Women's Rights-Privelge or Right?

Nov.4 the one of the most important days in American History. I listen to my daughter talk about the candidates in her five year old world. I hear her tell my mother that Obama is the man and she can't wait to vote. She is tellign everyone that she is voting for Obama on Tuesday.
It is a day when the country will pick their new leader. All these months of advertising, billboards, phone calls and debates comes down to the people casting their ballot. When was the right instilled as we look back.

As I read Ancestor Stone and thought of the women in the book, I realized these women don't have the basic rights that we have in this country. And it wasn't that not long ago that African Americans, women did not have those rights as well. It was not that long agao that my daughter's converstaion would have been totally different I would have quietd her down for speaking about voting. Now she is our future. African women can not own property, their children that they have given birth to are the men's, their religion is that of their husband, they are subject to abuse that the can't fight back against. They can not get the proper medical treatment to fight againsr HIV.

1848The world's first women's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, NY, July 19-20. A Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions is debated and signed by 68 women and 32 men, setting the agenda for the women's rights movement that followed.
1849 Elizabeth Smith Miller appears on the streets of Seneca Falls, NY, in "turkish trousers," soon to be known as "bloomers."

1849 Amelia Jenks Bloomer publishes and edits Lily the first prominent women's rights newspaper.

1850 Quaker physicians establish the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, PA to give women a chance to learn medicine. The first women graduated under police guard.

1855 Lucy Stone becomes first woman on record to keep her own name after marriage, setting a trend among women who are consequently known as "Lucy Stoners."

1855 The University of Iowa becomes the first state school to admit women.

1855 In Missouri v. Celia, a Black slave is declared property without right to defense against a master's act of rape.

1859 American Medical Association announces opposition to abortion. In 1860, Connecticut is the first state to prohibit all abortions, both before and after quickening.

1859 The birth rate continues its downward spiral as reliable condoms become available. By the late 1900s, women will raise an average of only two or three children.

1860 Of 2,225,086 Black women, 1,971,135 are held in slavery. In San Francisco, about 85% of Chinese women are essentially enslaved as prostitutes.

1866 14th Amendment is passed by Congress (ratified by the states in 1868), the first time "citizens" and "voters" are defined as "male" in the Constitution.

1866 The American Equal Rights Association is founded, the first organization in the US to advocate women's suffrage.

1868 The National Labor Union supports equal pay for equal work.

1868 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony begin publishing The Revolution, an important women's movement periodical.

1870 For the first time in the history of jurisprudence, women serve on juries in the Wyoming Territory.

1870 Iowa is the first state to admit a woman to the bar: Arabella Mansfield.

1870 The 15th Amendment receives final ratification. By its text, women are not specifically excluded from the vote. During the next two years, approximately 150 women will attempt to vote in almost a dozen different jurisdictions from Delaware to California.

1872 Through the efforts of lawyer Belva Lockwood, Congress passes a law to give women federal employees equal pay for equal work.

1872 Charlotte E. Ray, Howard University law school graduate, becomes first African-American woman admitted to the US bar.

1873 Bradwell v. Illinois: Supreme Court affirms that states can restrict women from the practice of any profession to uphold the law of the Creator.

1873 Congress passes the Comstock Law, defining contraceptive information as "obscene material."

1877 Helen Magill is the first woman to receive a Ph.D. at a US school, a doctorate in Greek from Boston University.

1878 The Susan B. Anthony Amendment, to grant women the vote, is first introduced in the US Congress.

1884 Belva Lockwood, presidential candidate of the National Equal Rights Party, is the first woman to receive votes in a presidential election (appx. 4,000 in six states).

1887 For the first and only time in this century, the US Senate votes on woman suffrage. It loses, 34 to 16. Twenty-five Senators do not bother to participate.

1899 National Consumers League is formed with Florence Kelley as its president. The League organizes women to use their power as consumers to push for better working conditions and protective laws for women workers.

1900 Two-thirds of divorce cases are initiated by the wife; a century earlier, most women lacked the right to sue and were hopelessly locked into bad marriages.

1909 Women garment workers strike in New York for better wages and working conditions in the Uprising of the 20,000. Over 300 shops eventually sign union contracts.

1912 Juliette Gordon Low founds first American group of Girl Guides, in Atlanta, Georgia. Later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA, the organization brings girls into the outdoors, encourages their self-reliance and resourcefulness, and prepares them for varied roles as adult women.

