to-peer feedback! The girls gathered and watched the campaign messages their peers had made. A critique workshop can be scary, but the trust that has been built among the GALS helped to make this feedback session an incredibly enriching and effective tool. The GALS watched each other’s videos and filled out these forms, anonymously, to provide feedback to their peers. They also provided positive verbal feedback.

After all this hard work, it was time for lunch. The girls were very fortunate to have The Links, Incorporated provide a healthy lunch, as part of a program that day at International House to raise awareness about healthy living. GALS hopes to partner with the Links in the future, as helping young women to become leaders is a goal of both organizations.

As the girls continue implementing their advocacy campaigns, social media will be a crucial component. Facebook, YouTube and blogging will carry the GALS’ messages to a larger audience. Many of the groups have in fact already created Facebook pages on which to post updates about their campaigns!

The GALS program is evolving to use social media very effectively this year, as is shown by these messages. As digital and social media grows, so too does the use of it in our program!

– Written by Karen Doyle

The U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau hosts an half-day event for young women and girls, on Monday April 25, 2011, at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia.

Karen Doyle presents WCI's Youth Leadership Program

WCI President and Founder Marjorie Margolies will speak. Other invited  women leaders include:

• Sara Manzano-Díaz, Director of the U.S Department of Labor Women’s Bureau
• Elva Bankins, Executive Vice President Corporate Services for OI Partners
• Gennifer Brooke Miller, Founder of Healthy Textures LLC
• Helen Gym, Founder of parents United for Public Education
• Stephanie Gambone, Vice President, Business Partnerships for the Philadelphia Youth Network
• Lydia Hernández Vėlez, Deputy Managing Director for Aging City of Philadelphia
• Amaris Hernandez, Vice President of the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women
• Vicki Curtis, Disabled Veterans Outreach Specialist for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor

The event is free and open to the public, but guests are encouraged to bring along a young, female mentee between the ages of 14 and 22.

Register here.

On April 4, 2011 the WCI team attended UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s lecture at The University of Pennsylvania. The talk was the kickoff event for the Fifth Annual Global Colloquium of University Presidents and was entitled: “Empowering Women to Change the World: What Universities and the UN Can Do.”

In his speech, the Secretary-General reminded the audience of the importance of promoting women’s development worldwide, and also discussed the role of academics and students in that process. While sitting in the balcony in awe of the distinguished company around me, the message was surprisingly familiar, reminiscent of Michelle Bachelet’s speech to commemorate the launch of UN Women and to celebrate, and draw a road map for, continued progress towards the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. But the message resonated as familiar, I realized, because under the Secretary-General’s leadership during the past five years, much has been done to make this message familiar. The UN’s strategy has transformed this once simple message regarding women’s empowerment into a familiar, less refutable given.

Through the efforts of the UN, NGOs, private firms, and political leaders worldwide, we are much closer to achieving this goal. In fact, in the last five years, the number of women in top leadership positions at the UN has risen to 40%. Over one-third of senior posts at the UN are now held by women. The Secretary General emphasized that these are posts that even 10 years ago were seen as too aggressive, too dangerous to be held by women.

It is thanks in part to the steadfast commitment of the UN to women’s rights and gender equality that we are at a point where some of us may be able to stop asking why women’s empowerment is important and start asking how we can help. At the same time, we cannot forget that while some of us sitting in the audience may think one way about women’s rights, there are billions of people who are yet to be convinced. For example, Mr. Ban pointed out that even in university settings, where women participate in higher numbers than men, women are still under-represented in the science and technology sectors and at the professorial level in general.

Working to correct such imbalances is not only good for women, but Mr. Ban implied that it is also good for democracy. Throughout his talk, the Secretary-General frequently referred back to the Egyptian and Tunisian protests, ostensibly an odd move given that he was speaking to University presidents about the role of the academy in promoting women’s leadership. Little by little, however, it became clear that Mr. Ban was, implicitly, hinting at the fact that we cannot see democracies emerge in any part of the world if women are not considered full, participating members of their communities. Promoting women’s leadership, therefore, will promote the spread of human rights, equality, dignity and democracy worldwide.

Mr. Ban ended his talk by once again applauding the advances women have made over the past century, lauding their tenacity in fighting for increased opportunities. But, he urged, it is not enough to just get a job. Instead, women need to be serving in leadership positions, in government or NGOs, in education. In any field in which they work, women must strive to be decision makers.

