Hey Everybody, I just wanted to restate my purpose to you for creating LadyRomp!! Thanks, Kim
I just want to open up my heart a little bit this morning if you guys do not mind. I have truly come to the conclusion that my purpose in life is to help women find their way in this big old world that we live in. I want women to embrace their power, beauty and knowledge to turn the world upside down. We have so much to give and when we are supporting and guiding each other that makes all of our power resonate.
I have a segment on my blog that I call, “Inspirational Woman Of The Day”, and on that segment I am highlighting more well known women, but my ultimate goal is to use women who are not so well known. I want all women to see that if it happened for her, it can happen for me too.
So what I would like you to do…
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Inspirational Woman Of The Day
Winnie Mandela
Winnie is probably the single most controversial politician to emerge from South Africa’s liberation struggle, adored by her supporters, who call her the ‘Mother of the Nation’, reviled as a violent and corrupt criminal by others. She was born on the 26 September 1936, in Mbongweni village, Bizana, in the Pondo district of the East Cape and belongs to the Xhosa people. She was the fourth of eight children. Her mother, who died when she was eight, taught Domestic Science. Her father worked for the Forestry and Agriculture Dept. Her full name is Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela. ‘Nomzamo’ means ‘trial: having a hard time in life’ – it seems a hard tag to give a child, but in this case her parents must have been psychic.
Meeting Nelson
Winnie studied social work at the Jan Hofmeyer School in Johannesburg and gained a degree in International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand. She had several different jobs in her home area of the Transkei and became South Africa’s first black social worker, based at the Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg.
In 1957, she met Nelson Mandela, marrying him the following year. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi. They officially remained married until 1996, although they actually separated in 1992 on the grounds of her adultery during his imprisonment. However they never really had any chance for a married life. The few years they did have before he was incarcerated in Robben Island in 1963 were taken up by endless tours of the country in heavy disguise, by spells in prison and the Rivonia Trials. Their tiny Johannesburg home in Soweto is now a museum.
Mother of the Nation
With Nelson Mandela imprisoned, Winnie took centre stage. A passionate and charismatic speaker, she campaigned tirelessly and often outspokenly, allying herself with the hardline views of the Black Consciousness Movement. Banned and confined to Soweto, she was arrested on several occasions, even spending 17 months in solitary confinement in Pretoria Central Prison. Her children were sent to boarding school in Swaziland. After her involvement in the 1976 Soweto Uprisings, she was exiled for years to Brandfort in the Free State. With Nelson emerging as an international figurehead for the political prisoners, the ANC made a conscious decision not only to bolster his image but that of his wife, highlighting the persecution she was suffering at the hands of the authorities. In 1986, she decided to move back to Soweto and confront matters head on, becoming an international celebrity as she outspokenly espoused the cause and raised her husband to superstar status.
Violent crime
Unfortunately, at the same time, things began to go badly wrong as Winnie pushed the boundaries too far. In 1986, she made a speech approving ‘necklace killings’ as a way of dealing with township dissidents, a barbaric practice that hangs a burning tire around the neck of the victim. Then the Mandela United Football Club (MUFC), Winnie’s group of teenage bodyguards, began rampaging ever more out of control. On 29 December 1988, they abducted four teenage boys from the home of Methodist Minister, Rev. Paul Verryn. All four were badly beaten and one, 14-year-old James Seipei, better known as Stompei Moeketsi, was killed. His body was found in a field, with stab wounds, on 6 January 1989. At her trial, Winnie claimed that the boys had been taken to protect them from sexual abuse. She was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault. A six year jail sentence was later reduced, but Winnie’s reputation was tarnished forever.
Allegations later laid before Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission linked her to 18 violent crimes including eight murders.
Political power
In 1991, Winnie was elected to the National Executive of the ANC, resigning all political posts after her conviction. In 1993, however, she was elected President of the ANC Women’s League, a post she held for 10 years.
