Politics and the Law

Flavia Agnes, born in 1947, is a women's rights lawyer and writer, having written extensively on issues of domestic violence, feminist jurisprudence and minority rights. At last contact she was co-ordinating the legal centre of MAJLIS and engaged in her doctoral research on Property Rights of Married Women with the National Law School of India. A GFP staff member was recently able to conduct a second interview with Flavia. Keywords and links for the latest interview are found to the right of the semi-colon in the lists below.
Keywords: feminist conferences, politics and the law, intersectionality
Media: [2003 Interview]: (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video; [2017 Interview]: (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Norie Ape is a Samoan-born, Auckland-raised and now Wellington-based Digital Product Manager (or ‘technology explainerer’) at Te Pukenga [New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology] specifically within the Building and Construction Industry Training Organization [BCITO]. In this role, Norie works alongside cognitively diverse technology teams and connects with the people who use digital services to design, build and implement digital solutions that enable better outcomes in vocational education in Aotearoa [New Zealand] with particular focus on Māori, Pasifika, and disabled learners & employers.  In March 2023, Norie attended the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) in New York as the New Zealand Government NGO Delegate to provide high-level advice on the priority theme of “innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” and liaise with non-governmental organizations across Aotearoa. Norie has experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and is passionate about increasing the number of Māori and Pasifika Women in Tech and leveraging a multi-stakeholder approach between government, civil society and private/industry to connect and collaborate to utilize technology for positive outcomes. Within New Zealand Norie is a member of P.A.C.I.F.I.C.A Inc, National Council for Women, InternetNZ, Digital Equity Coalition Aotearoa, TechWomen NZ, United Nations Association of New Zealand & Pacific Data Sovereignty Network & Pasifika in IT. 

Keywords: indigenous issues, politics and the law, education

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015) was an activist and writer. A daughter of Chinese immigrants, she moved to Detroit and worked in grassroots projects together with her partner, James Boggs. They founded Detroit Summer, an intergenerational multicultural youth movement, and wrote in the Michigan Citizen newspaper. She published her autobiography, Living for Change, and among others, received the distinguished Alumna Award from Barnard College, the Chinese American Pioneers Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans, and a lifetime achievement award from the Anti-Defamation League. A plaque in her honor is at the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY. The GFP staff were saddened by Grace's death in 2015. Read the NYT obituary to learn more about her remarkable life, spanning a full century, as a human rights activist.
Keywords: gender and health, community activism, education, intersectionality, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Carla Catena was born in Ancona in 1963. She graduated in literature from the University of Bologna and works  as a marketing project manager. She is active with the Lesbian Association Bologna. 

Keywords: community activism, LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)

Elisa Dal Molin was born in Feltre, in the province of Belluno, in 1975. She obtained a four-year degree in oriental languages and literature (Chinese). She has worked for many years as the regional representative  for Famiglie Arcobaleno. Since the fall of 2018, she has worked as the Secretary of the Famiglie Arcobaleno (national directive).

Keywords: politics and the law, LGBTQ+ rights, community activism, reform of domestic/family roles

Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)

Kerri Du Pont is Senior Project Manager for the Ministry of Social Development. Coming from a background in brand and digital strategy and design, she emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1996 to work as a Senior Lecturer at Massey’s School of Design. Kerri has worked in strategic communications and project management in the public service since 2018. She has worked in central government and service delivery agencies advising on strategic communications, policy, reporting and risk assessment for managers, senior leaders and ministers, and has contributed to the delivery of key initiatives for diversity and inclusion and social cohesion across the system. She helped design the strategic priorities for the public sector-wide Government Women’s Network and significantly grew its membership and visibility. She has also been a trans-Tasman representative on a disability working group and contributes to the New Zealand Government Web community for accessibility. 

Kerri is also a Board member for the National Council of Women of New Zealand where she leads the communications strategy for the organisation.

She was instrumental in the recent launch of both the results of the 2023 gender attitudes survey and the platform of women's resources, listed below:

https://www.pockety.org.nz/ (A hub for services for women, developed and launched by Kerri Du Pont.)

https://genderequal.nz/ga-survey/ (Website of Gender Equal NZ, led by the National Council of Women of New Zealand. The results of the 2023 gender attitudes survey are available on this site in both summary format and pdf.)

