The New Activism

Ivan Sekretarev / AP Photo Today's women's rights activism rejects the paternalism and feel-good sloganeering of the '60s and '70s; it’s about measurable economic empowerment for women—and an end to the political corruption that holds girls and women back.

A few days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jawboned the Pakistanis with a little plain talk on terrorist safe havens, women leaders representing the coalition she helped to ignite gathered in a Florentine villa to review the successes—and failures—of the last 15 years in women's rights and economic-empowerment work worldwide. Over the course of three days in Florence, a group of about 40 NGO executives, political leaders, social entrepreneurs, corporate philanthropists, educators, and media gurus convened by Vital Voices Global Partnership worked to develop a framework for economic, cultural, and political change powered by women.

Kakenya Ntaiya was the first girl to leave her Kenyan village and acquire a college education. Today, her boarding school serves vulnerable girls.

That Secretary Clinton now exercises a degree of power unrivaled by almost anyone of her gender—despite losing out on the American presidency last year—was lost on no one at Villa La Pietra, the 57-acre spread owned by New York University, which hosted the meeting. Just as September's Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York wove a tightly crafted narrative around economic empowerment for women and human rights for women and girls, the Vital Voices gathering, titled Breakthrough: Overcoming the Obstacles to Equality, Development and Peace, worked within the framework of Clinton's 1995 Beijing speech on “women’s rights as human rights.” That agenda is now deeply supported by the State Department and the Obama administration.

The conference attracted its share of star power and governmental heft: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women's issues Melanne Verveer, veteran Democratic political strategist Bob Shrum, and Italian Senate Vice President Emma Bonino.

Yet it's the struggle, not the star power and elegant setting, that remains my most vivid takeaway from Florence; the stunning bravery and personal risk of several young women working in their own countries, and their visceral determination to change the lives of other women and girls that outshines even the massive frescoes of the Palazzo Vecchio, where Florence Mayor (and rising political star) Matteo Renzi hosted a public panel discussion on women's rights. Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, founder of the Oruj Learning Center in Afghanistan, described her work in the Wardak province combating violence against women and her efforts to increase educational opportunities for girls in a cultural landscape where it is dangerous to teach women.

Linda Swana, executive director of the Fundación Proyecto de Vida in Guatemala, vividly described the use of mobile technology by young women working with their political elders to uncover and publicize corruption.

Kakenya Ntaiya, founder of the Kakenya Center for Excellence in Kenya, was the first girl to leave her village and acquire a college education. Today, her boarding school serves vulnerable girls, focusing on academic excellence, female empowerment, and community development.

Ntaiya spoke passionately about her personal experiences with female genital mutilation and child marriage; moreover, she looked around the room and politely demanded action. In societies all over the world, girls face violence and repression, she said. "Their dreams are being shattered...This is not right and we shouldn't be talking about this 10 years from now."