See the new AAUW International Affairs Committee's Reading List!
Updated: February 3, 2012
The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative built a partnership with the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education to promote a focus on gender equality in education. The groups’ efforts resulted in the publication of Gender, Equality and Education: A Report Card on South Asia, which examined the state of women’s’ education throughout South Asia. The publication has sparked awareness and discussion among local policymakers of changes needed to achieve gender equality in schools.
AAUW believes that global interdependence requires national and international policies that promote peace, justice, human rights, sustainable development, and mutual security for all people. AAUW supports a strengthened United Nations and its affiliated agencies.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for January 13, 2012.
The administration last month announced the implementation of a new plan to help protect women and girls in conflict zones. The announcement was paired with an executive order laying out a comprehensive series of activities and initiatives aimed at reducing violence. These include a commitment to including more women in peace processes and conflict prevention negotiations, ensuring safe and equitable access to humanitarian aid, and strengthening gender violence prevention efforts in conflict zones. Amnesty International estimates that 90 percent of casualties in modern warfare are civilians, and of these 75 percent are women and children.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for January 6, 2012.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on Tuesday to examine the process by which federal grants are awarded to institutions providing services to victims of human trafficking. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) currently receives $2 billion a year in federal grants, but objects to the government’s requirement that institutions receiving grants provide information and referrals on the full spectrum of reproductive health services to victims.
Catholics for Choice provided testimony, urging the Department of Health and Human Services not to award federal grants to institutions that favor religious ideology over comprehensive reproductive healthcare for victims. “Women who have suffered the incomprehensible physical and emotional abuses of human trafficking should be assured they may access the best possible care for combating the myriad healthcare problems that can result from continued abuse,” said Jon O’Brien, President of Catholics for Choice. “Therefore, it is in the best interests of all that only those social service agencies committed to providing access to the full range of healthcare services do so. Women need support and compassionate care when they seek reproductive healthcare services, not judgment and disdain.”
AAUW provided written testimony for the hearing, expressing our commitment to ensuring that all women -- particularly those who are most vulnerable -- have access to comprehensive reproductive health care information, referrals, and services that meet their unique needs.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for December 16, 2011.
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the United States will begin to use foreign aid to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights around the world. Agencies such as the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are to direct foreign aid to assist gays and lesbians facing human rights violations and to protect gay and lesbian refugees and asylum seekers. The administration’s announcement marks the first official U.S. policy to fight gay and lesbian human rights abuses abroad.
For far too long, the civil rights protections guaranteed to millions of Americans have been denied to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) communities. AAUW is committed to promoting vigorous protection of and full access to civil and constitutional rights for all people.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for December 9, 2011.
The World Economic Forum released new data on the gender gaps in higher education, revealing that female enrollment outpaces male enrollment in countries like Qatar, Bahamas, Maldives, Jamaica, Barbados, and the United States. But other countries, led by Chad, Gambia, Benin, Ethiopia, and Nepal, see the number of male students far exceeding the number of female students.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Program on the Status and Education of Women identified global gender equity as an essential goal for higher education in the next 40 years. The organization said U.S. higher education must aid in this goal within and beyond its borders.
AAUW's 2011-2013 Public Policy Program affirms our commitment to a strong system of public education that promotes gender fairness, equity, and diversity. AAUW advocates increased support for and access to higher education for women and other disadvantaged populations.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for November 11, 2011.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted Monday to induct the Palestinian Authority as their newest member. In response, the State Department announced it would withdraw funding from UNESCO, an act in compliance with an existing law that forbids the U.S. to fund international organizations that grant membership status to the Palestinian Authority. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland suggested that because the State Department and the White House strongly support UNESCO’s overarching message, the administration may aim to work with Congress to rewrite the law. However, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Reps. Steve Israel (R-NY) and Tom Cole (R-OK) have already stated that Congress will not allow the law to change.
AAUW values and is committed to the arts and humanities, which develop and enhance our pluralistic cultural heritage. AAUW supports a strengthened United Nations and its affiliated agencies.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for November 4, 2011.
The welfare of adolescent girls is crucial in determining economic and social outcomes for countries today, and in the future. For girls to become healthy mothers, productive citizens and economic contributors, their unique needs must be seen and understood. Yet today, adolescent girls are undercounted and so underserved. Counting them is the first step to increasing their visibility. Girls Discovered takes that first step. As a comprehensive source of maps and data on the status of adolescent girls worldwide, Girls Discovered helps donors, policy makers and implementing agencies target their investments. This one-stop shop for information on adolescent girls is sourced from organizations operating in the public interest, and is meant for researchers, practitioners, advocates, policy-makers and the public - anyone who seeks change for the world's 600 million adolescent girls.
The World Bank must back its rhetoric on gender equality with monetary investments, says an op-ed written by an organization that promotes gender equity in all international financial institution investments. The organization, Gender Action, said that many of the bank’s loans and investments actually harm women even though the World Bank has had a recent surge in campaigns aimed at promoting gender equality. In the past five years, the bank has decreased its agriculture investments by 2 to3 percent. The shift in investment focus is significant, as women constitute the majority of small-scale farmers in the developing world. Additionally, Gender Action said the bank must collect sex-disaggregated data that would better measure its investments’ impact on women and girls.
AAUW believes that women are the key to global economic growth. More and more women are taking on the role of primary income-earner within their families in addition to being responsible for the welfare of their households. Promoting gender equality in the U.S. and around the world is essential to achieving economic stability and progress.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for October 28, 2011.
The leaders of all 16 Commonwealth countries which recognize British Queen Elizabeth as head of state agreed unanimously today to change the 1701 Act of Settlement. The 310-year-old law had stated that a male heir takes precedence over female siblings for the throne. Since the wedding of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, however, there has been an intensive push to update the laws to ensure the couple's firstborn will be the heir, regardless of gender.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for October 28, 2011.
Women, War & Peace, a new PBS series, chronicles the stories of women living in conflict-ridden zones around the world. Challenging the notion that war and peace belong solely in men’s domain, the series reveals how women have become both primary targets for violence and vital brokers of peace in the post-Cold War era. The five-episode series airs Tuesday nights from October 11 until November 8 and features the stories of women at the center of conflict and security from 11 war-torn zones.
AAUW believes that women play a critical role in building the bridges to peace and development. AAUW advocates for policies that break through barriers for women and girls so that more women around the world can take on necessary roles in advancing their communities and countries.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for October 14, 2011.