International Women’s Day Activities

If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know something about the subject of my work, but not about the work itself. I’ll be posting little by little about my activities, but for now I want to talk about how I spent International Women’s Day.

Currently I am carrying out a small advocacy project called “Dignified Work for All: A Process Led by and for Women Workers.” The idea of the project is to organize local women workers so that they can identify ways of influencing policy decisions concerning labor, gender and economic issues, and to begin to put their strategies into action.

I have asked a local umbrella group (the “Coordinator”) that represents a variety of grassroots organizations, among them several groups of unemployed men and women, street vendors, a rural teachers’ union, petroleum industry workers who lost their jobs when the state oil company, YPFB was privatized, etc., to co-coordinate the project with me, and they have accepted.

I am working closely with D., the Coordinator’s vice president, to organize the project’s activities. Our first activity centered on focusing this year’s media attention for International Women’s Day on the need for greater economic inclusion for women. D and I worked on the Communications Plan together, but she alone acted as spokesperson.

Despite D.’s limitations (she is from a poor rural community and has a very low level of literacy), her 25 years’ experience as a community leader showed through as she powerfully made her point Friday in a local television interview and a radio interview. As a result of the latter, she has been invited for a follow-up interview this Tuesday.

Coming up: More on International Women's Day ….