妻友社区

"A world that's good for women is good for everyone."

Welcome to Women Change Worlds, the new Director鈥檚 Desk blog of the 妻友社区. At WCW, also known as the Centers, we do research, theory, and action that promotes justice and wellbeing for women and girls, their families and communities 鈥� and we鈥檝e been doing it since 1974. This year, 2012, marks our official entry into the blogosphere, where our goal is to speak up and shape conversations 鈥� national and global, regional and local 鈥� that impact our core constituencies and the multiple contexts in which their lives unfold.

Here at WCW, our motto is 鈥淎 world that鈥檚 good for women is good for everyone.鈥� But what exactly does 鈥渁 world that鈥檚 good for women鈥� look like? The truth of the matter is, there are worlds within worlds, and a world that鈥檚 good for women acknowledges women鈥檚 similarities as well as women鈥檚 differences. This includes obvious and widely acknowledged differences 鈥� such as race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, religion, education level, income, social class, sexual orientation, gender expression, (dis)ability status, and age 鈥� but also less visible or less widely-acknowledged differences such as health status (physical or mental), experience with violence, rural/urban location, political attitudes, and even worldview. This 鈥渨orlds with an s鈥� approach acknowledges that not all women have the same perspectives or the same needs, yet, at the same time, all women deserve a life of decency, dignity, education, equity, power, health, and wealth.

As I state in my Director鈥檚 Message on the , today鈥檚 world has been shaped over multiple generations by feminist and critical theory and social activism, yet many women and girls still do not enjoy full equality, freedom of expression, or even the provision of basic needs and rights. What gives?? What remains to be done?? What do we need to do to steer the world in the direction of that world that is not only 鈥済ood for women鈥� but is also 鈥済ood for everyone鈥�? These are the kinds of questions that this blog will tackle.

Since I took the helm of WCW in July, the popular media has debated such provocative issues as whether women really can or can鈥檛 , whether there is or isn鈥檛 such a thing as ",鈥� whether a nearly all-male panel of is actually qualified to make decisions of national scope about birth control, what to do when a is characterized with a misogynistic epithet in the national media, whether whether women are becoming the , whether are or aren鈥檛 discriminatory, and whether opportunity really is the route to for women and girls worldwide. Just before I got here, we were having national and global conversations about issues such as whether the actually benefitted women, whether is still relevant, and even whether there are enough . Now, as we hurtle towards a presidential election, we are talking about 鈥� although not loudly enough, in my opinion 鈥� whether and how and matter in this presidential election year. While I was chomping at the bit to blog on all these topics as I settled into my new position, my point is simply that the stream of women鈥檚 issues that matter 鈥� or issues that matter to women 鈥� is swift-moving and never-ending. Any moment can be the right moment to jump in.

In the worlds of scholarship and scientific research, not to mention the worlds of theory and program development, knowledge production can crawl at a snail鈥檚 pace. And rightly so, given the necessarily deliberate and systematic nature of such work: turning over every stone, ruling out every alternative explanation, testing every theory, and piloting then evaluating every program. Yet, with age and expertise comes authority and responsibility. Our researchers, scholars, theorists, and practitioners have invested years, careers, and at times even into this work on behalf of women and girls, their families and communities. With nearly four decades of expertise at our collective disposal, those of us at WCW have a lot to say about the issues of the day. Women Change Worlds is our new platform.

While blog posts can never replace peer-reviewed journals and books, the immediacy of blogging plays in indispensible role in public discourse. From my perspective, blogging serves as a platform for bringing diverse constituencies into conversation and as a staging ground for organizing action. Blogging also serves as a needed bridge between the academic and the everyday. Blogging helps break through the walls that have kept the ivory tower isolated from everybody else and the silos that have kept thinkers of different disciplines from talking with each other. Blogging facilitates what I like to call 鈥渢he politics of invitation鈥� 鈥� a 鈥渂uild it and they will come鈥� route to 鈥渁nother world is possible鈥� 鈥� inviting us to engage towards change differently than the more adversarial 鈥減olitics of struggle.鈥� Thus, it is in this spirit that I hope you will join the conversation at Women Change Worlds, so that together we can make that world that is good for women, girls, and for everyone.

Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the at .