Women’s Campaign International, believing in this creed, works with women worldwide to equip them with the skills they need to become decision makers. WCI President, Marjorie Margolies, often says, “In helping to support women leaders, we can’t really say it’s going to make things better or worse, but we can confidently say it will make a difference.” It is this difference that we have seen over and over again in the twelve years WCI has been in operation: women emerging to make decisions that include their needs, and the needs of their children, to shape healthier and more fulfilling societies.

Enemies of Happiness closes with Ms. Joya’s victory, but reveals the complexities inherent in that victory. In the final two scenes of the film, we see Ms. Joya verbally sparring with her more conservative parliamentary colleagues. We also see President Karzai’s emotionally charged, sentimental speech to open the first parliamentary session in Afghanistan in nearly thirty years. In so doing, the film engages the tension between the hope inherent in securing a leadership position in an emerging democracy, and the continued challenges and setbacks women leaders face upon entering office.

Malalai Joya addressing an audience at the Arch Street Friends Meeting House in Philadelphia

On Wednesday March 30, Ms. Joya made two stops in Philadelphia as part of her U.S. speaking tour. At one of these events, I asked Ms. Joya about the ending of Enemies of Happiness, specifically what it suggested about her ability, or any woman’s ability to be effective in Afghan Parliament. She answered: “I wish the film didn’t end the way it did.” She said that ending with the Karzai speech left the viewer feeling that goals were accomplished and change easily made.

Instead, she wished the film showed her ongoing struggles after victory—the threats made against her by her colleagues, the times they turned off her microphone when she stood up to speak, the times she was thwarted in enacting her ideas. Ideas, she points out, that are as natural as asking that Afghan people be supported in accessing the most imperative of needs: education.

Women’s struggles do not end the minute they enter political office. Once there, they are faced with a number of hostilities as their presence, unfortunately, represents a threat to the old order. Ms. Joya, however, handles these pressures not only with dignity, but also with the hard skills needed of political leaders, including knowledge of the political system, a well-communicated platform, and strong negotiation skills.

In an excerpt from her recently published book, A Woman Among Warlords, Joya makes her determination clear, paralleling her fight with that of another brave Afghan woman who struggled against injustice in the early twentieth century, Sarwar Joya, from whom Malalai takes her alias. Malalai states:

“I know that because I refuse to compromise my opposition to the warlords and fundamentalists or soften my speeches denouncing them, I, too, may join [Sarwar] Joya on the long list of Afghans who have died for freedom. But you cannot compromise the truth. And I am not afraid of an early death if it would advance the cause of justice. Even the grave cannot silence my voice, because there are others who would carry on after me.”

As we collectively mourn the passing of Geraldine Ferraro, it is striking to remember that it was not long ago when here in the United States, women were not seen as viable political leaders. While women leaders in the U.S. have made great strides to move away from that perception, they are still working towards the goals of equal representation and equal decision-making power. What Ms. Joya helps us to remember is that each nation’s trajectory for women’s political participation will be distinct. It will take on the tenor of that particular nation’s history and culture, replete with unique challenges and opportunities. It will be an ever evolving, ongoing process. A process that benefits from the sharing of experiences and best practices of women leaders around the world.

A note from WCI: After conducting pre-election, campaign skills training for Afghan women in May of 2010, last week, Women’s Campaign International conducted a 5-day post election training for the 67 women parliamentarians in Afghanistan. Stay tuned for updates about these successful trainings.

GALS: Join us for a pizza party and work session on Saturday April 9th!

The final presentation day for GALS, May 21, is rapidly approaching!

To make sure you’re all moving ahead on your projects, we’re offering a chance to get together with your groups in our WCI offices and eat pizza, bond with your group members, and work on your campaigns!

WCI staff will be on hand to answer your questions, help you with computer-related issues, and provide support for your campaigns in any way we can.

Imagine this, but in the shape of pizza!

Tokens will be provided.

GALS students meet to continue working on their campaigns, brainstorming ideas, presenting findings. Freire Charter School.

Tuesday, March 29, 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM.