1913 Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize the Congressional Union, which later becomes the National Women's Party. Members picket the White House and engage in other forms of civil disobedience, drawing public attention to the suffrage cause.

1914 Margaret Sanger calls for legalization of contraceptives in her new, feminist publication, The Woman Rebel, which the Post Office bans from the mails.

1917 During WWI women move into many jobs working in heavy industry in mining, chemical manufacturing, automobile and railway plants. They also run street cars, conduct trains, direct traffic, and deliver mail.

1917 Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the US Congress.

1919 The House of Representatives passes the women's suffrage amendment, 304 to 89; the Senate passes it with just two votes to spare, 56 to 25.

1921 Margaret Sanger organizes the American Birth Control League, which becomes Federation of Planned Parenthood in 1942.

1923 Supreme Court strikes down a 1918 minimum-wage law for District of Columbia women because, with the vote, women are considered equal to men. This ruling cancels all state minimum wage laws.

1933 Frances Perkins, the first woman in a Presidential cabinet, serves as Secretary of Labor during the entire Roosevelt presidency.

1941 A massive government and industry media campaign persuades women to take jobs during the war. Almost 7 million women respond, 2 million as industrial "Rosie the Riveters" and 400,000 join the military.

1945 Women industrial workers begin to lose their jobs in large numbers to returning service men, although surveys show 80% want to continue working.

1957 The number of women and men voting is approximately equal for the first time.

1960 The Food and Drug Administration approves birth control pills.

1960 Women now earn only 60 cents for every dollar earned by men, a decline since 1955. Women of color earn only 42 cents.

1963 The Equal Pay Act, proposed twenty years earlier, establishes equal pay for men and women performing the same job duties. It does not cover domestics, agricultural workers, executives, administrators or professionals.

1963 Betty Friedan's best-seller, The Feminine Mystique, detailed the "problem that has no name." Five million copies are sold by 1970, laying the groundwork for the modern feminist movement.

1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars employment discrimination by private employers, employment agencies, and unions based on race, sex, and other grounds. To investigate complaints and enforce penalties, it establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which receives 50,000 complaints of gender discrimination in its first five years.

1966 In response to EEOC inaction on employment discrimination complaints, twenty-eight women found the National Organization for Women to function as a civil rights organization for women.

1968 New York Radical Women garner media attention to the women's movement when they protest the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City.

1968 The first national women's liberation conference is held in Chicago.

1968 The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is founded.

1968 National Welfare Rights Organization is formed by activists such as Johnnie Tillmon and Etta Horm. They have 22,000 members by 1969, but are unable to survive as an organization past 1975.

1968 Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) is first Black woman elected to the US Congress.

1970 Women's wages fall to 59 cents for every dollar earned by men. Although nonwhite women earn even less, the gap is closing between white women and women of color.

1970 The Equal Rights Amendment is reintroduced into Congress.

1973 Billie Jean King scores an enormous victory for female athletes when she beats Bobby Riggs in "The tennis tournament watched by nearly 48,000,000 people."

1973 The first battered women's shelters open in the US, in Tucson, Arizona and St. Paul, Minnesota.

1973 In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court establishes a woman's right to abortion, effectively canceling the anti-abortion laws of 46 states.

1974 MANA, the Mexican-American Women's National Association, organizes as feminist activist organization. By 1990, MANA chapters operate in 16 states; members in 36.

1974 Hundreds of colleges are offering women's studies courses. Additionally, 230 women's centers on college campuses provide support services for women students.

1975 The first women's bank opens, in New York City.

1978 For the first time in history, more women than men enter college.

1981 At the request of women's organizations, President Carter proclaims the first "National Women's History Week," incorporating March 8, International Women's Day.

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman ever appointed to the US Supreme Court. In 1993, she is joined by Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

1984 Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman vice-presidential candidate of a major political party (Democratic Party).

1990 The number of Black women in elective office has increased from 131 in 1970 to 1,950 in 1990.

1992 Women are now paid 71 cents for every dollar paid to men. The range is from 64 cents for working-class women to 77 cents for professional women with doctorates. Black women earned 65 cents, Latinas 54 cents.

1993 Take Our Daughters to Work Day debuts, designed to build girls self-esteem and open their eyes to a variety of careers.

1996 US women's spectacular success in the Summer Olympics (19 gold medals, 10 silver, 9 bronze) is the result of large numbers of girls and women active in sports since the passage of Title IX.

