=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu uploaded January 1996 with the permission of the Center for Political Leadership and Participation =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= International Directory of Women's Political Leadership 1995 Women's Organizations and Leaders Fourth Edition PREFACE We live in a time of great change. We are all witness to this change in our own countries, governments, legislatures, and organizations. Our families are benefiting from some of these changes while other changes are causing great stress and misunderstanding. We are searching for new solutions and smarter answers to problems that have escalated beyond our own capacities to solve them. Who can help us ? The fourth edition of this directory marks the eighth year that the Center for Political Leadership & Participation at the University of Maryland College Park has collected information on women leaders and organizations around the world. Each edition has grown in size due to the proliferation of organizations working for the social, economic, and political empowerment of women and their children, and the increased numbers of women elected to public office. This growth in the numbers of organizations world-wide is defined by Lester M. Salamon as an "associational revolution" (Salamon, 1994). He reports that this revolution is most remarkable in the developing world and in emerging democracies. Countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Chile have several thousand registered non-governmental organizations that are initiating programs to assist communities in economic, social, educational, environmental, and human rights concerns. Activism is a growing profession in many countries where less than a decade ago it was forbidden and threatened with death. Women leaders are not being elected at the same rate; however, we see a steady stream of women accepting the challenge to run for office. And when they run, they win. According to a report issued by the National Women's Political Caucus in Washington, D.C., the results of the U.S. 1994 elections indicate that women made more gains in state-wide elections than ever before by winning eighty-three seats in the executive branch offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, and secretary of state. In state legislatures, women won a total of one thousand five-hundred thirty-three seats (1,533). This is the training ground for future senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress, and for the White House. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) reports that as of June 30, 1994 the percentage of women elected in more than twenty parliaments ranges from 20% to 39% representation. Additionally, in Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Poland, and the Russian Federation women made impressive gains in the 1994 elections, growing by several percentage points since the last elections two and three years earlier. Christine Bintat, Officer of the Women's Unit at the IPU, states that many countries have held parliamentary elections since this report, and more women have won seats. When women run, they win. The women leaders winning seats and the hundreds of non-governmental organizations being founded monthly are part of the change we are witnessing in our countries and our communities. They are creating a new dialogue in many realms, a dialogue that makes room for new voices to be heard. Voices with ideas and resources to share, not worn by time or tainted by power, will help create better government and more citizen participation. It is in this vein that the Center for Political Leadership & Participation publishes this directory. We hope that it is used as a resource to provide ideas to those in search of a solution, to act as a networking device for women leaders, and as a benchmark of women's global political status in the last half of the 20th century. Who can help us? We can help one another by sharing our experiences, our knowledge, and the expertise we have developed. And most importantly, we can help one another with a simple act of encouragement and support. Deborah Welborn Poulin Editor References Inter-Parliamentary Union. (1994) Distribution of Seats Between Men and Women in the 178 National Parliaments Existing as of 30 June 1994 (June 30). Geneva, Switzerland. National Women's Political Caucus. (1995). Fact Sheet on Women's Political Progress (January 26). Washington, D.C.: Pat Reilly. Salamon, Lester M. (1994). The rise of the nonprofit sector. Foreign Affairs, July/August,, 109-122.