Keywords: academia and women's studies, international rights, politics and the law

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Xueqin (Sophia) Huang was born in 1988 in Shaoguang, Gangdong province. She graduated from Jinan University. She used to work as a journalist for a national news agency and progressive newspaper. She is freelancing now, writing for Southern Metropolis Weekly, The Livings, The Initium Media and NGOCN. Her reporting focuses on democracy development, civil society and the rights of disadvantaged groups in China. She published a report on workplace sexual harassment of Chinese female journalists in 2017, which ignited and promoted #Metoo movement in China. She is dedicated to women's rights and advocacy for anti-sexual harassment law. In 2019 she was jailed for several months for her reporting on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. Read more about Xueqin (Sophia) Huang and her activism in the face of political repression here.

Keywords: gender-based violence, media, politics and the law, community activism
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin) 

Prue Hyman, born in England in 1943, is a feminist economist. She moved to New Zealand in 1969 to work at Victoria University, Wellington, eventually becoming an Associate Professor of Economics and Gender and Women's Studies until controversial restructuring between 2008 and 2010 abolished Gender and Women's Studies. She has also advised the New Zealand government through her work at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (1989-1990). Hyman studies the personal aspects of economics, such as how work is valued, with a particular focus on living wages and pay equity. 

She has written two books: Women and Economics: A New Zealand Feminist Perspective (1994), and Hopes Dashed?: The Economics of Gender Inequality (2017). In 2000, she was commissioned by the New Zealand Police Force to write an influential report titled Women in CIB: Opportunities for and Barriers to the Recruitment, Progress and Retention of Women in the Criminal Investigation Branch. While retired from university work, she continues to champion gender pay equity issues. 

Keywords: academia and women's studies, intersectionality, politics and the law

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Sue Kedgley was one of the early leaders of the women’s liberation movement in New Zealand. 

She set up the Auckland University women’s liberation group in 1971 and the National Organisation for Women in 1972. She helped organise a high-profile tour of internationally acclaimed feminist Germaine Greer to New Zealand in 1972 and co-authored the first book about women’s liberation in New Zealand, entitled Sexist Society. 

Kedgley attended the first international feminist conference at Boston in 1973 and then worked as a Communications Officer in the Women’s Secretariat at the United Nations, New York, helping to organise the first international women’s conference at Mexico City in 1975 and coordinate International Women’s Year 1975. She helped set up the UN women’s group and was active in it for the 8 years she worked at the United Nations. She was Assistant Secretary of the second United Nations Conference for Women, which was held in Copenhagen in 1980. 

Returning to New Zealand in 1982, she worked for a decade as a television reporter, director, and producer, then entered local politics as a Wellington City Councillor from 1992 until 1999 when she was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Green Party, serving as an MP from 1999 until 2011. She was women’s spokesperson for the Green party and Deputy Chairperson (1999-2005) and subsequently Chairperson of the New Zealand Parliament Health Select Committee (2005-2008). Sue was a Wellington Regional Councillor for six years and has served on several boards, including the National Board of UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand. She continues to be active in women’s issues and is a Convenor at the National Organisation for Women New Zealand. 

Kedgley has written six books on feminist issues, including Sexist Society (1972; co-edited with Sharon Cederman), Mum’s the Word: The Untold Story of Motherhood in New Zealand (1996), and most recently, a memoir entitled Fifty Years a Feminist (2021). In 2016, she received a New Zealand Women of Influence Award in recognition of her work towards greater gender diversity in the workplace, and in 2020, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to women and governance. 

Keywords: community activism, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Marian Kramer (interviewed with Maureen Taylor) at last contact was the co-chair of the National Welfare Rights Union. She has fought government programs, such as Workfare, defended poor women against unjust persecution for welfare fraud and led campaigns to elect the victims of poverty to political office. She has organized poor people's movements, housing takeovers by people without homes, and led efforts to unionize in the South. She has received many community service awards and mentors college students fighting poverty.  Taylor and Kramer spoke at a rally in Detroit, Michigan in June 2020, and a video of their speech recorded by the group Detroit Will Breathe can be found here.
Keywords: gender and health, media, community activism, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Li Huiying, born in 1957, is Professor of Sociology and assistant Director of the Women Research Center of the Central Party School, providing training for senior level Chinese Communist Party officials. She has succeeded in incorporating courses on gender studies in the official curriculum and runs feminist workshops for faculty nationwide.
Keywords: feminist conferences, academia and women's studies, education, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio

Elisa Manici was born in La Spezia in 1975. She received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Bologna. She works as a penniless journalist and temporary librarian. She has been involved in various groups, including Leftist Youth, ArciLesbica, and Cassero. 

Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, intersectionality, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)

Heidi Meinzolt-Depner is a language teacher, engaged since the 1970s in the peace movement and transnational political activism. She is a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and she focuses on alternatives to traditional 'security' politics. She was one of the co-founders of the Greens in Bayern. From 1987 to 1991, she became regional spokeswoman for the Greens in Bayern, as part of the Alliance 90/The Greens coalition. During her political career within the Greens, she took on multiple roles, including as spokesperson for the Bavarian state association and for regional and national task forces on European and peace politics. She was board member of the European Greens, as well as district chair and candidate to the German and European Parliaments. She left the Greens Bayern in 2001 after 19 years, to focus on her engagement on other initiatives and in NGOs.

Keywords: politics and the law, education

Media: Transcript (English, German), Video, YouTube Video (English, German), Name Pronunciation Audio

Diana Miloslavich Túpac was born in Huancayo, likely in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Diana is the Director of one of the most important women’s organizations in Perú, an expert on advancing women’s policy, and an accomplished author with more than 40 years of experience working to advance women’s political participation and human rights in Perú. She obtained a Masters in Literature at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and was a Ph.D. Candidate in Social Sciences, specializing in History with the thesis "History of the Political Participation of Women in Perú."  Diana has participated in the execution of numerous projects in the promotion of legal and political initiatives related to women’s rights. For example, as part of the Women's Forum in Perú, she presented the first proposals for gender quotas and domestic violence in 1991. She was an advisor to the Women's Commission of the Municipality of Lima and of the creation of the Pro Equity Office from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, she was part of the team with the Ministry of Women and Social Development. In 2011, she was part of the Transfer Commission of the new government, and later Head of the Cabinet of Advisers to the Minister for Women. Diana has also participated in various projects with organizations such as: Equality Now, DAWN, RENAMA, Social Watch, UN Women, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNICEF, DIAKONIA, CUSO, NOVIB, Oxfam, UE, and USAID, among others. Most recently, she was a major player in the campaign to promote and pass the newly established Gender Parity Law (Law No. 31030, 2020. Diana is currently the Director of the Political Participation and Decentralization Program of the Peruvian Women's Center, Flora Tristán, a key feminist institution created in 1979 with a focus on women’s rights. She is also an accomplished author (select titles): The Autobiography of Maria Elena Moyano: The Life And Death Of A Peruvian (1992), with editions in Spain and translated in Italy, USA and Japan); Women's Literature, A look from feminism (2012); Flora Tristan: Peregrinations of an Outcast at the Fair (2019); Feminism and Suffrage 1933-1956 (2015); Political Harassment in Peru: A look at Electoral Processes (2016), Gender, Parity and Disaster Risk Management (2019), publishing both through Flora Tristán and an academic press in the U.S.

Keywords: community activism, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Spanish, English), Video, YouTube Video (Spanish, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio

Michela Murgia was born in 1972 in Sardinia. She worked as a writer, blogger, playwright, literary critic, and television and newspaper columnist with the Gedi Group. She has won several awards for her fiction, in particular for Accabadora, for which she received the Campiello prize, and also for non-fiction, for Ave Mary and Istruzioni per diventare fascisti, with the publisher Einaudi in Turin. Already a supporter of Sardinian independence and politically active on the left, she was also committed to women’s rights. Michela Murgia passed away on August 10, 2023.

Keywords: art/writing as activism, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)

Maria da Penha Maia Fernandes was born in 1945 in Fortaleza, Ceará. She is a leader in the struggle against domestic violence in Brazil. Victimized by her husband in 1983, she was the first to successfully bring a case of domestic violence to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2006, Brazil Federal Law 11340 was ratified, known as the "Maria da Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence."
Keywords: gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Portuguese, English), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles) Name Pronunciation Audio

Bianca Maria Pomeranzi was born in 1950 in Arezzo. She has been a part of the Roman Feminist Movement of Via Pompeo Magno since the mid-1970s. With the group Vivere Lesbica she organized the first Italian Lesbian Feminist Conference in 1981. As an expert on gender and development issues, she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Development Cooperation. She served as an Expert on the Commission of the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Women, CEDAW. She is vice president of the Association for the Renewal of the Left and politically active in the Wednesday Feminist Group  and the Alma Sabatini Feminist Studies Center. 

Keywords: academia and women's studies, LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)

Sandra Ramos was born in 1959 and is a leader in the Women's Rights Movement whose activism focuses on women workers in the maquila. She is a co-founder and director of Nicaragua's María Elena Cuadra Women's Movement, which provides scholarships for nontraditional jobs, has a small credit program for unemployed women, teaches women about their labor rights, and provides training for negotiation techniques.
Keywords: gender and health, gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English, Spanish), Video (English, Spanish), Bibliography, English YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Olutola Oluyemisi Ransome-Kuti was born in 1947 in a family deeply engaged in the political life of Nigeria. Ransome-Kuti was educated in both the United Kingdom and Nigeria, where she earned degrees in business management, aesthetics, counseling, and human resources management. She was involved in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria and was arrested and sent to prison on her way to attend the Beijing Women’s Conference (1995). Ransome Kuti founded the Nigeria Network of NGOs, an umbrella organization that coordinates and regulates the activities of NGOs in Nigeria. She once ran Girl Watch, an organization that focused on educating young Nigerian girls from low socio-economic backgrounds. In 2006, the World Bank appointed her as the civil society advisor on Nigeria’s working groups on millennium development goals and poverty eradication.

