Pam’s Comments (group member since Dec 29, 2016)

Pam’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Brittany wrote: "Hello! My apologies is this is not the correct place to ask this question, but I’m not quite sure where to post it. For February/March, we are reading two books. Are we also reading two books for A..."

Evening Brittany,

Right! With March coming to a close we will start
- The books for April/May. We are reading Overdressed as well as Sex and World Peace.
- And we're also going to have our next poll to pick the July/August book. You'll see a note coming out this upcoming week.

Watch your inbox for further details!

Not too late. Ask away!

Day 12: Women's History Month 2020

Mary Nazzal-Batayneh Jordanian Barrister, CEO, and Humanitarian

Nazzal-Batayneh is a 38-year-old lawyer and political activist, specialized in international human rights law at the Palestine Legal Aid Fund which is an organization that supports Palestinian individuals or organization who choose to take legal actions against Israelis.

She is also the founder and chair of Landmark Hotels, a leading luxury hotel chain based in Amman. Landmark was the first Jordanian hotel to sign up to the UN Global Compact and has introduced various social impact initiatives that prioritizes the needs of the local community, including: the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce making it an equal opportunities employer, creating The Green Hub by Landmark, an aquaponics dome that promotes soilless technology and saving water as a form of environmental sustainability; the establishment of Daycare by Landmark, a free on-site daycare for the children of Landmark employees; Landmark also contributes to the SDGs and has partnerships with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and GIZ. In 2012, the hotel was awarded a Guinness World Record for creating the world’s largest falafel. This was part of an effort against cultural appropriation.

In 2013, she was the only Jordanian selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Nazzal was also chosen as one of Forbes’ 200 Most Powerful Arab Women several times. Mary is a feminist and believes that women in all fields should not be afraid to get involved despite the patriarchal mindset that still dominates the Middle East countries. “A trend you will find in the whole Middle East is that women in top positions tend to be in family businesses. There are structural barriers that stop women from rising in the workplace, there is a sense that women can’t or shouldn’t. I wasn’t raised that way and I am certainly not raising my daughter that way”.

https://www.weforum.org/people/mary-n...
https://womenpreneur-initiative.com/i...
https://stepfeed.com/8-female-arab-en...

Day 11: Women's History Month

Zartaj Waseem Pakistani CEO and STEM Leader

Zartaj Waseem, a STEAM Education specialist (a software engineer by profession) focused on transforming the methods of teaching and learning Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM). Zartaj is the CEO and Co-founder of Pakistan Space Science Education Centre. She is pioneering & spearheading Pakistan's first ever Space Science Education initiative focused on exploration of Mars. And that's not half of it! She is leading Destination Imagination (DI), a US-based STEAM Program at Haque Academy, focal person of National Organizer in Pakistan for World Robot Olympiad (WRO) on behalf of STEM360, and is the first Pakistani STEAM Education Professional to be designated as Global STEM Corps Advisor for FIRST Global and also as an International Award Judge. Zartaj.

"Girls are a miraculous creation of Allah. We have a very powerful role be it at home or outside home as a professional. First of all, it is very important to get education and then something that I have assimilated and found very useful is the skill of self-learning. If you are good at self-learning and you are self-motivated you are unstoppable. Our girls should be adaptable, assertive and committed to what they dream to achieve." says Waseem.

https://www.womenengineers.pk/blog/pa...
https://scientiamag.org/the-brilliant...

Day 10: Women's History Month 2020

Kong Girls Hong Kong female protesters

"A Kong Girl, or a Gong Nui in Cantonese, is broadly described as a young Hong Kong female who is materialistic, apolitical, high-maintenance, and temperamental. In recent months, however, many have watched in awe as a new type of Kong Girl emerged out of this year’s protests, as women lobbed back tear gas grenades, built heavy-duty barricades, and stood in the frontlines to face an arsenal of increasingly powerful police weapons such as rubber bullets and bean-bag rounds."

