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Stay connected with the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs, the Elliott School's resource for curriculum, scholarly research, and engagement in the policy and practice of promoting and achieving gender equality globally.
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 | Welcome to the New Academic Year!
As the semester picks up steam, and assignments and readings start to pile up, don't forget self-care.
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In This Edition | September 10
- 100 Years of Women's Rights Activism
- GEIA Updates
- GEIA Event
- Updates
- Student Spotlight
- Career & Internship Opportunities
- Other Upcoming Events
- Book Highlight
- Podcast Highlight
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100 YEARS OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Showcasing pioneering women leaders and male allies
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The year 2020 marks the anniversaries of several pathbreaking policies, laws and events for women's rights. It will mark
In this series we explore the lives of the brave women and their male allies from across the world who have been champions of women's rights. In every issue of the Bulletin we will showcase pioneers of women's rights activism from across the world.
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Susan B Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was an activist and crusader for the woman suffrage movement in the United States. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. In her lifetime, she donned several hats, including those of suffragist, abolitionist, temperance worker, educational reformer and labor rights activist.
Anthony was born into a Quaker family that was actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement. At age 16, she collected petitions against slavery as part of an organized resistance to the newly established gag rule that prohibited anti-slavery petitions in the United States House of Representatives. At the time, she was also introduced to prominent abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.
She also played an active role in the temperance movement. The rejection of her attempt to speak at a temperance meeting in Albany in 1852 prompted her to organize the Woman’s New York State Temperance Society. This was another crucial episode that prompted her in the direction of women’s rights advocacy.
In 1869, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. As an attempt to test the applicability and extent of the Fourteenth Amendment, Anthony cast a vote in the 1872 Presidential election in New York. She had maintained the belief that the Amendment gave women the right to vote in federal elections. She was arrested and convicted, and fined. However, she refused to pay the fine, and the case was not carried further. She used her trial as a means to educate people about women's suffrage with her famous address 'Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?'.
Although she did not live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment, in honor of her contributions to the suffrage movement, it came to be known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.
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Did you know? While other female figures like Lady Liberty had been on the currency before, the 1979 dollar featuring Susan B. Anthony was the first time a real, historical woman appeared on any U.S. currency.
You can learn more about the life and work of Susan B Anthony's at the following events/exhibits:
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Shall Not be Denied - Women Fight For The Vote
June 4, 2019 - September 2020
Monday - Saturday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Southwest Gallery, Second Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building
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This year, numerous DC museums and institutions are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment.
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GEIA will be hosting a student led conference on each of these breakthrough moments in history in March 2020. More information will be provided in future editions of the Bulletin.
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GEIA Advisory Group Member and Adjunct Professor appointed to the North Carolina Council for Women
GEIA Advisory Group Member and Adjunct Professor, Lyric Thompson, has been appointed to the North Carolina Council for Women. The Council provides advise to the Governor, the North Carolina legislature and state departments on the issues impacting women in the state.
Lyric Thompson is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this capacity she leads the institution’s formulation of evidence-based policy recommendations and manages ICRW’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. Government and internationally.
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GEIA is formally a part of the US Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
The U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security is an network of organizations dedicated to issues involving women, war, and peace. GEIA Program Assistant, Vasundhara Kamath, participated in meetings of the CSWG over the summer.
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WOMEN & WAR:
Evolving the Narrative of Women's Contributions to Peace & Security
Thursday, September 19
5:30 - 8:30 PM
1957 E St NW, Room 213
We are pleased to announce the launch of our latest photo-exhibition, titled "Women & War: Evolving the Narrative of Women’s Contributions to Peace & Security".
The exhibition was curated by GEIA Research Fellow, Jessica Smith. It is part of a GEIA series making visible women’s participation and representation in formal/informal political spaces, articulating their visions for a gender equal and peaceful society. Each photograph in this exhibition was taken by a woman in Bosnia-Herzegovina who survived the war in former Yugoslavia from 1992-1995. These images and stories, which focus on women’s resilience and contribution, offer a counter-narrative to portrayals of victimhood and gender-based violence often used to depict women’s experiences of conflict. Using a technique called photovoice, this project put cameras in the hands of Bosnian women to give them ownership over the narratives that represent their experiences. The resulting exhibition features stories from 29 women who shared their first-hand accounts of forging a way forward in the aftermath of war, as well as the challenges and triumphs that have accompanied this journey.
We invite you to a special event on Thursday, September 19th from 5:30 - 8.30 PM in the Elliott School of International Affairs, Room 213. Jessica will be sharing her experience using photovoice as a research and advocacy tool and discussing findings from the project that have implications for policy and practice focused on gender, peace and security. The event has been co-sponsored by Leadership, Ethics, and Practice (LEAP) Initiative and The Global Women's Institute.
The exhibition will be on display and open to the public for the month of September. It can be viewed on the second floor of the Elliott School (1957 E Street NW) Monday - Friday between 7:00 AM - 11:00 PM.
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Urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prioritize women and girls in the President's FY 2021 budget
Futures Without Violence are urging the United States Government to increase investments in bringing about gender equality across the globe.
"Promoting gender equality is critical to ensuring global stability, protecting human rights, as well as fostering social progress and economic growth. Today, an estimated one in three women experience some form of Gender Based Violence, usually by an intimate partner. Half of all refugees are women. An estimated 15 million girls under the age of 18 are married around the world every year. Women still earn less than men for the same work. Current funding by the U.S. Government is insufficient to adequately address these issues. We need your support to call for increased investments from the US Government in bringing about gender equality across the globe. Please sign on to the OMB FY2021 Gender Requests letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), urging OMB to prioritize women and girls in the President's FY 2021 budget."
