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Welcome! The Women and Religion Movement is alive and well in the 21st Century. A grassroots project started by lay leaders in the 1970s as an effort to promote examination of religious roots of sexism and patriarchy within the UUA and beyond, UU Women and Religion officially began as a task force following the unanimously-passed WOMEN AND RELIGION RESOLUTION at the 1977 UUA General Assembly. Although the Task Force was eventually sunsetted, the movement still exists in UU communities that hold Women & Religion programs and gatherings for those who identify as women. It exists at the UU General Assembly, where UUW&R brings our Store to the Exhibit Hall and occasionally hosts a gathering. And it lives in the hearts and lives of people who have been touched by the many changes inspired by this movement.

"We do not want a piece of the pie. It is still a patriarchal pie. We want to change the recipe!" -- Rosemary Matson

CEDAW Hearing Testimony

November 17, 2010

Through two active memberships I have long held in the International Association of Liberal Religious Women, IALRW, and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, UUSC, I have had years of exposure to the importance of CEDAW in women’s lives around the world. My country of the United States’ needs for the CEDAW investment of fairness may have different realms of focus such as the pay gap between men and women’s work, but this women’s treaty’s definition for what discrimination against women is rings just as true.

copyright 2010 Jim Wells Photography

[Helen Popenoe near photo center in red and gold] (photo copyright 2010 Jim Wells Phtotgraphy)

As I understand it from UUSC’s curriculum, “Gender Justice: Women’s Rights are Human Rights”, the definition is that it is any distinction or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights.  Article Two mandates governmental condemnation of discrimination against women in all its forms and to ensure that national legal frameworks embody the principles of equality between men and women.

I will stand proud as a U.S. citizen when Senate ratification and the President’s signature shows the world how much we value women’s ability to contribute to the betterment of the lives of  humankind.

( IALRW, at age 100 years, is the oldest active, interfaith religious women’s organization in the world and UUSC, at age 66 years, is active in the world confronting political, cultural and economic oppression.)

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