Keywords: politics and the law, community activism, environment

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Iara Amora dos Santos, born in 1984 in Fortaleza, Ceará, is a project supervisor at the Center for the Working Woman, an NGO in Rio de Janeiro that supports working class women in understanding their rights. Iara received her B.A. in Law from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and has a degree in Women and Human Rights from the Law School at the University of Chile.
Keywords: education, politics and the law, reproductive rights, gender-based violence
Media: Transcript (Portuguese, English), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio

Maureen Taylor (interviewed with Marian Kramer) is a social worker and community activist. She has served as chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights organization and was elected treasurer of the National Welfare Rights Union. She defends recipients of public aid at the Michigan Family Independence Agency in case disputes, and directs the Detroit NFI Community Self Sufficiency Center. She was awarded the National Community Leader Award from the National Black Caucus in Washington, DC. Taylor and Kramer spoke at a rally in Detroit, Michigan in June 2020, and a video of their speech recorded by the group Detroit Will Breathe can be found here.
Keywords: gender and health, media, community activism, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Dora María Téllez, born in 1955, is a historian and well-known icon of the Sandinista Revolution. At age 22, she was third in command during the Sandinista takeover of the National Palace. She became Vice President of the Council of State, Political Chief of Managua, and Minister of Health. After leaving the FSLN, she founded the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) in 1995. She was appointed at the Harvard Divinity School but was unable to obtain an entry visa to the USA because the PATRIOT Act classified her as a terrorist. On June 13, 2021, Téllez was detained by the police in Nicaragua and imprisoned for 20 months. She was held in isolation and total deprivation of rights for denouncing the authoritarian nature of the government and its human rights violations. On February 3, 2022, she was sentenced to 9 years in prison on the charge of “aggression against the national sovereignty” and barred from holding any public office in the future. In February of 2023, she was banished and expatriated from Nicaragua to the United States as part of a group of 222 political prisoners, who were also illegally stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality. Her struggle for democracy, social justice and defense of human rights has been internationally recognized. She has been awarded numerous accolades, including the 2022 René Cassin Prize in Human Rights awarded by the Government of the Basque Country, Spain. Read the La Prensa article about the arrest (English translation) and Mónica Baltodano’s biographical piece about Téllez (English translation).
Keywords: politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English, Spanish), Video (English, Spanish), Bibliography, English YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Gahela Tseneg Cari Contreras, born in the early 1990s, is a transgender woman who began participating in politics in 2015 in the National Youth Congress held in Huaraz. Gahela grew up in a rural area of ​​the Ica region. Her early life reflects much of the upheaval of Peru's recent history. Her mother was a peasant leader, native of Ayacucho, who was saved from forced sterilization ordered by the government of Alberto Fujimori. Her father was forced to flee Peru because of threats from terrorists, who besieged the work of union leaders. Both became immigrants, as did another 7 million Peruvians who mobilized internally for political or economic reasons. At age 27 she ran to become the first transgender woman in Peru’s Congress in the January 2020 elections, campaigning with what has been described as one of the most courageous and intersectional programs of the emerging and diverse Peruvian left. Although she did not win a seat, she has continued her political activism to transform issues of equity and discrimination among LGBTI individuals.

Keywords: community activism, LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Spanish, English), Video, YouTube Video (Spanish, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio

Martha Heriberta Valle is an activist in the Women's Movement and in the Cooperative Movement. She joined the Revolution at an early age, and joined the organization of women farmers when the Revolution triumphed. She has been an organizer of rural women, a former elected official of the National Assembly, and at last contact was serving as president and founder of the Agricultural Cooperative Federation of Country Women Producers of Nicaragua (FEMUPROCAN).
Keywords: politics and the law, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (English, Spanish), Video (English, Spanish), Bibliography, English YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Wang Cuiyu, born in 1935, was the executive secretary of the Shanghai Association of Women's Studies, affiliated with the Shanghai Women's Federation. She played a leading role in a national organization for women's career development and set up a women's school in Shanghai to provide vocational training for laid-off women.
Keywords: feminist conferences, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio