Woman News
Pages: [1] 2
2010 - Seven Who Rewrite the Rules
Profiles of seven outstanding leaders dedicated to improving women"s lives: Michael Dowd, Patricia Gruber, Ilene Lang, Ana Langer, Tonya Lewis Lee, Sarwat Malik and Maria Do Socorro Melo Brandao. Michael G. Dowd, Defender of Women with Charges Once again, attorney Michael Dowd is in court, defending what many believe is indefensible: a woman accused of murdering her husband, a police officer, while he shaved. He"s done it 25 times before, more than any other lawyer in the country. The judge in the case delivered a rare, and perhaps temporary, defeat to Dowd"s client by ruling in December that Dowd couldn"t enter psychiatric testimony that, after 25 years of abuse, his client was suffering from post-traumatic distress disorder at the time of the shooting. Dowd says he had no real understanding of domestic violence when he got his first such case in 1979. A woman was on trial for killing her husband with a machete following years of abuse. Dowd says he kept getting postponements from the court to give him time to figure out how to approach the case. He sought to educate himself by meeting with a psychologist to discuss the issue, but he wasn"t without skepticism. "I was 38 and had been raised in New York in a male chauvinist environment," Dowd says, noting that his initial reaction to some of the explanation for domestic violence was that it was nonsense. The more he listened, however, the more he started to get it--and for the past 30 years, he"s been an advocate for battered women charged with crimes. The psychologist got him to see the "cornerstone of domestic violence is society"s indifference to harm done to women. My whole view was changed," Dowd says. He broke ground with using what is now called the battered woman"s defense to win the case. In 1987, Dowd won a landmark case involving a Queens woman who had been charged the year before with second-degree murder in the smothering deaths of her two infants days after they were born in 1980 and 1982. Again, he relied on mental health experts to help him get a handle on what was unchartered legal territory. His client, a former pediatric nurse, was absolved of the charges based on his defense that she suffered from psychosis as a result of postpartum depression. "It was the first time in New York that the insanity defense (based on postpartum depression) had ever been used, and the first time in New York that it had been used successfully," Dowd says. Dowd went on to launch the Battered Women"s Justice Center at Pace University in 1991 and served as its director until 1994, when he resumed practicing law. Now called the Women"s Justice Center, the facility provides aid to battered women and trains lawyers to handle domestic violence cases, which they must take on a pro bono basis. Dowd says the judge"s decision in his latest case was "crippling," but such setbacks only motivate him to press on in the name of justice. --Vivian Lingard Patricia Gruber, Awarder of Giant Leaps Forward The "Nobel Prize for Women"s Rights" is how the annual award given by Patricia Gruber and her husband, Peter, is thought of in the human rights community. Such a description is only fitting, as the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation is a major force in the global fight for women"s equality. Every year since 2003, the foundation has given a $500,000 prize to an individual and/or organization serving as outstanding advocates for women"s rights. Activist Leymah Gbowee is one such person; she"s been credited with organizing Christian and Muslim women to end the civil war in Liberia. Another laureate is Pinar Ilkkaracan, who pioneered reforms to anchor women"s equality in the legal system and created a nationwide human rights program to enable women to exercise their rights in Turkey. The award to Ilkkaracan was split between her and her organization, Women for Women"s Human Rights New Ways. Gruber said the prize is often shared between a woman and an organization, explaining that women tend to work together. A panel of luminaries in the field selects each year"s recipient(s) from nominations received worldwide. Among current and former selection committee members are the Honorable Akua Kuenyehia of the International Criminal Court and Zainab Salbi of Women for Women International. Gruber says the recipients are chosen not just for their accomplishments, but for inspiring the movement of women"s political, economic and social empowerment. The foundation was established in 1993 and began its prize program in 2000. Besides the Women"s Rights Prize, the Grubers present annual awards in the fields of cosmology, genetics, neuroscience and justice. Gruber explained that they chose those fields as ones of special importance today. "The sciences have a lot to offer," says Gruber, a psychotherapist who previously worked at a clinic for women and children in California. But so do the human rights fields. "If you don"t have women"s participation and justice, you don"t have the rule of law and you don"t have a stable society. We thought, "We"ve got 50 percent of the population--we can"t leave them out"." The combination of money and attention helps the recipients of the Gruber Women"s Rights Prize make progress toward their goals and the ceremony itself connects activists from around the world. "The initial concept of prizes had been individuals can make a difference, which is absolutely true. But in women"s rights another emphasis is the importance of undertaking something as a group," says Gruber. "So many women are doing incredible work in women"s rights. We"re happy to be a part of that community." --Sarah Seltzer Ilene Lang, Measurer of Women"s Power As a trailblazer in the field of information technology, Ilene Lang, 66, was always concerned with opportunities for women"s advancement in the business world. In 2003, she turned her avocation into a mission when she became president of Catalyst, a research and advisory organization working to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business. She was named its chief executive officer in 2008. As its leader, Lang works to ensure that the women of today don"t experience the kinds of barriers she faced on her journey up the corporate ladder, which took her to the top of AltaVista Internet Software in 1996. "In the early days of my career, gender bias was overt," Lang says, citing assumptions by managers and colleagues that she would not return from maternity leave to subtle treatment such as thinking that since she was married she didn"t care about equal compensation. Since she had few female role models to emulate while moving up the corporate ladder, she says she had to make her own way. "But women friends and colleagues," she adds, "were always supportive. We helped each other!" Lang is now helping other women do the same, by working with corporations to change policies and practices that shortchange women. Over the last five decades, there has been significant progress. She says when Catalyst was founded in 1962, few women held managerial and professional positions; now they hold about 50 percent of such positions in the United States. But at the top there are still far too few women, she says: In 1962 there were no female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies; today there are only 15. Throughout Lang"s career, she mentored junior businesswomen, advised female entrepreneurs and served on corporate boards. She now sits on the Global Agenda Council on the Gender Gap at the World Economic Forum and is a member of the National Board Development Committee of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Even though women have made great strides in the business world, Lang says there"s still a long way to go before women reach parity. "Norway has legislated that 40 percent of all corporate board seats must be held by women. So has Spain. Canada, France, Italy and Australia are considering similar legislation. We are very slow in this country to legislate quotas," Lang says. "Yet old attitudes about a woman"s place have not changed in many segments of our society." --Allison Stevens Dr. Ana Langer, Healer of Health Policies Dr. Ana Langer stands at the intersection where women"s rights and health meet. As an ardent advocate for women"s health, she"s on a mission to make maternal deaths a part of the past. Langer"s commitment to improving women"s health can be traced back to the genocide in Europe during World War II, when her parents fled the Nazis in Austria. In their new homeland, Argentina, the family lived under an unstable government. But both parents, who were physicians, emphasized to their daughter that if she became a doctor herself, she should use her life"s work to create social change. Langer began her medical career in 1974 as a specialist in the care of newborns, especially those who were ill or premature. She quickly realized that in order for infants to be healthy, their mothers had to be healthy as well. This sparked her interest in public health and inspired her to work for policy changes that would positively impact the lives of women and their families. "My interest in maternal health expanded to sexual and reproductive health and rights when I saw how interconnected these issues really are," Langer says. "Sometimes there are separate programs for family planning, sexual health and HIV, but it is critical to take a holistic approach to programming--with the woman at the center." Langer"s growing commitment to women"s reproductive health coincided with a watershed agreement coming out of the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. That same year, Langer joined the Population Council, an international nonprofit research organization, as its regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. She oversaw research and advocacy in areas such as maternal health, gender equality, HIV and AIDS and family planning, generating evidence that led to progressive policy changes.Pages: [1] 2