a) Equal sexual rights
b) Right to women security guards
c) Right to have an area dedicated to women’s concerns, i.e. a women’s center
d) Right to enjoy a safe and secure campus environment
e) Right to enjoy freedom of expression in social settings; free from sexual harassment
f) Right not to be treated as a sex object or subject to racial stereotypes
g) All students should respect the female character of the college

There is a growing level of global violence against women. As they increasingly form the backbone of the world economy, they are subject to structural violence of state-led “development” programs, i.e. sweatshop factories, trafficking and the personal violence of rape and sexual abuse. Femicide describes the massive rape and violence against women in the Congo (where 200,000-300,000 rapes have been reported), female genital mutilation that affects 100 million women Africa, dowry murders in India, killings of hundreds of women on the Mexican border, increasing levels of trafficking, and sex tourism. One in four women in the US has been subject to rape or attempted
rape.

Mville Students and faculty are organizing to publicize the global position of women through presentations at Bedford Women’s Prison on March 5, and in a presentation on the Mville campus on March 12. They are members of a recently formed campus group called the Coalition on Violence against Women that seeks to study and to educate about the situation of women both in the US and globally.

During the group’s presentations, Megan Angley presented on the global issue of violence, focusing on many aspects of violence against women including the topics of femicide, domestic violence and sexual violence. She discussed violence against women in five regions areas of the world: the United States, Mexico, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Middle East, and Asia.

Christina Calbos discussed CEDAW, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women that has been signed by more than a hundred countries, although noticeably not the US. She described when and how this declaration was written, whether it has benefited women globally, and its implication for women and explain why the US has not ratified the convention, and what it will take to ratify it in the future Barbara Gonzalez discussed the issue of specific problems that face African women that make it far less connectable to the western world. Gender stereotypes act as a barrier to any type of progressive behavior in society. This hinders the African woman’s ability to move forward in life.

Anneka Preston describes many different modes of women’s empowerment: institutional, local, educational, and economic level Through the use of different development techniques, these organizations, nations, individuals, and methods have all tried to incorporate women into the globalization discourse. One successful case of empowerment is micro credit.

Prof . Peter Bell cited a recent study by Kristof & WuDunn entitled Half the Sky that documented the high levels of violence, discrimination and violation
of human rights against women globally. His research suggests that women hold up not half, but two-thirds of the sky. The economies of Thailand and Cambodia are built largely on the backs of women. The question for the 21st century is how might women enjoy full human rights, and how might their economic power be translated into social and political
empowerment?