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Photo Credits:-
Mask of Black Woman (chelle, Morguefile)
Women looking
to the Light
(earl53, Morguefile)
Colourful community of women (nasirkhan, Morguefile)
Tribal Woman wooden carving (clarita, Morguefile)
Woman in craft hat
(galuh, Morguefile)
|
 The
Importance of Women
Here are some quotes on the importance of women!
Equality
& Inequality
- Women
hold up half the sky. (Mao Zedong)
- The
world will never realize 100 per cent of its goals if 50 per cent of
its people
cannot realize their full potential. (UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon, cited here,
posted 2015, accessed 8 June 2015)
- Only
1% of world property
and 10% of world earnings belong to women, despite women being the
world
majority and the major workforce globally.
- When
people tell me
that women choose this life, I can’t help but laugh. Do they
know how many
women like me have tried to escape, but have been beaten black and blue
when
they are caught? To the men who buy us, we are like meat. To everybody
else in
society, we simply do not exist. (Ayesha, India, survivor,
cited by Equality
Now, accessed 18 October 2013)
- [To men:] Stop messing
about and get it together - we could make a good creative team if you
would
treat females as equals. (Denise Stephani in her book In the Wings p.203)
- ...the
evidence we do have makes a case that women who are able to crack the
glass ceiling raise the aspirations of their female citizens, and that
their countries are also more likely to offer a better quality of life
for women. (BBC Reality
Check, posted and accessed 4 October 2017)
- When
travelling
across Africa, Hillary Clinton (First Lady at the time) observed that
everywhere she looked women were carrying firewood, carrying water,
carrying babies, working in the markets, toiling in the fields. She
asked some economists, who were part of their delegation, how they
account for all of the work these women and girls were doing. They said
they don’t. They are not part of the formal economy. (See
BBC,
posted 25 March 2015, accessed 9 October 2016)
- Justice
is the foundation stone for equality and without it, women and girls
are
enormously disadvantaged politically, economically and socially. At a
minimum,
legal equality gives women and girls a level playing field from which
to build
their capabilities and make meaningful contributions to society. Not
allowing
half of the human race to do this is a serious human rights violation,
but
governments should also be fully aware that without ensuring equality
under the
law and equality of opportunity, countries will not be able to make
significant
progress on any level. (Jacqui Hunt, London
director of Equality
Now, cited at Marie
Claire’s ‘The world’s 11 worst anti-women
laws: how do these still exist?’,
posted 2 June 2016, accessed 7 October 2016)
- For
the moment
economists have only looked at the world around them through male eyes
and this only provides us with half the story. And with only half the
story how can we get results that will help the whole
population? (Clara Starrsjo cited at BBC,
posted and accessed 13 October 2017)
- ...study
after study shows that having women at work in positions of power
correlates with profitability, more collaborative environments, and
improved problem solving. (Dr Stacie Grossman Bloom, BBC,
posted and accessed 4 October 2017)
- Equality is not a concept. It's not something we
should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We
need it
to stand on this earth, as men and women. And the misogyny that is in
every
culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of
balance,
and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man
and woman
who's confronted with it. We need equality - kind of now. (Joss Whedon Equality
Now speech, 6m53s, accessed 29 October 2013)
World
Transformation
- When
sleeping women wake, mountains move. (Chinese proverb)
- When
women succeed, nations are more safe, more secure and more prosperous.
(US President Barack Obama, cited here,
posted and accessed 12 June 2015)
- What
would happen if one woman told the
truth about her life? The World would split open. (Muriel Rukeyser from
'Käthe
Kollwitz' and The
Courage to Heal)
- Anyone
who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are
impossible
without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by
the
social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included. (Karl Marx)
- To
educate a man is to educate an
individual... to educate a woman is to educate and liberate a nation.
(Ghanaian
proverb)
- In
too many societies,
women are marginalised, devalued, disallowed aspiration, denied their
liberty
and dignity. The fastest way for societies to enhance their human
capital is to
educate their women. (Albert Bandura here,
p.1, accessed 23 June 2011)
- Men
tend to be happier in a society where women enjoy
greater equality. (Cited by BBC,
posted 29 June 2013,
accessed 30 June 2013)
- ONE BILLION RISING FOR
JUSTICE is about envisioning justice for all survivors of gender
violence.
Justice can take many forms. It can be an apology or reparations.
Taking legal
action. It can be about making the truth visible. It can be
prosecuting, or
pushing to create change, or implementing policies and laws that ensure
the
protection of women’s rights. It can be calling for an end to
all forms of
inequality, discrimination, misogyny and patriarchy. It can be naming
perpetrators whether they be individuals, groups, corporations or the
state.
Demanding accountability. It can be rising for justice be it personal,
social,
economic, cultural, environmental or political. It can be a
revolutionary call
to restore dignity and respect for all women. It can be about
transformation. This
film [see here
and here]
is
Eve and Jordan's vision of justice. We hope it will inspire yours... (V-Day
1 January 2014 email 'We Invite You to Envision & RISE for
Justice in 2014!')
