Women’s Spirituality and Feminism

Local Groups

Rolla Area Citizens for Women (RACW) Website
Email: rollawomen@gmail.com
A Rolla, MO based group seeking to combat domestic violence and advance women’s rights in our community. Fundraisers for the Russell House, a local domestic violence shelter, are planned annually. We also have a book club that meets once a month at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Rolla. Other projects are currently being planned.

Meetings at the Moon Facebook Group
E-mail: woodspriestess@gmail.com
Women’s spirituality group. We come together in this group to nourish our womanspirit by holding quarterly seasonal rituals, spirituality retreats, and special ceremonies based on Women’s Mysteries. Focus on Goddess spirituality.

Women’s Spirituality

Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation
Welcome to the circle of liberal religious women and men working to advance justice for women and girls and promote their spiritual growth.

UU Women’s Connection
This is the website of the UU Women’s Connection. Its mission is “to connect women within the district, to stimulate interest in aspects of the Unitarian Universalist movement and concerns of the world, and to serve as liaison between women of the district and the larger UU movement.”

UU Women’s Connection Lending Library
This is a library that collects materials related to women’s spirituality. If you want to borrow materials from this library, you will need to contact it directly.

Leadership

Lean In Foundation
“The book Lean In is focused on encouraging women to pursue their ambitions, and changing the conversation from what we can’t do to what we can do. LeanIn.Org is the next chapter. We are committed to offering women the ongoing inspiration and support to help them achieve their goals. If we talk openly about the challenges women face and work together, we can change the trajectory of women and create a better world for everyone.”

National and International Feminist Groups

Feminist Majority
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women’s equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. In all spheres, FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. Our organization believes that feminists – both women and men, girls and boys – are the majority, but this majority must be empowered.

Feminist Majority’s Magazine page 
This page has a lot of good information.

V-Day
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.

One Billion Rising
“One Billion Rising was the biggest mass action in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On 14 February 2013, people across the world came together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women. Last year, on 14 February 2014, One Billion Rising for Justice focused on the issue of justice for all survivors of gender violence, and highlighted the impunity that lives at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Events took place in 200 countries, where women, men, and youth came together to Rise, Release, and Dance outside of court houses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not.”

UNiTE to End Violence Against Women
UNiTE Digital Library
Launched in 2008, the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign aims to raise public awareness and increase political will and resources for preventing and ending all forms of violence against women and girls in all parts of the world. The global vision of the UNiTE campaign is a world free from violence against all women and girls. This vision can only be realized through meaningful actions and ongoing political commitments of national governments, backed by adequate resources.

UN Women Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against Women and Girls
The Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls is an online resource in English, French and Spanish, designed to serve the needs of policymakers, programme implementers and other practitioners dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. The Centre is an initiative of UN Women, bringing together the valuable contributions of expert organizations and individuals, governments, United Nations sister agencies, and a wide range of relevant actors. Part of the overall effort is encouraging shared ownership of the site and ongoing partnership-building for its continuous development and sustainability.

The primary purpose of the Global Virtual Knowledge Centre is to encourage and support evidence-based programming to more efficiently and effectively design, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. To achieve this, the Global Virtual Knowledge Centre offers a ‘one stop’ service to users by making available the leading tools and evidence on what works to address violence against women and girls. It draws on expert recommendations, policy and programme evaluations and assessments, and fundamentally, on practitioners’ experiences from around the world.

Religion and Organizations Working for Respect for Women Within Religious Context

“Mobilizing Faith for Women: Engaging the Power of Religion and Belief to Advance Human Rights and Dignity” from The Carter Center

Child Brides and Femicide

Girls Not Brides
Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 400 civil society organisations committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential. Find out more

Femicide Information from the World Health Organization

Motherhood and Birth
2014 State of the World’s Mothers Report from Save the Children

Click the above link “to get facts about how the U.S. and other countries rank in our [Save the Children’s] exclusive rating of the Best and Worst Places to Be a Mother.”

Economic Status of Women
The Global Gender Gap Report
The Global Gender Gap Report, introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006, provides a framework for capturing the magnitude and scope of gender-based disparities around the world. The index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparison across regions and income groups and over time. The rankings are designed to create greater awareness among a global audience of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them. The methodology and quantitative analysis behind the rankings are intended to serve as a basis for designing effective measures for reducing gender gaps.

Women’s History

Women In Science Wednesday from the Smithsonian Institute Archives 
Women In Science Wednesdays is a collection of biographies about women who have made significant contributions in the sciences. An easy, fun way to learn science and fight misogyny at the same time. Updated weekly.

“Resources” page for “Not For Ourselves Alone,” a documentary about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
“Learn more about the life and work of these famous reformers through their own writings and speeches, a biographical article, and critical essays by noted scholars. Middle and high school teachers will find lesson plans for language arts and history, and the lists of related sites, recommended reading, and related organizations offer learners of all ages opportunities to become more familiar with women’s history.”

“Where Are We Now?” page for “Not For Ourselves Alone”
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s efforts were indeed not for themselves alone. Theirs was a struggle for women of all times and of all places. As we reflect on the progress we as women have made, we can’t help but ask… Where are we now? With the advent of suffrage and the doors that have opened since, we as women are embracing change, pioneering new territory, and raising our daughters differently because of it. We are involved in politics, making sure that our voices are heard throughout government. We are uniting as equal rights advocates—fixing injustices of the past and creating new opportunities for the future. And we are reaching out to sisters in other countries who continue the struggle for suffrage. Most importantly, we are creating a community of support by maintaining the dialogue that Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began so long ago. We invite you to join in the dialogue.”

Information about the life of Margaret Sanger can be found at the following websites:
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
From the PBS program “American Experience: The Pill”

National Women’s History Month
National Women’s History Project
Multicultural American women are overlooked in most mainstream approaches to U.S. history, so the National Women’s History Project champions their accomplishments and leads the drive to write women back into history. Recognizing the achievements of women in all facets of life – science, community, government, literature, art, sports, medicine – has a huge impact on the development of self-respect and new opportunities for girls and young women.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Rolla provides the information on our website for informational purposes only. Information included on our website is not an endorsement.