One of the annual high points for me of Women’s History Month is the Madame CJ Walker Luncheon hosted by the Coalition of 100 Black Women. This March, Faye Wattleton, former head of Planned Parenthood, spoke at the event. More than 1100 African American women and their allies came together to celebrate African American women’s accomplishments in health, business and women’s rights. But the luncheon represented more than an opportunity for celebration. It was also a call to influence and leverage our unique positions, whether in the non-profit, government or corporate sector, for the betterment and uplift of African American women and girls now and in the future. The Global Fund for Women was honored to host a table at the event, attended by donors, peers and staff.
A tall and regal woman, Ms. Wattleton spoke eloquently about her upbringing as well as her long-standing commitment to ensuring that women of all incomes and ages had a chance to live healthy lives. She began her talk by describing her mother’s gifts to her, which included the determination to not bend to the will of another and a long-standing commitment to the fundamental dignity of every human being.
Faye’s mother was a minister of a fundamentalist church, and raised her daughter to adhere to strict rules of conduct, which included no dancing, drinking, staying out late, and more. Of her mother’s stern dictates, Faye said, “I didn’t know where my mother stopped and God began.”
Faye attended nursing school in her home state of Ohio, then went on to get a masters in maternal health and child care at Columbia University. As a young nurse, she was exposed to the harsh effects of grinding poverty and its impact on women’s health, as well as the horrifying effects of botched abortions.
It was these experiences, Faye said, that informed her passions – her life-long passion and commitment to uphold reproductive choice for all women, regardless of age, race or income level. “My patients didn’t need my moral values,” she said. "They needed patience, tolerance and understanding."
When I asked Faye about the links she saw between the struggles of for reproductive choice and for women around the world, she said, “We learn from one another because our struggles have a great deal of universal commonality,” she said. She made the point that around the world, women’s value in society is still undermined. And this struggle is not confined to national boundaries. In fact, she emphasized that the mindset that holds that what goes on in one country only affects that country presents a huge barrier to women enjoying lives of dignity and value.
Furthermore, the policies that are passed and implemented in the United States resound throughout the rest of the world. When women lose rights in the United States, that backsliding has a ripple effect on the struggle for women’s equality around the world. Certainly the Global Gag rule (which denied US funding to health organizations that even mentioned abortion as an option), is a concrete reminder that the United States routinely implements policies that affect women all over. Faye reminded us that even though Obama is taking actions to prove himself a champion of women, with the revoking of the Global Gag rule and the creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls, we cannot rest.
For the “true promise of the constitution for our gender and race has yet to be fulfilled,” she said. In fact, she pointed out that right her in the US there are conditions as severe as those faced by women in developing nations. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines. We all have a responsibility to help others to live lives of dignity and value.
Most recently, Faye is engaged in making sure that women’s realities and priorities are documented and brought front and center in the national media. She is the co-founder and president of the Center for the Advancement of Women
Sande Smith is the Director of Public Education at the Global Fund for Women.