Genocide among African Women-The face of HIV

Genocide among African women is growing at such a rapid pace. As I read, Ancestors Stone my heart went to these various women that have endured so much over the years. While reading the book my mind couldn't help to think about the silent killer among African women.

Three quarters of African women between the ages of 15-24 are infected with HIV. Here is one story:

There are days when Mary Mwasi does not know where she will find the strength to get out of bed. But sickness, exhaustion and despair will not feed the children or fetch the water, and so, somehow, she wills herself erect and steps into the sunlight of another Kenyan morning. "I have to look for food for the children day by day," she told a counselor for the US charity World Vision. "Life is difficult. Unless I get help from well-wishers, we cannot afford to eat."

Like many other residents of Ghaza, a village near the port city of Mombasa, Mrs. Mwasi is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. At least one of her three children is also HIV-positive and the others are often ill -- whether from the disease or malnutrition, she cannot be sure. Her husband left in search of work two years ago and never came back, so she lives on sufferance on her in-laws' land -- fearful that they will learn of her condition and expel her from the community. Her only financial assets are a few chickens, held in reserve to buy medicine for the kids.

She knows there is no hope for her. Her concern is for her children. "We say, 'When you pour water on the ground, you cannot pick it up again,'" Mary told the counselor. "I did not think of so many things before, so many worries. I am trying to leave everything to God."

As HIV/AIDS enters its third calamitous decade, Mary Mwasi's plight has become tragically common in East and Southern Africa, the regions hit hardest by the global epidemic. With 10 per cent of the world's population, impoverished sub-Saharan Africa is home to two-thirds of its HIV-positive population. But it is only recently that doctors, governments and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)* have realized that not only does the global struggle against AIDS have an African face, it is increasingly the face of an African woman. As infection rates mount, scientists and researchers are scrambling to understand the causes and to fashion new policies and programmes in response.

That is one Mary out of thousands. Each day many women have to make a decision to get medication, food or go without nothing. Why in a country so people died to get to we have women that are dying of HIV? Why do we have people fighting a war in Iraq, but not the war against HIV in Africa? Why can we go over take their land, people, customs, and traditions but we can't get over there to give them medicine?

www.un.org
www.avert.org

Resources for women living with HIV:

CDC-Info
Phone: 1-800-CDC-INFO
TTY: 188-232-6348
24hours/Day
Email: cdcinfo@cdc.gov

International Women's Health Coalition
333 Seventh Avenue,6th floor
New York, NY 10001

Women Alive
1566 Burnside Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
Phone: 323-965-1564
Hot line: 1-800-554-4876

Am I woman

Female circumcision, the partial or total cutting away of the external female genitalia, has been practiced for centuries in parts of Africa, generally as one element of a rite of passage preparing young girls for womanhood and marriage. Often performed without anesthetic under septic conditions by lay practitioners with little or no knowledge of human anatomy or medicine, female circumcision can cause death or permanent health problems as well as severe pain. Despite these grave risks, its practitioners look on it as an integral part of their cultural and ethnic identity, and some perceive it as a religious obligation.

Ancestors Stones focused on the African women sometimes the forgotten people. It's hard to think about the women when men are such the fore front of every story. When you think about it African women and African American women have struggle within their family and outside their family. women have to go through the traumatic even of getting their female sex organ cut off as a right of passage. Here in America, African American women still head many of the single family homes and yet we have the leading cause of Aids. African women are sold to the highest bidder to be someone bride without any suggestions for them. Once they are with their husband they are subjected to beatings, humiliation, taking care of the kids and her husband. Many of these women are one in many wives. So their place in subjective to a number not your name. The women will always be known as the third or fourth wife.

When does tradition turn into abuse? It is easy to write off what these women have gone through has part of their culture but isn't some of it inhumane? Does any one deserves to get beat because of their culture? Does anyone deserves to not make a decision because it is part of their culture?

Free Mandela

Free Mandela! That was the slogan we heard throughout the late 80's. Shouting the slogan as a young African American I didn't know what I was shouting. I just saw many Africans, African Americans local and country wide shouting the slogans day in day out. So I thought it was the thing to do. Not knowing exactly what it stood for or meant it just sounding cool as people walked through the streets and pumped their fist in the air. Who was the person that people wanted free?

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.

Mandela a household name like Martin Luther King was influential leader in the African community. It was imprison for speaking against injustice. Just like our leaders in the African American community injustice was their platform and they were willing to go to the extreme to fight against it. Mandela was such a strong figure that I don't think people realized when there were shouting the Free Mandela what it stood for.