A Celebration of International Women's Day

Working Women in the
Global Economy

On March 8th 2004, the Global Fund for Women and the Chicana/Latina Foundation brought together over 100 friends and supporters to celebrate International Women's Day.

Arlie Hochschild, Berkeley professor and co-editor of Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, led a panel which included Olga Talamante, Executive Director of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, and Kavita N. Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women.

The panel discussion on Working Women in the Global Economy paid tribute to 19th century U.S. immigrant garment workers, whose strikes and protests for better pay and working conditions led to the celebration of International Women's Day. Arlie, Olga and Kavita, with lively participation from the audience, discussed and debated a range of issues related to women's work, including free trade vs. fair trade, the feminization of migration, the globalization of women's love and caretaking, and sex trafficking as a labor issue.

Arlie put a friendly challenge to the audience: Since women have fought for and achieved certain key rights, now when we call for equality, don't we need to stop and ask ourselves, "Equal to what?" What vision, what model are we looking toward? The world is in crisis and women must lead the reshaping of a new vision. Olga highlighted the connections between migrant and immigrant issues in this age of globalization. She shared two stories of scholarship recipients who represent the significant challenges that many young Latina women face and the conviction with which they meet them. Kavita spoke about issues facing working women throughout the world, which are being addressed by the work of Global Fund grantees.

At the close of the evening the panelists invited the audience to donate one hour of their pay to the Global Fund or the Chicana/Latina Foundation, in solidarity with women everywhere who labor in the home as well as outside it.

We would like to thank Arlie Hochschild for donating the proceeds from her book sales at the event to the Global Fund and the Chicana/Latina Foundation.

More information on the Chicana/Latina Foundation.