Globalization and women's advancement

Check out this cool article about globalization and women's rights! http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,605813,00.html

Obama

Best wishes to our newly inaugurated President Barack Obama! View his positions on women's rights here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/women/.

The Girl Effect

Watch this fantastic video!

Kenya's Street Children Blogging Project

This is rather a departure from our normal postings, but something to be aware of none the less:

Kristina Rosinsky, from the Advocacy Project, has been working in Kenya this summer with children who live on the streets. Through the project, they have learned how to use computers and cameras, and now each of the seventeen students have their own blog and Flickr account. We encourage you to check them out here:
http://advocacynet.org/blogs/index.php?blog=110&title=voices_of_kenya_s_vulnerab
le_children_an&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#comments
The blogs are interesting and insightful. Do take a look!

One Is Greater Than None

Check out this organization called One is Greater than None, a project started by eight 14-year-old girls to raise money for kids in Africa through bracelet-making: http://www.oneisgreaterthannone.org/.

The Women's History Project

Equal Pay Day

Today is Equal Pay Day, a holiday committed to raising awareness about the fact that there is a significant gap between what men are paid and what women are paid. Currently, women earns 77 cents for every dollar that men do.

What you can do to help:
Wear red to support the fair pay movement
Write to or call your senators and ask them to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Information on how to contact them, and background on the Act are here:
http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=10323036

Here are some great links:
http://www.pay-equity.org
http://www.wageproject.org/

Fair Pay Restoration Act

"The Fair Pay Restoration Act (S.1843) – drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which held that employees must sue for pay discrimination within the current 180-day statute of limitations – would permit employees to sue employers for wage discrimination even if the discrimination was discovered beyond the 180-day limit," says the National Comittee on Pay Equity. The Senate will be voting early on the Fair Pay Restoration act next week, says Feminist Majority: "The House has already passed the companion bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to correct the recent Supreme Court decision that guts the ability of women workers to sue for wage discrimination. Celebrate Equal Pay Day, April 22nd, by contacting your senators today!"

The Women's History Project

P.S. For more information on the wage gap and equal pay, visit http://www.wageproject.org/content/gap/what.php.

Play Pumps

In rural Africa, clean water is hard to come by, and most people don't have plumbing installed in their homes. Instead, they are forced to walk for miles to a well and back. The grueling task of hauling water is usually held by women and girls, and sometimes this chore prevents girls from going to school.

The invention of Play Pumps is helping to solve this problem! Here's how it works: merry-go-rounds are installed, and when kids give it a push and spin around, it pumps clean water underground and into a big tank where people can access the water. The tank's sides have educational messages about healthy living, and ads to help pay for upkeep. The PlayPump not only provides water, it also provides matinence jobs and fun for the kids.

And as the website says, "Women benefit too, as they no longer risk injury from transporting heavy containers of water over great distances, and they can use the time saved to better care for their children and start small enterprises that bring additional food and income to their families."

To learn more, visit PlayPumps International, or check out National Geographic Kid's article about the program here.

One is Greater than None

Check out this wonderful project, started by 8 14-year-old girls. It's called One is Greater than None, and the girls raised money and awareness to save impoverished kids in Ghana, Africa from abuse. Visit their website at http://www.oneisgreaterthannone.org/.

The Women's History Project

Free Ways To Help

The United States Women's History Project not only focuses on history, but on advocacy. Here are some free ways you can support worthwhile causes online! First off, check out FreeRice. It's a vocabulary quiz site that donates 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program each time you get a word right. The rice is paid for by the advertisers, who have small, on-screen pop-ups at the bottom of the page. It's a way to test your knowledge and help end world hunger at the same time.

Another website is Search Kindly. As their webpage states, "Search Kindly lets you donate money for free just by using Google from this page instead of any other. All of the money that we make through advertising is donated to charities that you select. Search Kindly is a non-profit organization dedicated to the idea of micro-volunteerism and micro-philanthropy A lot of people doing a little is better than a few people doing a lot. 100% of the advertising revenue generated from this website is donated to charitable organizations that our volunteers select every month." Every search you do raises 1/3 of a cent; it sounds like a only a little bit, but it all adds up!

Also, check out these click-a-day sites that also donate their advertising money: The Hunger Site, which delivers cups of staple food to people in "over 74 countries" through Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest; The Breast Cancer Site, which provides mammograms to women in need through the National Breast Cancer Foundation; The Child Health Site, which gives various health care through charitable partners like Helen Keller International and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation ; The Literacy Site, which gives books to kids; The Animal Rescue Site, which provides an animal food and care at a shelter; and The Rainforest Site, which focuses on land preservation with The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Conservation Fund, The World Parks Endowment, and Rainforest2Reef. To read more about each site's sponsors and partners, check out the "About This Site" page on each one.

The Women's History Project

Help out the AWN!

One of the U.S. Women's History Project's friends and partners, the Advocacy Project, informed us that the Afghan Women's Network office in Kabul was recently burned down by accident. Thankfully few were hurt, but they are rebuilding everything at the high cost of $50,000 plus. They're asking for donations, and have raised about $1,200 so far, which is pretty good! You can see pictures of the fire and donate online at this link: http://advocacynet.org/page/awnfire.

The Women's History Project