"Women, Education and Development" by Arvonne Fraser

Hello everyone,

I listened yesterday Arvonne Fraser at the University of Minnesota.
She talked about the topic “Woman, Education and Development”.
This was all new for me, which is why I found the talk so interesting.
Fraser is a Senior Fellow at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She has been active in politics, government and women rights. By the way, I like the title of her memoirs: “She´s no lady”. She gave us an overview about the international woman movement especially between 1975 - 1995 and spoke about her membership of the U.N.world conferences on women in Mexico and Beijing. Her presentation was full of lively examples which I enjoyed. She mentioned the problem of illiteracy. The rate of illiteracy for women is higher than for men. She emphasized that in Afghanistan a high rate of woman can neigher write nor read. What I found most interesting were her facts about the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination). Fraser is very proud of the CEDAW because of 185 countries are a part of the convention. The convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men. That means for instance: equal opportunities in political and public life and the right of education and employment. Fraser is mother of 6 children and was beside her motherhood political active. That impressed me very much. She is a distinguished personality.
The topic is very important. Fraser helped women to organize and fight for their rights. I admire people who are engaged in the improvement of women´s rights.

Carina