1. SHOP 'TIL YOU DROP
'Tis the season to shop, shop, shop. If you would rather beat the traffic hassles and surf the internet for your gifts this year, you can buy all you want and a portion of everything you spend will come back to Fifty/Fifty Leadership - without any extra cost to you. Just click on the link below for Giveline and shop away!
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Fifty/Fifty Leadership is now listed on Giveline. |
If you're unfamiliar with Giveline, it is an online retailer which gives an average of 16% (up to 33%) of sales to your selected nonprofit organization. It's simple: you shop in the online store, choosing from over one million bestselling name-brand products, and with each transaction Giveline will send Fifty/Fifty Leadership a significant cash donation.
Giveline.com is an online store created for the community-minded shopper, offering more than a million bestselling products including books, movies, music, electronics, housewares, gifts and more. Every purchase generates a substantial donation to Fifty/Fifty Leadership - an amazing average of 16% of store sales, sometimes as high as 33%. Giveline has great products, great service, and great prices - the only difference between Giveline and other major online retailers is that every purchase earns money for our organization. Check it out today, and if you decide to buy, remember that Fifty/Fifty Leadership will earn significant funds in support of our mission!"
So, click here and start shopping! http://www.giveline.com/default.asp?v=V087912649
Or if you are more comfortable shopping through Amazon.com, click on the Fifty/Fifty Leadership website and click on the link to Amazon. Every time you purchase something through Amazon, Fifty/Fifty Leadership is credited with a percentage of your purchase. http://www.Fifty/Fifty.us/Products.htm
2. LEADERSHIP CIRCLES
As well as partnering with the Glendale YWCA to put on the H.E.R. Conference in March, we will be putting on a Leadership Circle with women who have been using the services of the Y - including women who have escaped from domestic violence and are turning their lives around. We will report on the start of this first Circle shortly.
Leadership Circles are small groups, held in homes, offices, restaurants, church halls, community rooms, etc. They provide an opportunity to hone your leadership skills and learn new ones. Leadership Circles will help you recognize the leadership you already have and express it. "Leadership" has mostly been defined by men; through Leadership Circles we will add our voice to the definition of leadership. The program will be expanding nationally so that everyone who wants to be a leader will have a place to go to share successes, learn how to overcome barriers and break through the ceilings.
3. FREEDOM ACADEMY The Freedom Academy will bring 12 young women who have been identified as potential leaders of their communities to the United States for a year-long program to develop their leadership skills. It is the assertion of the creators of the Freedom Academy that there is a dire need in developing countries for powerful leadership, especially for the untapped human leadership potential in previously neglected leadership talent among women and girls. If the 8 Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations are to be met by the year 2015, it is absolutely essential to create fast track leadership programs for women. After attending the Freedom Academy program the graduates return home to be integral to developing, implementing and leading projects designed to bring their homeland into line with the 8 Millennium Development Goals.
4. IN THE NEWS
HEALTH
The Freedom of Menopause!
Neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, MD says in her book, The Female Brain, that the decline in hormones that comes with menopause allows us to stop putting others' needs before our own - sometimes for the first time in our lives!
From puberty to menopause, a woman walks a fine line between making sure she's at the center of her relationships and risking pushing those relationships away through anger or aggression. As the ratio of testosterone to estrogen rises, she now gets angry whereas before she may have just bitten her tongue. At the very least she'll stand up for herself and say, "I'm not doing that anymore." |
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IN THE BOARDROOM
California, Nebraska - Women's voices still hard to find
In Lincoln, Nebraska, the Women's Commission released a follow up report comparing 2003 to 2006. The report indicates that of the 2,420 possible seats on 219 boards, men occupied 1,710 seats (70.7 %) and women held 710 seats (29.3 %). Although female representation jumped 11.9% in the past three years in elected offices, the overall female participation rate dropped six-tenth of a percent (.6%).
In California, a study by the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis shows that roughly half of the state's top 400 public companies have no female directors and women hold just 8.8 percent of the 3,245 board seats overall. |
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IN THE MILITARY
More than 155,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 according to the Pentagon. Females now account for 15% of the active duty force.
68 women have died and 430 have been injured - the deaths exceed the number of military women who lost their lives in Korea , Vietnam and the Gulf War combined. |
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U.S. OR CHINA BEST PLACE FOR ENTREPRENUERS?
