Since the month of March is International Women’s Month, each week CALCASA will highlight some of the extraordinary commitments of the women in this office.

Villena Koumis

Having grown up in Tamuning, Guam, Villena never imagined she’d be coming to the US permanently, much less be involved in the Violence Against Women Movement.  When Villena came to the US in 1987 for her cousin’s graduation, her intent was to stay a few days to visit and later return home to Guam, however, things didn’t quite turn out that way. After convincing her father that staying in the US is what she wanted, Villena began to build her life here. After holding a few job positions at a local business, Villena was in search for a new job.  In September 2005, she began her journey at CALCASA.

As CALCASA’s Administrative and Library Associate, Villena is a great asset to the organization. Villena is extremely resourceful and helpful to all CALCASA staff and our members. She supports staff and events and is always ready to lend a hand.  Villena’s friendly personality and giving nature are some of the great qualities that make her a valued member of the organization.  She is always eager to learn and although she may not have the same direct advocacy experience in this field as other staff, her life experience is an asset to CALCASA and the work we do.

For Villena, being in this movement has provided her the opportunity to get to know herself. Villena shares that the movement has

Given me the opportunity to learn about myself and appreciate who I am. My experiences here have shaped who I am today and I can now say I understand myself much better. I have a deeper appreciation of my history and I have a better understanding of the value of being raised in the matriarchal Esuroi Clan.

Villena has grown from being a part of the movement. She is an empowered woman who stands up for herself and values who she is and how her experiences have shaped her.  A proud mother of two, Villena hopes her legacy to her children will be self-empowerment and to value who they are what were they come from.

In honor of International Women’s month, we honor Villena as a woman, a mother, a colleague and a friend.

As a young boy I first became aware of International Women’s Day in junior high school; the Berkeley Unified School District had it as an official school closure day. It was also made relevant to me when I would see my mother return home from work day after day frustrated by the inequality of pay and limited access to job promotions experienced by her and other women at their place of employment.

Fast forward to March 5, 2011.  I am having lunch with a friend that works in management at a large retailer.  He makes approximately $2000.00 more per month than a female manager in the same department with similar credentials and experiences.  In our conversation he says “If I were her, I would be pissed off if I knew the male manager made $2000.00 more a month than me.”  So I replied “If it bothers you that much then do not take the extra money.”  I cannot tell you what his response was; I do not type that kind of language.

In 2008 Beyonce Knowles released a song titled ” If I Were a Boy“.  Some of the lyrics are:

I’d put myself first

And make the rules as I go

Cause I know that she’d be faithful

Waiting for me to come home

If you are a woman then I propose this questions to you: “If you were a boy ( the male manager), would you take the additional $2000.00 per month or not take the money knowing that your female counterpart is doing equal work but not receiving an equal salary?

Please use the comment box below to respond to the $24000.00 question.

March 8, 2011 marks the centenary of International Women's Day

Across the globe, people are gathering today to recognize International Women’s Day, a global commemoration of the struggle for women’s equality and empowerment. Catherine A. Traywick at Ms. Magazine wrote an insightful post highlighting gender based inequities as the “UN Commission on the Status of Women conducts a 15-year review of the implementation of the Platform for Action, a global agenda for women’s empowerment created in 1995.”

In light of the global facts that demonstrate the great work achieved in some areas and glaring gaps of inequities, there are many ways feminists are celebrating and honoring those that paved the way for us to be where we are as well as those working to make a more equitable future today. Here are some ways to get involved:

• Participate in the nearest IWD event by clicking here
• March 8 is also Feminist Coming Out Day! Feminists of all sizes, colors, backgrounds, foregrounds…
• End street harassment in your neighborhood by supporting your local Hollaback! network
• Google asks folks to show support for women’s causes and celebrate women’s achievements by going to the nearest bridge

What are you doing on International Women’s Day in your part of the world?

EQUALS, a partnership of leading charities brought together by Annie Lennox to celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day, created a PSA where English actor Daniel Craig, appears in the role of James Bond wearing a suit and later in drag while English actress Dame Judi Dench does a voice over highlighting the many inequities faced by women.

The PSA raises interesting questions and images around the deliberate selection of an internationally recognizable pop culture symbol of James Bond, a fictional character that represents imperialism, hyper-masculinity, violence, misogyny, heterosexuality, and normative gender presentation.  The film clip, although only about two minutes long, focuses exclusively on a singular male-identified character, as the viewer listens to a string of statistics of how women experience inequality around the world and in the United Kingdom. Halfway through the clip, Dame Judie Dench poses James Bond the following question: “For someone with such a foundness for women, I wonder if you’ve ever considered what it’s like being one?”

Shortly thereafter, the James Bond emerges from afar to approach the camera wearing a dress, blonde wig, earrings, high heel shoes and noticeably padding on his chest to suggest breasts. Now that the character is in drag, the viewer is left to interpret this costume change or rather performance in gender presentation as “what it is like to be a woman” without any verbal insight of James Bond’s thoughts. Seconds later, we see the character remove the blonde wig and earrings as he continues to listen to Dame Judi Dench highlight statistics of how women experience violence, economic and educational inequality in the United Kingdom.

The EQUALITY PSA reminded me of Walk a Mile In Her Shoes, a activity popular across the U.S. where men wear high heel shoes and walk a mile to raise awareness around violence against women. Both the PSA and Walk A Mile In Her Shoes share an assumption in conveying its message of ending violence and challenging social norms:  gender presentation/performance gives men that don’t already challenge gender presentation, an idea of what women experience through clothes, shoes and accessories as they walk in public as if all the conditions needed to know what it is like to be a woman are reflected/recreated/reproduced by how the body is decorated and/or presented to others. Is it?

Despite my hesitation to embrace the PSA’s approach in challenging audiences to consider women’s rights, it does end on a note that encompasses the essence of activism. Dame Judi Dench pointedly says: “so, are we equals? Until the answer is yes, we must never stop asking.” And I would add, until the answer is yes, we need to collaborate as we strive for equality.

What do you think?

Since the month of March is International Women’s Month, each week CALCASA will highlight some of the extraordinary commitments of the women in this office.

Cindy Marroquin, Advocacy Services Coordinator, CALCASA

When Cindy Marroquin was a little girl, she wanted to be a dancer when she grew up. She didn’t intend to work in the violence against women movement, but since 2002 when she fell into this work, she said she can’t imagine doing anything else. She entered the rape crisis movement in 2002 as a volunteer at Haven Women’s Center in Modesto, Calif. She worked in various capacities at the center — prevention educator, SART team and working with child survivors — before she came to CALCASA in 2008 as its Advocacy Services Coordinator.

Her role at CALCASA is crucial for maintaining relationships and building capacity with rape crisis centers in the state of California. At heart, she is an advocate, and this is clear in her job at the agency and by her nature. She said that this isn’t the kind of job where she can clock out at the end of the day. She’s always looking for ways to increase her awareness and to have meaningful conversations with others about issues surrounding sexual violence.

“This work is not just rhetoric,” said Marroquin. “I actually believe in the work. Outside of work, I strive to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. If I believe in being an ally, then I believe in being an ally when I’m not at work. I try to work hard to keep my ally card — and sometimes, it can get revoked because I’m not perfect. But I’m conscious that these are the things that I believe in, and I don’t leave it at work when I leave work.”

Cindy said that even though she’s not directly working with survivors, she still feels like she’s making a difference in the lives of survivors. She provides resources and support to advocates in the field that are working with survivors. And instead of working in one community, she’s able to work with people in areas across the state where at the end of the day, it’s still about the survivors. As she continues to do this work, she hopes that she’s able to challenge the norm.

“In the process of challenging people, I hope I get them to think outside of the experiences that they’ve had to give them another lens to view the world,” she said. “If it’s just one person who really took it to heart and used it to reflect upon themselves, that’s good enough for me.”

Community Violence Solutions (CVS)  in Richmond, CA will holding their 3rd Annual International Women’s Day Celebration on Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 10am to 3pm at Lovonya DeJean School.  The theme for this year’s event is: Women in Solidarity” Healing our Beloved Community ~ Mujeres en Solidaridad: Sanando Nuestra Querida Communidad and will feature Lakota Harden, Native American Artist.  There will also be performances and speakers from local artists, dancers, poets and musicians.  This is a free event and will include childcare and lunch.

To pre-register to attend and to learn more, you can view the flyer for this event here.

