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Society
New Generation Sisterhood
By Neena Bhandari
"I may feel
like a little Black girl who can run fast, but I'm also a woman who
followed her heart and achieved her childhood dream," writes Cathy
Freeman on becoming the first indigenous Aboriginal Australian athlete
to take home an Olympic gold medal in the women's 400-metre race at
Sydney 2000.
Her sentiment
reflects a feeling of power that many women in their 30s and 40s are
experiencing. Born in Mackay in northern Queensland (Australia) in 1973,
Freeman discovered her passion for running at the age of five and went
on to win an Olympic gold medal.
The `Imagining
Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women' project,
which includes a book anthology and online exhibits, celebrates a
significant moment in the history of women's lives and reveals a
generation of women worldwide who, like Cathy, believe that anything is
possible for them today.
The project
is the brainchild of Paula Goldman, a doctorate candidate in social
anthropology at Harvard University (USA). She has been using art and
literature to create bridges between seemingly different groups of
people. In post-war Bosnia, she worked on reconciliation and
reconstruction projects; and in Kenya, she helped support human rights
groups as part of an effort to boost the country's transition to
democracy.
An expert in ethnic conflict and human rights issues, Goldman was born
in Singapore and raised around the world; this book anthology grew out
of her vision of a new generation of women poised to take the reins of
global leadership.
Says Goldman, "When I think about the world today, I see a generation of
young women with enormous opportunity to make a difference. We are
present in record numbers in schools and in the workforce and many of us
have access to digital technology that connects us across geographical
boundaries. We have a huge opportunity to use these privileges to create
substantive change in the world."
The project began in a small way in 2001 with an international call for
artistic submissions from women aged between 20 and 40 years to answer
the question: "What defines your generation of women". There were over
3,000 responses from young women in 105 countries.
The book anthology, published in association with International Museum
of Women, San Francisco (USA), comprises 120 submissions from women
worldwide. It is divided into four broad sections - Inside: Women's
relationships with themselves and intimate relationships with others,
spirituality, body, pregnancy, romantic relationships; Outside: young
women interacting with the world around them, work, politics, race,
AIDS, environment; Between: Intersections of identity and borders,
global; travel, what it means to be an immigrant, what it means to be
"between" cultures; and lastly, Towards: The world young women are
working to create.
As Sydney-based writer Nina Cullen, 28, says: "When I saw this call for
submission, I thought it was a really ambitious project - specific yet
not personal. What does it mean to be a woman in this generation? This
embodies the idea of a female generation gap. Between a mother and
daughter there are obvious disagreements, but the fundamentals stay the
same. My dad died seven years ago and with that loss in the family, my
relationship with my mother has become much stronger. It's the curiosity
about people who created and care for me. There
is an antagonistic dependence on each other".
While Cullen's mother was born in 1930 and lived through war-time
Germany and the Nazi rule, Cullen was born in 1977 and grew up in an
Australian suburb. She says, "In Australia, we are in a privileged
situation. There is a new generation of women who expect more from
themselves and have the possibility of getting more for themselves; it's
no longer just a dream. The expectation that they have choice is a
catalyst".
This project uses the internet and creative media as a platform to unite
young women in a fun, inclusive global conversation and inspire them to
take on leadership roles in their communities. It also seeks to address
the significant obstacles in assuming these roles by exploring the
changes, opportunities and challenges facing the first truly global
generation of women.
The project
is supported by many high profile women across the world from the fields
of entertainment, arts, business, economic and human rights.
Contributors include writers Zadie Smith, Isabel Allende and Nikki
Gemmell, and Queen Rania of Jordan.
From Beijing to Bogota, Sydney to San Francisco, Cairo to Calcutta, the
book anthology brings together women from across the world. "It is an
important part of a larger project that starts a conversation that holds
the possibility of positively changing your life and the world by
overcoming the obstacles that women and girls face across the globe. It
is more than just an art book, it is a portrait of a generation," writes
Chris Yelton, President, International Museum of Women.
The International Museum of Women launched the project on March 8, 2006
in 14 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, India,
Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, South Africa,
United Kingdom and United States) and four languages (English, Spanish,
French and Arabic).
Over 100 million young women (over 10 per cent of the one billion women
between the ages of 20 and 40 years living in the world today) have
ready access to the Internet. The Online Exhibit, an interactive
multilingual gallery with over 300 interpretations of women answering
the question, "What defines your generation?", has discussion forums,
resources for action and educational outreach and curricula available
for educators to bring content about young women into classrooms. From
March to June 2006, the online exhibit will publish submissions on an
interactive website, focusing on monthly themes.
The project aims to improve the lives of young women and their
communities in the following ways: Increasing the global visibility of
young women's leadership; connect advocacy organizations with a broader
public; establish international community among the first global
generation of women; leverage global media, technology and partnerships
to create action for change.
The project will unite young women in taking focused action in three key
areas of healthy relationships (ending violence against women); economic
empowerment (career/work, entrepreneurship, microfinance); and culture
and conflict (uniting women across boundaries).
As former president of Ireland and member of the International Museum of
Women's Global Council Mary Robinson succinctly sums up, "The
International Museum of Women and the Imagining Ourselves project will
create a strong platform for young women's voices, uniting young women
in a global dialogue around issues that impact their world."
April 9, 2006
Visual from Mamelas
series - Valentina Campos - Bolivia
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
Top
| Society
The Week of April 9, 2006
United States Congress at Critical Crossroads
with India Dr. Subhash Kapila
Nuclear
Deal Hurdles : It's The Politics, Stupid! by Rajinder Puri
Bangladesh's Foreign Policy Approaches to India
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
US Market Horizon and Gathering Storm Clouds by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Indian Federalism in Troubled Waters by
Prasenjit Maiti
Jail Di Galli Vich No
Entry by Usha Kakkar
Caste Wars II by Usha Kakkar
Democracy Dying by J. Ajithkumar
The Zero That Was India by Kamesh
Ramakrishna Aiyer
Answer to Puzzlement
About Zero by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Of Spices and Magical Realism by Rajgopal
Nidamboor
Post Colonial India and its Architecture -
III by Ashish Nangia
Ancient Mangroves in the Womb of the Present
by V.K. Joshi
Celebrating Culture by Neha Girotra
Sharing and Young Children by Garima Gupta
The Poetry in the Moors by Dr. Amitabh
Mitra
Ain't No Cure For Love by Vinay Chandran
The 'Feminization' of Menswear by MH Ahsan
Liberating the Nuns by Mehru Jaffer
Smart Streets, Shattered Lives by Nitin Jugran
Bahuguna
Keeping India's Hands Clean by Kaushiki Rao
Power Trip : Bollywood Masala by MH Ahsan
New Generation Sisterhood by Neena Bhandari
Apa's Survival Mantra : A Profile of Angela Gomes
Router : An Introduction by Ruchi
Gupta
Lakhnawi Itar by Rajsaran Varma
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