Following the handover of power in 1994, Winnie Mandela became a Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology but the portfolio was removed from her in 2005 amidst allegations of corruption and she was voted out of parliament the following year. In 2003, she was again in trouble, convicted of 58 counts of fraud and 25 counts of theft from a funeral fund. Most of these were later overturned by an appeal court. In 2007, she was re-elected to the National Executive of the ANC (African National Congress). In 2008, she rejoined the National Executive of the ANC Women’s League. In 2009, she was returned to Parliament and remains an MP today. She has never remarried.
Women In The News
By Alice Hines
alice.hines@huffingtonpost.com
Walmart Sex Discrimination Claims Filed By 2,000 Women
Almost 2,000 women in 48 states claim that Walmart discriminated against them for pay and promotions.
May 25 was the deadline for women in most states to file charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that litigates on behalf of workers against employers. EEOC charges were filed by 1,975 Walmart women before the deadline. Under most laws enforced by the EEOC, plaintiffs must file a charge with the agency before bringing a job discrimination lawsuit. The filings mean women who say Walmart systematically favors men for raises and promotions can individually pursue lawsuits, even though a class-action lawsuit against Walmart was turned away last summer by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Charges were filed in every state except Montana and Vermont (the latter has only four Walmart stores, the fewest of any state). Women in Florida, Alabama and Georgia filed the most claims. Lawyers said they hope the filings will lead to new regional class-action lawsuits. Plaintiffs in last year’s failed class-action have already launched new class-action suits in California and Texas courts.
“The fact that EEOC charges were filed in every single Walmart region in the nation demonstrates the widespread and pervasive nature of Walmart’s pay andpromotion discrimination against its women employees,” said Brad Seligman, a lead attorney for the women, in a statement.
Walmart said the new regional class-action lawsuits rely on the same faulty logic as the case the Supreme Court dismissed. The retail giant has asked both Texas and California judges to dismiss the new cases.
The Supreme Court dismissed the original Dukes v. Walmart class-action case in June, ruling that the 1.5 million women that Walmart employed was a group too large and too diverse to be considered a “class,” and that the individual instances of alleged discrimination had too little in common to be labeled a systematic company practice. Pay and promotion decisions were made by managers in stores based on “a variety of regional policies that all differed,” the court said. The court did not rule on whether discrimination occurred.
By breaking the workers into smaller groups, plaintiffs’ lawyers hope it will be easier to prove that discrimination was systematic within regions of Walmart stores. Women in Texas argue in court documents that their smaller class-action challenges only the “discrete group of regional, district and store managers” who made the “biased pay and promotion decisions.”
“Managers … have the ultimate authority whether, and by how much, to adjust the pay of all hourly employees,” the plaintiffs wrote in early March. They “have long known about gender disparities yet have failed to take remedial action.”
Walmart said the cases are still too diverse to be consolidated into regional class-actions. “As in Dukes, the plaintiffs here fail to identify any discrete, actionable employment practice that commonly affected all members of the still-sprawling proposed class,” the company wrote in April of the Texas case in court documents.
The filings with the EEOC could also provoke that agency to launch its own investigation into Walmart. The EEOC has sued Walmart in the past, independently of the Dukes case. In 2010, Walmart settled a lawsuit brought by the EEOC, paying $11.7 million in back wages and compensation damages to women in London, Ky., who were denied jobs because of their sex.
Inspiration Of Motherhood
Cynthia Gormezano, while undergoing cancer treatment, was cheered up by her son Haym.
Battling Cancer: Mothers Racing for the Cure
Should you have been at Madison Square Park (MSP) in New York City on a Saturday morning, you may have seen a group of mothers wearing purple t-shirts running through the park pushing various baby strollers. These mothers weren’t focused on losing “baby weight,” but rather they were warriors battling cancer on all fronts.
