International Women’s Day—March 8, 2005

Eleanor Rae

I had plans to be in Chile with a sister ecofeminist theologian Judy Ress for the worldwide event International Women’s Day (IWD). While in transit to Santiago on the previous day, my husband and I noticed that all of the Chilean flags were flying at half mast. Our guide did not know why, but in Santiago we learned that the country was officially in mourning for the head of the Communist party, Gladys Marín, who had succumbed to cancer. She was to be given a state funeral the following morning and the activities for IWD would be postponed until the evening.

In the morning, I went to the plaza in front of the president’s palace where I watched the crowds, slowly, and then in vastly increasing numbers, gather to await the arrival of Gladys’ funeral cortège so that they could accompany her to the cemetery. I noticed that, in addition to carrying the Communist flag, many were displaying her picture (and/or that of Che Guevara). Also, scores of people were in tears. Judy later told me that Gladys was truly loved by many because of her life of integrity and devotion to the poor. Her husband had disappeared under Pinochet, and Gladys herself had to go into hiding, leaving behind her sons who were then raised by her sister. She had to arrange to see the children in a cafeteria—from a distance—and could not make direct contact with them because of the danger.

In the evening, I marched with Judy behind the banner of her organization, Con-spirando (see p. 2 for more on Con-spirando). We gathered at an area where a monument was to be unveiled honoring the women who had disappeared under Pinochet. There was a long ceremony including dancing and singing by the Mapuches, an indigenous tribe that stopped the expansion of the Inca empire and held off the Spanish conquistadors for hundreds of years. Interestingly, this tribe had a flexible organizational structure, only gathering as a single force when they were endangered, then returning to their original organizational model.

Needless to say, my day in Santiago was a very powerful one. It led me to reflect on the French Revolution and the meaning of its goals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity: goals not yet achieved. Presently, the government of the USA promotes the first attribute, liberty, as if by itself it would solve all the world’s problems. In Gladys Marín and her followers, there is evidence of the work toward equality. (Communism may be dead, but, if so, it will be reinvented in some form because of the growing disparity between the rich and the poor.) Regarding fraternity, we now understand that it must involve kinship with more than just the human community. Achieving the goals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity (better defined as kinship) is a monumental task, but when the situation becomes dire enough, which I think it now is, I believe we can—and hopefully will—rise to the challenge.

The Con-spirando Women’s Collective in Santiago, Chile—Judy Ress

Since our beginnings in 1992, the Con-spirando Women’s Collective has worked to open new spaces where we can dig deeply into our own life experiences without fear—spaces where we can experience new ways of being in community, where we can celebrate our lives more authentically and creatively, where we can recognize the diversity of our roots, where we can create instances of debate about our ethical practices, where we can engage in the theological task of exploring and celebrating the Holy without reductionism or universalisms.

Besides expressing our criticism of patriarchal culture, we seek to contribute to the creation of a culture that allows theological reflection and spirituality to flow from the rich diversity of our bodies, our communities and the Earth itself. We call for cosmologies that question anthropocentrism and that expose relationships based on dominance of one class, ethnic group, gender, age or sexual orientation over another and of the human over other forms of life. Such cosmologies will have profound political consequences.

This ecofeminist perspective unmasks the hierarchies in which we live and points toward a more holistic vision of our inter-relatedness. It is within this perspective that we seek a spirituality that will both heal and liberate.

To do this, we con-spirar juntas—a phrase that attempts to convoke the image of the planet as a living, breathing organism to which we are all intrinsically linked in one great, but myriad, breath of life.

For more than 12 years now, the Con-spirando Collective has nourished feminist and ecofeminist theological debate in Latin America through:

*our quarterly journal, Con-spirando: Revista latinoamericana de ecofeminismo, espiritualidad y teologia

*our workshops, seminars, lectures and radio shows

*our annual Summer School of Ecofeminist Spirituality and Ethics

*our yearly cycle of women’s rituals

*our publications

*our greeting cards honoring wise women, wild women, and women who have passed over

Judy Ress, a Maryknoll lay missionary and co-founder of Con-spirando, may be reached by e-mail at: conspira@terra.cl.

