International Women’s Day: Reasons to be Optimistic About the Developing World

Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

In celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, I recently read Gail Collins’ new book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. In the book, Collins documents the sexism and exclusion waged against women in America and articulates how the feminist movement mobilized to create social change.

During my years as a politician, I felt the sting of gender-based discrimination on a daily basis. This oppression still persists today, but as I’ve devoted my attention and, more recently, my career to advancing the status of women in the developing world, I have become far more appreciative of how far the United States has come in advancing women’s rights.

Collins references the extraordinary efforts of American groups working to end sexism and gender-based discrimination in the United States, but similar efforts in the developing world too often go unnoticed.

Working in 35 countries throughout the global south and supporting grassroots initiatives striving to create social change, American Jewish World Service (AJWS) works directly with women to make tangible changes on the ground. AJWS supports over 150 projects to advance women’s rights, reproductive and sexual health education, economic autonomy, and equal access to education.

AJWS focuses much of its work on women because of the high levels of discrimination that they face. Of the 1.3 billion people who live on less than $1 per day, approximately 70 percent are women. Of the farming work that is often exported to places like the United States, women do 80 percent of the work and receive 10 percent of the profits. In countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, women and girls are raped as a tool of war, and estimates put the number of rape survivors in the hundreds of thousands. Many of these survivors test positive for HIV.

The statistics and facts can be overwhelming, but we must remember that there are positive changes happening in communities throughout the world. Research and reports show that when women are empowered, given access to education, and serve as vocal leaders, communities can thrive. My experiences traveling throughout the developing world and working with our grantees has shown this to be true, and the women we work with are making change on a daily basis.

Most on my mind, now, is Sonia Pierre, a Haitian-Dominican woman who serves as the executive director of Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico Haitiana (MUDHA). In addition to its work in the Dominican Republic advocating for the rights of Haitian-Dominican immigrants, organizing community health education, and building gender-equity movements, MUDHA has taken a leading role in responding to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti almost two months ago. Just hours after the earthquake hit, MUDHA, in collaboration with other AJWS grantees in the Dominican Republic, mobilized a series of relief caravans to bring urgently needed aid into Haiti. They set up field hospitals, distributed food and shelter, and focused on women’s health needs such as feminine hygiene products, undergarments and diapers that are often overlooked by providers of humanitarian aid.

Sonia Pierre, an AJWS grantee since 2003, has been a driving force in this work, driving hours from the DR to Haiti to bring supplies, water and food to our partners in Haiti. You can watch part of her journey in a video documenting MUDHA’s response in Haiti.

Women like Sonia, and the women she works with at MUDHA, demonstrate the importance of bringing women-led organizations from the margins to the center of developing communities.

Real equality for women in the developing world and in the United States alike will not be realized until there is an end to gender-based violence and discrimination and until women have equal economic opportunities, full autonomy over their bodies and their education, and until women’s lives are fully valued and celebrated.

Photo credit: Julien Harneis