In a world where women’s rights and identities are constantly in flux and being challenged, there remains one constant – the need for womens’ voices to be heard, recognized, and acted upon.
Many NGOs and initiatives prioritize “sustainability”. To ensure that changes are long-term, indigenous populations should be the ones developing these changes or “solutions.” Solutions are those ideas that are practical, imaginable, and contextual. One woman who recognizes this is Aubrey Shayler, the Executive Director and CEO of the International Women’s Initiative.
Aubrey argues that: “To bring change to their circumstances, women have to be at the head of the table. To make marked change women must be made the leaders of their destiny.”
Circumstances of culture, economics, and religion often affect gender equality, but regardless of the variables, Aubrey believes the underlying issue is: “the lack of voice provided to women.”
“What one community of women consider equality, another community considers oppression, however the underlying theme is the same: the women must be the ones determining their rights and circumstances. The first step to women achieving equality and having their relevance recognized is to provide them the voice to be heard.”
About IWI:
The International Women’s Initiative (IWI) is an international women’s human rights organization that, with the aid of local grassroots women’s organizations (indigenous to the regions being served), addresses issues central to their communities such as reproductive and medical rights, freedom from violence, education and other fundamental human rights. And its programs respond to the needs voiced by women.
Aubrey has made it her mission to ensure that the IWI operates in a way that is in accordance with the beliefs of indigenous women. She states that – “ There is no greater authority on how to improve a situation than the people that are living in that situation. As women are the caregivers of communities, particularly during times of crisis, involving them on the rebuilding efforts is key to sustainability.”
IWI’s vision is to use human rights to advance the “understanding that human rights are not a hierarchy, but an indivisible set of standards for all people to enjoy.”
Their current initiative is the “Safe Birthing Programme”— an 18 month project based in the Amolatar District of northern Uganda. One of many goals of the program is to improve women’s access to maternal care prior to, during, and after the birth of their children.
About Aubrey Shayler, CEO of IWI:
Aubrey Shayler is the face and head of the IWI in the USA and of The Shayler Foundation in the UK. On two continents, Aubrey has engineered several events, lectures, and fundraising initiatives to support international maternal health programs. The common theme unifying her efforts has been bringing light and attention to women’s voices.
Aubrey is Maxim’s Fierce Woman of the month. Why? Because this woman, acting on the values she believed in as a child, ensured that she acted upon her “alternative viewpoints” about gender equality and human relations.
Her most beautiful “alternative” viewpoint? “It is not only okay to be a strong minded intelligent woman, it is a responsibility.”
To read more about Aubrey and IWI’s work, see our interview below:
What made you so passionate about women’s rights?
In my household, as well as in my daily life, the concept of women’s rights was not something that was discussed or brought to issue because in our family it was not an issue. My mother (and I remember my grandmother and great-grandmother were as well) has always been headstrong and expected her daughters to be the same.
One of my first memories is having a conversation with my mother about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her that I wanted to be a stewardess and without missing a beat she asked, “Why don’t you be the pilot instead so you’ll be able to fly where you wanted to instead of having someone take you?”
Statements like that were made throughout my childhood, not as a political statement of recognized feminism, but because that was how she, her mother, and her grandmother were raised. But it wasn’t only my mother who had this point of view, it was also my father.
Maxim Hygiene defines a Fierce Woman as “a glorious female creature whose idea of beauty is hinged upon the idea that she can change the world with each choice, each moment and each breath of her life.” Who in your life would you describe as a fierce woman and why?
That would be my mentor during university, Dr. Carol Wolfe-Konek, also my professor of “Leadership Techniques of Women”. I will never forget the first time I saw her and heard her speak. She had, and still has, such a shocking way of stating her opinions about things that I had never seen before in a woman.
I have always been opinionated and had, what I felt was an alternative way of viewing human relations, but I tended to keep those opinions to myself because at the time I felt like an oddball for my viewpoints. However when listening to Carol it was like having a mirror being held in front of me. She was saying what I thought, what I believed and was helping to improve the lives of women internationally, but most importantly she was doing it with complete confidence and without apology. She showed me that it was not only ok to be a strong minded intelligent woman, but that it was a responsibility.
There are so many levels on which women are being marginalized; is there a way to prioritize any of them? Many critics of such initiatives argue that there is so much to be done and that success is difficult because efforts are too widespread.
What IWI focuses on is meeting the urgent and immediate needs of women in an area. This is a priority in that it is very difficult for anyone to make any advances in their lives when their immediate needs aren’t being met.
How do you support sustainability in your projects and the projects you help fund?
To sweep into an area and provide quick solutions, or patches, to perceived problems does not help long term. Change must be planned and implemented in stages to ensure long term results, however to plan and implement such changes, it is mandatory that women’s voices be heard.
We chose Aubrey to be honored as our Fierce Woman because she is a clear example of how a “feminist” is simply a humanist — a woman fighting for human rights for everyone. The connotation behind feminism is that is unique, for a certain type of individual, and for women. But Aubrey’s upbringing and her work that she shares with the world is a wonderful reminder that circumstances have shaped the need for humanists and feminists. Fierce women like Aubrey are needed to challenge the status quo and behalf of those women who don’t have voices.
Maxim celebrates fierce women who are changing the world in their own ways every month. To read more about some of these amazing women, check out our Fierce Women series.