Trauma Stewardship, by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and Connie Burk

I first heard about the book Trauma Stewardship, by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and Connie Burk, a couple of months ago when a friend shared her experience as she read the book.  However, I did not begin to read the book until I heard Laura speak the the recent National Sexual Assault Conference in Alexandria, VA. Although I have not finished reading the book, what I have already read has really spoken to my experiences as an advocate.

The book begins with Laura, and educator, advocate and social worker, sharing a story about her family vacation.  During a hike to the top of a cliff, Laura began to think about how many people had, or had not, jumped off that cliff.  She also thought about where the closest trauma center was or how long it would take for help to arrive in the event that someone did jump off the cliff.  At one point, she blurted out, “I wonder how many people have killed themselves by jumping off these cliffs?”  Her step-father in law turned to her and asked, “Has your work gotten to you that much?”How many of us do something like this?  How many of us have thoughts about who that man is with a child on his lap. Father? Uncle? Grandfather? Is he hurting that child? Is the child safe? Does the child look happy? Unhappy? Laura explains this experience like this:

I had absorbed and accumulated trauma to the point that it had become part of me, and my view of the world had changed.

After realizing this, Laura understood that she needed to make a change, and to do so there were some key things she needed to begin with:

First, I needed to take responsibility for acknowledging the effects of trauma exposure within myself. Second, I had to learn how to make room for my own internal process – to create the space within to heal and to discover what I would need to continue with clarity on my chosen path. I had to find some way to bear witness to trauma without surrendering my ability to live life fully. I needed a framework of meaning.

This is what she calls “Trauma Stewardship”.  The book goes on to talk about our responses to trauma, how we can create change from the inside out, and how to find our way to Trauma Stewardship.  I strongly encourage advocates working in the field to end violence against women to explore what Laura and Connie share with us in their book.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Montgomery, AL, launched the Bandana Project through their program Esperanza: The Immigrant Woman’s Legal Initiative. Esperanza, which means “hope” in Spanish, focuses on the issues of harassment and sexual assault of farmworker women. The National Initiative provides education on workplace rights to farmworking women and works to raise awareness of this issue in communities throughout the United States.  Monica Ramirez, an attorney at the SPLC who directs the initiative,  began this program while working as an Equal Justice Works fellow in Florida.  She states:

“For a long time, no one was talking about this. Women were too often afraid to come forward. No legal services program was focusing on this issue, and few organizations had expertise or resources to dedicate to it. But we need to know about it, and we need to be outraged. We want these women to have a voice, and we want these companies to pay for the illegal behavior that’s being committed in their workplace.”

The program not only focuses on farmworker women but also on all immigrant women working in low-income sectors such as meat-packing plants, canneries, and  hotel and service industries. From the experiences of these women, the Esperanza Initiative decided to launch the Bandana Project as a campaign to help raise awareness of the exploitation of farmworking women. The reason for using the Bandanas came from the experiences of farmworker women who say that they use the bandanas, as well as over sized clothing, to try to hide their gender to protect themselves from sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace.  The campaign also uses the bandanas as a public display of solidarity and support for victims and survivors of this violence.

During Sexual Assault Awareness Month, many cities across the Nation invite their communities, including members of the farmworking communities, universities and other agencies, to decorate bandanas. These decorated bandanas are then displayed in public areas such as museums, libraries, and community centers throughout the month of April. Many Rape Crisis Centers in California are now including displays such as these during their SAAM activities and events.  Monica Ramirez adds,

“Through this project, we try to bring a sense of hope, confidence and the will to be brave. It is our wish that these women will see our encouragement as a sign that they no longer have to suffer in silence.”

Watch a video about Campaign here: Bandana Project

For more information about the Bandana Project and how you can begin a campaign in your community, visit the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website .

Arte Sana's Existe Ayuda National Project

CALCASA had the privilege to host the second phase of Arte Sana’s Existe Ayuda (Help Exists) National Outreach Project this year during our Leadership Pre-Conference day on August 17, 2009 in Sacramento.  About 23 Bilingual, Spanish-Speaking advocates from California and neighboring states such as Oregon and Nevada participated in the National Outreach Project this year.  Arte Sana’s National Outreach Project is a outreach and training product demonstration of Spanish language materials. Laura Zarate, Executive Director for Arte-Sana, facilitated the day long project and provided participants with the existing outreach materials to review. Participants had the opportunity to review and provide feedback on grammar, content and language pertaining to these outreach materials.