"In addition to facing the specter of assault by police or civilians each time they take to the streets, Hong Kong’s female protesters are also facing rape threats and doxxing online—all the while as the government continues to take to outdated tropes to portray women."

Linda Wong, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities, a coalition of multiple women’s rights organizations in the city, said in a statement: “In the name of law enforcement, [the] police is using sexual violence as an instrument of intimidation. They intend to silence women through sexual shame and humiliation, violating women’s right to bodily autonomy, as well as every person’s right to lawful assembly. Our Coalition makes the strongest condemnation of police use of sexual violence as a means to intimidate protesters.” The anti-sexual harassment and assault protests were dubbed #ProtestToo, in reference to #MeToo, a worldwide movement that has called attention to gender-based sexual violence.

https://qz.com/1716703/hong-kong-fema...
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/hong-...

Dear OSS,

The Moderator team is excited to announce that R.F. Kuang has agreed to answer YOUR questions about her book "The Poppy War."

Feel free to list your questions below between now and Friday, March 20, 5PM EST.

Here are a couple of interviews to get you started:
https://bookpage.com/interviews/22654...
https://bookriot.com/2018/08/08/r-f-k...


Thank you,
The OSS Mods

I'll add: The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World



Gates' breaks down a few key areas that she thinks will help raise women across the globe.

ooh, I like that interpretation.

Use this thread to continue to explore the themes presented in Sex and World Peace. Please add books, websites, TED Talks, non-profits, research, movies, songs, etc. that explore similar ideas.

Remember, no self-promotion or your posts will be removed.

Thank you!

Thanks for the addition Peter!

Day 8: Women's History Month 2020

Jhamak Ghimire Nepalese journalist

Jhamak Ghimire is a Nepali writer and a columnist for the Nepali newspaper, Kantipur. Ghimire was born with cerebral palsy and as a young child could neither speak, use her hands, or even sit comfortably. She later overcame this challenge, teaching herself to write with her left foot.

To date, Ghimere has won nine awards for her work. Her autobiography, “Jeevan Kaada ki Phool” (“Is Life a Thorn or a Flower?”) won her the Madan Puraskar in 2010, the most prestigious literary award in Nepal. She is also a poet.

https://womenleadnepal.wordpress.com/...

:) Yay!
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Day 7: Women's History Month 2020

Wu Yi China's Iron Lady, engineer and politician

Wu Yi is tiny but powerful. Not because she was vice premier of China. And not because she was China’s chief trade negotiator, or because she was named three times to Forbes’ ‘Most Powerful Women in the World’ list, or because when the going gets tough, all the top men of China send Wu to do the dirty work,” writes the Daily Beast.

Born in Wuhan in 1938, Wu was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older brother. In 1962, she graduated from the Petroleum Refinery department at the Beijing Petroleum Institute, with a degree in petroleum engineering. She spent much of her career as a petroleum technician, eventually becoming deputy manager at the Beijing Dongfang Hong refinery.

From vice mayor to vice premier of the state council, Wu worked her way up to the health minister position during the early SARS outbreak, earning her a spot in TIME magazine’s “100 most influential of 2004” listing and again in ’05, ’07, and “third most powerful” in 2006.

Wu was regarded as a firm and direct woman who, unlike her mostly male colleagues, chose not to dye her graying hair black. Wu did not marry all her life. When questioned about this, Wu said, "it's not that I have always wanted to be alone, it's just that life has never given me the opportunity [for romance]; no one has ever entered my life in this way."

Retiring from Chinese politics in 2008, Wu is remembered as the “Iron Lady of China” and the “Goddess of Transparency” for her exemplary work in public health. In a nation ruled by men who often seem disconnected from their 1.3 billion subjects, Wu has made it her job to care about people. She was one of China's most beloved politicians today.

https://www.digmandarin.com/8-influen...
https://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/11/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Yi_(...

Please use this thread to coordinate book borrowing between members! Hopefully everyone who wants to is able to read Sex and World Peace.

Please use this thread ONLY for offers of and requests for Paying It Forward. All other comments about the book and where you got it from can be posted in other relevant topics, such as the book announcement at the top of the discussion board.