The film screened at the Community College of Philadelphia to a nearly full house. After the film, ITVS hosted a panel discussion with the film’s co-director, Beth Davenport; Congolese-born professor at CCP, Dr. Dulivanette Muyala Onema, and with Dennis Mulligan of the Nationalities Service Center, a refugee resettlement organization here in Philadelphia.

From Left: Dennis Mulligan, Beth Davenport, Dr. Dulivanette Onema

Audience members gravitated towards questions about violence against women. People were so incensed by the violence described in the film, that they consistently asked, “What can we do? What can be done?”

Dr. Onema echoed this sentiment but pointed out that if we want to help women, we must first and foremost extinguish the root of evil, war. She recounted that in her days as a graduate student at Indiana University, Bloomington, she and her peers vigilantly demonstrated against the apartheid regime in South Africa. But, she emphasized that people are not raising their voices in loud number for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And why not? Neither the film, the filmmakers, nor any of us in the audience had an answer.

But the panel did start to name steps that we could each take to help bring about an end to the war or at least to mitigate some of the horrors and sufferings created by it. For any of you asking yourselves what can be done, here are suggestions from the panel:

• Contact your local legislator to ask them to fight for women’s equality or foreign aid
• Contact your legislator to let them know you support the International Violence Against Women Act
• Support Mapendo New Horizons, the organization co-founded by the film’s protagonist, Rose Mapendo
  • Mapendo New Horizons is always looking for: in-kind support, supplies sent to countries in need, monetary donations, and volunteer hours
• Volunteer with a refugee resettlement program like Nationalities Service Center
• Dennis Mulligan remarked that NSC has plenty of volunteer opportunities all of the time and that there are other resettlement support programs in the Philadelphia area also in need of volunteers, such as Lutheran Children and Family Services.
• Seek information about conflict minerals. The Enough Project is a great resource and ally in the battle against conflict mineral mining in Congo.
• Each panelist agreed that the first step in healing is awareness. Thus, they suggested hosting a group screening of the film in your own home!

In case you missed it at a Community Cinema screening near you, PBS stations around the country are airing the film. In Philadelphia, Pushing the Elephant will air on March 29 at 10 PM on WHYY.

You can download discussion guides from the ITVS webpage to help facilitate discussion with your group after the screening.

We wanted to share this list with you not only to build support for Congolese women’s struggles, but because these action steps can be applied to any issue that grabs at your heart and inspires you to fight for change. Contacting legislators, like WCI staff did during their time at the CARE conference last week, or volunteering with organizations, getting yourself informed and sharing this information among your community, are all steps that we can take every day to help create a more peaceful, more just, and more gender equitable world.

We at WCI fully believe in the power of women leaders to create change in communities and continents. Kaylynn expands upon this idea by asking: how can women be most effective as change agents? Which women? Where should they enter? What might their paths look like? Should we even be asking these questions? (Most advocates feel that women will have equal opportunities when we stop assessing their individual ability to help women as a whole). At WCI we do not have all the answers, but we are certainly interested in, and empowered by, raising these questions. We welcome you to join the conversation.

Sandra Torres de Colom, first lady of current President of Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, chose March 8th 2011, the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, to officially announce her candidacy for president. Although this piece of news didn’t make major headlines in the U.S., WCI followers will be interested to know that Ms. Torres could become Guatemala’s first female president.

"...And they will be united until elections separate them."

Controversy surrounds her declaration, however. The Guatemalan constitution bans close relatives of the president running to replace him. Ms. Torres and President Colom both believe the constitutional ban only applies to relations by blood, not by marriage. Critics, on the other hand, claim nepotism and the creation of a dynasty. This criticism has gained ground as of late with the surprising announcement that Mr. and Mrs. Torres filed for divorce, a move motivated by Sandra Torres’ love of country, as she describes it, and her desire to lead said country.

If the legality of Ms. Torres’ candidacy (and divorce) is sorted out and she can stand for election this September, she hopes to build upon the positive changes her husband has brought to the nation. Many believe, however, that President Colom has failed to live up to his most important promises to decrease the levels of violence and insecurity that Guatemalans face. Nevertheless, in Prensa Libre, a leading news source in Guatemala, Ms. Torres said she wants to ensure that social programs will continue and fears they may not under the rule of opposition parties. The First Lady also believes she is in touch with the needs of Guatemalan citizens as she has visited all 333 municipalities several times and was born in one of the poorest municipalities in the nation.

