Womyn

8 Things Women Have Successfully Fought For Since NOW Founding

July 2, 2015 Nina Bahadur, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Activism, History, Reproductive Rights, Womyn

By Nina Bahadur in Huffington Post - Forty-nine years ago today, something awesome happened. At the Third National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women on June 30, 1966, 28 women banded together with a vow to represent women's rights and interests in governmental matters. Thus, the National Organization of Women (NOW) was born. Forty-nine years later, NOW campaigns for six core issues: Reproductive rights and justice, ending violence against women, economic justice, LGBT rights, racial justice and constitutional equality amendment. The women involved in the organization since NOW's founding have pushed for gender equality at every level, marching on Washington and getting women across the country involved in local NOW chapters.

Former ‘Comfort Women’ Protest Philippines-Japan Military Ties

July 1, 2015 Ronron Calunsod, www.japantimes.co.jp Educate!, Resist! Japan, Phillipines, Wars and Militarism, Womyn

By Ronron Calunsod in Japan Times - Victims of Japanese military wartime sex abuses in the Philippines and leftist groups protested in front of the Japanese Embassy in Manila last week to denounce growing military ties between the Philippines and Japan as the two nations held naval drills in the South China Sea. “We are worried that what happened during World War II will be repeated this time — women being snatched, locked up and then raped,” Hilaria Bustamante, an 89-year-old former “comfort woman,” said during their demonstration. The term “comfort women” is a euphemism to describe those who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War II.

Women Farmers In Chile Join Together To Create Economic Autonomy

May 11, 2015 Marianela Jarroud, www.ipsnews.net Create! Autonomy, Chile, Food and Agriculture, Womyn

More than 100 women small farmers from Chile’s southern Patagonia region have joined together in a new association aimed at achieving economic autonomy and empowerment, in an area where machismo and gender inequality are the norm. Patricia Mancilla, Nancy Millar and Blanca Molina spoke with IPS about the group’s history, and how the land, craft making and working together with other women helped them to overcome depression and situations of abuse, and to learn to trust again. “We have at last obtained recognition of rural women,” said Mancilla, president of the Association of Peasant Women of Patagonia. “Peasant women have learned to appreciate themselves. Each one of our members has a history of pain that she has managed to ease through working and talking together.”

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