- When
you're changing a girl's life, it's not just that life. You start to
affect a family,
a community, a nation. (Oprah Winfrey)
- If
every girl is valued and given the same
opportunities as boys; if she is free…from all forms of
violence and
discrimination, amazing things can happen—not only for the
girl whose life is
changed forever but for the whole world which becomes safer, happier
and more
balanced. (Yasmeen Hassan, Global Director of Equality Now)
- In Prenatal Bonding, women
have the most influence on the world, and also on men. When supported
by men and their culture, they have the power to change the world, to
create world peace.
- And
that brings us to
the second extraordinary uniqueness of our time. And that is that 53%
of the human race - meaning women - have, for the first time in human
history, joined the human race as full partners... Women come rising in
such a way that the genius of women is now feeding the universal mind
pool in such a way that all problem solving will change. I think this
is the most important event of the last 5,000 years. It literally
changes all the ways that everything is seen... this makes for a
different kind of mind. When I speak to corporations, I always yell at
them, I say, "you are going to turn your women into good second-rate
men and you are not appreciating the genius", which is a genius for
seeing the gestalt, for seeing the whole constellation, for seeing the
multiplicity of pattern and orchestrating it in such a way that
everything works much better. Of course, this is the modern world, the
planetary culture. So, this second uniqueness, of women rising, of
course plays havoc on all relationships, because none of the old
relationships work very well. But this is also at the point of
releasing men to be what they can be - and perhaps ridding ourselves of
the old polarities, and opening the way for deep transformational
friendship between men and women. (Dr Jean Houston,
1987 'Sacred Psychology' talk at London workshop, side one,
7m1s)
- Fuck
work Economists
believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character.
But
what if jobs aren’t working anymore?... When work disappears,
the genders
produced by the labour market are blurred. When socially necessary
labour
declines, what we once called women’s
work – education, healthcare, service
– becomes our basic industry,
not a ‘tertiary’ dimension of the measurable
economy. The labour of love,
caring for one another and learning how to be our brother’s
keeper – socially
beneficial labour – becomes not merely possible but eminently
necessary, and
not just within families, where affection is routinely available. No, I
mean
out there, in the wide, wide world. (James Livingston, Aeon,
posted 25 November 2016, accessed 28 December
2016)
- The
feminine principle possesses the keys to realization in matter. It is
this principle that materializes, whether it be good or evil. It is
indeed the role of women to bring children into the world, but children
can also be the symbol of any accomplishment on the psychic and
spiritual planes. The same laws apply on whatever plane –
physical, psychological or spiritual.
Women are formed in such a way that very subtle particles or etheric
matter emanate from them, and this matter can be used to embody ideas
and projects, or give them a body. As such, all women must be aware of
their powers and decide what projects they wish to associate themselves
with. The salvation of humanity depends on the direction women will
take. Just like the plane of archetypes where there is only one Woman
at the top, the divine Mother, all women on Earth should unite to form
one woman, the collective woman who will give birth to the new life.
The new life will come thanks to women, all women, because they possess
the matter in which this new life can manifest. (O.M. Aïvanhov)
- The genius of women is the genius of humanity: the ability to love others more than oneself is the supreme form of intelligence. (Ashley Montagu, The Natural Superiority of Women)
Women as Peacebuilders
&
Community Builders
- The
rise of women is
the most important event in the last five thousand years, because of
women’s
emphasis on process, on making things cohere, work, and grow, and not
simply on
product. (Dr
Jean
Houston, unknown date of posting, accessed 30
October 2014)
- Building peace isn’t only something that is done
with accords, but with people on the ground, and of course women are key to
that. Helping mothers raise their daughters to believe in themselves, to
believe they can achieve what they want, will empower a generation of women to
not be drawn into conflict. (Sandra Vera, The
Guardian, posted and accessed 29 October 2020)
- How
different would things be if women owned and were part of the
production of
religious knowledge. Surely it's no coincidence that one of the first
acts of
social policy and justice in the Prophet's message was the banning of
female
infanticide so ubiquitously practised at birth by Arabs at the time.
