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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE INVITATION TO A DISCUSSION OF THE NEW BOOK DEVELOPING POWER: HOW WOMEN TRANSFORMED INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WASHINGTON, DC, November 1, 2004 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- In today's policy environment, women are critical constituents. Yet 35 years ago, integrating women into international development programs was a novel idea. In Developing Power, 27 women from 14 countries recount their activities that collectively helped form and support the global women's movement. By setting their agency into their own biography, these women illustrate the many strands that form the movement and clearly show how individual women can make a difference. Three authors recall their roles in transforming international development policy from their distinct viewpoints as a scholar, an activist, and a practitioner. Discussion with a panel featuring co-authors: Irene Tinker, Professor Emerita, Women's Studies and City and Regional Planning, University of California-Berkeley, and Co-Editor, Developing Power Aziza Hussein, Chair, National Center supporting NGOS in Population and Development (NCPD Cairo) and former President, International Planned Parenthood Federation Vivian Derryck, Senior Vice President and Director of Public/Private Partnerships, Academy for Educational Development Thursday, November 18, 2004 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Fifth Floor Conference Room Books will be available for sale before and after the meeting. Irene Tinker argues in her introduction that when the international economic development paradigm shifted from infrastructure to basic human needs, reaching poor women became a priority. To reach women in villages and slums, educated women were hired to organize them. The resources available for carrying out the programs buttressed women organizations at the local, national, and international levels. How the US Congress voted to include women in the 1973 foreign assistance act is the focus of her chapter. Aziza Hussein was instrumental in founding the first family planning organization in Egypt. Appointed to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, she was the first to break the taboo about discussing family planning as a woman's right. As the first Arab member of the commission, Aziza also expounded on the status of women in Islam, covering women's rights in the family such as marriage, polygamy, divorce, and parental rights and duties. Vivian Derryck has moved seamlessly between government and NGOs, always deeply concerned with the education of girls as well as boys. She traces her involvement with Africa to the summer of 1965 when she went to the Ivory Coast as a volunteer for Operation Crossroads Africa. Her insights on the Second World Conference for Women, in Copenhagen in 1980 recall the highly charged atmosphere and the politics of decision-making. Location: Woodrow Wilson Center wing of the Ronald Reagan Building at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20004-3027. Directions are available at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions; photo identification is required. Please respond with acceptances only to Charlotte Youngblood by e-mail to youngbloodcm@wwic.si.edu; by fax to 202-691-4184 or by phone at 202-691-4186.
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