"Human Rights through Performance"

—the work of Judy Dworin, artist

By 2000, "Human Rights through Performance," the topic of a 1999 course taught by Judy Dworin, current professor of dance and chair of the Department of Theater and Dance at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, had developed into a dance theater piece—¿dónde estás? (Where are you?). It was performed by the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble (JDPE) throughout the Northeast, including New York City. The work portrays the mothers of the "disappeared"—women who protested the secret arrests and killings of their children during the military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina in the ‘70s and ‘80s. It combines dance, song, puppetry, performance art, and poetry and narrative text by internationally known Chilean poet Marjorie Agosin.

Significantly, ¿dónde estás? highlights varied aspects of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, cunningly portrayed by actor Christopher Andersson (the son of your editor). Through the use of masks based on animal images of rats, says Dworin, Pinochet is depicted "as a voice for the right and righteousness, as a protective conspirator against the evil perpetrators of terror, and as a man who fully believes in his own complete innocence." The performance has been recorded and made into an educational DVD (suitable for middle schools, colleges and anyone interested in human rights violations) through the generosity of United Technologies Corp.,the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Haymarket Peoples Fund, the Greater Hartford Arts Council United Arts Campaign, SBC Foundation, and supportive individuals. It will debut on June 11, 2005.

Judy Dworin’s driving interest has been the spiritual underpinning of art, which she focuses on social issues.

For information on ¿dónde estás? contact: Michele Crowley at 860-527-9800. JDPE website: www.jdpe.info/index.htm.

Vienna Celebrates International Women’s Day

Susanne Schaup

On Friday, March 4, 2005, the United Nations in Vienna celebrated International Women’s Day with a panel of women reporting on different aspects of the present situation of women in the world. Their motto was "Towards a More Secure Future."

One talk dealt with the issue of female poverty even in as affluent a country as Austria where gender mainstreaming has not been fully carried out and young girls and women still need to be empowered to claim equal rights. Women and men have a long way to go to achieve an equitable society.

Dr. Susanne Shaked, the president of the UN Committee on the Status of Women (of which C:WED is a member), stated that women are still losers in globalization progress,which is slow, painful and uneven. The resolutions of the Platform of Action at the Beijing conference of 1995 have not been implemented very sufficiently, and in some respects, there has even been a backward slide. The worldwide situation is such that women have not gained equal rights; payment for work of equal value is still considerably less than that of their male counterparts; and the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger has not been achieved. The committee continues to urge that a legal framework be established for the implementation of basic human rights for women.

Another talk covered the trafficking of women, which on a global scale is still highly alarming—although great improvements have been made since Beijing. NGO’s have achieved much in getting sexual exploitation and forced labor prosecuted, and on the whole, there is now better cooperation between NGO’s and local police. However, though victims are being taught that they have rights and can get out of this exploitative situation, the dilemma is such that women are more stigmatized than men and therefore will hesitate to seek help. And another problem is emerging—more and more female victims of human trafficking are turning into traffickers themselves.

Terrorism and how it affects women was another topic. It will be dealt with more fully at a specially scheduled meeting, during which the question of how women could be persuaded to carry out suicidal terrorist acts, as some Palestinian and Chetchnian women have done, will then be pursued in greater depth.

Finally, Alice Lee reported on successful global efforts to encourage women to venture into male-dominated fields, such as engineering and the sciences. Significant progress has been made, for example, in leading American universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Also, the Tsunami catastrophe has led to an empowerment of women in affected areas, enabling them to cope and to assume positions and responsibilities formerly reserved to men.

Although the event was highly acclaimed by those present, not many women were actually in attendance as it was held at the lunch hour and the weather was particularly inclement.

Associates of C:WED:

Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., founder

Giles E. Rae, publisher

Anne Andersson, editor

Representatives at the United Nations:                                                      

New York: Rosalyn Dischiavo                                  

Lina Gupta, Ph.D.                 

Alayne O’Reilly, Ph.D.            

Vienna: Susanne Schaup, Ph.D.                               

Mission Statement

The Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine is dedicated to exploring the parallels that exist between the imaging and treatment of women and of the Earth, and how our images of the Divine are related to these parallels.

We began by exploring these relationships within the context of our own tradition--the Christian. While we continue our exploration in this tradition, we have also engaged people of other traditions such as the Buddhist, Goddess, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish and Muslim. Our work is made available through talks, workshops, writings and retreats. The immediate purpose of the Center is educational, while the ultimate goal is the healing of the Creation.

The founder of C:WED is Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., author of Women, the Earth, the Divine, President Emerita of the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology and founder of the United Nations Earth Values Caucus.

                                                  ——————————————————