Women Helping Women

Written by WFR Correspondent Megan Anderson 

My first thoughts on this quote by Madeleine Albright were overwhelmingly in agreement.    Women must help women.

I’ve found it hard to explain just why this is.  I would like to say that all women are somehow related and bound together, but this feels a bit too essentialist. Words that come to mind are ‘sisterhood’ and ‘second-wave feminism’.

All women are not the same; we do not all have the same universal identity.  We are taught that depending on things like race, and socio-economic backgrounds we will have different struggles and one fixed voice and identity cannot represent them all.

With this in mind I guess the quote should read, ‘There is a special place in hell for people who don’t help other women’ or ‘-for people who don’t help other people’.  We could argue that there is just as much difference between two women as there is between a man and a woman and so responsibility does not just fall on those of the same gender to look out for one another.

…We could argue that.  And I do feel that it is everyone’s responsibility to help other people in general.

But I can’t help feeling that there is a special responsibility for women to help other women, as Albright, first female U.S. Secretary of State, tells us.  I found a passage from a article on joinfite.org that was able to explain and support Albright’s quote better than I could:

“In societies where women’s resources are severely limited, women depend on the support of other women.  In culture’s where women’s rights are suppressed, the same is true – even if this community exists underground.  Because women have been historically excluded from mainstream power, we have learned to do business communally, collectively and cooperatively, especially in the face of brutality and injustice….Women truly flourish when we share the wealth: our ideas, our energy and time, as well as our money. “

On that note, I must point out that today is International Volunteering Day. This is the opportunity for all of us to celebrate those women who do help women.

Today the United Nations recognises volunteers around the world and strives to increase public awareness of the impact of volunteering. Many NGOs support International Volunteering Day and one in particular, Volunteer Action Counts, suggests ways in which we can all celbrate.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – November 25th

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women was adopted by the United Nations resolution 53/134. The General Assembly of the United Nations agreed that “violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of their full advancement, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions, compared with men.”

The Assembly defines violence against women as: “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.”

UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon comments on the day:

“Violence against women and girls takes many forms and is widespread throughout the globe.  It includes rape, domestic violence, harassment at work, abuse in school, female genital mutilation and sexual violence in armed conflicts.  It is predominantly inflicted by men. Whether in developing or developed countries, the pervasiveness of this violence should shock us all.  Violence – and in many cases the mere threat of it – is one of the most significant barriers to women’s full equality.”

This day is also known as the White Ribbon Day also signals the start of 16 Days of Activism against violence against women, with NGOs and community groups to hold events every day until 10 December to keep the focus on domestic violence issues.  These 16 Days of Activism to end violence against women involve groups all over the world who speak up for support against such violence. This year the campaign calls for overcoming challenges and obstacles to gain long-overdue results in the struggle to end violence against women. It pays particular attention to social attitudes and policies that continue to condone and perpetuate abuses.

Read more about this international day here.

Be active and make a difference!

The Great Wall of Vagina

Have you heard of The Great Wall of Vagina? That’s right, vagina.

It’s a masterpiece of a Brighton-based artist Jamie McCartney in his latest exhibition Skin Deep. The artwork, which unfortunately was only on display for the month of May, is a 9-meter-long wall that consists of “four hundred plaster casts of vulvas, all of them unique, arranged into ten large panels.”

This controversial piece can be interpreted in different ways, but many female participants themselves see it as a positive step towards demystifying the feminine.

Our media displays the female body again and again in a range of different ways, but the vulva is always left hidden and untouched in the day-to-day imagery we receive. Pornographic films, on the other hand, emphasize on displaying the vagina, but the type of genitalia shown in porn is very limited. Therefore, currently, the only representation of the vagina available is the pornographic vagina. Also, at the same time, the idea that porn films show what the rest of the media is not allowed to show, further enforce the idea that the feminine private parts are something to be hidden.

