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    Activism
    Activism
    Activism
    Ebook125 pages54 minutes

    Activism

    By Alexandra Hanson-Harding

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Support and inspiration are provided to teens interested in taking action on women’s issues. The author reports on activists who have helped women’s causes in amazing ways, and provides a wide variety of ideas and resources for teens wanting to make a difference. Chapters highlight a host of areas where help is needed, including fighting harmful media images of women, combating violence against women, improving women’s health worldwide, and advancing women’s political and economic status.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRosen Publishing
    Release dateDec 15, 2012
    ISBN9781448884056
    Activism

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      Book preview

      Activism - Alexandra Hanson-Harding

      Introduction

      A History of Activism

      More Than Our Looks: Media’s Influence

      Owning Our Bodies

      Fighting Violence Against Women

      Political and Economic Rights

      Helping Girls and Women Around the World

      Strengthening Each Other and Ourselves

      Glossary

      For More Information

      For Further Reading

      Bibliography

      Index

      This book is dedicated to my wise and powerful women friends, my beautiful sister, and above all, to my much-adored mother,

      Janet Hanson.

      Published in 2013 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

      29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

      Copyright © 2013 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

      First Edition

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Hanson-Harding, Alexandra.

      Activism: taking on women's issues/Alexandra Hanson-Harding. — 1st ed.

      p. cm. — (A young woman's guide to contemporary issues)

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-4488-8401-8 (library binding)

      1. Feminism—Juvenile literature. 2. Women's rights—Juvenile literature.

      3. Women — Political activity—Juvenile literature. I. Title.

      HQ1155.H36 2013 305.42—dc23

      2012013800

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Introduction

      1 A History of Activism

      2 More Than Our Looks: Media’s Influence

      3 Owning Our Bodies

      4 Fighting Violence Against Women

      5 Political and Economic Rights

      6 Helping Girls and Women Around the World

      7 Strengthening Each Other and Ourselves

      Glossary

      For More Information

      For Further Reading

      Bibliography

      Index

      Anne Frank spent years hiding in an attic from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II. Yet she wrote, How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. She died in a German concentration camp in 1945 at age fifteen. But her book, The Diary of a Young Girl, has inspired millions of people. Her brief life is just one example of why girls matter.

      Women's lives have changed with amazing speed in the last one hundred years. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2006 women earned 58 percent of bachelor's degrees in the United States. They also earned 60 percent of master's degrees and half of all doctorates. As reported on ScienceDaily.com, old stereotypes—such as the idea that girls aren't as good at math as boys — are being broken by new studies.

      Women have won Nobel Prizes in many fields. In 2011, for instance, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three African women — activists Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women. Today, women lead countries from Germany to Brazil to Australia.

      Today's girls are educated and confident. As they learn to help others, they can master skills — such as organizing, speaking out, and writing persuasive letters—that will help them in their future lives.

      You may have only a few minutes to help. Or you might want to get deeply involved in a cause that helps girls and women. Either way, you can make a difference. As Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wrote in their groundbreaking book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, The tide of history is turning women from beasts of burden...into full-fledged human beings.The question is.whether each of us will be part of that historical movement, or a bystander.

      A History of Activism

      Chicago cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Amy Lehman was on vacation in Africa when she found her life's mission. She saw that millions were suffering unnecessary deaths along massive Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa. This remote region is home to several of the world's poorest countries and has struggled with civil unrest for the past twenty years. People have little access to medical care and are killed by easily preventable diseases. So, with a small team of helpers, Lehman started delivering malaria nets to people in small lakeside villages. These lifesaving nets prevent people from being bitten by infected mosquitoes while they sleep.

      That's not all. Lehman decided to raise funds to buy and set up a specially equipped hospital ship to help even more people. The goal of the ship is to bring high-level hospital care to people in remote villages without roads, electricity, or running water. If you decide that you are going to do something that's trailblazing, you're stuck, she told the Web site the Daily Beast. You have to have your steeled guts. The Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic has already helped improve the lives of more than three hundred thousand people. Her determination shows what a tough woman can do when she puts her

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