TEACHERS:  Check out this creative new lesson plan designed by middle school teachers using our film, Seneca Falls, in the classroom.

And here are some student short essays about Seneca Falls and how the film made these teenagers feel about their own power to create positive change.

Three women activists will share the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 for their work on behalf of peace and women. As reported by the Nobel Committee:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 is to be divided in three equal parts between Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.  We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.

In October 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325.  The resolution for the first time made violence against women in armed conflict an international security issue.  It underlined the need for women to become participants on an equal footing with men in peace processes and in peace work in general.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa’s first democratically elected female president.  Since her inauguration in 2006, she has contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women.  Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections.  She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war.  In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the “Arab spring”, Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.

It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.

Oslo, October 7, 2011

A heroine in Saudi Arabia was arrested in May and imprisoned for organizing a Facebook and Twitter campaign to lift the ban on women driving in that county.    Here's her story from the NY Times.

A new report commissioned by the British Government recommends that women make up 25% of the boards of large companies by 2015.  The reason? Companies with at least three women on their boards are more successful.  Will Britain follow Norway, Spain and France, which have all passed laws requiring quotas of women on corporate boards? 

Eve Ensler and her V-Day organization have just built a City of Hope in the violence-ravaged Congo. Read about their astounding work in this NY Times article – and how they are transforming pain into leadership among that nation's precious resource, women.

AND...

Brazil's first woman president, Dilma Rousseff, was sworn into office on January 1, 2011.  President Rousseff endured imprisonment and torture in the early 1970's at the hands of her country's military dictatorship before dedicating her life to public service.  Read more about the resilient newly elected leader of South America's largest nation.

AND...

Lovers of democracy around the globe are celebrating the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese resistance leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, after seven years of house arrest. Her story is laid out by the Nobel organization and this Washington Post article covers her recent release.

In 1848, in the sleepy village of Seneca Falls, New York, a young mother and a visiting Quaker minister, along with a few friends, made a momentous decision over tea – to call a public meeting to discuss the social, civil and religious condition of women. They ran a newspaper ad, and to their surprise, more than 300 people showed up. 

For two days, July 19 and 20, they spoke passionately against repressive laws and customs, even rewriting the Declaration of Independence into a new document proclaiming women as full citizens. They dared to envision universal rights – not just by abolishing slavery, but by reshaping society to include freedom and opportunity for women. They ignited a nonviolent movement that eventually freed half their nation, yet their story is seldom told.

What sparked their fire? Dig deeper in the groups below, and see if something gets sparked in you.

A fascinating new documentary by Leann Erickson called "Top Secret Rosies" reveals a secret project during World War II that used American women as computers – back when a "computer" was an occupation, not a machine!  These gifted mathematicians conducted ballistics research and some went on to program the earliest computers. This great account at CNN.com has more about their lives, their conflicts and their pioneering work.

According to Women in Technology International's Carolyn Leighton, a great many women of high achievement in the technology field have gone unrecognized.  WITI is supporting and connecting them.

Great reporting in this incredible account by journalist Elizabeth Rubin about life for women in Afghanistan, and how acting in that country's first soap opera is shedding new light on the horrendous conditions women face there. How does reading this make you feel about your own rights and opportunities, and about the need to help?