Notes From Clinton Global Initiative Opening Session On Women

Former President Bill Clinton today kicked off the Clinton Global Initiative Plenary Session on Women. He entered to Also sprach Zarathustra, the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He started by giving some facts and figures about Sub-Saharan Africa and HIV, saying that getting HIV is like walking along and then suddenly having a concrete block dropped on you. He said these girls and young women are the best ambassadors because even though they have been sexually abused they refuse to live their lives as victims.

Clinton said that women do 66% of world’s work, but they produce 10% of the world’s income and own only 1% of the world’s property. 40% of the three billion people who work are women and 70% of agricultural labor is performed by women, but women lack independence. He also said that investing in women’s health could increase productivity in Africa by fifteen billion dollars per year.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a commitment to Rwanda and talked about how women have been active there. Bloomberg said he is involved in Southern Sudan and Congo, working with an organization called Women for Women. It is an attempt to get women to contribute to their countries.

President Barack Obama's Ambassador At-Large for Global Women's Issues, Melanne Verveer, said that empowering women combats extremism.

Ambassador Robert Zoellick said that he is trying to help with the Adolescent Girls Initiative, an organization that hopes to work with 3,000 girls and mentor them to make sure that education is connected to a job.

Zainab Salbi talked about wars and children. She said 80% of refugees in the world are women and children. Even after rape these women succeed because they have children. They are the ones who are keeping the children going to school. The only group of people who are keeping a society going are women, and they do not have a seat at the table and they are not being heard.

Rex Tillerson from Exxon Mobil talked about technologies. He said low technologies can impact on a local level. He said they are working on what types of technologies work.

Edna Ismail was the first nurse practitioner in Somalia. She said they do not even need advanced technology. The age that a woman marries and nutrition are important to overall health. Genital cutting information is not reaching the grandmothers and people who have kept this tradition. Senegal has passed a law outlawing this, but a law does not change behavior on a village level.

Diane Sawyer asked what the biggest failure was, and Zainab Salbi asked said it was a challenge. But girls at the age of nine get cows as a dowry. She said you must be able to educate women so that there is incentive for women to be educated so they are more valuable to the family than cows.

There are a million young women in the sex trade. The United States passed one of the first laws to prevent human trafficking. It is hopeful because the business community is getting involved. One cent of every development dollar goes to girls.

Some programs make the payments directly to women, such as incentives to go to school. Must turn incentives so that the legal structure reflects the situation.

Anita Weiss: Women's Rights in Pakistan

Anita M. Weiss, Professor in the Department of International Studies
at the University of Oregon, spoke today about women's rights in
Pakistan at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. Weiss
stressed the importance of getting women's rights developed in Pakistan. Educating more women was a main issue Weiss spoke about and
the creation of more schools for female education was presented
as a solution. She discussed the fact that only 4% of girls in Pakistan reach the education level of the ninth grade.

Weiss described the fact that Pakistan's government is working on solutions
that will improve the status of women, but that more action is necessary.

Professor Weiss described three steps that need to be implemented in
order to strengthen women's rights in Pakistan. The first step focuses
on the legislature and the need to create more laws that support women. The second step describes the need to increase women's participation in political
elections, both within political candidates and voters.

Weiss discussed the importance of involving more women in the
political sphere, to be able to integrate women more in society.
The third step focuses on women's economical rights, such as the right
to earn an individual income. If the economical rights are improved,
women's status will raise in society.
By involving more women in the grass-roots levels, the problems and
solutions can be presented from the group that is affected and more
efficient ideas can be created.

Weiss also pointed out that by improving women's rights in Pakistan,
it will not only help the women, but also the country's development.
The U.S. can help Pakistan in this area by working with both the
Pakistan government and with different Non-Governmental-Organizations  (NGO's).

The both can be assisted by the United States through economic
resources and also with the knowledge of equality and women's rights. One
example of this is the area of judicial rights.

Interview with Dr. E. Faye Williams

Dr. E. Faye Williams, National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, discusses education and the Obama administration.

Obama in lead with women, but the vote is still in the air

Lifetime’s Every Woman Counts campaign hosted a conference call to discuss the results of a new poll on how the women’s vote looks after Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) candidacy. Toby Graff, the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Lifetime said neither Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) nor Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) have a majority in the women’s vote, so there is still a lot of room for the candidates to push to secure the female vote.

Celinda Lake, a pollster at Lake Research Partners, said Obama has a solid lead over McCain, with 49 percent, but 10 percent of female voters are still undecided. She said Obama does very well with black and hispanic voters, while McCain does best with white and older women. Obama is most liked for his personal attributes, such as his empathy and likeability, while McCain is most liked for his experience. 81 percent of self-described “democratic” female voters will vote for Obama, and independent female voters far prefer Obama as well.

76 percent of former female Clinton supporters now support Barack Obama, but 18 percent of them will instead vote for McCain. Kellyanne Conway, a pollster at the Polling Company, Inc., said former Clinton Supporters would be more supportive of Obama if he chose a female running mate. When asked why Clinton did not win the nomination, one in five women responded that it was because of her gender.

Women's suffrage memorialized in commemorative trail

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) testified before the National Parks Subcommittee hearing to discuss a series of bills that would the establishment of a commemorative trail in connection with the women's suffrage movement, in addition to preserving key environmental regions.

Clinton stated that "heritage tourism" is critical for economic development that more communities are beginning to use for advancement. The series of bills would create the "Votes for Women History Trail Route" in the state of New York. Dole said that public involvement in public parks is also important to preserving hunting and fishing areas.

However, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) expressed concern over the bills' provisions on cattle grazing, hunting and maintenance of forests. He stated that amendments needed to be made to address these serious concerns.