I haven’t heard anything further from Thomson Reuters regarding their cause-branding co-option of International Women’s Day, however as you may recall (see earlier posts on the matter here), according to Julia Fuller, the Global Head of Corporate Responsibility at Thomson Reuters,

Thomson Reuters involvement with the IWD site extends to the provision of news feeds which contain gender relevant content around a number of themes including science and innovation, justice, health and business and finance.  Hence our partnership is more refined than simply posting irrelevant Reuters news stories onto the site.

I thought a look at their International Women’s Day Business and Finance page might be useful in illustrating what a total crock that is.  Here is a screenshot taken on 1/27/10:

Stocks edge lower, new home sales fall, Geithner takes the hot seat and Berkshire shares surge…this is gender relevant how?  Please feel free to write to Ms. Fuller and ask her directly, julia.fuller@thomsonreuters.com.  You might also inquire about the change in identity on Twitter–they’ve changed the InternationalWomensDay.com user name from Reuters_Women to Women_on_IWD, but their  bio description still reads,

Thomson Reuters is global partner to the Aurora International Women’s Day website. Tweet back.

In other words, it is still a Thomson Reuters gig, but it isn’t as obvious unless you click on their profile.  While we are delighted that that Thomson Reuters is supportive of International Women’s Day, saying that their website, which is clearly designed in part to drive traffic to unrelated Reuters content, is The International Women’s Day website in their metatags is presumptuous, erroneous and unacceptable and the Feminist Peace Network continues to call for a boycott of the InternationalWomensDay.com website.

Not Under The Bus has declared today a day of action to fight for a woman’s right to an abortion.  They have an entire page of things that YOU can do from signing petitions (too many to list here) to writing to your Congressional representative to writing an OpEd for your local paper.

While women’s groups throughout the U.S. are focusing on the abortion issue, it is important to remember that this is not the only aspect of women’s health that is in jeopardy.  The National Partnership for Women and Families has prepared an excellent brief about the proposed wellness provisions that could effectively become a backdoor for rate discrimination against lower income women who are not able to participate in these programs because:

A disproportionate number of women head low-income families and are unable to pursue daily exercise programs when faced with significant caregiver responsibilities at home;

A disproportionate number of women are in low-income families and are unable to access safe areas for physical activity or affordable healthy food choices; and

Many of the most vulnerable women and children who would benefit greatly from assistance in living healthier lives are ill-prepared to sustain the added financial burden that arises from paying significantly more for health insurance under the current “20 percent” standard.

They conclude:

There is no doubt that women want their families and themselves to be healthy.  Every day, women are leading the charge for improving health across the country.  But what women also need is support to achieve healthy lifestyles — not a policy that allows their employer to discriminate against them based on their health status (or a family member’s health status).  This kind of policy undermines the very goals of health reform.  Instead, employers should be encouraged to provide wellness incentives that treat women equitably and respect the challenges they face in meeting the dual demands of work and family.

Gwendolyn Mink and Dorothy Roberts also point to concerns regarding nurse home visitation programs aimed at low-income pregnant women and mothers of young children, saying they are,

concerned that the provision is not aimed at providing health care. Instead, it pledges to advance goals that endanger the reproductive and family freedoms of low income women, conjures stereotypes of low income women of color, and implies that using available public services is a bad thing. The Senate bill contains a similar provision.

They go on to say that,

It is imperative that a government-sponsored home visitation program for low-income women amply and explicitly protects program clients.  Express stipulations to assure that participation is voluntary must be part of the statutory package, along with a guarantee that a decision to participate, or not to, cannot be made a condition of receiving other government assistance.  The aim of nurse home visitation programs should be to provide medical and wellness services;  neither the statutory language nor administrative regulations should permit or encourage monitoring the family and reproductive decisions of individuals, and neither should denigrate low-income mothers for using public assistance.  We should do everything possible to ensure that these programs support the women they are intended to serve rather than using women to advance the interests of government.

Whatever action you decide to take today, be sure make clear that women’s health care  must include not only access to affordable, safe and legal abortion, but also to full reproductive health care and affordable, non-discriminatory overall health care.

__________

Many thanks to Adele Stan for drawing our attention to the wellness program issue.

Once again, the Feminist Peace Network is participating in the Take Back The Tech campaign which runs throughout the 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence.  Each day, Take Back The Tech has a new action.  You can find each day’s action by clicking here or by clicking the widget in the righthand sidebar.  The theme for this year’s 16 Days campaign is:

Commit • Act • Demand: We CAN End Violence Against Women!

Numerous organizations throughout the world are participating in and supporting the 16 Days observance.  You can read  more about the many inspiring campaigns here:

• Voices Against Violence in Puerto Rico via Global Voices
• The Nobel Women’s Initiative:  Commit, Act, Demand
• From Bitch Magazine:  On the Map: Women Around the Globe Say ‘No’ To Gender-based Violence
• Women’s ENews: 16 Days to End Violence; Afghan Schools Threatened
• Women of Uganda Network: Public Dialogue to mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

Via Madre (see below for a link to take action):

On November 3, just a week before she was supposed to speak before audiences in the US about her work for sexual rights in Nicaragua, activist Silvia Martinez of the Trans Network of Nicaragua (REDTRANS) was denied a travel visa by the US embassy.

This decision came as a shock for several reasons:

- Silvia has been issued visas by other countries in the past. In 2007, she traveled to Panama to present recommendations of the LBTTTGI community to government representatives attending a session of the Organization of American States.

- She has an invitation through MADRE, a leading 26-year-old women’s human rights organization. MADRE has brought activists from around the world to speak in the US on previous occasions without a problem.

- She is firmly rooted in her community in Nicaragua and holds an important position in an organization (REDTRANS) that depends on her work in Nicaragua. There is no reason for her to give this up in order to live in a far less desirable situation in this country, away from her network of friends and allies.
Yet no member of the consulate even bothered to call MADRE to verify these facts.

Silvia clearly meets the above criteria that the US Department of State commonly uses to determine visa eligibility. The denial of this visa fits a broader pattern of the US embassy systematically rejecting visa applications from transgender people.

This discrimination constitutes a violation of internationally recognized human rights, which the US is obligated to uphold.

On a personal note, this is a huge disappointment because Martinez was planning to deliver a keynote lecture at the University of Louisville and many in the Louisville community were looking forward to meeting her and attending her lecture.  Please take a moment and click here to send a letter to the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Nicaragua.

As the Pacific rim continues to be pounded by typhoons and earthquakes, it is important to remember that women in those regions need support in specific ways that are almost always inadequately addressed by the usual aid programs.  In particular, programs for sexual assault providers need additional help during this time when women are particularly vulnerable.  the Pennsylvania Coaltion Against Rape has set up a fund to specifically help victims in American Samoa.  You can learn more about it and donate here.