Since Beijing
Laren Bernabo, 11, Marshall School, Duluth, Minnesota
Nina Petersen-Perlman, 11, Woodland Middle School, Duluth,
Minnesota
Sara Vokes, 17, Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, one
of the founding girl editors of New Moon Magazine
| Research tells us that a major outcome of girls'
development during the early adolescent years is a loss
of connection with themselves, their experiences and
their own voices (Gilligan et al, 1990). Furthermore,
the groundbreaking study commissioned by the American
Association of University Women, "Shortchanging Girls"
(1992), documented the presence of systemic gender bias
in American education. This report summarized years
of research demonstrating how often unwittingly, the
education system inhibits, restricts, diminishes and
denies girls' experience. (Orrstein, 1994, p xxiii).
From a resilience perspective, girls are denied the
powerful protective factors of high expectations and
opportunities to contribute and participate.
The following article, written by adolescent girls
themselves, describes what can happen when girls are
given the opportunity to be heard, to participate and
to contribute. All that is needed is for adults, teachers,
parents, mentors, etc, to create a place, a space, and
a forum where girls are listened to.
Nancy Gruver, parent, ally and publisher of New Moon:
The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams, is one adult
who has done just this. According to Nancy, "The work
of adults to make things different (and better) for
girls consists almost entirely of listening to girls
and their voices and then taking the action we can as
adults to make change. This can be an uncomfortable
thing to do, accustomed as we are to dismissing girls'
feelings, concerns, dreams, and opinions as childish.
However, it can also be a marvelous thing with wonderful
results, as the girls tell us." (Inscheffer, 1995, p.
viiix.)
-Bonnie Benard
|
As we write this article we realize that it was exactly one year
ago today that we were arriving in Huairou to attend the United
Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Our group, Girls International
Forum, brought thirteen girls (aged 10-17) and eight adults to China
for the NGO Forum and the Governmental Conference. We were inspired
to go to the conference when we met Angela Davis and heard her talk
about her amazing experiences at the 1985 Women's Conference in
Nairobi. That was in March, 1994. By the summer of '94, a group
of girl editors of New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams,
was meeting to learn about the conference and brainstorm about ways
to raise money for the trip.
We found out that very few girls had ever been at any of the
UN Conferences on Women. There had never been any organized workshops
involving girls, either. When we talked to people about going to
the conference many of them couldn't understand why girls would
want to go. They thought we would be bored with the workshops and
the work on the Platform for Action. They thought we would expect
to be "entertained" and not really be willing to work! This was
even though "The Girl Child" was one of the important parts of the
Platform.
 These
attitudes made us even more determined to go to the conference and
speak up for girls. And, of course, there were also people who encouraged
us to go and thought it made a lot of sense for girls to talk with
women about girls' issues, rather than just women talking with women
about girls. We made "Listen To Girls" our theme because we think
it's the first thing that has to happen to make girls' lives better.
Most girls aren't really listened to and taken seriously by adults,
even adults who are trying to help them! We wanted to go to the
conference so the people there would hear from some actual girls
and not just be assuming they know what girls need and want. We
also think that girls themselves can help change the world, but
only if we are part of the groups (like the NGO Forum) that are
working on the problems. We need to be treated like real people
with good ideas, just like adults are.
Over the next fifteen months, the seven New Moon editors and
our parents and friends created a separate organization called Girls
International Forum. We raised a total of $60,000 by selling "Listen
To Girls" T-shirts and getting donations from individuals, corporations
and foundations. In April, 1995, we received a grant from the Kellogg
Foundation so we could also bring girls from other parts of the
U.S. along to the conference. So, in the end, girls from Minnesota,
Maryland, Washington, New York and Arizona were all part of our
group.
It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed since then.
Even though the conference is over, we've still been working on
the goals of the conference. The Girl Child was one of the 12 parts
of the Platform for Action, the official result of the UN Governmental
Conference. Goals for the Girl Child include educating girls about
social, economic and political issues and strengthening the role
of the family in improving the status of girls. These are two parts
of the Platform for Action that we are working on the most. Girls
International Forum is working to educate girls about girls' issues
and what we can do about them in our own communities.