Our Pay It Forward initiative is strictly with regards to LEGAL methods of book sharing (for example, sharing hard copies or Kindle sharing). Any posts regarding illegal scans/PDFs/file sharing will be deleted without warning.

Thank you.

Let us know what you thought of Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, Chad F. Emmett.

Hello OSS!

In Emma's post at the beginning of the year she wrote "Keep your eyes peeled as I announce other books later this year." Today on Women's International Day, she has announced a new book!

She wrote on Instagram, "Happy International Women's day! Here's to all the women that put themselves on the line and have broken silence around rape culture and violence against women. I am so grateful for your strong voices.

In my continuing search for answers, I feel very grateful to have encountered Sex & World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli and Chad F. Emmett and I'm excited to share it with you on International Women's Day.

The book reveals that so much in the state of our world: security, prosperity, development, democracy, justice, and world peace is clearly dependent on and stems from how hard we treat women and girls. With this highly readable and extensively researched textbook, the authors encourage a holistic view when it comes to national and international relations - the whole tree, not just the branches, but the roots.

With practical chapters on achieving positive change, the book also offers us personal and societal calls to action while emphasizing that states who have the most power to make change must centralize the concerns of women where security, legal reform and justice is at stake and this includes equality in the decision-making process. Sex & World Peace shows us how gender inequality is a form of violence that impacts everything from population growth to economics to regime type. For me, this book illuminates how we got where we are today, and along with it, a way forward."

We will read this together now through May 31, 2020.

Moving this to Miscellaneous. Announcements are for moderators only.

Thanks!

Day 6: Women's History Month 2020

Shakuntala Devi Indian mathematician, nick named "the Human Computer" and LGBT Supporter

Born in a well-known family of Brahmin priests in Bangalore, Shakuntala Devi received her early lessons in mathematics from her grandfather. By the age of five she was recognized as a child prodigy and an expert in complex mental arithmetic. Hailed as an authentic heroine of our times her feats are recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. She has made international headlines for out-performing and out-computing the most sophisticated computers in the world.

Throughout her career, people would ask her to prove her skills. One such occasion in 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers—7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779—picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. Writer Steven Smith said, "the result is so far superior to anything previously reported that it can only be described as unbelievable."

Yet, Shakuntala Devi dislikes being called the ‘human computer’. She strongly believes that people have minds better than any computer. Her passionate interest in exploring and expanding the learning capacity of the human mind led her to develop the concept of ‘mind dynamics.’

In 1977, she wrote The World of Homosexuals, the first study of homosexuality in India. In the documentary "For Straights Only", she said that her interest in the topic was because of her marriage to a homosexual man and her desire to look at homosexuality more closely to understand it. The book, considered "pioneering" features interviews with two young Indian homosexual men, a male couple in Canada seeking legal marriage, a temple priest who explains his views on homosexuality, and a review of the existing literature on homosexuality. It ends with a call for decriminalization of homosexuality, and "full and complete acceptance—not tolerance and sympathy."

An upcoming biographical movie is to be released on May 8, 2020 titled simply "Shakuntala Devi."

Read more at:
https://www.businessinsider.in/thelif...
https://vedicmathsindia.org/shakuntal...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakunt...

Emma wrote: "Pam, I always appreciate your informative posts!"

Aww thanks Emma! I'm glad someone is reading these AND that you find merit to them. Happy Women's History Month my dear Ph.D. Candidate!

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Day 5: Women's History Month 2020

Susanthika Jayasinghe Sri Lankan Olympian

Susanthika Jayasinghe is a Sri Lankan sprint athlete specializing in the 100 and 200 metres. Known as the Asian Black Mare, Jayasinghe is the first Asian to win an Olympic or world championship medal in a sprint event.

