AWID: Women's Rights

AWID’s mission statement:

“to strengthen the voice, impact and influence of women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements internationally to effectively advance the rights of women”

There are agencies that target and report for and on a specific group of individuals and dedicate themselves to human rights. The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (or AWID) is one such company. While the name speaks for itself and the company started off catering to just women, AWID does advocate and report for all those that are not ideally represented in the media regardless of gender, and the company has grown to include general human rights issues. AWID collects uplifting news from all its agencies and affiliates and puts them on its main site. All news collected regarding human rights and political movement are usually very uplifting. The site does post current news that show the discrimination against women and minorities and implores the public to take action. One such story is a gender based draft bill that is to be presented to parliament. It talks about expanding the economic empowerment of women in Zambia. http://www.awid.org/eng/Women-s-Rights-in-the-News/Women-s-Rights-in-the-News/Zambia-Gender-Based-Violence-draft-bill-to-be-presented-to-Parliament

Since the association is international, the company explores and reports on issues that affect women in areas that usually remain under-reported such as in the story above in Zambia. It ensures work with women’s rights advocates and organizations to make certain their goal of social change worldwide. To do this, their goal is all about awareness in response to what is happening in the world. AWID understands the importance of the media and the role such a powerful tool plays in the life of people and as such, they choose to use it thier advantage.

The company reaches its market via the internet. According to Rebecca Bullen author of The Power and Impact of Gender-Specific Media Literacy we learn “that media emphasizes stereotypes and gender roles” (1), as such AWID reports on women’s rights in the news and speaks about women in action, thus perpetuating positive stereotypes about and for women via the media.

Ingrid Hu Dahl author of Youth Media is Coming Out, says “media programs allow [people] to control how they define and express their identity” (2). Since its inception, AWID has made great strides in this area. The website is setup for easy navigation, giving readers easy access to headliner stories that are concerning them.

AWID was established in 1982 by twenty six people from North American developmental agencies, universities and community organizations to give voice to women’s rights and women’s developmental issues.

The company has offices in Toronto, Mexico City and Cape Town with a number of independent staff members working worldwide in places such as Shanghai to Bangalore. Those other staff workers include translators, moderators and e-newsletter writers. It boasts membership to that of over five thousand individuals.

http://www.awid.org