We've learned a lot from our experiences in China. We've also
shared our experiences with others in an effort to spread the word
about the conference. A big part of going to the conference for
us has been telling everyone else about it. We give presentations
to school groups, women's groups, and at various conferences. To
prepare for those talks we had to go through all of our photographs
to make slides. Just about everybody in our group took photographs
so we had a great many pictures to sort through. We developed a
number of different slide shows which we then took around to our
various presentations. In our presentations we show slides and talk
about our experiences in China. By giving presentations we help
people to understand the Platform for Action and what went on at
the conference. It is a chance for us to let people know what we've
done. People ask us many questions about the trip-from how old are
you to whether or not we liked it and what we have learned from
our experiences. After our presentations, people have a better understanding
of the importance of girls issues.
One way that we help spread the word is through articles in New
Moon magazine. We wrote articles about the activities we did and
the people we met in China. Even though there were only about 400
girls at the conference, we met girls from many countries: Australia,
Jamaica, Philippines, Germany, Nigeria, Egypt, Malaysia, and Macedonia.
One of the exciting things that happened while we were there was
connecting with a group of young women from Israel called "Nisan-Young
Women Leaders." These young women had tried to write us before we
left for China, but we did not get the message. It was pure luck
that we ran into them while we were there.
We wrote about these meetings and we also wrote about the goals
of the conference and some of the outcomes. By writing articles
in New Moon we have reached many more girls around the world. We
want girls to know what happened at the conference.We all learned
so much about girls' lives in other countries and all the things
we share in common. The conference opened our eyes to issues of
women and girls around the world, discrimination and abuse. Now,
we think much more about what happens to girls in other countries,
not just us. It made us realize that we are very privileged, but,
at the same time there is so much to be improved in the US, also.
We came back feeling connected to girls and women other places,
even when our lives are very different. We want girls everywhere
to feel that they are important and can get involved in making the
world a better place.
Another project that we have worked on since the conference is
an educational curriculum for the boys and girls in the state of
Minnesota. The purpose of the curriculum is to include the lives
of children around the world in everyday learning in school. It's
based on the issue areas of the Platform for Action. The curriculum
will help make learning interesting by having kids actually do things
instead of just reading and memorizing. Our theme, "A Day in the
Life" puts the focus on children's everyday lives and the similarities
and differences between them. It's a good way to learn about global
issues and concerns. We hope the curriculum will motivate kids to
do things to help other kids, too. We are using our experiences
and the things we've learned as a basis for the curriculum. It will
be published in the summer of 1997.
In January of this year, three members of our group, including
two girls, Sarah Vokes and Nia Kelly, were invited to participate
in a meeting of the Women's Conference Circle in Washington, D.C.
The Conference Circle is a nationwide group focusing on the progress
of the conference goals in the United States. It's unusual that
two girls were invited to a meeting that would have otherwise been
mostly adults, but that's one of the positive things that came out
of girls being at the conference in China.
Another major conference we were part of this year was Children
First: A Global Forum, with 350 participants from 66 countries,
who met at The Carter Center in Atlanta. The goal of the Forum was
to: ". . .build a new model of how to create change and improve
the lives of children around the world." In the past, these kinds
of meetings were "adults-only" without any actual children present.
This was the first year that kids were directly involved in the
conference. Mavis Gruver and Nia Kelly were two of 47 girls and
boys from 23 countries who were active participants. Meeting in
caucuses of about 20 people each (with one or two kids in each caucus),
the Forum used consensus to come up with "The Promise of Atlanta":
We, as representatives of the global community, make the
following promise with the children of today and for the children
of tomorrow: By the year 2000, measurably more children will
be wanted, healthy, safe, educated, empowered and loved.
As a result of people they met in Atlanta, Nia & Mavis were then
invited to an International Youth Summit held this summer in Costa
Rica. The summit focused on children's rights and had 40 youth participants
from 20 countries. The Summit was organized by a Costa Rican girl,
Laura Ramirez, who is part of an international group called Peaceways.
The purpose was to get kids to organize and hold their governments
accountable for living up to the promises in the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child. Also, the group wants the UN to establish
a permanent Youth General Assembly so children's voices will always
be heard at the UN.
After the Summit, all the participants were going back home to
get other kids involved in working on these issues. For their part,
Mavis and Nia are astonished that the United States is one of only
a few countries worldwide which has not yet ratified the Rights
of the Child. They will be working to educate other Americans and
lobby Congress about this appalling fact. In addition, they will
work for the establishment of a Children's Council in every state
and federally. The Children's Councils will be made up completely
of kids and will advise the state and federal governments on children's
issues.
As a follow-up to girls being at the Beijing conference, the
first National Girls Conference in the US is going to be held January
3 & 4, 1997 at the United Nations. This conference is being planned
by girls around the nation (including three of our girls who went
to China). It will be attended by girls from all 50 states. It will
give girls a chance to interact with each other, and not just be
talked to by adults. We hope this conference will be the beginning
of a National Girls Movement. The conference will focus on three
issues that girls have picked as most important to them: violence,
media and human rights. We hope it will bring girls together and
energize us to work with each other, feel powerful and change the
world into what we want it to be.
We're also involved in other more direct follow-ups to Beijing.
In early September, a state wide conference will be held in Minnesota
to build on the experiences Minnesotans had in Beijing. The conference
will include people who did not attend the NGO Forum as well as
those who did. This conference is also going to have girls playing
an important role, including girls leading workshops and discussions.
Then, at the end of September, we will join women from around the
country in the National Satellite conference to discuss what has
happened since the Beijing conference, and, we hope, what more we
can do to realize some of the goals which have not yet been met.
We are inviting women and girls from around our community to participate
in this conference so that they can share in the experience of the
conference and see how they can be part of the post-conference work.
On a more personal level, we have noticed that many other positive
changes have occurred in the people around us as a result of our
trip to Beijing and the Fourth World Conference. Lauren's grandmother
proudly told her about an unplanned presentation she made to a group
she belongs to. A woman who had been scheduled to give a presentation
on the conference was unable to do so and Lauren's grandma Jean
was able to fill in on the spot with the scrapbook she had kept
on Lauren's trip. She had followed Lauren's progress while in China
and had remembered talking with Lauren and her mom about why they
wanted to go on the trip. Grandma Jean knew about many of the issues
that had been discussed and the goals which emerged from the conference-because
Lauren was there.
Another one of our participants, Katie Lopez, also influenced
a grandparent. Before Beijing, Katie's grandpa Pat was not exactly
a supporter of Women's Rights. But, while Katie was away, he was
silently and diligently keeping clippings and records of Katie's
experiences. When Katie returned home, Grandpa Pat surprised everyone
by presenting her with a lovingly produced scrapbook of his American
memories of Katie's Chinese adventure.
Katie also had an unforeseen impact on her school. Katie attends
a Catholic school in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona. When she returned
from Beijing she was excited to share her experiences and newfound
knowledge. She was invited to talk to a few classes and community
groups, and she willingly shared her perspectives whenever someone
asked her questions. Apparently, her enthusiasm was contagious.
At one point in the fall, one of the teachers approached Katie's
mom to say that Katie should now stop talking about the trip because
the boys in Katie's class were beginning to feel uncomfortable with
the ideas Katie had been sharing.
All of the girls and women who attended the Fourth World Women's
Conference in Beijing were changed in ways we are still learning
about. We look at the world through different eyes. We also recognize
that the central message we took with us to Beijing-that people
should Listen to Girls-remains an important one. More people are
listening to girls, but some people still haven't gotten the message.
We have a lot more work to do. We need to make sure that our voices
are heard in the United States and around the world. Girls have
important things to say and perspectives to share. If we are going
to be the leaders of tomorrow, what better time to get started than
now in the present.
Featured in media reports worldwide, New Moon (27,000 circ.)
is the only international, ad-free bimonthly magazine edited by
and for 8 to 14-year-old girls. The Parent's Choice Foundation named
New Moon the best children's magazine in 1995. To subscribe, call
1-800-381-4743-or write to PO Box 3620, Duluth, MN 55803-3620. Check
out the home page at: http://www.newmoon.org
.
First printed in Sojourner: The Women's Forum, Vol. 22, No.
2, October, 1996.
References
Gilligan, C., Lyons, N., and Hammer, T. (1990) Making
Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard
School. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Arnstein, P. (1994). School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem,
and the Confidence Gap. New York: Anchor Books
Sheffer, S. (1995). A Sense of Self: Listening to Home-schooled
Adolescent Girls. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Wellesley College Center for Research on Women (1992). How
Schools Shortchange Girls. Washington, D.C.: American Assoc.
University Women.
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