tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537417784964181376.post-1112561462669439152008-02-26T20:52:00.002-06:002008-02-26T20:54:59.092-06:00Listening to the stories – real stories – opened our eyes to a host of conditions and challenges confronting women and girls throughout the world on a daily basis. One interactive workshop in particular – Financing for Gender Equality: What’s Race, Class and Gender got to do with? – presented an opportunity “to consider the inter-linking problems that women face because of their gender, race ethnicity, caste, class, national origin or citizen status, sexual orientation, age and other factors.”<br /><br />Participants gathered in 10 small groups to tell personal stories. They recounted the myriad number of ways that they or someone they knew were kept from resources necessary for fulfilling their basic rights. Although they came from diverse backgrounds and circumstances, these delegates to the Commission on the Status of Women shared easily with one another as they explored the common threads in the stories they heard.<br /><br />As they reached consensus on the changes and policies that must occur, the participants showed just how much in harmony they really are. Their solidarity is empowering on many levels. Yet, later that evening, as I listened to our SSND group of students, sisters and colleagues discuss the day’s events I realized just how relative that sense of empowerment can be and how privileged we are to be at the heart of these dialogues.<br /><div align="right"><span style="color:#000066;"><em>Julie Gilberto-Brady<br />SSND Communications Coordinator</em></span></div>Julie Gilberto-Bradynoreply@blogger.com