Have We Taken A Stand? Where are American Women in the Global Women's Movement?

I write this as I sit amongst over 2200 women's activists from over 144 countries at the Association for Women's Rights and Development Forum. Their combined resilience, strength, creativity, power and love is immense and yet indescribable. As I sit listening to the struggles lesbians face in the Arab world, the fight Iranian women have to be considered a whole person unlike their current worth of half a man under the law, the struggles women face in Africa as they bear the brunt of an increasing HIV rate, and all women in solidarity coming together to fight violence against women and I think of what am I doing at home. I think of the movement of domestic workers in the United States, and I wonder why I haven't known about this movement before. As American women work to ensure their reproductive rights continue, that they break the glass ceiling, receive equal pay for their work, and try to find a balance between work and home....I think of our sisters across the globe and what we can and should be doing to help them. I also look at their movements, their fight for equal rights, and I don't see the same passion amongst American women as they strive for a more equitable future. I sit here being inspired and also contemplating what I will do when I go back home, how will I take a stand, how will I bring people together, and how will I overcome my shyness to speak up. I only need to remember the collective strength and spirit of the women here, as I open my mouth to make my voice heard!