Therein
lies a lesson for us all. (Hudu Jawad here,
posted and accessed 20 May 2015)
- “Women’s
voices must be
included in the peace process not only because they are victims of war
but
also, more importantly, because women are the most effective
peacebuilders. In
the conflict men have taken up arms while women are holding communities
together; women have become stronger and better equipped to play a key
role in
securing real peace.” (Mouna Ghanem, Founder, Syrian
Women’s Forum for
Peace) On 22 January 2014, the United Nations (UN)-backed Geneva II peace talks between
the Syrian government
and the opposition are scheduled to be held with the goal of ending the
Syrian
conflict and creating a transitional government. However, nearly 14
years after
the landmark passage of UN
Security
Council resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) calling on UN
member states to
“increase the participation of women and incorporate gender
perspectives in all
United Nations peace and security efforts,” no women have
been included in the
Syrian peace negotiations. In recent years, peace agreements around the
world
have fallen apart at a startling rate. Research and experience are
increasingly
pointing to one major explanation - the failure to include a broad
range of
stakeholders, especially women, in peace processes. The exclusion of
Syrian
women from the process not only undermines the promotion and protection
of
women’s human rights, but also reduces chances for a
sustainable peace and
future development for all Syrians. Women’s concerns are at
the core of
security concerns and sustainable peace and as UNSCR 1325 recognizes,
including
the voices of women in peacebuilding anywhere
is not negotiable. The
UN Secretary-General has specifically called upon UN member states,
envoys and
mediators to consult with women leaders and civil society organizations
and to
engage them in peacebuilding; yet Syrian women and civil society still
do not
have a seat at the table. To achieve a
different outcome for the Syrian peace process, there must be a
different
approach! (Equality
Now, accessed 19 December 2013)
- When
The Queen Is Happy, There's Peace In The Kingdom. (Unknown)
- When asked about how he feels about women, Sapkowski [author of The Witcher]
replied: "I believe that the feminine element dominates in nature.
Women are generally stronger than men. All power of this world should
be in the hands of women. Life, the world are too serious to leave it
in our hands". (Wikipedia, accessed 13 January 2020)
- Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
Two Sides
of the River
(Cate
Montana, posted and accessed 21 August 2013)
Once
upon a time there was a planet filled with
people who didn’t know the river of life has two equal sides
to it, the mind
and the heart. For thousands of years the heart and its wild emotions
held
sway, and the people danced and revelled and sang. Then the tables
turned and
the mind took over. Wonderful discoveries were made and technology
flowered.
But soon the Earth began to groan under the weight of progress. And the
people
forgot how to sing.
Where
are your women?
Then
one day the Uru-e-wau-wau tribe deep in the Brazilian rain
forests sent a young shaman to America to learn about Western ways and
culture.
He’d been in the United States six months when he called his
sponsor in a
panic.
"Where are your women?" he cried.
"What
do you mean where are our
women?"
"Where
are your women? What are they doing?"
His
sponsor scratched his
head. "Why, they’re busy working being teachers and doctors
and bus drivers.
They’re busy being wives and mothers. Why do you ask?"
The
shaman said, "In our
tribe men and women still dwell on the two different sides of the river
of life
and have very different roles. The men hunt and fish. They cut down
trees for
building canoes and huts. The women gather wild edibles, cook and take
care of
the children.
"Men
and women equally take part in tribal council. But there’s
one job that only the women can do, and it’s the most
important job in the
tribe. In fact, the survival of the tribe depends upon the women
fulfilling
this one task."
His
sponsor was intrigued. "What task is that?" he asked.
The
shaman replied, "It’s man’s nature to hunt until
there’s no more game left, to
fish until there are no more fish in the rivers, to cut down the trees
until
there are no more trees to cut.
"It’s
woman’s nature to know the needs of the
whole village and the needs of the earth. It’s the
women’s job to tell the man
when to stop."
"Why
are your women not telling the men to stop?"
Another way to
be? 
An
American journalist heard this story and it rocked her world. She
looked
at her life and realized that, like hundreds of millions of other
women, she’d
been raised on the men’s side of the river, cutting the
trees, fishing the
rivers and hunting the game. It had been wonderful and exciting and she
felt
proud she’d been as good as any man at her tasks. But
she’d worked so hard and
set such a brutal pace that at times she wondered what her life was for
and
whether there were more meaningful ways to live. She began to wonder if
all the
fish, all the animal skins and all the huts she’d acquired
had been worth it. Perhaps
there was another way to be? Haunted by the shaman’s story,
driven to discover
what made the women of the Uru-e-wau-wau tribe so powerful they could
tell the
men to STOP! She journeyed to the women’s side of the river
to learn.
What does
your heart say?
She
did medicine ceremonies with Ayahuasceros deep in the
Amazon; she climbed the peaks of the Andes and travelled to India to
the Goddess
temples. She was told: ‘Go into the body and be present and
connect with it.
Forget the mind and all its chatter. Listen. What does your heart say?
Its
voice is the wisest of all.’ But oh! It was hard!
She’d forgotten how to listen
to the unseen and the unspoken, forgotten how to trust what lay inside
her! On
the men’s side of the river she didn’t have time to
listen. Had been trained to
depend only on her mind; to use her body for only one thing; told her
heart
should belong to only one. No wonder she’d felt so
frightened, weary and alone!
She stayed on the women’s side of the river for many years
remembering her
connection with the Earth and the importance of the heart songs of
others. Her
own heart flowered and she grew strong in her love for herself and her
caring
for the world. Then one day she looked around and saw she’d
been joined by so
many sisters who once had dwelled on the men’s side of the
river she couldn’t
count the faces their numbers had grown so strong. Holding hands,
singing, they
crossed back over the waters to the men’s side to share what
they’d remembered
and learned. And the whole planet lived happily ever after as both mind
and
heart were finally joined as one.
|
Also see:-
Success
for Society
Gender Pros
& Cons
Women &
Failure
Links - Women
|
The Importance of Women