It remains to be seen how much of a difference Sandra Torres can make in the lives of Guatemalans, especially women. Following directly in her husband’s footsteps, she runs the risk of leading a presidency dominated by other mostly male members of the political party or simply being the figurehead of a continuance of her husband’s policies. On the other hand, Ms. Torres’ involvement in and stated commitment to social programs would seem to bode well for Guatemalans.

In any case, a tough road lies ahead for Sandra Torres were she to be elected president, as real change for Guatemalans is not as simple as implementing social programs from an executive position. Having visited the country and interacted with citizens from mostly rural areas, significant progress in all areas of development remains to be achieved. Ms. Torres needs to also address the vast number of citizens leaving the country in search of opportunities only available in Mexico and the United States.

Given approval by the Constitutional Court, Sandra Torres will face an uphill battle in the coming months in her efforts to overcome machismo cultural attitudes. Not only does she face the rigors of any political campaign, Ms. Torres must also fight to convince the majority of men in Guatemala that they can have confidence in the work and leadership of women. Overcoming this hurdle would be a momentous victory for women in Guatemala.

First Lady Sandra Torres on Campaign Trail

Candidate Eduardo Suger on Campaign Trail

The monopoly of strong male leaders in Latin America has endured for far too long. Even if we look at these two photos of Ms. Torres and Eduardo Suger on the campaign trail, it’s clear there are differences in their approaches, in who they reach out to, and in what’s expected of women in contrast to what’s expected of men. A further contrast can be observed in the depiction of The Patriotic Party portrayed below. This image adorned many walls in Guatemala, a firm-fisted call for new leadership, but a call that is at odds with the more soft-natured images of Torres.

Iconic symbol of the major opposition party, The Patriotic Party

So even if the constitutionality of Ms. Torres’ candidacy is up for question, it is clear, as research has shown, that women in positions of power bring attention to issues and people otherwise ignored. Regardless of who wins the presidency, hopefully in the future of Guatemala will emerge a new generation of women leaders who will bring about fresh approaches to dealing with the contemporary challenges that face Latin American countries.

These are just my thoughts, but to get the real scoop about what Guatemalans think about Sandra Torres’ candidacy, check out Prensa Libre, or Quetzalteco. A good news source in English is The Guatemala Times.

– Kaylynn Palaio

Throughout both election years, the women campaigning have had to face unique and troublesome challenges. These include battling everyday prejudices and insecurity along with threatening phone calls and death threats. Despite such occurrences, women won 27.3% of seats in the Afghan Parliament in 2010, surpassing the 25% constitutional quota.

One woman in particular, Malalai Joya, won a seat in parliament in 2005. She served until being suspended in 2007 after openly criticizing fellow parliamentarians. Despite this setback, Malalai Joya continues tirelessly and courageously to promote human rights in Afghanistan. Her story is so compelling and inspiring, that she was recently the subject of an award-winning documentary film Enemies of Happiness, profiling her daunting experiences campaigning for the 2005 election.

Malalai Joya was recently included in the Time 100, a list of the 100 Most Influential People in the world. Ms. Joya is also a contributor to The Guardian, a leading British new source. The brief profile below was produced by Time as part of their Time 100 series.

Women’s Campaign International (WCI) supports Ms. Joya and her fellow female change agents. Over the past few years, WCI has been involved in a series of programs in Afghanistan. We’ve conducted 8 to 10 day training workshops with women addressing issues like leadership, self-awareness, gender power and corruption power dynamics, communication and conflict resolution.

Next week (March 28th), WCI staff will travel to Afghanistan to conduct a comprehensive training program for newly elected, women Members of Parliament. This workshop aims to develop the MPs’ leadership, communication and advocacy skills and provide them with the necessary tools and knowledge to enact legislative change and govern effectively.

To further explore these complex dynamics and intricate stories, we invite you to join us at a screening of Enemies of Happiness on Thursday March 24th. The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring WCI President, Marjorie Margolies, and former PA State Representative, Lois Hagerty.

What: Enemies of Happiness Screening and Panel Discussion
When: Thursday, March 24, 6 – 8 PM
Where: Marathon Grill, 40th and Walnut St. (Upstairs)
Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served!