The purple-clad women were training for today’s Women’s Mini 10k through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training (TNT) program, the world’s largest endurance sports training program benefitting blood cancer research and patient services.
One member, Cynthia Gormezano, knows all too well the importance of raising funds for LLS through TNT. Cynthia is a 3-time Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor and long-time TNT participant.
“In May 2000, I felt a lump in my neck and knew right away it was cancer,” recalled Gormezano. Her doctor found she had cancerous tumors all over her neck and chest. “I hoped it was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma -the good cancer. It’s an oxymoron – but you hear that a lot,” she said. It was. Gormezano underwent chemotherapy and went into remission for two-and-a-half years.
In June 2001, she had another scan only to discover that her cancer was back. “I was thirty when I relapsed,” she recalled. Her doctor told her if she had the standard treatment, “stem cell transplant,” she would never be able to have children because “it kicks you into menopause.” She chose chemotherapy and radiation.
Gormezano then met her future husband, Meir Suissa, who promptly proposed to her on their second date. Her oncologist advised her to see her OBGYM immediately if she ever wanted to get pregnant. Nine months later, Gormezano gave birth to her son Haym, named after her father and which means life.
When Haym was 6 months old and still breastfeeding, Gormezano decided to do a check up since she had not done one while pregnant. She had relapsed again, but this time opted for the stem cell transplant. “It was really rough. It was more grueling physically but emotionally more bearable because of my husband and son,” she affirmed.
Her recovery was physically exhausting. Gormezano stayed home for four months and could barely do more than lie down on the couch.
“I would literally spend the time watching my son or reading him books. I couldn’t feed him or put him to sleep. I just sat with him,” she said.
A year later, Gormezano decided to undergo IVF and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl called Anat. “I breast-fed her for a year. I took off work for six months and just reveled in her,” she recalled happily.
In three weeks time, Gormezano is going in for another scan, “I’m so anxious – I have never gone to four years before – this is big!”
Gormezano got involved with LLS after her first bout with cancer and has raised over $100,000. Since 2001, Cynthia has completed five 100-mile (century) rides and six triathlons and one 10K.
Jessica Oliver, a divorced mother of four, also belongs to the MSP group, whose weekly training sessions are led by certified trainer Meri Treitler, founder of Mommy & Me Fitness. Treitler, a mother of three, offers her services to LLS pro bono. Oliver runs for one of her twin daughters Kate Davis, who will turn 10 on July 1.
On January 31, 2004, Kate was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ”Kate had one too many bruises. That day I noticed she had a bruise on top of her shoulder and I knew that something was not right,” Oliver recalled. “She was diagnosed with ALL – the good kind of cancer! I refused to learn how to spell it because I didn’t want it to remain part of our life,” she exclaimed.
Kate underwent 28 months of chemotherapy at Sloan Kettering Hospital and lived there for over 4 months.
“It was very tough. We took no risks. She couldn’t eat out for two years. We eliminated all bacteria – no play-dates at home. My daughter couldn’t go to school for a year and a half so we had a friend who volunteered to be her teacher twice a week,” she recalled.
Oliver said she met many children who weren’t as lucky as her daughter and lost their battles with cancer. “We are involved in LLS with the hope that someday every child will make it. We volunteer in the memory of those kids at the hospital, our friends who we loved, who didn’t make it,” she said tearfully.
Since her diagnosis, Kate’s family has raised over $350,000 for LLS.
According to Helena Scott, LLS’ Senior Campaign Director, the survival rate for childhood leukemia in 1949, was zero, while today it is 90 percent. Scott added, “LLS is relentless to find a 100 percent cure rate not just for leukemia but all cancers.”
Moms have made huge contributions to LLS. Out of the 200 TNT participants in today’s race, 25 are mothers. “Overall the Moms In Training team have raised over $30,000 and the Team In Training team overall are estimated to raise over $130,000!” said Scott.
For more information on LLS and its Team in Training Programs, visit www.lls.org/nyc
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