The Los Angeles Times reported recently that women entrepreneurs in China face some tough odds. Nonetheless, about 1 in 5 Chinese Entrepreneurs are women and Forbes magazine recently ranked Zhang Yin, founder of a paper-recycling company, as China 's fifth-richest person. Five other women, also self-made - ranked among Forbes' 40 richest people in China , in marked contrast to the top women on the U.S. list who largely inherited their wealth. |
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GENDER EQUALITY
Thanks to Zen Lopez, Art Consultant for sending the following:
The Philippines is ranked 6 th worldwide in Gender Equality. The U.S. ranks 22nd!
The Gender Gap Index, which covers 90 percent of the world's population was compiled by researchers from Harvard University , the London Business School and the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Scandinavian countries are the most progressive in the world, but no nation has yet managed to bridge the gender gap completely, a report said.
Sweden , Norway , Finland and Iceland top the World Economic Forum (WEF) rankings, followed by Germany in fifth place.
The study shows on average, about 90 percent of the gender gap in education and health narrowed but only 50 percent in economic participation and opportunity, and 15 percent in political empowerment.
Sweden is the only country in the world to close the overall gender gap by more than 80 percent, she added. |
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5. EVENTS
November 16, 2006 - March 11, 2007
Exhibit in Amsterdam
An exhibition of drawings covering the years 1948-1968, when Dutch artist Fiep Westendorp worked for Parool newspaper., Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Monday, December 18th
Strategic Planning Retreat concerning Human Trafficking
The Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women request that you attend this very important meeting Strategic Planning Retreat by Paul Watson & Associates for our Coalition members. Los Angeles has become part of the new Unity Rescue & Restore Coalition/ Health & Human Services meeting uniting Los Angeles , Orange County and San Diego in fighting human trafficking.
Contact Anne Dunn, Sr. Project Coordinator, Human Trafficking, Commission on the Status of Women, 213-978-0300 for details and reservations
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Saturday, March, 24, 2007
H.E.R. CONFERENCE TO CELEBRATE WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
Mark your calendars! The Health, Empowerment and Resources Conference for women and girls will take place Saturday, March 24 th at Woodbury University , Burbank , California. Fifty/Fifty Leadership is partnering with the YWCA of Glendale to bring educational and inspiring programs and speakers. More to come!
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6. EDITORS COMMENTS
The votes are in - From our poll last month, you voted that yes indeed, you would vote for a woman, and the woman would be Hillary Clinton!
Congratulations to Fifty/Fifty Leadership Board Member Heather Mutz and her husband John on the birth of their son Ian on Thursday, November 9th.
Everyone at Fifty/Fifty Leadership wishes you joy and peace in this holiday season - whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanucah, Kwanzaa - or them all! And may 2007 bring you an abundance of success, love, health and joy.
7. ABOUT Fifty/Fifty LEADERSHIP
Our Vision
That 50% of leaders are women |
Our Mission
To transform the culture within which we live to one that naturally includes women on an equal basis in the selection of leaders |
8. MEMBERSHIP - HOW YOU CAN BE INFORMED AND INVOLVED
Becoming a member in Fifty/Fifty is your statement that you want to add your voice to help transform our culture such that when leaders are chosen, they are chosen equally - women to men. What else is in it for you?
• Your subscription to this newsletter, The Equality Standard so you'll have facts about women and girls locally, nationally and internationally, plus learn about events of interest in Los Angeles, New York, D.C., Sacramento, and more
• Discounts at many events put on by Fifty/Fifty Leadership
• Your name will be added to our website as a supporter of the work we are doing
• Your membership may be tax deductible - please check with your tax professional
Can you be involved without becoming a member? Yes. Subscriptions to The Equality Standard are $12 per year. As a special offer for the launch of this new newsletter, if you subscribe between now and December 31, 2006, you will receive the newsletter until December 31, 2007. You can pay by check or credit card. Please send your check or the credit card information below to Equality Standard, P.O. Box 11202, Glendale, CA 91226 or you can call or email your credit card information to PaulineField@charter.net , 818-243-2322
(Click here for printer-friendly subscription form)
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9. TO CONTINUE RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER
As stewards of the resources of Fifty/Fifty Leadership and with dedication to the women and girls we serve, we can no longer continue to use those valuable resources to provide this newsletter free of charge. If you are reading this, you will continue to receive it through the end of the year. In January 2007, however, it will be sent only to members and subscribers. It also can be viewed on this website, but to receive it directly to your e-mailbox, membership or a subscription will be required.
10. FINAL WORDS
Thanks to Lena Bozoyan, former Women's Commissioner in Glendale , California for reminding us of this wonderful poem of Maya Angelou.
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Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Maya Angelou |
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Pauline Field
818.243.2322
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