EqualityQuilt

For New Year, Celebrate You

Here's good advice from the blog of the great girls at New Moon.  Being good to yourself is great for every holiday, for grownups as well as kids - and maybe especially therapeutic for us women who are so good at taking care of everyone else at holiday time.  Happy New Year from Bonnie & everyone at the Minnesota Women's Consortium! 

Celebrate!                                       

When was the last time you took a look in the mirror and celebrated you?  Or took a look inside and celebrated you?  I hope that it was today!

It's the season of celebration, which includes Hanukkah's celebration of light at the moment.  So it got me thinking.  Ritual has such a history of importance in many cultures throughout the world, and I know that somewhere deep inside you, you probably have a ritual just waiting for you to touch it and say, "Hey come out and play, let's celebrate something about myself!"  And you know what the most surprising thing might be?  That way to feel good about yourself might start with realizing the good you do others.  You know how when you light a candle, that candle can keep lighting others?  Just like a menorah.  So when you light yourself up inside, you have the potential to light up others, and you still shine as brightly!

Your ritual could be anything.  Something silly, like dancing into the bathroom in the morning!  Something serious, like painting the way your heart looks when you take a deep breath every day.  (I know, where did that come from--but wouldn't it be cool to try it?!)  Something original, like taking a pad of paper outside every day and doing equations that you make up because you just love math!

Two Days Left To Have Your Name in Lights!

If you would like to be a $2,000 Lucretia Mott Corporate Sponsor, a $1,000 Susan B. Anthony Corporate Sponsor, or otherwise listed in the invitation to Celebration 28 (gifts of $125 or more), you have only  2 days left! We need to hear from you by the end of the day on Thursday, December 20 to be listed in the beautiful invitation which will be seen by 8,000 leaders in the women's community.   Go to the Consortium website to give online (look for "make a gift today" on the left) and/or click here to read our Celebration letter and annual report - including more info on the categories.   - Bonnie

Women Bloggers Ignored?

A few interesting facts on women bloggers...   according to Jennifer Pozner at the Women's Media Center in an August 1 article.  Pozner is director of Women In Media & News (WIMN) which publishes a group blog called WIMN Voices.
* In July, 800 women gathered in Chicago for the third annual convention of BlogHer, an online community of more than 13,000 blogging women. 
* The Pew Research Center says women are 50% of all bloggers.
* Pozner urges us all to watch how often women's questions are included in candidate debates done via (for example) YouTube.  In the CNN Democratic Presidential YouTube debate in July, CNN selected men for 70% of the questions posed.   
* The current posting on the WIMN blog is great - on the use of gender-neutral language to diminish the impact of conversation about domestic violence (which we used to call women-battering). 

Come on women, let's demand attention in cyberspace as well as everywhere else.  - Bonnie

Summary of "Freedom on Our Terms," Liz Abzug's New York Conference

"For me, participating in the 'Freedom on Our Terms' conference was nothing short of life-changing."- Lala Wu, conference panelist

"There has to be a re-energizing, a re-igniting between younger women, older women, and women in between. I want you to spread the word: Feminism is alive and well and moving into the 21st century."- Liz Abzug (pictured), keynote speaker

"The Houston conference turned feminism from a small grassroots effort into a national movement. Its power continues to a generation that would not have heard of it without the conference."- Gloria Steinem, keynote speaker.

On November 10-11, 2007, over 600 people gathered for the “Freedom on Our Terms” conference held at Hunter College in New York. Like the “Women’s Dreams” conference, this gathering was meant to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the National Women’s Meeting held in Houston in 1977. The participants came from 21 states, and the event was sponsored by more than 60 women’s organizations. As the Huffington Post notes, however, in its coverage of the conference, “Freedom on Our Terms” lacked the faces of big-name female political figures like those who attended the Houston meeting (Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Lady Bird Johnson)- Hillary Clinton sent her regrets from Iowa, where she was campaigning.

    Stretched over two days, the New York conference included a few high profile keynote addresses (by Gloria Steinem, Rosie O’Donnell, and Liz Abzug), as well as panel discussions, workshops, and breakout caucuses on a variety of issues,  and an open forum to discuss the creation of an “agenda for action” to present to the presidential candidates. Other well-known speakers at the conference included Ellie Smeal, Meredith Wagner, Loretta Ross, Congresswoman Nita Lowry, Ambassador to Belize Attallah Shabazz, Charlotte Bunch, and Liz Holtzman.

Holiday Etiquette

As most of us take time off for the holidays or to recuperate at the end of the year, we should heed the advice of this educational video. Or not?

Women Unite

Dear Readers,  Here's a sneak preview from our Capitol Bulletin newsletter issue being mailed tomorrow.  If you're a subscriber, you'll get the whole issue maybe Friday or Saturday.  If you're NOT a subscriber, you are sooo missing out on the "Women's Digest"-style summary of everything you need to know about the Minnesota women's community.  Send us your check for $35 and you will be in the know for a full year.   Meanwhile, I would love to hear your thoughts on Nina's topic ... just click on "Comments" below. - Bonnie

WOMEN UNITING ACROSS DIFFERENCES
by Nina Rothchild, Consortium co-founder, board member, & Houston delegate
      One of the most pernicious stereotypes about women is that we can’t get along with each other. In fact, there’s the expression for it: a “cat fight.” It reminds me of a time in the early ‘70s when we were pressing for more sports for girls in high school. When I met with our school administrators -- all male, of course -- they said with perfectly straight faces, “Oh no, you can’t have team sports for girls because they just don’t know how to get along together.” I was reminded of this stereotype at the recent Consortium conference when we were discussing uniting across differences. While it’s important to acknowledge our differences, we also need to spend some time thinking about what we have in common.

Obviously, we come in different sizes, shapes, and colors -- as well as with different life experiences, income and education. But I think we sometimes obsess about these differences instead of remembering that we are all women together in a male-dominant world. Stereotyping is stereotyping. Making assumptions is making assumptions. We should not stereotype and dismiss women simply because they are white, or old, or straight, any more than we should stereotype anyone else. We will, of course, have honest differences of opinion; but in that case perhaps it is best to gracefully agree to disagree and then move on. Let’s spend more time thinking about what we want to accomplish together, and unite around a vision of the future not based on age or class or race.

Co-Sponsor Our Party!

Note - To see this better, click on the page below - or print out from the link on back page.
There are only 13 days left to have your name in lights on our invitation...

Click below to continue with a brief annual report on Consortium activities and a form you may use to choose your level of financial support.   If you'd like to print out these materials as a three-page document, click here.

Wise Words: Memorable Quotes from the Conference

We're still sifting through and synthesizing all of the great feedback we got on the Women's Dreams Conference. As we do that, we thought it would be fun to share with you some of the most memorable quotes we have collected from the panelists, keynote speakers, and conference participants. Here is just a sampling of what we've found.

Words to ponder from workshop panelists:
    "What we know: healthcare, environmental equity, pay equity are all women's issues and they are also 'all women's' issues... When women do better as a whole, we all do better. We have the tools to create change."- Anita Patel
    "If we want our stories to be told, we must record them. We can't wait for someone to ask or tell us to do it. If everyone waits for someone else to do it, it won't be done."- Arvonne Fraser
    On negotiating: "What do women think?... 'I'm just like everyone else.' What do men think?... 'I'm worth more.'"- Jenny Keil
    "When I became a flaming feminist, I had a whole community behind me. Younger women don't have this."- Tina Welsh
    "How do we play nice with politicians? They say things that are offensive and ignorant that make me want to walk away. When I have not seen myself represented, it's hard to think of myself politically."- Dresden Quinn Jones