Jayasinghe was born in Uduwaka, Sri Lanka; brought up in a poor family in a small village, where running spikes cost more than the average month's wage, she had no access to proper sports equipment or coaches. But she persisted. She traveled to the United States of America to train for the 2000 Summer Olympics, with no support from her national athletics association. Perusing her dream to reach the Olympics caused her to go heavily into debt but it all paid off. In 2000, in the Women's 200 meters she finished behind Marion Jones and Pauline Davis-Thompson to win the bronze medal and become Sri Lanka's first Olympic medalist since 1948. (She was later awarded silver when the gold medalist winner was found to be doping)

But even with this historical achievement, Jayasinghe was not quite clear from trouble. After returning home with her Olympic medal she was attacked by a male athlete because, she believed, she had been supporting former government members in an election campaign. However, after some time, she was finally supported by a national fundraising drive.

In 2019, she was appointed high performance director of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka. Jayasinghe will run the NOCSL's high performance program and will aim to develop the skills of Sri Lankan athletes across all sports, helping others the way she wished she had been helped all those years ago. She is one of Sri Lanka's most famous competitors and remains one of only two athletes from the country to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanth...
https://www.olympic.org/susanthika-ja...
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articl...

Day 4: Women's History Month 2020

"Mum Shirl" Shirley Smith: Australian Humanitarian

Colleen Shirley Perry Smith was born on November 22, 1921, in Erambie Mission, an Aboriginal community in New South Wales. Diagnosed with epilepsy at an early age, she was unable to go to school and was instead home schooled by her grandfather. While she never learned how to read or write, she was fluent in 16 Aboriginal languages. Shirl dedicated her life to community activism that resulted in social reform for Aboriginal Australians and other minority communities throughout the country.

After her brother Laurie was arrested, Shirl began visiting Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Complex to check on him and other Aboriginal inmates, there she found people enjoyed having someone to talk to. When guards asked how she was related to the prisoners she wanted to visit, she’d say she was their “mum”—and a legend was born. Her work was not limited to prisons, however; she went to court sometimes to help people who had been charged with a crime as well as spent finding homes for children whose parents could not look after them or helping children to find their own parents again. Shirl was a founding member of the Aboriginal Children’s Service, the Aboriginal Housing Company, the Aboriginal Medical Service, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and the Aboriginal Legal Service. Her work was commemorated with an Order of Australia and an Order of the British Empire.

Mum Shirl resided in Sydney for the majority of her life, often travelling to educate Australians on issues affecting Aboriginal communities. Revered for her humanitarian work, this captivating speaker was recognized as a National Living Treasure by Australia’s National Trust in 1998. “Many people have told me they think I’m an exception,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I’m not… There are many fine Aboriginal people who, with half a chance, would be doing what I am now doing.” Thanks to her, many more have.

http://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/smith-...
https://myhero.com/Shirl_Melbourne
https://www.google.com/doodles/celebr...

Day 3: Women's History Month 2020

Uemura Shoen Japanese painter

Shoen Uemura was born on April 23, in 1875, in Kyoto. Her mother, a young widow, saw signs that her daughter was gifted very early on and would allow Shoen to practice drawing the customers who came to the family's tea shop to the amusement and amazement of all. While women painting wasn't a new concept, women traditionally only painted for fun or from their homes. They were not taught in studios. Any female painters who did find success were taught from family members. Given their circumstances, Shoen's mother pushed for her daughter to have a chance of a career in painting and sent Shoen to Kyoto Prefectural Art School.

Uemura Shoen is considered a major innovator in the bijn-ga (this term referrers to pictures of concubines especially in woodblock printing) as instead of lovely court women, Shoen instead would depict the traditional beauty standards of women; as well as women doing chores, dressing up to go out, or scenes depicting a classic theatrical production that was traditionally reserved for an all male cast.. At 15, one of Shoen's painting was purchased by a member of the English Royal Family and enabled her to leave school to take on patrons and commission work full time.

In 1941 Shoen Uemura became a member of the Imperial Art Academy. And in 1948 she became the first woman to receive the Order of Cultural Merit.

https://womennart.com/2019/03/20/who-...
https://www.artelino.com/articles/sho...
https://artsandculture.google.com/sto...