Participants discussed the complexities that come with the development of culturally appropriate Spanish-language materials due to the diversity of the language as well as the generational differences in Spanish-Speaking communities. The Outreach Project participants, who were from communities from different areas of Mexico and Central America, shared their individual experiences working in communities were services for Spanish-speaking survivors are not offered in culturally appropriate ways. Arte Sana thanks all the participants who devoted their day to attend this training and for being a part of this project. Your feedback and dedication towards providing the best and most culturally appropriate information and services to your communities is greatly appreciated.

For more information on Arte Sana’ and their Existe Ayuda National Outreach Project, please go to www.arte-sana.com

Recently, we had our first Anti-Oppression Institute in San Francisco, CA for Executive Directors and Key Managers at rape crisis centers. The Anti-Oppression Institute was facilitated by the Dismantling Oppressions Work Group (or the DOWG group), made up of some of CALCASA’s Leadership (i.e. Council and Board Members).

The DOWG group was born from a group of advocates in the movement who saw a need for more open dialogue about issues of anti-oppression and wanted to create safe spaces where rape crisis center staff could discuss and support each other’s work in the movement. The DOWG group began facilitating workshops during previous CALCASA Annual Leadership Conference where they experienced a high number of rape crisis center staff who were interested in being a part of these conversations. Due to its popularity, the DOWG group and CALCASA decided that these Institutes needed their own space, and a lot more time so the Anti-Oppression Institutes were born!

We successfully completed our first, in two, Anti-Oppression Institutes on August 3-4, 2009. Did you miss out on this one? Well, no worries, you have one more opportunity to be a part of these Institutes on:

• September 16-17, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA.
• Limited $400 travel stipends are available to participants so register early!

To register, please click here.

Week of March 3rd

International Women’s Day protests highlight violence, inequality

Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women’s Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide.

Push for Creation of a Centralized UN Women’s Agency

The Campaign for Stronger Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) called for the creation of a centralized UN women’s agency last week. The activist groups leading the campaign include Amnesty International, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, International Planned Parenthood Federation, and Women’s Environment and Development Organization. The campaign was launched last week during the 52nd Commission on the Status of Women, which ends on March 7.

Karen Bass Elected First Black Woman Speaker of California Assembly

The California State Assembly unanimously elected Karen Bass as the new Assembly Speaker last week. Bass is the first African American and the first women to hold the position. She has served in the California state legislature since 2004 and was the Assembly Majority leader before winning the Speaker position.

Woman sues ex-De Anza players in alleged rape

The young woman who says she was sexually assaulted a year ago by a group of De Anza College baseball players at an off-campus party has sued 10 men she believes were involved.

The woman filed suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court, claiming that the men took turns raping her while she was unconscious at a party March 3, 2007, took photos of the attack and sent them to acquaintances.

Ex-parole agent sentenced in sex assault

SACRAMENTO – A former California parole agent was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to two years of probation for misdemeanor sexual assault
on a woman parolee under his supervision.

Conditions of probation imposed on 56-year-old Ronald Travis of Elk Grove include six months of electronically monitored home confinement, 50 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine.

14 Americans arrested in child porn sting

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Fourteen Americans are in custody as part of a global crackdown on a well-organized child porn ring that used sophisticated encryption technology, the FBI and,Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Dozens Rally Outside Coalinga State Hospital

Coalinga State Hospital sits about 60 miles southwest of Fresno and is home to more than 1,000 sexually violent predators from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“Less than one percent of all sexual offenders are in this category of ‘sexually violent predators’. They are the worst of the worst,” said Nancy Kincaid, Spokesperson for Coalinga State Hospital.

Sex offenders in, out of hotel

The Carson Plaza Hotel at 111 W. Albertoni St. in Carson houses convicted sex offenders not as part of a program but due to its location in a light industrial area away from houses and schools.

Saturday, March 8, is International Women’s Day. Hundreds of events are held in countries around the world on this day to inspire women, celebrate their achievements, and highlight the need for continued action to ensure women’s rights.

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “Investing in Women and Girls.”