McCartney hopes his artwork will make talking about female genitalia more normal. He says he first came up with the idea five years ago when he begun to realize how many women suffer from low self-esteem because of the look of their genitals.

“I had no idea women had anxiety about their private parts. I began to wonder, as an artist, if I could take this any further.”

Mardi, one of the 400 participants, describes her experiences of participating in the artwork in the following way:

“Looking at it from a cast I was quietly surprised. I was very pleased with it. Vagina is a really important piece of equipment. It’s the gate way to life, really. This is a much softer way to record what your body looks like.”

And the piece really is a spectacle. The sexual has become nonsexual. Mardi continues, “I like the ethos of the piece, of showing different women all the different types of varieties of vagina which one can have, which we now know is lots!”

Josetta, another participant, talks of the social significance of the wall:

“It really helps you get over any body issues, I think. Lots of women feel the shape of their vagina is a bit different, because they are all different… To bring back the idea of women’s bodies, and parts of our bodies, into an art, I think is very different to women being objectified with a pornographic, sexual, or the male gaze.”

Finally, she concludes in a way that also speaks for Women for Rwanda: “The whole nature of the project feels very empowering to women. That in its self can counteract the kind of damaging view of women.”

The artist himself admiring The Wall.

We’re interested to hear what you think. Do you find McCartney’s spectacle vulgar, uncomfortable to see, or perhaps further objectifying women? Or, would you agree with Mardi and Josetta, that the artwork is empowering women, breaking patriarchal norms, and demystifying the hidden? If you’d interested to find out more, have a look at The Great Wall of Vagina film gallery here.

Indian sex workers an example of women’s empowerment

This morning I read an inspiring article in the Guardian about Indian sex workers. The article was about a community of sex workers in Kolkata claiming rights and recognition with the help of a local organization called Vamp.

There’s power in a collective.

Vamp is a part of a larger organization called Sangram, fighting to stop state violence against women in sex work. Founded in 1997, Vamp advocates health issues and human rights of sex workers. In the last ten years Vamp has helped sex workers in Kolkata to improve their working conditions and encouraged more and more women to use condoms with their clients.

These are great improvements, but the most impressive change has been in attitudes. Prostitution, a profession which society generally sees as the disgusting and most inferior, is liberating many women from patriarchal oppression, from institutions like marriage.

“If I had been married, I would be HIV positive by now,” says Shaban, a sex worker and a Vamp supporter.

“Why? Because he would have had sex elsewhere and would have passed it on to me.”

In a traditional Indian marriage, the woman has no freedom and is unable to insist her husband to use a condom, for example. In her work Shaban sets the rules. She’s able to choose her clients, choose when she works. She has her own income and she’s able to educate her children. “I’m free as a bird,” she says.

The main message taken from this article is that Shaban and other women in the Kolkata sex worker community are not in the sex business out of desperation. Some of the women have been married and have tried other professions but eventually return to sex work by choice. The problem with sex work is the stigma and the language. As the columnist writes, if we see these women as “prostituted” we see them as less than humans, “incapable of determining their own destinies.” These women don’t want or need to be ‘saved.’

Shaban says, “Whatever rights you have as citizens in a society we also have those rights. What is the matter if we are women in prostitution? Are we not women?”

Watch a short video about Shaban and her community here.

International Women’s Day

This spring, on International Women’s Day, March 8^th, Women for Rwanda walked through London with Million Women Rise demanding to end male violence against women. Million Women Rise is a London-based coalition, which organized its first Women’s Day march in 2008. The theme this year was The Girl Child, and the featured color was purple. Purple is the color of mourning in Rwanda, thus, our group wore our purple t-shirts to bring recognition to Rwandan women, and to support all women around the world in their struggle against violence.

Together we can end male violence.

Marching to Trafalgar Square

Next year’s theme is Womanist Revolution. The march will take place on March 8^th in Central London. Save the date if you’d like to be involved!