Saturday's Symposium

What a wonderful day yesterday, at the Center for Women's Global Leadership 20th Anniversary Symposium. Many from the women's movement were there, including Gita Sen, and Peggy Antrobus. And of course, Charlotte Bunch! Charlotte is retiring - although she will continue as a senior scholar and as a professor at Rutgers University.

Radhika Balakrishnan is the new director of the Center. Her background is Ph D in Economics, and she has been teaching economics and international studies at Marymount Manhattan College. One of her priorities is to work on integrating macro ecnomics and human righgts. Another area of work currently is the possibility of a 2010 16 Days Campaign theme related to structures of violence and/or the intersections between militarism and gender violence.

During the day, panelists explored three main themes - panel 1 looked at The Body - reproductive health - Panel 2 was on The Economy and Panel three was looking at the Women's Movement.

The session ended with tribute to Charlotte Bunch - a short DVD, Passionate Politics: The Life and Work of Charlotte Bunch. There was a standing ovation for Charlotte, and she gave a speech acknowledging the contribution of many at the gathering to her work, including Mary Hartman, who i really enjoyed - she was a founder and director of the Institute for Women's Leadership and Dean of Douglass College.