Dear Friends,

Summer greetings from all of us at the Global Fund for Women!

Earlier this summer, I traveled to Houston, Dallas and Austin, Texas as part of an Enterprising Women Speaker series hosted by the Baker Botts law firm. I was honored to be a keynote speaker at a conference on the Status of Women and Human Rights in the Middle East, made possible by the Kelly Day Endowment at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. This whirlwind trip — three cities in three days — reminded me once again of how important it is to step out of our comfort zones and engage in conversations with people who come from different backgrounds, hold different political opinions and can help broaden our own perspectives. Despite being known as the Lone Star state, Texas struck me as a place where numerous women and men are filled with a desire and a commitment to be more actively connected to the rest of the world.

Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Missned of Qatar (a Gulf emirate), was among those who helped set the stage for an open dialogue. She reminded us that in many parts of her region, as in other parts of the world, “the few rule over the many and… neither men nor women have rights to freedom of speech, assembly, political participation, or recourse under the law.” She called upon us to deframe the usual conversation about saving women in the Middle East and instead challenged us to find ways to guarantee human rights and democracy for both women and men in her region.

It was a perfect entrée into my speech the following day entitled Equal to What? A Global Challenge. We must think about the struggle for women’s equality and social justice in radically different terms. We can no longer be satisfied with providing women and other marginalized groups a few seats at the table or the chance to participate on the existing playing fields of politics, economics and social relations. Rather, we must collectively explore the creation of a new social order in which all human beings are valued for their unique potential and provided the opportunities to thrive in a sustainable environment that benefits us and our planet.

Fortunately for all of us, the global women’s movement provides us with many inspiring examples of just such foresight and vision. We hope you will enjoy reading what women’s groups are doing in places like Nicaragua, Nepal and the Balkans to change the rules of the game, and ensure that all people can begin to imagine a world of justice and true equality.

Sincerely,

Kavita N. Ramdas
President & CEO