News You Might Have Missed This Week Concerning Women & Girls

(Photo Credit: AP)

Given the media attention on Goldman Sachs, Arizona's immigration law and other high-profile headlines this past week, you may have missed the news about some very significant developments pertaining to women and girls which emerged from the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit.

Why is this significant? Most of the world's economies are struggling to recover from the financial crisis. By taking the lead to highlight the importance of the political, social and economic empowerment of women and girls, the United States is taking its rightful leadership role in the world. This acknowledgment by the US sends a strong message to the nations of the world that the future of our global society depends upon the inclusion of the portion of the population which currently does not enjoy the same access to capital and resources. The message that is being sent is that the status quo must and will change. This is an important first step in the achievement of gender equality which is still lacking in the West, not to mention in undeveloped nations.

Speaking to an audience of women from around the world at a breakfast meeting during the summit, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced several new initiatives aimed at empowering women (and girls):

• Secretary's International Fund for Women and Girls: a public-private partnership in which the State Department will commit funds to help NGO's (non-governmental organizations) with the important work they're doing related to women and girls throughout the world. The fund will target its investment to find solutions to "combat violence, improve health and education, promote climate change solutions, and create economic and political opportunities for women and girls."
• Secretary's Innovation Award for Women's and Girls' Empowerment: The Innovation Award (two awards of $500,000 each) which is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation seeks to 'bring to scale the most pioneering approaches to the political, economic and social empowerment of women and girls around the globe.' Those who are interested in submitting a concept paper must do so by June 1, 2010 after which point the final round of participants will be selected to submit full proposals. The two awardees will be announced by the end of 2010.
• TechWomen Program: A direct fulfillment of promises made by President Obama in his Cairo speech in 2009, this peer mentoring program will connect women from US technology companies with women who are in the technology field in the 'Muslim world' (e.g., Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the West Bank and Gaza). The selected participants will spend roughly 4-6 weeks working in US technology companies (Silicon Valley and other tech heavy areas) with "mid-level female employees". After the mentorships are completed the US counterparts will travel to the homelands of the participants to provide networking workshops, etc.
  

These developments come at a time when the world is receptive to the message as well in dire need of the outcome of the application of these practices. Study after study has been published to show that nations can only stand to benefit when their economic, political and social systems make it possible for women and girls to make their rightful contributions. Empowerment of women and girls is not only about benefiting women and girls - men are a vital component of bringing about the needed change and they are beneficiaries of the rewards of doing so. We all stand to benefit from the social, political and economic empowerment of women and girls and there is no better time than the present.