Ignored in droves
A packed ballroom in Beverly Hills for women Nobel laureates shows how irrelevant the US press has made international women's rights
By Ellen Snortland 04/20/2006
How mainstream media can persist in ignoring more than half of the world's population so thoroughly continues to boggle my mind. And they don't just ignore the pipsqueaks. They ignore the big squeaks: the loudest squeakers on the planet, to boot. The squeakiest wheels may get the grease, but they certainly don't get the LA or New York Times!
Last week, I was a rare entity: a working press member at the second annual Global Women's Rights Awards dinner, hosted by the Feminist Majority Foundation. Jay and Mavis Leno were co-chairs. Salma Hayek, brilliant and beautiful as ever, moderated a panel that consisted of four women who have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Betty Williams. Since the Nobel prizes were created in 1901, only 33 women have won. A total of 12 women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, as distinct from other accomplishments, and four of those 12 (count 'em, FOUR), were at the dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hardly a platform of people to "dis" or discount, but mainstream press, both print and broadcast, stayed away in droves.
The Feminist Majority Foundation executives were eloquent as usual. Executive Vice President Katherine Spillar and President Eleanor Smeal commented on the dearth of media. Smeal, a long-time and intrepid women's rights leader, talked about the FMF campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Much prior to 2001, Mavis Leno and the FMF worked persistently to end gender apartheid in Afghanistan. When they finally got a meeting with then-President Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Albright expressed amazement that the FMF was able to garner such massive support for the women of Afghanistan without any mainstream media help whatsoever. Amazing indeed.
What do the managing editors and assignment desk managers think? "Ho hum, more women working toward peace and liberation again. Such yesterday's news. Booooooring. But meanwhile, what's that scoop about Ashlee?"
It just so happened that two of the Nobel Peace Prize winners issued a joint statement, simultaneously, in English and Farsi, at the Global Women's Rights Awards dinner.
"We two women, Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi, are Nobel Peace Prize Laureates from the United States and Iran. At this dangerous moment of heightening tension, with the probability of military conflict between our countries, we demand: That our governments not resort to armed violence and instead negotiate a solution to the increasing crisis; that our governments stop human rights violations and curtailment of civil liberties at home and abroad; our civil rights and human rights, which of course includes women's rights, must not be compromised in the war against terrorism; that they reduce military budgets and use those resources in benefit of their peoples and the people of the world; that our governments not inflame old hatreds and instead work toward a brighter future for our children. Violence is a choice. We demand nonviolent solutions to our common problems. Negotiated solutions to the current crises must also include our parliaments and [nongovernmental organizations or NGOs] — the voices of civil society,” according to the statement.
“We demand a nonviolent world where human security is the basis of our common global security. We pledge to create such a world where the basic needs of all peoples are addressed. Global security is enhanced when individuals and their families have a stake in and hope for their own futures — their human security is part of our global security.
No more military attacks. No more war," the statement concludes.
Did you read that anywhere but here? What if we threw a peace party and no one came? Oh, that's right, we DID throw a peace party and very few journalists came. Peace-monger Cindy Sheehan was there that night, but since she was not controversial in that setting, the journalism decision makers didn't see a story there. This pervasive, total and utter disregard for female newsmakers is what has caused women's rights to be so stuck. The absolutely packed ballroom at the Beverly Hills Hotel got to see firsthand how irrelevant the US press has made international women's rights.
If our news media put women's progress in the correct perspective — a dignified, overdue, absolutely essential and vital part of human progress — all people worldwide would be better off.
Almost 100 years ago, a big squeaky wheel for women's suffrage, Alice Paul, said, "Woman's dearest possession is life and since it is given to her but once she must live as to feel no torturing regret for years without purpose, so live as not to be scarred with the shame of a cowardly and trivial past, so live that dying she can say: All my life and all my strength was given to the finest cause in the world, the liberation of womankind."
She never got much coverage either.
PS …
I'm performing my show, "Now That She's Gone," for a United Nations Association Membership Drive at 7 p.m. April 27 at Throop Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, 300 S. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. For reservations, call (626) 449-1795 or email Sherry@unapasadena.org.
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