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Elliott School's Council on Diversity and Inclusion
Student Applications
The council is searching for six student representatives to serve during the 2019-20 academic year. Each student will represent their respective class year. Council members are responsible for: serving one year, with the option for renewal; joining a working group; attending all meetings; and participating at all council related events.
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Courage to Run App for iOS
Courage to Run is the nation's premier, nonpartisan 5K series and leadership community committed to being healthy to lead effectively in civic life today. Their growing network of political players and civic believers whole-heartedly share a simple mission: (1) celebrate women running for office, (2) be healthy in mind and body, (3) run courageously and (4) champion democracy. Their Founder, Frieda Edgette, spoke about the importance of women in the political process at GEIA's International Women's Day Celebrations, 2019. Their new App has 1 to 15 minute "tabatas" (quick, high-impact strength exercises) that build the mindset, resilience, vision, courage and care needed to be healthy and lead effectively in civic life today.
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Rachel YakobashviliRachel is a senior majoring in International Affairs, concentrating in Conflict Resolution, and minoring in Organizational Sciences. She is a first-generation college student, whose parents immigrated from the Republic of Georgia and Moldova after the fall of the Soviet Union. As a child of immigrants, Rachel grew up witnessing her parents’ tenacity and willingness to take a critical lens on reality. As a result, she often applies these skills in both her academic and professional endeavors, seeking to better broken systems and analyze the root causes of social ills.
She is currently working at Dinah, an organization that helps and supports Jewish women who are victims of domestic violence, where she is responsible for community outreach, marketing, and fundraising efforts. She is passionate about educating, representing, and advocating for those whose voices are too-often silenced, and the courses she has taken in GEIA have equipped her with the knowledge and resources necessary to do just that. In her academic and professional experience, she has seen how women and other gender-minorities are continuously undermined, underestimated, and underrepresented. So, her leading vision in her work is to alleviate inequity through education, mentorship, and capacity-building by conducting problem and circumstance analyses and finding client-driven solutions.
"The courses, professors, and resources at GEIA have given me a new set of lenses through which to observe the world around me and think critically about who is and is not included, represented, and benefitting in existing systems of practice. What GEIA has allowed me to do is to apply a critical analysis, a gender theory analysis, to the gender inequity phenomenon. This has allowed me to be more proactive, and honestly provocative, in my conversations and work related to gender equality. For example, even within the Elliott School, I'm better able to challenge my peers to think about the real impacts of quota systems, pay gaps, and barriers to entry that women experience tenfold that of men. This has led to some interesting debates about policy, development, and security challenges in classes that I would otherwise feel incredibly unequipped to be a part of."
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CAREER AND INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
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GWI Open House
Thursday, September 12 | 3:00 - 5:00pm | GWI Office, 2140 G St NW
Join the Global Women's Institute for their fall Open House. This will be an opportunity to learn more about their research and meet members of the team. Stop by and say hello, ask questions, and grab some materials! Refreshments will be provided.
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The Institute for African Studies 2019 Welcome Reception
Friday, September 13 | 5:00 - 7:30pm | 1957 E St NW, City View Room, 7th Floor
The Institute for African Studies (IAfS) at the Elliott School of International Affairs, African Graduate Student Association, and African Students Association invite you to celebrate the beginning of the new school year with GW students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community interested in African affairs. GEIA and IAfS work closely on issues concerning gender and development in Africa. The welcome reception will feature an African DJ, food, beer and wine, as well as remarks from Ambassador Reuben E. Brigety II, Dean, Elliott School of International Affairs; Jennifer Cooke, Director for the Institute for African Studies; and Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, Visiting Scholar and Associate Director.
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A Lecture and Discussion with Amali Tower, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Refugees Monday, September 16, 2019 | 5:10 – 7:00PMGelman Library 2130 | Room 702
The UN Refugee Agency estimates that by 2050, upto 250 million people will be displaced by climate change impacts. UN figures indicate that 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women. In central Africa, where up to 90 percent of Lake Chad has disappeared, nomadic indigenous groups are particularly at risk. As the lake's shoreline recedes, women have to walk much further to collect water. Using the Lake Chad crisis as an example, Ms. Tower will discuss potential strategies to manage climate migration. This lecture is sponsored by the Elliott School’s Master of International Affairs program.
Remember to bring your GW ID to get into Gelman Library.
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National Book Festival Presents Poet Laureate Joy Harjo
Thursday, September 19, 2019 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Thomas Jefferson Building, Coolidge Auditorium, 10 1st Street SE
Awarding-winning poet Joy Harjo will give her inaugural reading as the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. A member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Harjo is the first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate. The historic reading marks the beginning of Harjo’s laureateship, which traditionally launches the Library’s 2019-2020 literary season. This year, it is also part of the Library’s new National Book Festival Presents series, featuring high-caliber authors, their books and related Library treasures.
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Would you like your event featured in our Newsletter? Interested in co-sponsoring an event with GEIA? Submit your inquiry and we'll be in touch as soon as we can.
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An American Sunrise is a collection of poems by Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother’s death, to her beginnings in the native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo’s personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice.
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Constitutional is a podcast about the story of America, produced by the Washington Post and hosted by Lillian Cunningham. It looks at the ideals that were set out by the Founding Fathers through the writing of the Constitution, and the fight since then on what is in it and what was left out. Episode 6 explores the struggle for women's rights that were not guaranteed in the original document.
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1957 E Street NW, Suite 501
Washington, DC 20052 Phone: +1 (202) 994-8483 | Email: geia@gwu.edu
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