AAUW Dialog

Back in the day on “girls’ night out,” I would sit around, wine in hand, with friends as we plotted our retirement. All of us worked for nonprofits that had little or no retirement plans, so we decided that our best bet would be to commit a crime and have the government take care of us for “free.” We even decided that a federal crime would be best, maybe something involving money so that we would have two options — either fleeing to a beach outside the United States to drink margaritas for the rest of our lives (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a strong influence at that moment) or serving time in a federal penitentiary since, we heard, they had better facilities for women.

I remember telling my dad who didn’t catch the humor in this scenario at all. He was appalled that we would even discuss retirement in this way. His parents came through the Great Depression and their stories became mine as he spent that Sunday afternoon sharing their memories. Even then, the term “lucky” came into play as my grandfather was in the military, which stopped them from being on the bread lines, but the fear of being just “one-step-away” didn’t fade.

Obviously we had no clue what real poverty was while sitting around developing our crime retirement plan. Years later I traveled extensively through some of the world’s poorest regions, seeing firsthand what poverty was and the impact it has on women and children.

More than one billion people in the world today, the great majority of whom are women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty … women’s poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources … lack of access to education and support services and their minimal participation in the decision-making process.
- United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women

And in the United States? The United Nations Women’s Fund’s (UNIFEM’s) 2007 report stated, “Of the 37 million people living below the poverty line in the US, 21 million are women, according to US Census Bureau figures from 2006.” Are there viable solutions to this global crisis? In an earlier AAUW blog, Out of the Rubble, Kelly Gallagher linked to a talk by UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro, who stressed that women hold the key to contributing to the solutions necessary to global issues. For last year’s World Poverty Day, the UNIFEM report recommended “investing in women to solv[e] the poverty puzzle”.

With recent headlines centering on the world’s economic crises and its impact on all of us, my grandparent’s frame of reference, the “one-step-away” fear factor resurfaced with a bang. Of course, instincts toward self-preservation are stronger than ever, but being socially responsible is just as important for it will take action by all of us to help ourselves and others who are even more in need.

What’s my commitment? Try to educate myself with the “what to do” personally, professionally, and as an advocate on behalf of women and children. Continue to raise money and give some of my own to organizations helping others and raise my voice to spread the word that taking action is still so very necessary! What are you going to do?